May 2019
2019 Florida Legislative Session Concludes
Last week closed out a big week for FLTA and Florida. For all intense purposes the 2019 legislative session closed out on Friday, May 3rdand officially adjourned with approval of the $91B State budget on Saturday, May 4th. During the past 60 plus days the association focused on several initiatives including Remote Online Notary, Public Records for Law Enforcement Personnel, closing out expired building permits, implementation of a blockchain working group and a long standing initiative of removing intra-spousal homestead doc stamps. Here are where things stand today.
Read more on the FLTA issues here.
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FLTA Lobby Days Attendees Hear from DFS
Each year FLTA hosts Lobby Daysallowing its members to come together with a unified voice to educate legislators on the title industry. This year was no different, though the event experienced one of the largest turnouts in some time.
In addition to meeting with legislators attendees also had the opportunity to ask questions and interact with Department of Financial Services representatives Matthew Guy and Ray Wenger, along with Office of Insurance Regulation's, Jeffrey Joseph. The headlining the town hall was the Unlawful Inducement and Rebate Rule.
In gaining clarification on the use of gift cards, appropriate social media interactions and general marketing practices, much of the remaining questions revolved around when a sales or marketing team member must be licensed.
In all, the 3 hour town hall was full of information and conversation.
In next steps, FLTA is looking forward to spreading the message on suggested practices and bringing clarity to these recurring questions. This will be an ongoing initiative.
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2 Ways to Report Unlawful Inducements
See something, say something.
FLTA has worked hard in offering feedback over the years to help amend the Unlawful Inducement and Rebate Rule and now, as an added value, representatives may submit anonymously by emailingAnonymous@FLTA.org. Through this process FLTA will remove your information and forward your complaint directly to DFS for their consideration.
When submitting through normal channels or anonymously it is vitally important to:
- include as much information as possible;
- include specific details of events
- include photos, documents, flyers, etc.
Furthermore, when submitting a complaint anonymously it is also important to understand you willnotreceive status updates of the progress being made in your case. Of course, you may still request to be anonymous when submitting directly to DFS. Ways to submit a complaint:
Submit to FLTA Anonymously:
Submit directly to DFS:
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Florida Eliminates Doc Stamps for Intra-Spousal Transfers
On Wednesday, Gov. DeSantis signed into law a broad-base relief tax package that includes language spearheaded by Past President Skip Straus removing the intra-spousal tax. This has been a long standing initiative of FLTA and the association would like to thank the leadership of Rep. Yarborough (R-Jacksonville) and Sen. Stargel (R-Lakeland) for leadership in removing this burden. InHB 7123, Section 4 reads:
Section 4. Effective July 1, 2019, paragraph (b) of
subsection (7) of section 201.02, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
201.02 Tax on deeds and other instruments relating to real
property or interests in real property.—
(7) Taxes imposed by this section do not apply to:
(b) A deed or other instrument that transfers or conveys
homestead property or any interest in homestead property between spouses, if the only consideration for the transfer or conveyance is the amount of a mortgage or other lien encumbering the homestead property at the time of the transfer or conveyance and if the deed or other instrument is recorded within 1 year after the date of the marriage. This paragraph applies to transfers or conveyances from one spouse to another, from one spouse to both spouses, or from both spouses to one spouse. For the purpose of this paragraph, the term "homestead property" has the same meaning as the term "homestead" as defined in s.192.001.
Read the full Senate Press Release outlining the tax relief package.
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Blockchain Working Group - Need Title Representative
Blockchain continues it's path of expansion with added interest in Florida this Session. Sen. Gruters (R-Sarasota) and Rep. Santiago (R-Deltona) championed this bill that will ultimately form a 13-member working group to study the impact to Florida the technology could offer once signed by the Governor.
Because of it's impact to the title industry, FLTA is pushing to have an industry representative with Blockchain expertise be a part of this group. If you, or a representative from your company is an expert and has interest, please informScott Merrittof your interest byWednesday, May 22nd for consideration. Appointed group members will ultimately be made the Governor, CFO, Senate President and Speaker of the House.
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2020 Legislative Dates Set
The 2019 Session may have adjourned just 10 days ago, but Senate President Galvano and House Speaker Oliva have announced the 2020 legislative schedule to include:
| Sept. 16-20, 2019 |
Committee Week 1 |
|
Oct.14-18, 2019
|
Committee Week2 |
| Oct. 21-25, 2019 |
Committee Week 3 |
| Nov. 4-8, 2019 |
Committee Week 4 |
| Nov. 12-15, 2019 |
Committee Week 5 |
| Dec. 9-13, 2019 |
Committee Week 6 |
| Jan. 14, 2020 |
Regular Session Convenes
Noon, Deadline for Filing Bills
|
| March 3, 2020 |
50th day rule (Senate)
Last day for regularly
scheduled committee mtgs.
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| March 13, 2020 |
60th day -
Last day of Regular Session
|
With an early session ahead of us, the Government Affairs Committee has initiated next steps by identifying some 2020 initiatives to include issues like Flat Fee Recording, a MRTA fix to the Calusa case, support the Start/Stop initiative by RPPTL, and improve the Sunbiz notifying interested parties process along with others.
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FLTA Career Center
Last month the Succession Planning Sub-Committee of FLTA's Education Committee set out to help identify the needs or gaps within the future hiring of the industry. While the results were fairly telling it appears their are areas of "opportunity" for future growth.
Are you hiring?UseFLTA's career center supported by Indeed to find your next recruit.
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Register for Upcoming Events
Upcoming Webinars to Save the Date:
June 6: Ethics for Leadership in Title Companies
Lunch and Learn
June 13 - PACE in West Palm Beach with Ygrene
Annual Convention
Save the Date - November 11-13, 2019
St. Petersburg, Florida
