State of the State from
NAIFA-FL Lobbyist – Tim Meenan
NAIFA Florida worked alongside the American Council of Life Insurers and the Florida Insurance Council during the 2023 legislative session to enact the new annuity suitability and “best interest” standard published by the NAIC. One of the goals of this effort was to get rid of the “Florida Specific” Annuity Suitability Questionnaire promulgated by the Florida Department of Financial Services which has been mandated for use in all sales of new annuities. That form, DFS-H1-1980, was eliminated as a result of the passage of the new annuity suitability and best interest standards. Instead, insurers may utilize their own forms, as long as those forms contain all in the data elements set forth in the statutes. For years, insurers required agents to fill out the insurer specific form, and the DFS mandated form, for each sale…a very duplicative and unnecessary paperwork shuffle. However, when the DFS moved to rulemaking, they inadvertently did not strike it from existing rule. We have met with Greg Thomas, Division Director over Agent and Agency Services, and he made clear that he intends to move to rulemaking to strike the state specific form. He also made clear that he does not intend to conduct any enforcement actions against agents or insurers that fail to utilize form DFS-H1-1980 during this interim period while the rule is going through rulemaking. So agents are free to only utilize the insurer specific forms provided to them. There are various forms required as a part of the new statute, and Florida will require their use, along with the use of two other forms currently in rule, the disclosure and comparison of annuity contracts if an annuity is being replaced (Form DFS-H1-1981) and Disclosure of Surrender Charges if Existing Annuity is Replaced or Exchanged (second part of Form DFS-H1-1981).
