Florida Developments

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Michael Yaworsky has been appointed as Chief of Staff for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. The appointment is effective Monday, July 24, 2017. Mr. Yaworsky previously serviced as Legal Counsel for the Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commission and prior to that served as General Counsel for…
Read More New Chief of Staff Appointed to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation

The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals certified 2 questions under Florida law to the Florida Supreme Court relating to 3 STOLI life insurance policies. The Florida Supreme Court rephrased (and conflated) the 2 questions and stated the issue to be, “Can a party challenge the validity of a life…
Read More Florida Supreme Court Advises the Eleventh Circuit that A STOLI Policy Cannot Be Rescinded After the Contestability Period

As we have previously reported here, the United States National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”) is set to expire in September 2017, at which point surplus lines insurers may find themselves with an opportunity to fill a rapidly-evolving market. The NFIP was enacted in 1968 to offer flood insurance to…

Read More Surplus Lines Developments: Potential Legislation May Open U.S. Flood Market to Surplus Lines Insurers

The Florida Surplus Lines Office (“FSLO”) has reported that, effective June 1, Florida will withdraw from the Nonadmitted Insurance Multi-State Agreement (NIMA). Filings after June 1 will now be filed with the FSLO and not through the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse. Premium tax exposures will not be affected and rates where…

Read More Florida to Withdraw from the Nonadmitted Insurance Multi-State Agreement

On April 29, 2016 it was announced that David Altmaier has been appointed as the new Insurance Commissioner for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and will succeed Kevin M. McCarty.

Altmaier has been employed by the Office since 2008 and has been serving as Deputy Commissioner for Property and…
Read More Florida Appoints David Altmaier as Insurance Commissioner

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has been selected by the NAIC as the new chair of the NAIC’s International Insurance Relations Committee. McCarty has been very involved and outspoken on international insurance issues for several years on behalf of the U.S. insurance industry. In addition, he has served as insurance…
Read More Kevin McCarty Appointed Chair of the NAIC International Insurance Relations Committee

Theodore Augustinos, Mark Schreiber, Thomas Smedinghoff, and Karen Booth, members of Edwards Wildman’s Privacy & Data Protection Practice Group, discuss major amendments to Florida’s breach notification statute, which will take effect July 1, 2014. …
Read More Edwards Wildman Client Advisory: Major Amendments to Florida Breach Notification Statute: Unique Requirements and Short Deadlines Take Effect July 1

In Intervest Construction of Jax v. General Fidelity Ins. Co., the Florida Supreme Court considered insurance policy language that called for a self-insured retention to be exhausted by “payments made by the insured.” …
Read More The Florida Supreme Court Takes the “Self” Out of “Self-Insured Retention” and Rules that the Insured’s Self-Insured Retention Can Be Satisfied by Payment by Someone Other Than the Insured

By letter dated October 29, 2013, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater inquired with the Florida Office of Insurance (“OIR”) as to why insurance rates have not been reduced for many Florida homeowners given that reinsurers have lowered their rates. Atwater requested a response to the inquiry by December 18, 2013. …
Read More Insurance Regulators Launch Investigation into Lack of Premium Reductions for Florida Homeowners Given Reduced Costs in the Reinsurance Market