In Florida, all property and casualty risk policies issued or renewed effective January 1, 2007 will be subject to an emergency assessment of one percent (1%) of the premium. This same percentage will apply to all transactions "related" to each policy, including endorsements to that policy and audit premiums. The Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) has directed the Office of Insurance Regulation to levy this assessment, because the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund's reserves have been depleted due to unprecedented hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005. Click here to view a copy of the order. And, for additional information regarding the assessment, please click here.

All direct written premiums for property and casualty lines of business, except for premiums for workers' compensation policies, accident and health insurance policies, medical malpractice insurance policies and policies under the National Flood Insurance Program are subject to this emergency assessment. The assessment on affected policies issued or renewed beginning in January, 2007, will continue until the Office of Insurance Regulation orders the assessment to be canceled.

What this means for DocMagic customers is that mortgage insurance (MI) premiums issued or renewed beginning in January, 2007 will be subject to an assessment equal to one percent (1%) of the premium. If a mortgage insurance certificate reflects a 1% surcharge, then the customer will need to override the computed default of the PMI/MMI monthly amount. To accommodate our customers with this change, we have implemented the following audit if the secured property is in Florida, the loan is a conventional loan and there is a value in the PMI/MMI monthly amount field of DocMagic: "IF CERTIFICATE OF MORTGAGE INSURANCE INCLUDES 1% SURCHARGE, OVERRIDE COMPUTED DEFAULT OF PMI/MMI MONTHLY AMOUNT."

If you have any questions regarding this assessment and audit, please contact DocMagic's Compliance Department.