Fla. Stat. § 627.215 — Florida Code / Title XXXVII / Chapter 627 / Part I / Section 627.215
627.215 Excessive profits for commercial property and commercial casualty insurance prohibited.
Status: in_force

(1)(a) Each insurer group writing commercial property insurance as defined in s. 627.0625, commercial umbrella liability insurance as defined in s. 627.0625, or commercial casualty insurance as defined in s. 627.0625 shall file with the office before July 1 of each year, on a form prescribed by the commission, the following data for the component types of such insurance as provided in the form: 1. Calendar-year earned premium. 2. Accident-year incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses. 3. The administrative and selling expenses incurred in this state or allocated to this state for the calendar year. 4. Policyholder dividends applicable to the calendar year. This paragraph does not prohibit an insurer from filing on a calendar-year basis. (b) The data filed for the group shall be a consolidation of the data of the individual insurers of the group. However, an insurer may elect to consolidate commercial umbrella liability insurance data with commercial casualty insurance data or to separately file data for commercial umbrella liability insurance. Each insurer shall elect its method of filing commercial umbrella liability insurance at the time of filing data for accident year 1987 and shall thereafter continue filing under the same method. In the case of commercial umbrella liability insurance data reported separately, a separate excessive profits test shall be applied and the test period shall be 10 years.

(2)(a) Each insurer group writing commercial property insurance or commercial casualty insurance shall also file a schedule of Florida loss and loss adjustment experience for each of the 3 years previous to the most recent accident year. The incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses shall be valued as of December 31 of the first year following the latest accident year, developed to an ultimate basis, and at two 12-month intervals thereafter, each developed to an ultimate basis, so that a total of 3 evaluations will be provided for each accident year. For reporting purposes unrelated to determining excess profits, the loss and loss adjustment experience of each accident year shall continue to be reported until each accident year has been reported at eight stages of development. (b) Each insurer group writing commercial umbrella liability insurance which elects to file separate data for such insurance shall also file a schedule of Florida loss and loss adjustment experience for each of the 10 years previous to the most recent accident year. The incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses shall be valued as of December 31 of the first year following the latest accident year, developed to an ultimate basis, and at nine 12-month intervals thereafter, each developed to an ultimate basis, so that a total of 10 evaluations will be provided for each accident year.

(3) Each insurer group’s underwriting gain or loss for each calendar-accident year shall be computed as follows: The sum of the accident-year incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses as of December 31 of the year, developed to an ultimate basis, plus the administrative and selling expenses incurred in the calendar year, plus policyholder dividends applicable to the calendar year, shall be subtracted from the calendar-year earned premium to determine the underwriting gain or loss.

(4) For the 3 most recent calendar-accident years for which data is to be filed under this section, the underwriting gain or loss shall be compared to the anticipated underwriting profit, except in the case of separately reported commercial umbrella liability insurance for which such comparison shall be made for the 10 most recent calendar-accident years.

(5)(a) Beginning with the July 1, 1991, report for commercial property insurance and commercial casualty insurance, an excessive profit has been realized if the net aggregate underwriting gain for these lines combined is greater than the net aggregate anticipated underwriting profit for these lines plus 5 percent of earned premiums for the 3 most recent calendar years for which data is to be filed under this section. For calculation purposes commercial property insurance and commercial casualty insurance shall be broken down into sublines in order to ascertain the anticipated underwriting profit factor versus the actual underwriting gain for the given subline. (b) Beginning with the July 1, 1998, report for commercial umbrella liability insurance, if an insurer has elected to file data separately for such insurance, an excessive profit has been realized if the underwriting gain for such insurance is greater than the anticipated underwriting profit for such insurance plus 5 percent of earned premiums for the 10 most recent calendar years for which data is to be filed under this section.

(6) As used in this section with respect to any 3-year period, or with respect to any 10-year period in the case of commercial umbrella liability insurance, “anticipated underwriting profit” means the sum of the dollar amounts obtained by multiplying, for each rate filing of the insurer group in effect during such period, the earned premiums applicable to such rate filing during such period by the percentage factor included in such rate filing for profit and contingencies, such percentage factor having been determined with due recognition to investment income from funds generated by Florida business, except that the anticipated underwriting profit for the purposes of this section shall be calculated using a profit and contingencies factor that is not less than zero. Separate calculations need not be made for consecutive rate filings containing the same percentage factor for profits and contingencies.

(7) If the insurer group has realized an excessive profit, the office shall order a return of the excessive amounts after affording the insurer group an opportunity for hearing and otherwise complying with the requirements of chapter 120. Such excessive amounts shall be refunded in all instances unless the insurer group affirmatively demonstrates to the office that the refund of the excessive amounts will render a member of the insurer group financially impaired or will render it insolvent under the provisions of the Florida Insurance Code.

(8) Any excess profit of an insurance company shall be returned to policyholders in the form of a cash refund or a credit toward the future purchase of insurance. The excessive amount shall be refunded on a pro rata basis in relation to the final compilation year earned premiums to the policyholders of record of the insurer group on December 31 of the final compilation year.

(9)(a) Cash refunds to policyholders may be rounded to the nearest dollar. (b) Data in required reports to the office may be rounded to the nearest dollar. (c) Rounding, if elected by the insurer, shall be applied consistently.

(10)(a) Refunds shall be completed in one of the following ways: 1. If the insurer group elects to make a cash refund, the refund shall be completed within 60 days after entry of a final order indicating that excessive profits have been realized. 2. If the insurer group elects to make refunds in the form of a credit to renewal policies, such credits shall be applied to policy renewal premium notices which are forwarded to insureds more than 60 calendar days after entry of a final order indicating that excessive profits have been realized. If an insurer group has made this election but an insured thereafter cancels her or his policy or otherwise allows the policy to terminate, the insurer group shall make a cash refund within 60 days after termination of such coverage. (b) Upon completion of the renewal credits or refund payments, the insurer group shall immediately certify to the office that the refunds have been made.

(11) Any refund or renewal credit made pursuant to this section shall be treated as a policyholder dividend applicable to the year immediately succeeding the compilation period giving rise to the refund or credit, for purposes of reporting under this section for subsequent years.

(12) The application of this law to commercial property and commercial casualty insurance, which includes commercial umbrella liability insurance, ceases on January 1, 1997.

History: s. 104, ch. 79-40; ss. 21, 22, ch. 80-236; s. 425, ch. 81-259; s. 2, ch. 81-318; ss. 357, 806, ch. 82-243; s. 49, ch. 82-386; ss. 7, 9, 10, ch. 87-124; s. 3, ch. 88-390; s. 2, ch. 89-225; s. 8, ch. 90-249; ss. 1, 3, ch. 90-366; s. 4, ch. 91-429; s. 15, ch. 95-276; s. 319, ch. 97-102; ss. 1, 2, ch. 97-292; s. 6, ch. 2000-333; s. 1089, ch. 2003-261; s. 7, ch. 2012-213.