Pursuant to Section 627.782, Florida Statutes, title insurance agencies and insurers licensed to do business in this state must maintain and submit certain information to the Office, including revenue, loss, and expense data. This statute authorizes ...

 

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

OIR – Insurance Regulation

RULE NO.:RULE TITLE:

69O-186.013Title Insurance Statistical Gathering

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: Pursuant to Section 627.782, Florida Statutes, title insurance agencies and insurers licensed to do business in this state must maintain and submit certain information to the Office, including revenue, loss, and expense data. This statute authorizes rulemaking to collect and analyze such data from the title insurance industry.

The current version of Rule 69O-186.013 implements the provisions of Section 627.782, Florida Statutes, by listing the types of information that shall be submitted to the Office by title insurance agencies and insurers. The Office is proposing to strike the current language of the rule and to replace it with new language that adopts a form, entitled “OIR-EO-2087 Title Insurance Experience Reporting-Agents and Florida Retail Offices of Direct-Writing Title Insurance Underwriters”. This form will be submitted to the Office electronically by title insurance agencies and Florida retail offices of direct writing title insurers to comply with the reporting requirements of Section 627.782, Florida Statutes. The statistical data collected will be used for the purpose of analyzing premium rates, retention rates, and the condition of the title insurance industry.

SUMMARY: The current version of Rule 69O-186.013 implements the provisions of Section 627.782, Florida Statutes, by listing the types of information that shall be submitted to the Office by both title insurance agencies and insurers. The amended Rule 69O-186.013 will apply specifically to title insurance agencies and Florida retail offices of direct writing title underwriters. The amended rule adopts by reference the form that those entities will need to complete on an annual basis. The Office is concurrently adopting a new Rule 69O-186.014, that will apply specifically to the collection of information required by Section 627.782, Florida Statutes from title insurance underwriters only.

SUMMARY OF STATEMENT OF ESTIMATED REGULATORY COSTS AND LEGISLATIVE RATIFICATION:

The Agency has determined that this will have an adverse impact on small business or likely increase directly or indirectly regulatory costs in excess of $200,000 in the aggregate within one year after the implementation of the rule. A SERC has been prepared by the agency.

The Agency has determined that the proposed rule is expected to require legislative ratification based on the statement of estimated regulatory costs or if no SERC is required, the information expressly relied upon and described herein: Based on the number of title insurance agencies in the State of Florida, the relatively small cost per agency to upgrade data collection software triggers the statutory requirements for ratification. The Office estimates that this software upgrade will require title insurance agency to invest approximately $1000.00 to upgrade its software and approximately $2000.00 annually to collect and process the data.

Any person who wishes to provide information regarding a statement of estimated regulatory costs, or provide a proposal for a lower cost regulatory alternative must do so in writing within 21 days of this notice.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY: 624.308 FS.

LAW IMPLEMENTED: 624.307(1), 637.782 FS.

IF REQUESTED WITHIN 21 DAYS OF THE DATE OF THIS NOTICE, A HEARING WILL BE HELD AT THE DATE, TIME AND PLACE SHOWN BELOW(IF NOT REQUESTED, THIS HEARING WILL NOT BE HELD):

DATE AND TIME: November 6, 2013, 10:00 a.m.

PLACE: 116 Larson Building, 200 East Gaines Street, Tallahassee, Florida

Pursuant to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this workshop/meeting is asked to advise the agency at least 5 days before the workshop/meeting by contacting: Peter Rice, Office of Insurance Regulation, E-mail: [e-mail]. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency using the Florida Relay Service, 1(800)955-8771 (TDD) or 1(800)955-8770 (Voice).

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE PROPOSED RULE IS: Peter Rice, Office of Insurance Regulation, E-mail: [e-mail]

 

THE FULL TEXT OF THE PROPOSED RULE IS:

69O-186.013 Title Insurance Statistical Gathering.

(1) Licensed title insurance agencies and title insurers must submit statistical data to the Office or an entity chosen by the Office as frequently as required by the Office, not to exceed once annually.

(2) The data shall include:

(a) Income, loss and expense information to analyze risk premium and charges for related title services,

(b) Retention rates and the condition of the title insurance industry,

(c) Data regarding production of title evidence,

(d) Premium income from agency/agents, and

(e) Premium income from insurer direct operations.

(1) By the day designated in s. 627.782(8) F.S. of 2015 and the same day of each year after 2015, licensed title insurance agencies and Florida retail offices of direct-writing title insurance underwriters must electronically submit statistical data to the Office. The submittal shall be accomplished by electronically completing OIR form OIR-EO-2087 “Title Insurance Experience Reporting -Agents and Retail Offices of Direct-Writing Title Insurance Underwriters”, as adopted and incorporated by this reference. The aforementioned form may be obtained from the Office's web site located at http://www.floir.com/.

(2) OIR form OIR-EO-2087 “Title Insurance Experience Reporting -Agents and Retail Offices of Direct-Writing Title Insurance Underwriters” shall be completed by title insurance agencies and retail offices of direct-writing title insurance underwriters in accordance with the instructions for each submittal year. The initial submittal shall reflect data for the prior five years ending December 31, 2014. For each year after 2014, the submittal shall, in addition to the data for the current year, include an affidavit re-certifying the accuracy and completeness of the prior four years’ data. If significant changes have been discovered in the data submitted in any of the four prior years, a corrected submittal shall be made for that year. Pursuant to s. 627.782, F.S., the statistical data is collected for the purposes of analyzing premium rates, retention rates, and the condition of the title insurance industry.

(3) OIR form OIR-EO-2087 “Title Insurance Experience Reporting -Agents and Retail Offices of Direct-Writing Title Insurance Underwriters” shall be submitted electronically. All submittals shall be submitted to the Office at https://iportal.fldfs.com, the industry portal to the Office’s I-File System, as a data filing. A filing shall be considered received by the Office when its arrival in the Office is shown electronically to be on business days between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. Filings received after 5:00 p.m. shall be considered to be received the next business day.

Rulemaking Authority 624.308 FS. Law Implemented 624.307(1), 627.782 FS. History–New 2-13-95, Formerly 4-186.013, _____________________.

 

NAME OF PERSON ORIGINATING PROPOSED RULE: Peter Rice, Office of Insurance Regulation, E-mail: [e-mail]

NAME OF AGENCY HEAD WHO APPROVED THE PROPOSED RULE: The Financial Services Commission

DATE PROPOSED RULE APPROVED BY AGENCY HEAD: October 10, 2013

DATE NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHED IN FAR: February 21, 2013