Insurance holding companies; registration; regulation.

(1) An insurer that is authorized to do business in this state and that is a member of an insurance holding company shall, on or before April 1 of each year, register with the office and file a registration statement and be subject to regulation with respect to its relationship to the holding company as provided by law or rule. The commission shall adopt rules establishing the information and statement form required for registration and the manner in which registered insurers and their affiliates are regulated. The rules apply to domestic insurers, foreign insurers, and commercially domiciled insurers, except for foreign insurers domiciled in states that are currently accredited by the NAIC. Except to the extent of any conflict with this code, the rules must include all requirements and standards of the Insurance Holding Company System Model Regulation and ss. 4 and 5 of the Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act of the NAIC, as adopted in December 2020. The commission may adopt subsequent amendments thereto if the methodology remains substantially consistent. The rules may include a prohibition on oral contracts between affiliated entities. Material transactions between an insurer and its affiliates must be filed with the office as provided by rule.

(2) The ultimate controlling person of every insurer subject to registration shall also file an annual enterprise risk report on or before April 1. As used in this subsection, the term “ultimate controlling person” means a person who is not controlled by any other person. The report must, to the best of the ultimate controlling person’s knowledge and belief, identify the material risks within the insurance holding company system that could pose enterprise risk to the insurer. The report must be filed with the lead state office of the insurance holding company system as determined by the procedures within the Financial Analysis Handbook adopted by the NAIC and is confidential and exempt from public disclosure as provided in s. 624.4212.

(a) An insurer may satisfy this requirement by providing the office with the most recently filed parent corporation reports that have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission which provide the appropriate enterprise risk information.

(b) The term “enterprise risk” means an activity, circumstance, event, or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer which, if not remedied promptly, are likely to have a materially adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole, including anything that would cause the insurer’s risk-based capital to fall into company action level as set forth in s. 624.4085 or would cause the insurer to be in a hazardous financial condition.

(c) The office may adopt rules for filing the annual enterprise risk report in accordance with the Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act and the Insurance Holding Company System Model Regulation of the NAIC, as adopted in December 2020.

(3) In addition to the powers which the office has under chapter 624 relating to the examination of insurers, the office may examine any insurer registered under this section and its affiliates to ascertain the financial condition of the insurer, including the enterprise risk to the insurer by the ultimate controlling party, or by any entity or combination of entities within the insurance holding company system, or by the insurance holding company system on a consolidated basis.

(a) The office may require any insurer registered under this section to produce such records, books, or other information and papers in the possession of the insurer or its affiliates as are reasonably necessary.

(b) The office may retain at the registered insurer’s expense such attorneys, actuaries, accountants, and other experts not otherwise a part of the office’s staff as shall be reasonably necessary to assist in the conduct of the examination under this subsection. Any persons so retained shall be under the direction and control of the office and shall act in a purely advisory capacity.

(c) Each registered insurer producing for examination records, books, and papers pursuant to this subsection is liable for and shall pay the expense of examination in accordance with s. 624.320.

(d) The office shall have the power to examine the affiliates of the registered insurer. The scope of the examination of an insurer’s affiliates under this subsection must be limited to information reasonably necessary. An examination of an insurer’s affiliate under this section, unless reasonably necessary to ascertain the financial condition of the insurer, may not extend to the passive investors of affiliates in the holding company system which do not provide services directly or indirectly to the insurer or have direct or indirect relationships with the insurer.

(4) The filings and related documents filed pursuant to this section are confidential and exempt as provided in s. 624.4212 and are not subject to subpoena or discovery directly from the office. A waiver of any applicable privilege or claim of confidentiality in the filings and related documents may not occur as a result of any disclosure to the office under this section or any other section of the insurance code as authorized under s. 624.4212. Neither the office nor any person who received the filings and related documents while acting under the authority of the office or with whom such information is shared pursuant to s. 624.4212 is permitted or required to testify in any private civil action concerning any confidential documents, materials, or information subject to s. 624.4212. However, the department or office may use the confidential and exempt information in the furtherance of any regulatory or legal action brought against an insurer as a part of the official duties of the department or office.

(5) The failure to file a registration statement, or a summary of the registration statement, or the enterprise risk filing report required by this section within the time specified for filing is a violation of this section.

(6) Upon request, the office may waive the filing requirements of this section:

(a) If the insurer is a domestic insurer that is the subsidiary of an insurer that is in full compliance with the insurance holding company registration laws of its state of domicile, which state is accredited by the NAIC; or

(b) If the insurer is a domestic insurer that writes only in this state and has annual direct written and assumed premium of less than $300 million, excluding premiums reinsured with the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and Federal Flood Program, and demonstrates that compliance with this section would not provide substantial regulatory or consumer benefit. In evaluating a waiver request made under this paragraph, the office may consider various factors including, but not limited to, the type of business entity, the volume of business written, the ownership or organizational structure of the entity, or whether the company is in runoff.

A waiver granted pursuant to this subsection is valid for 2 years unless sooner withdrawn due to a change in the circumstances under which the waiver was granted.