The Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) and its divisions and bureaus dealing with workers' compensation issues have issued or received several significant reports recently.
Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, Inc., has completed and filed its annual fiscal year actuarial valuation of the present and projected workers' compensation liability of the Special Disability Trust Fund (SDTF). Pinnacle reported that the estimated liabilities of the fund for fiscal year 2008 are nearly the same as its estimates in the 2007 analysis. The unfunded liability of the SDTF is estimated to be $2.168 billion as of June 30, 2008, on an undiscounted basis; on a discounted basis, the unfunded liability is $1.055 billion.
Further, it is estimated that the SDTF will remain current in its outstanding liabilities during the foreseeable future. That is, the fund will maintain a positive surplus as assessments keep pace with approved payments. The number of open claims continued to decline, dropping slightly to 6,304 as of June 30, 2008.
Also issuing its fiscal year report, the state's Division of Insurance Fraud and Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) gave the Legislature good news. According to the national Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF), in fiscal year 2008, Florida led the nation in the recovery of insurance fraud-related losses through court ordered restitution. Its total collection of $94 million was 5.5 times greater than the fraud division's operating budget. CAIF also ranked Florida's fraud division second nationwide in number of arrests (816), third in number of cases presented for prosecution (873), and fourth in number of referrals (9,916). Investigators opened 1,742 cases, resulting in 816 arrests and 663 convictions.
In other housekeeping, the DWC has determined that the maximum compensation rate for on-the-job accidents on or after January 1 is $765. This is an annual calculation made by the division and, by Florida statute, is equal to the statewide average weekly wage paid by Florida employers for the most recent fiscal year, as determined by the Agency for Workplace Innovation.
Also, according to a recent notice from the DFS, there is a new mandatory continuing education course that applies to anyone with a Florida life insurance license, whether they are actively involved in that market or not. The new three-hour Senior Suitability course replaces the Ethics requirement for Florida life licensees, and applies to any compliance date after Jan. 1. Agents should check with DFS or their agent associations for more details.
