The Florida Senate

634.041  Qualifications for license.--To qualify for and hold a license to issue service agreements in this state, a service agreement company must be in compliance with this part, with applicable rules of the department, with related sections of the Florida Insurance Code, and with its charter powers and must comply with the following:

(1)  Any service agreement company applying for a license must be a corporation formed under the laws of this state and must meet minimum requirements under this section.

(2)  The service agreement company must furnish the department with evidence satisfactory to the department that the management of the company is competent and trustworthy and can successfully and lawfully manage its affairs.

(3)  The service agreement company must make the deposit required under s. 634.052.

(4)  A service agreement company may not be licensed to transact service agreement business in this state unless it maintains the required reserves and the required ratio of liquid assets to the required reserves.

(5)  A service agreement company may not be licensed to transact service agreement business in this state if, during the 3 years immediately preceding its application for a license, it has violated any requirement of this part or a rule adopted thereunder.

(6)  In order to obtain or maintain a license, a service agreement company must have and maintain minimum net assets of $500,000. However, a service agreement company that maintains a gross written premium of less than $750,000 at all times, that has been licensed in Florida for more than 5 years, and that has never had an administrative complaint filed by the department against its operations under this part may reach this net asset requirement in equal increments over a 5-year period beginning on October 1, 1991.

(7)  All assets used to maintain the minimum net asset requirement must be maintained in the United States.

(8)(a)  A service agreement company must establish and maintain an unearned premium reserve in accordance with the following:

1.  It must consist of unencumbered assets equal to a minimum of 50 percent of the unearned gross written premium on each service agreement and must amortize this reserve pro rata over the duration of the service agreement. Such assets must be held in the form of cash or invested in securities for investment under ss. 625.301-625.340.

2.  In addition to the net asset requirements set forth in subsection (6), a company utilizing the 50-percent reserve must not allow its ratio of gross written premium in force to net assets to exceed 10 to 1. For companies that have utilized both contractual liability insurance and the 50-percent reserve, this ratio must be calculated based only on that portion of gross written premium in force which is covered by the 50-percent reserve.

3.  A company that uses an unearned premium reserve must deposit with the department securities of the type eligible for deposit by insurers under s. 625.52 equal to 15 percent of the unearned premium reserve. This reserve deposit may be included as an asset for calculating the requirement of subparagraph 1. A request for release of the reserve deposit may be made quarterly only after the department has approved the company's current quarterly or annual financial statement and a statement sworn to by two officers of the company, verifying that the release will not reduce the reserve deposit to less than 15 percent of the unearned premium reserve.

(b)  A service agreement company does not have to establish and maintain an unearned premium reserve if it purchases and maintains contractual liability insurance in accordance with the following:

1.  The insurance covers 100 percent of its claim exposure and is obtained from an insurer approved by the department which holds a certificate of authority to do business within this state.

2.  If the service agreement company does not meet its contractual obligations, the contractual liability insurance policy binds its issuer to pay or cause to be paid to the service agreement holder all legitimate claims and cancellation refunds for all service agreements issued by the service agreement company while the policy was in effect. This requirement also applies to those service agreements for which no premium has been remitted to the insurer.

3.  If the issuer of the contractual liability policy is fulfilling the service agreements covered by the contractual liability policy and the service agreement holder cancels the service agreement, the issuer must make a full refund of unearned premium to the consumer, subject to the cancellation fee provisions of s. 634.121(5). The sales representative and agent must refund to the contractual liability policy issuer their unearned pro rata commission.

4.  The policy may not be canceled, terminated, or nonrenewed by the insurer or the service agreement company unless a 90-day written notice thereof has been given to the department by the insurer before the date of the cancellation, termination, or nonrenewal.

5.  The service agreement company must provide the department with the claims statistics.

(9)  In meeting the requirements of this part, a service agreement company may not utilize both the 50-percent reserve and contractual liability insurance simultaneously. However, a company may have contractual liability coverage on service agreements previously sold and sell new service agreements covered by the 50-percent reserve, and the converse of this is also allowed. A service agreement company must be able to distinguish how each individual service agreement is covered.

(10)  In addition to information called for and furnished with its annual statement, a service agreement company must furnish to the department, as soon as reasonably possible, any information as to its transactions or affairs that the department requests in writing. All information furnished pursuant to the request of the department must be verified by the oath of two executive officers of the service agreement company.

History.--s. 4, ch. 59-110; ss. 13, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 3, ch. 76-168; s. 1, ch. 77-457; s. 3, ch. 78-231; ss. 2, 3, ch. 80-149; ss. 2, 3, ch. 81-318; ss. 4, 32, 33, ch. 82-234; s. 131, ch. 83-216; s. 2, ch. 89-125; s. 1, ch. 90-153; ss. 11, 68, ch. 91-106; ss. 3, 20, ch. 93-195.