Florida warns agents to sell only authorized insurance products
By: Nadine Godwin
December 30, 2009
Florida issued a warning to the state’s travel agencies that they must be licensed to sell travel insurance in Florida, and they must sell only the products of insurers that have authority to sell in the state — or the consequences could be severe.

In the document, issued on Christmas Eve, the Department of Financial Services said it prepared the alert because a “significant” number of travel agencies have recently been identified as selling travel insurance without proper licenses or selling on behalf of companies that are not authorized to sell in Florida.

In the past year, the department has obtained cease-and-desist agreements from three travel agencies, warned four additional agencies that it intended to seek similar orders against them and filed complaints against two individual travel agents, all in connection with alleged improper sales of travel insurance.

The department said in its alert that selling on behalf of an unauthorized insurance firm is classified as a third-degree felony. Under Florida law, if an unauthorized insurance company fails to pay claims, the seller of the unauthorized policies can be held liable for those unpaid claims, it said.

In the three cease-and-desist orders this year, the agencies agreed in consent orders to pay administrative penalties, make good to those clients who had valid unpaid claims and refund premiums to those still holding policies or move them to an authorized insurer.

The agencies were High Performance Travel in South Daytona ($1,000 fine), Cruise Options in Plantation ($2,500 fine) and Cruise Supermarket in Plantation ($2,500 fine).

High Performance was selling for Prime Travel Protection and Traveler Protection Services, and the others sold for Prime Travel Protection. Both insurance firms were not authorized to sell in Florida, and both are now out of business.

Florida also served notices of intent to issue cease-and-desist orders against four travel agencies that it says were selling travel insurance without required licensing and also were selling for insurers not authorized to sell in Florida.

The agencies are Legendary Journeys, Sarasota; Palm Coast Travel (aka SmartCruiser.com), Lake Worth and Boca Raton; Super Travel of Palm Beach in West Palm Beach; and Vacation Superstore (dba Best Price Cruises), Port St. Lucie.

The state said the four also were selling products of the unlicensed Traveler Protection Services and/or Prime Travel Protection.

In response to the first of the orders, Legendary Journeys Vice President Al Ferguson said last March that his agency had stopped selling Prime Travel Protection in September 2008.

He also said the state was incorrect in stating that his agency is not licensed to sell travel insurance. He said the state requires that one person in each agency hold a “point-of-contact” insurance license for selling travel insurance, and the president of Legendary Journeys is that person.

The department also filed administrative complaints against Natalie Block, described as the sole director and officer of the Cruise Agency in Lake Worth and Coral Springs, Fla., and Cynthia Drubin Burdige, an employee of Bruce Travel in Plantation.

Block is accused of selling for Prime Travel Protection and/or a second unauthorized company, Universal Assurance Group. Burdige is accused of selling for Prime Travel Protection and/or the unauthorized Ciela Capital Insurance Company.

The department said legal resolution of these last six cases is still pending.

In its bulletin for travel agents, the Florida Department of Finance also noted that its investigations have led to criminal charges against sellers for unauthorized insurance companies.

Kyra Jennings, the department’s communications director, said the document included references to criminal charges in order to emphasize how serious it can be for a travel agency to violate the state’s insurance law.

However, none of the criminal arrests cited in the bulletin involved travel agencies. She said that in the last five years there have been four criminal investigations of travel agencies in the sale of insurance, but all cases were closed without arrests.

Did anyone involved with PTP get a letter from their legal counsel, as I did?
It’s dated February 23, 2009 and it states that Mr. Jerry Watson “has committed to make a series of capital contributions to PTP over a sixty month period” to ultimately repay customers.
Claims already approved at the time of the termination of business by PTP (january 26, 2009) will get paid in the first three years of this “contribution” and claimes filed but notyet approved by that date will be paid in the last two years of the contribution and may require the filing of more paperwork.

Any thoughts, and did others receive this letter???

Did Legendary Journeys notify you of the TPS dissolution or did they only tell you when you called them?

Mary you need to contact the e-mail I prompted you to. Can’t help unless we know a lot more.

There is an e-mail address two posts above you. Please contact them as they are willing to help on a volunteer bases.