Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida House Panel Adds PTSD Benefits for Prison Guards, Not Dispatchers
Feb 8 2022 // Florida corrections officers and probation officers moved a step closer to becoming eligible for workers’ compensation benefits for mental stress disorders Monday, but the bill would not extend those benefits to...
Business Moves
Feb 7 2022 // National Marsh McLennan, Affinity Agency Association Member Benefits Advisors, a national affinity-based membership and marketing insurance agency, has agreed to acquire the associations business of Mercer, a business of...
People & Places
Feb 7 2022 // National Patrick Sterling will lead RIMS, the risk management society, as president for the 2022 term. Sterling is vice president at the steakhouse restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse in Louisville, Kentucky, and is a 34-year...
World’s First Crypto Mortgage? Homeowners’ Insurers Don’t Hate It
Feb 7 2022 // If homeowners’ insurance carriers weren’t facing enough issues this year, here’s one more to think about: A Miami company is now offering cryptocurrency-based mortgages. Some insurance representatives are...
Florida Senate Pushing Ahead with No-Fault Auto Repeal, Despite Last Year’s Veto
Feb 4 2022 // The Florida Senate is trying again to repeal the state’s no-fault auto insurance requirement with a bill that major insurers oppose and which the governor vetoed last year. Sen. Burgess By a vote of 10-1, the Senate...
NASA: Earth’s Temperature in 2021 Was 1.5 Degrees F Above Baseline
Feb 3 2022 // Earth’s global average surface temperatures in 2021 were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period, a new report shows. The average tied with 2018 as the sixth...
Allied Asks Court to Bar Coverage for Florida Law Firm in Condo Collapse
Feb 3 2022 // The insurer for a South Florida law firm that represented the collapsed Surfside condominium – lawyers known for fighting off attempts to reform condo safety laws – has asked a judge to absolve the carrier of coverage...
State Farm Charges Chiro Clinics with Fraud in Gaming Florida’s PIP Law
Feb 3 2022 // In a federal lawsuit filed this week, State Farm Insurance accuses a chiropractor and his string of Florida clinics of widespread fraud by regularly and falsely claiming that car accident victims needed emergency care, so...
M.J. Hall in California Introduces D&O, EPL and FL Cannabis Coverage
Feb 3 2022 // San Francisco, California-based M.J. Hall & Co. is introducing directors and officers liability, employment practices liability and fiduciary liability insurance coverages for cannabis business owners. The coverages,...
Florida Senate Committee Approves Actual-Cash-Value Roof Bill
Feb 2 2022 // It came later than some had expected, but Florida’s Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on Wednesday passed a much-anticipated bill that aims to close gaps left by last year’s insurance reform...
Florida Farm Bureau Action Plan Says it Will Stop Writing New HO Policies
Feb 1 2022 // Another Florida property insurer is taking major steps to cut its losses, including suspending the writing of new homeowner policies starting this week – the latest warning sign about the state’s distressed...
Florida Senate Approves Bill That Would Limit Claims Histories to Three Years
Feb 1 2022 // Florida property/casualty insurers would have to produce claims histories that go back only three years instead of five when requested by policyholders, under a bill passed last week by the state Senate. Senate Bill 156,...
Florida Jury Awards $110M, Largest Yet in Earplug Suits Against 3M
Jan 28 2022 // A federal jury on Thursday awarded $110 million to two U.S. Army veterans who said combat earplugs sold by 3M Co to the military caused them to suffer hearing damage, the largest verdict yet to result from hundreds of...
Brightway Adds New Franchises in Florida
Jan 28 2022 // Jacksonville-based Brightway Insurance announced that it has opened two new franchises in Florida. Arturo Garcia opened Brightway, The Garcia Agency, in Tampa, Fla. And Scott Keit opened Brightway, The Scott Keit Agency,...
Florida Senator Tries Cat Fund Changes to Cut Cost of Property Insurance
Jan 28 2022 // Seeing no action on bills that would address Florida’s spiraling property insurance problems head-on, one state senator took a different route Thursday and proposed reducing insurers’ payments to the...
Hilb Adds Another Florida Broker Firm
Jan 25 2022 // The Hilb Group, a national property and casualty brokerage firm, announced it has acquired Insurance Consultants of Central Florida. The Winter Park-based ICCF is a full-service broker offering individual, group and...
Florida Rate Hearing Highlights Southern Fidelity’s Dire Position, Lack of Action on Senate Bill
Jan 24 2022 // The head of one of the larger property insurance companies in Florida said Friday that without a doubling of some of its rates, it will be forced to seek more capital from investment firms, a prospect that may not be...
Florida Lawsuit Charges United P&C With RICO Violations in Widespread Claims Denials
Jan 24 2022 // In the war between restoration companies and insurers in Florida, contractors suing carriers in assignment-of-benefits claims is nothing new. And insurers have long argued that some construction firms are colluding with...
Florida Senate Votes to Keep Insurers’ Fraud Reports Exempt from Open Records
Jan 21 2022 // The 2022 Florida Senate has passed its first bill that affects insurance companies, but the measure has little to do with losses, rates or litigation costs. On Wednesday, by a vote of 35-0, the chamber approved Senate Bill...
Florida OIR To Hold Hearings Friday on Big Rate Increases for Three Carriers
Jan 20 2022 // Florida regulators will hold hearings Friday, Jan. 21, on another round of hefty rate hikes requested by property insurers facing losses in the state’s distressed property insurance market. Southern Fidelity...
