The 2021 legislative session is entering its final week, barring an extension. As usual, key insurance legislation remains unresolved in the session’s final days. The session began two short months ago with Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier and Citizens Property Insurance Corporation CEO Barry Gilway discussing problems plaguing Florida’s residential property insurance market. Commissioner Altmaier later […]
The annual 60-day legislative session begins in Florida on March 2, 2021. This session will feature accommodations designed to limit exposures to COVID-19. This includes most public testimony being presented by video stream from an offsite location in downtown Tallahassee. From an insurance perspective, the session will include substantial discussion about the auto and property […]
With this year’s legislative session nearly upon us, the holiday season soon will seem like just a blur. The Florida legislature has one 60-day regular session each year. This year, the session begins on January 14, 2020. The legislature tackled assignment of benefits (AOB) reform in the 2019 session. The new law took effect mid-year, […]
The Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) advises surplus lines agents that a diligent effort exemption for personal residential flood insurance has expired. The Florida legislature previously adopted Section 627.715, Florida Statutes, to encourage the development of a private market for residential flood insurance. Among its provisions, the statute provided at subsection (4): (4) A surplus […]
The 2019 Florida legislative session in only about a week away. This year’s session will be different in some respects than recent sessions, if only due to significant changes in executive branch and legislative officers. The Governor’s office often sets the tone for legislative sessions through developing proposed budgets and advancing public policy issues. The […]
The 2018 Florida legislative session is drawing to a close, barring any extensions or subsequent special sessions. This year’s session has been unusual for issues outside of the typical annual cycles of budgets and other expected business. The 2018 session began with a lot of attention directed to the range of relationships between legislators, staff […]
With only the formal act of adopting the state budget remaining, the 2017 Florida legislative session will close without reforms to Florida’s workers’ compensation laws. Workers’ compensation became a high profile issue for the 2017 session after several court cases determined portions of the existing statutes to be unconstitutional. The workers’ compensation system depends on […]
As we begin 2017, we can expect some of the high profile issues addressed early in the year to be continuations of issues that gathered significant attention in 2016. One of the hottest topics early in the year is likely to be the state of Florida’s workers’ compensation insurance market. Beginning with reforms made in […]
Each year seems to go by quickly, and the holidays always seem too short. The ball has barely dropped in Times Square before we are back to work thinking about what is in store for the next year. If it seems like this is taking place faster than usual in 2016, it is not our […]
Bills passed by the Florida legislature specify when their provisions take effect, either upon the bills’ becoming law or upon a specific date. For insurance-related legislation, the legislature often establishes July 1 as the effective date. This is the case with several bills passed during 2015. Insurers therefore should consider the impact of 2015 legislation […]