No. CS/CS/HB 943
Filed under Insurance.
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation; Prohibits corporation from issuing or renewing coverage for commercial residential & commercial nonresidential risks & from imposing equalization adjustment; requires corporation to implement commercial lines clearinghouse; authorizes corporation to share risk exposure & policy information with commercial lines clearinghouse administrator; authorizes approved surplus lines clearinghouse insurers to participate in commercial lines clearinghouse; prohibits such insurers from participating in personal lines clearinghouse; authorizes OIR to review certain operational processes related to program.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCitizens must build a separate commercial lines clearinghouse by January 1, 2027. Every new commercial residential and commercial nonresidential application, and every renewal, must first be submitted through it before Citizens can bind or renew coverage.
If an admitted insurer offers comparable coverage at or below the eligibility threshold, the policyholder becomes ineligible for Citizens outright. If a vetted surplus lines insurer's offer instead costs no more than 20 percent above Citizens' price, staying with Citizens costs the same amount.
Repeals the flat ban on commercial nonresidential policies in the clearinghouse, opening that entire class of risk to the same private-diversion process built for commercial residential coverage.
New protections guarantee producing agents a commission at least equal to Citizens' current rate even when a policy moves to a surplus lines insurer, and extend agents' ownership of their expiration records to contracts with surplus lines agents too.
AIRequires Citizens to build a separate commercial lines clearinghouse, distinct from the existing personal lines one, operating no later than January 1, 2027, to route commercial residential and commercial nonresidential business toward private offers.
AIEvery new commercial residential or commercial nonresidential application, and every renewal, must be submitted through the commercial lines clearinghouse as the single intake point before Citizens can make an offer or bind coverage.
AIA commercial residential applicant or existing policyholder loses eligibility for Citizens coverage outright once an authorized insurer offers comparable coverage priced at or below the statutory eligibility threshold.
AIWhen an approved surplus lines insurer's offer costs no more than 20 percent above Citizens' own price, Citizens may not keep charging its lower rate -- it must add an equalization adjustment that raises the policy to match the surplus lines cost.
AIRepeals the flat prohibition that kept commercial nonresidential policies out of the clearinghouse entirely, opening that whole class of risk to the same private-diversion process built for commercial residential coverage.
AISpecially vetted surplus lines insurers can now make offers inside the new commercial lines clearinghouse, but those same insurers are expressly barred from participating in the separate personal lines clearinghouse.
AIThe Office of Insurance Regulation may review the clearinghouse's operational processes for actuarial soundness and solvency risk, and, on finding a material risk, can direct the corporation to temporarily suspend the equalization adjustment, exclude insurers, or pause the clearinghouse requirement.
AIWhen a policy moves to an approved surplus lines insurer, the placing agent must still pass the producing agent a commission at least equal to the percentage Citizens itself paid as of January 1, 2026, though an agent may voluntarily accept less.