By many accounts, Florida's insurance industry is the most over-regulated in the country. In 2011 we are in a unique and enviable position to change that. We have an engaged CFO and a governor who wants to remove excessive regulations from the business environment. More reason for optimism — Florida's industry groups seem to have embraced Pres. Harry Truman's mantra that, "Anything is possible if you don't care who gets the credit," by increasingly working together toward common goals. Organizations such as the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, Florida Association of Health Underwriters, Florida Insurance Council, Florida Surplus Lines Association, Latin American Association of Insurance Agencies, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America-Florida, and Professional Insurance Agents-Florida have formed casual and formal alliances among themselves and with national groups on many of our critical insurance issues.

Insurer Bad Faith
"This is our No. 1 tort priority," says William Stander of PCI-Florida.

Lawyers will say, "You can sue anybody over anything," and the bad faith laws in Florida and across the country give truth to that maxim.

In 1982, Florida's Legislature became the first in the country to create the right to bring a private lawsuit for an insurance company's violations of the Unfair Insurance Trade Practices Act. Today, the trial bar here and elsewhere is pursuing a legislative agenda that would expand the ability to bring both first- and third-party bad faith suits. This could create a legal environment where virtually every insurance claim has the potential to become a bad faith lawsuit.

PIP and Auto Insurance Fraud
"The costs to insurers to cover no-fault fraud is rising by 70 percent each year and could pass $1 billion in 2011 in Florida," says Robert P. Hartwig of the Insurance Information Institute.

Everybody (well, not the defense bar and PIP clinics) is on board for this one. We need to put the brakes on PIP auto fraud before the entire auto coverage market crashes.

Sinkholes and the New Property Bill
"What has happened is we have had 'Hurricane Sinkhole,'" says Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

There is a clarion call to return Florida's property insurance to the free market system and to address the sinkhole problem. The economic importance of this cannot be overstated. Florida's property market exposure was $750 billion in 1995. In 2009, it was $2.4 trillion. The effects of our state's turbulent property insurance and related catastrophe reinsurance markets extend far beyond our shores. As Florida goes, so goes the rest of the catastrophe fund market. Our sister coastal states want — indeed need — us to get this right.

We came close last year with SB 2044, only to be torpedoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist. This year's bill, SB 408, builds on SB 2044 and includes important sinkhole language. The new bill is gathering favorable review from many arenas (although it contains language requiring increased regulation of public adjusters, so we can expect significant opposition from that arena).

Other issues sure to come under intense discussion include reforming Citizens Property Insurance Corp. (Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is calling for "bold, audacious change" to return Citizens to a market of last resort); ensuring that Florida is prepared for implementation of the Nonadmitted & Reinsurance Reform Act; expanding on last year's commercial insurance deregulation bill; and halting the practice by some workers' compensation providers of repackaging drugs and selling them at inflated prices (addressed in a 2010 bill also vetoed by Crist).

The 2011 legislative session holds the promise of political productivity. To borrow a catch-phrase from a few years ago:

"Yes, we can."

Special Reports /

Opportunity Is Not Knocking – It Is Waving Its Hands and Shouting

Related Stories

Recommended For You