Alien insurers measure advances; life & annuities added

Alien insurers that issue policies solely to non-residents of the United States would have more opportunities to be exempt from Florida's certificate-of-authority requirement, under a measure receiving its first approvals in House and Senate committees in week 4 of the 2012 Florida legislative session. Under the Senate bill (more current than the House version), Section 624.402, Florida Statutes, would be amended to:

• Enable the exemption to be used for life insurance policies and annuity contracts (these lines were eliminated from this statute when it was amended in 2011).
• Eliminate the prohibition on renewing policies of nonresidents who relocate to Florida, thereby allowing someone who was originally a nonresident at the time of issuance, who subsequently becomes a resident of Florida, to continue to be insured under a non-regulated policy.
• Enable the exemption to be used even if an alien insurer's affiliate sells or issues policies to Florida residents.
• Modify the definition of nonresident to include a trust or other entity organized and domiciled under the laws of a country other than the United States.

The House bill, HB 409, was approved on Monday by the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee; its Senate companion, SB 1844, was approved by the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee on Thursday.

For more detail on the bill, see Senate staff analysis (Feb. 3, 2012).

This summary was prepared by Perry Cone and posted at TallyInsLaw.com.

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