NU Online News Service, May 3, 3:15 p.m. EDT

The Florida legislature has passed a bill that would exclude certain commercial insurance lines from the rate filing and approval process.

A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said it was unknown at this time whether the governor will sign the measure.

Cecil Pearce, vice president of state affairs for the American Insurance Association (AIA), said the bill, S. 2176 (http://tinyurl.com/3xg8jsm), passed by a vote of 119-0 in the House and 37-1 in the Senate.

According to the bill, the types of insurance lines not subject to filing and approval would be excess or umbrella; surety and fidelity; boiler and machinery and leakage and fire extinguishing equipment; errors and omissions; directors and officers; employment practices and management liability; intellectual property and patent infringement liability; advertising injury and Internet liability insurance; and property risks rated under a highly protected risks rating plan.

AIA, which supported the bill, said current Florida law exempts only those policies with annual premiums above $500,000 in addition to other criteria.

Mr. Pearce noted that the filing and approval exemptions would not apply to personal lines and to commercial risks that have catastrophe exposure, such as commercial property.

He said AIA has supported the bill to address what he called the "creeping effect" of increased rate regulation in insurance lines due to the issues experienced in Florida insurance lines impacted by catastrophes.

Rate regulatory efforts since the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, he said, began to creep into unrelated commercial lines.

The goal, Mr. Pearce said, is to show that competition can accomplish effective regulation of rates in lines where there are a lot of sellers.

Mr. Pearce said the three keys AIA stressed to legislators were that the bill would not impact lines with catastrophe exposure, that the products in the bill were competitive with many sellers, and that the bill had the support of buyers of these products.

To highlight the third key, Mr. Pearce said Florida's two main business groups–The Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce–supported the bill.

Mr. Pearce said AIA had conversations with the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) and reported the regulators expressed concern with including professional liability and commercial auto when there is only a single vehicle.

To take care of regulators' concerns, professional liability was excluded from the legislation, and the commercial auto portion applies only to fleets with 20 or more vehicles, Mr. Pearce said.

Several amendments were added to the bill, Mr. Pearce said, including a workers' compensation measure supported by the state's county sheriff's association and an amendment designed to protect senior citizen's annuities.

Mr. Pearce said his understanding is that the department will recommend that the bill be signed. An OIR spokesperson said the office is still in the process of reviewing the bill and the last-minute amendments.

Special Reports /

Fla. Legislature Passes Commercial Lines Rate Deregulation

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