Florida Senate - 2022                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1874
       
       
       
       
       
       
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                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
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       The Committee on Banking and Insurance (Brandes) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment to Amendment (334330) (with title
    2  amendment)
    3  
    4         Delete lines 1733 - 1752
    5  and insert:
    6         Section 47. Subsection (10) of section 626.854, Florida
    7  Statutes, is amended to read:
    8         626.854 “Public adjuster” defined; prohibitions.—The
    9  Legislature finds that it is necessary for the protection of the
   10  public to regulate public insurance adjusters and to prevent the
   11  unauthorized practice of law.
   12         (10)(a) If a public adjuster enters into a contract with an
   13  insured or claimant to reopen a claim or file a supplemental
   14  claim that seeks additional payments for a claim that has been
   15  previously paid in part or in full or settled by the insurer,
   16  the public adjuster may not charge, agree to, or accept from any
   17  source compensation, payment, commission, fee, or any other
   18  thing of value based on a previous settlement or previous claim
   19  payments by the insurer for the same cause of loss. The charge,
   20  compensation, payment, commission, fee, or any other thing of
   21  value must be based only on the recovery allocated to the
   22  insured for covered damages, exclusive of attorney fees and
   23  costs, claim payments or settlement obtained through the work of
   24  the public adjuster after entering into the contract with the
   25  insured or claimant. Compensation for the reopened or
   26  supplemental claim may not exceed 20 percent of the reopened or
   27  supplemental claim payment. In no event shall the contracts
   28  described in this paragraph exceed the limitations in paragraph
   29  (b).
   30         (b) A public adjuster may not charge, agree to, or accept
   31  from any source compensation, payment, commission, fee, or any
   32  other thing of value in excess of:
   33         1. Ten percent of the amount of insurance recovery
   34  allocated to the insured for covered damages, exclusive of
   35  attorney fees and costs, claim payments made by the insurer for
   36  claims based on events that are the subject of a declaration of
   37  a state of emergency by the Governor. This provision applies to
   38  claims made during the year after the declaration of emergency.
   39  After that year, the limitations in subparagraph 2. apply.
   40         2. Twenty percent of the amount of insurance recovery
   41  allocated to the insured for covered damages, exclusive of
   42  attorney fees and costs, claim payments made by the insurer for
   43  claims that are not based on events that are the subject of a
   44  declaration of a state of emergency by the Governor.
   45         (c) Insurance claim payments made by the insurer do not
   46  include policy deductibles, and public adjuster compensation may
   47  not be based on the deductible portion of a claim.
   48         (d) Public adjuster compensation may not be based on
   49  amounts attributable to additional living expenses unless such
   50  compensation is affirmatively agreed to in a separate agreement
   51  that includes a disclosure in substantially the following form:
   52  “I agree to retain and compensate the public adjuster for
   53  adjusting my additional living expenses and securing payment
   54  from my insurer for amounts attributable to additional living
   55  expenses payable under the policy issued on my (home/mobile
   56  home/condominium unit).”
   57         (e) Public adjuster compensation may not be increased based
   58  on a claim being resolved by litigation.
   59         (f) Any maneuver, shift, or device through which the limits
   60  on compensation set forth in this subsection are exceeded is a
   61  violation of this chapter punishable as provided under s.
   62  626.8698.
   63  
   64  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   65  And the title is amended as follows:
   66         Delete line 2573
   67  and insert:
   68         agency licenses; amending s. 626.854, F.S.; revising
   69         and providing