Florida Countersignature Law: Requirements, Exceptions, and Penalties

Florida’s countersignature law, found at Section 624.425 of the Florida Statutes, requires every property, casualty, or surety insurance policy covering a Florida risk to be countersigned by an agent who holds a current Florida license and an appointment with the issuing insurer. The rule applies to admitted (authorized) insurers only, reaches policies written in other states that extend coverage into Florida, and carries administrative fines that can reach $100,000 per willful violation. A missing countersignature does not void the policy for the consumer, but it exposes the insurer and agent to real regulatory consequences.¹

What the Law Requires

Under Section 624.425, no authorized property, casualty, or surety insurer may assume direct liability for a risk located in Florida, involving a Florida resident, or to be performed in Florida unless the policy is issued through and countersigned by an agent holding a current Florida license and an appointment with that insurer. The countersigning agent is entitled to the full, usual commission the insurer pays on that class of business.¹

The statute covers three lines only: property, casualty, and surety. Life insurance, health insurance, and annuities are outside its scope. It also applies only to admitted insurers, meaning those holding a Florida certificate of authority. Surplus lines placements follow a separate regime, addressed further down.

The statute also restricts how signatures happen. An agent cannot sign or countersign policies in blank outside the agent’s own office. An agent may grant the insurer itself a written power of attorney to imprint the agent’s name on documents, but that authority cannot be delegated to anyone else unless the person is directly and exclusively employed by the agent and works in the agent’s office.¹

Who Can Countersign

Three conditions must all be met at once. The agent must hold a current Florida general lines license, must be formally appointed by the specific insurer issuing the policy, and must be the producing agent on the transaction. A licensed Florida agent who is not appointed by the insurer in question cannot countersign that insurer’s policies.¹

One narrow allowance sits inside the statute itself. For policies covering nuclear energy or radioactive contamination risks written by multiple authorized insurers, a licensed and appointed agent of any one of the insurers may countersign on behalf of all of them.

Policies Written Across State Lines

Multi-state policies are where compliance most often breaks down. If a policy is issued in another state but covers property or risks located in Florida, the insurer cannot simply extend the out-of-state contract into Florida without local involvement. Section 624.425(2) requires the insurer to issue a certificate evidencing the Florida portion of the coverage, and that certificate must be countersigned by the insurer’s commissioned and appointed producing agent in Florida.¹ National brokers handling a full placement from another state routinely overlook this step.

Exceptions to the Requirement

Section 624.426 sets out five situations where the countersignature is not required:

Reinsurance contracts between insurers.
Policies insuring the rolling stock of railroad companies engaged in general freight and passenger business.
Surety bonds issued by a corporate surety approved by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that name the United States as beneficiary.
Transfers of policies between insurers within the same commonly owned group, where the insurer’s agents represent only that group and the agent of record does not change.
Property, casualty, or surety policies issued by insurers whose agents represent only one company or group, where the application was lawfully submitted to the insurer.

The list is exhaustive. There is no exemption based on premium size, no carve-out for large commercial accounts, and no emergency-situation exception. If none of the five applies and the policy is written by an admitted insurer on a Florida risk in one of the covered lines, a countersignature is required.²

What Happens if a Policy Is Missing a Countersignature

Section 624.425(6) is explicit: the absence of a required countersignature does not affect the validity of the insurance policy or contract.³ The policyholder remains covered. The countersignature obligation runs against the insurer and the agent as a regulatory duty, not as a condition of coverage the consumer has to worry about.

What the consumer keeps, the insurer and agent still owe. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation handles enforcement against the insurer, and the Department of Financial Services handles agent licensing discipline. Both can act on the same underlying violation.

Fines and Enforcement

The Office of Insurance Regulation can impose administrative fines in lieu of suspending or revoking an insurer’s certificate of authority. Amounts depend on intent:

Non-willful violations: up to $12,500 per violation, capped at $50,000 in the aggregate for violations arising from the same action. Where the violation involves a covered loss from a Governor-declared emergency, the caps rise to $25,000 per violation and $100,000 in aggregate.
Knowing and willful violations: up to $100,000 per violation, capped at $500,000 in the aggregate. Emergency-related willful violations can reach $200,000 per violation and $1 million in aggregate.

An insurer that discovers a non-willful violation must correct it, and when restitution is owed it must be paid with interest at 12 percent per year from the date of the violation or the policy inception date. Failure to make restitution when due is automatically treated as a willful violation.⁴

Fines are not the only tool. Under Section 624.310, the Office can issue cease and desist orders, initiate proceedings to suspend or revoke a certificate of authority, and refer matters for criminal prosecution. Emergency cease and desist orders are available when a violation threatens insolvency, asset dissipation, or substantial harm to policyholders.⁵ The Office’s penalty guidelines confirm that even smaller violations can escalate into revocation proceedings when significant aggravating factors are present.⁶

Electronic Countersignatures

The statute predates modern insurance operations, but nothing in it requires a wet ink signature. Florida has adopted the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act at Section 668.50. Where a provision of law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies the requirement, and a record or signature cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.⁷ The federal E-SIGN Act reaches the same result for transactions in or affecting interstate commerce.⁸

In practice, an agent can countersign electronically as long as the signature is properly attributed to the agent and the agent intends to authenticate the document. Section 624.425(3) already accommodates something in this direction by permitting a power of attorney to the insurer to imprint the agent’s name. Electronic signature systems extend that further, but they should capture a reliable audit trail with timestamps and identity verification to head off later disputes about authority.

Surplus Lines Sits Outside This Law

Section 624.425 does not reach surplus lines placements. Surplus lines coverage, which addresses risks that admitted carriers will not write, is governed by Chapter 626, Part VIII of the Florida Insurance Code. Instead of a countersignature, the surplus lines framework requires a specially licensed surplus lines agent to place and file the business.⁹ If your placement is with a non-admitted carrier through a surplus lines broker, the compliance question is a different one, and Section 624.425 is not where to look.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 624.425 – Agent Countersignature Required, Property, Casualty, Surety Insurance
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 624.426 – Exceptions to Countersignature Law
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 624.425 – Agent Countersignature Required, Property, Casualty, Surety Insurance
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 624.4211 – Administrative Fine in Lieu of Suspension or Revocation
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 624.310 – Powers of the Office Related to Enforcement
6
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R 69O-142.011 – Insurer Conduct Penalty Guidelines
7
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 668.50 – Uniform Electronic Transaction Act
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 7001 – General Rule of Validity
9
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 626.927 – Surplus Lines Agent