Florida is a great state for insurance brokers, agents, adjusters, and other licensed insurance professionals to establish their practices. Florida's sizable population, strong economy, and favorable tax and insurance laws combine to place it among the top ten best states for insurance agents. But Florida, like other states, requires insurance professionals to obtain a state license. The Florida Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services not only licenses insurance brokers, agents, and adjusters but also disciplines insurance professionals committing misconduct.
If you face Florida Insurance Division disciplinary charges, your insurance practice is at risk. You need skilled and experienced license defense representation. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best outcome to Florida Insurance Division disciplinary charges. Protect your investment in your Florida insurance practice. Our attorneys are available in Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Hialeah, Port St. Lucie, Cape Coral, Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, and all other Florida locations. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our strategic and effective defense representation.
Florida Insurance Division License Authority
Florida Statutes Section 626.112, part of the Florida Insurance Code, requires all insurance agents, adjusters, and sales representatives practicing in the state to obtain a state insurance license. The Insurance Code's Section 626.016 designates the Florida Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services with the authority to license insurance professionals in the state including to regulate and discipline those licenses. The Code's Section 626.8453 makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to engage in insurance practice without a license or under a suspended license, punishable by up to sixty days in jail and a $500 fine. The Code's Section 626.9927 further authorizes the Florida Insurance Division to obtain an injunction against unlicensed practice and assigns civil liability for damages caused by that practice. You must not continue your insurance practice in Florida if you lose your license to discipline. Let us help you defend and defeat your Florida Insurance Division disciplinary charges.
Types of Florida Insurance Agent Misconduct
Many different acts may lead to Florida Insurance Division disciplinary charges. The Insurance Division publishes its many disciplinary action reports. Those reports reflect the following common categories of misconduct disciplinary allegations as to which our attorneys can help defend you:
- false, misleading, and fraudulent descriptions of insurance policy terms, conditions, benefits, and coverage;
- unjustified denial of insurance claims, unreasonable delay in processing claims, and failures to investigate and adjust claims according to insurance standards;
- discriminating unlawfully against policyholders based on race, sex, religion, age, disability, or other protected characteristics;
- deliberately misleading insurance customers to lapse, forfeit, or surrender their insurance policies to buy equivalent coverage, otherwise known as twisting;
- engaging in unauthorized transactions without a valid insurance license or on a suspended or revoked license after discipline;
- diverting, converting, misappropriating, or otherwise improperly handling insurance premiums, proceeds, or other customer property;
- forging, falsifying, or materially altering insurance applications or other transaction documents;
- failing to comply with administrative orders or court orders, including child support obligations, or failing to pay state income tax;
- misleading titles or designations deceiving customers into misunderstanding the agent's role;
- selling unauthorized insurance products through unauthorized entities; and
- overcharging on settlement of insurance claims or adjuster conflicts of interest, unlawful solicitation, or unreasonable failure or refusal to disperse insurance settlements.
Florida Insurance Division Disciplinary Grounds
Florida Insurance Code Section 626.611 lists the specific disciplinary grounds on which licensing officials may rely when charging you with misconduct. Florida Insurance Code Section 626.9541 lists additional disciplinary grounds under the rubric of unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts, on which Florida Insurance Division officials may further rely to issue disciplinary charges against your insurance license. Together, those disciplinary grounds against which we can defend you include all of the above forms of misconduct plus the following additional acts:
- conviction of a misdemeanor crime relating to insurance practice or suffering a felony conviction;
- using advertisements that mislead insurance customers or consumers;
- failing to disclose that a third party receives referral fees, commissions, or other remuneration related to a customer transaction;
- defaming an insurance customer, colleague, competitor, or other individual or entity engaged in insurance practice;
- promoting or participating in product or company boycotts and other unreasonable restraints of insurance trade;
- issuing insurance agency stock or equivalent interests on an assurance of profit or income;
- discriminating among individuals of the same actuarial class;
- offering or agreeing to insure acts of assault, domestic violence, false imprisonment, intimidation, oppression, or abuse; and
- offering insurance customers insurance product rebates or free insurance in connection with the sale of real or personal property.
Defense of Florida Insurance Division Charges
Florida Insurance Division disciplinary charges are not the same as a finding of misconduct. Disciplinary charges are only allegations or accusations of wrongdoing. Disciplinary charges do not necessarily mean that Insurance Division officials have evidence of wrongdoing. They may instead be responding to a deliberately false and retaliatory complaint, a mistaken complaint, or a reasonable complaint without a factual basis. Your disciplinary officials may know of your good character and substantial professional reputation and may expect you to retain us to present your reasonable explanation of the disciplinary allegations.
We can help you identify, gather, and present your exonerating evidence to defend the disciplinary charges. We may be able to show that you violated no insurance rule or standard, that others for whom you were not responsible committed any violations, or that the complainant misidentified you. We may alternatively be able to show that you followed a reasonable interpretation of ambiguous standards under the advice, counsel, or direction of responsible supervisors, representatives, or advisors. We may also show that no one suffered any harm or risk of harm from any of your actions, that any actions you undertook in violation of insurance standards were accidental, explainable, and incidental, and that you have corrected any violations with restitution, additional education, additional training, and other remedial measures. Let us raise, advocate, and prove your best available defenses.
Florida Insurance Division Complaints
Florida Insurance Code Section 626.9561 empowers the Insurance Division to investigate consumer complaints against insurance brokers, agents, and adjusters. The Florida Division of Consumer Services accordingly offers consumer complaint information, processes, and support, ensuring that Insurance Division officials learn of and investigate consumer complaints against licensed brokers, agents, and adjusters. Do not underestimate the resources and personnel the Insurance Division has to investigate and act on complaints. Complaints may come from insurance customers or clients, insurance professional colleagues, employer representatives, or public media reports. Insurance Division officials may also monitor civil and criminal court filings, as well as national databases of insurance department actions in other states. Do not expect to successfully conceal your disciplinary issues. Retain us to advise and represent you the moment you learn of a disciplinary concern or complaint against you. We may be able to help you head off a formal investigation and charge.
Responding to the Insurance Division Investigation
When the Florida Insurance Division receives a complaint against a licensed insurance professional, Division officials evaluate whether the complaint credibly alleges a standards violation. If so, the Insurance Division will assign an investigator or investigation team to the matter. The investigator will not generally begin by contacting you, the alleged wrongdoer. Instead, investigations generally begin by collecting all available documentation and information from the complainant and other sources. Then, when the investigator contacts you, the investigator will already know everything about the matter other than your side of the story. In that sense, an investigator's request for your documentation and information can be like a trap to see if you will respond truthfully or untruthfully. In the latter case, you may face disciplinary charges for obstructing an investigation, whether or not you did anything else wrong. Retain us the moment you learn of an investigation so that we can help you produce accurate, truthful, and complete information, avoid obstruction charges, and present your exonerating and mitigating evidence in an organized, reliable, and convincing fashion.
Florida Insurance Division Procedures
Florida Insurance Code Section 626.9571 provides for your right to a formal hearing on disciplinary charges. Indeed, Section 626.9571 refers to and incorporates the hearing procedures of Florida's Administrative Procedure Code, codified in Florida Statutes Section 120.569. These protections satisfy the demands of your constitutional due process rights against state agency action depriving you of a protected property or liberty interest in your opportunity to continue your insurance practice. Your first right is to receive fair notice of the disciplinary charges. We can help ensure that the Insurance Division discloses to you its allegations, sufficient for you to fully and fairly answer the charges with your defense evidence.
If your matter proceeds to a formal hearing, we can present that defense evidence at the hearing while challenging the Insurance Division's incriminating evidence. If you have already lost your formal hearing, Florida Insurance Code Section 626.9591 offers you an administrative appeal under the same Florida Administrative Procedure Act protective provisions cited above. Our attorneys know how to evaluate, prepare, and pursue administrative license appeals to reverse erroneous decisions and gain reinstatement of suspended licenses. Let us help you invoke these and other Florida Insurance Division protective procedures to effectively advocate for you in the best light, in full and fair defense of the disciplinary charges. Your insurance practice is worth defending.
Florida Insurance Division Discipline
The Florida Insurance Division, like insurance departments in other states, has broad discretion to impose a range of sanctions if it finds that you committed misconduct. On such a finding, the Florida Insurance Code's Section 626.9581 authorizes the Insurance Division to suspend or revoke your license, impose a cease and desist order prohibiting your insurance practice, or impose other discipline as Insurance Division officials discern. Another Insurance Code provision, Section 626.846, gives the alternative of license probation for up to two years, with terms and conditions of the probation. Terms and conditions may include license limitation to a certain insurance product or line, certain customer populations, or for supervision, monitoring, mentoring, training, and education. These and other alternatives give our attorneys the opportunity to advocate for remedial measures rather than punitive sanctions, with the goal of preserving your reputation, employment, and the opportunity to continue your insurance practice. Just because you face charges or even a finding of misconduct doesn't mean you must suffer a sanction. Let us present your best case to mitigate discipline.
Retain Qualified Florida Insurance License Defense
Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel or an unqualified local civil litigation attorney when facing Florida Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services disciplinary charges. The laws, rules, and procedures all differ between criminal or civil court matters and administrative license proceedings. Unqualified counsel will not only not know the law, rules, and procedures but will also not have the reputation and relationships among disciplinary officials or know what those officials are likely to accept in the way of favorable resolutions. Instead, retain our skilled and experienced attorneys to communicate, advocate, and negotiate sensitively, diplomatically, firmly, and effectively with your Florida Insurance Division disciplinary investigators and officials. We have the reputation and relationships among licensing officials to gain their trust, confidence, and respect for your most favorable disciplinary outcome. We know the evidence they want to see for a sound defense and the remedial measures they may accept for you to retain your insurance license. Get our qualified help.
Premier Insurance License Defense Attorneys
When facing Florida Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services disciplinary charges, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for the strategic and effective defense representation you need. Our skilled and experienced attorneys help hundreds of insurance brokers, agents, adjusters, and other professionals across Florida and nationwide in the successful defense of license discipline charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
