Emergency Public Adjuster Licensing, Ethics and Conduct Reviewed at Florida Department of Financial Services Rule Workshop

The Florida Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) Division of Insurance Agents and Agency Services (“Division”) held a Rule Development Workshop on the following proposed Rules relating to the licensure, ethics and conduct of emergency public adjusters and their apprentices:

69B-220.001: Pre-Qualification and Licensure of Emergency Adjusters
69B-220.051: Conduct of Public Adjusters
69B-220.201: Ethical Requirements

Division Financial Administrator Eric Purvis opened the Workshop with an explanation of the proposed Rules, which update existing Rules by incorporating recent legislative changes to Part VI of Chapter 626, F.S.

• Proposed amendments to Rule 69B-220.001 define when an “emergency” exists and provide the procedures to obtain an online emergency adjuster license from the Division.
• Changes to Rule 69B-220.051 clarify the responsibilities and requirements of public adjusters and public adjuster apprentices, specify the terms and conditions of contracts, require a license number on advertisements and prescribe practices to ensure fair dealing between public adjusters and claimants.
• Proposed Rule 69B-220.201 would update the code of ethics for all adjusters and clarify the responsibilities and requirements of all adjusters.

Mr. Purvis then opened the Workshop for comments from the public.

Insurance industry representatives in attendance expressed concerns regarding 69B-20.201(3) (f) and (g), which addresses the requirement for adjusters to provide a complete written claim status. DFS officials noted that these provisions were included to address an existing issue of non-communicative public adjusters and public adjuster companies.  The industry representatives felt that this should apply to individual public adjusters only.

It was noted that other stakeholders had been expected to be in attendance.  Mr. Purvis said that the Florida Association of Public Adjusters and others likely will submit written comments to the record, which will remain open until March 19, 2010.

Should you wish to add any comments to the record, please forward these to Trevor Mask at tmask@cftlaw.com no later than March 18.

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