In the finals days of Florida’s legislative session, an omnibus insurance package is under development in both the House and Senate. There are two versions currently under consideration (CS/SB 1252 and CS/HB 1087) which would provide exemption from licensure for entities offering service warranties.
Specifically, the legislation would exempt a service warranty company operating in Florida, from licensure if the service warranties it offers are only offered, marketed, or sold to nonresidents of Florida, and meets other requirements. In addition, the entity could not administer service warranties that were originally issued to residents of Florida.
The entity would be required to provide the following information to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation annually:
– The type of products offered.
– A statement certifying that the products are not regulated in the state in which the entity is transacting business or that the entity is licensed in the state in which it is transacting business.
– The name of the person; the state of domicile; the home address of the entity; the name of the owners and their percentage of ownership; the names of the officers and directors; the name, e-mail and telephone number of a contact person; the states in which it is transacting business; and how many individuals are employed in Florida.
The entity would be required to provide written notice to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation within 30 days after ceasing its operations in Florida.
The House bill is on the special order calendar for this coming Friday. The Senate bill goes to the full Senate (Special Order) at the discretion of the Rules Committee. This section would be effective upon becoming a law.
