How to File Forms with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR)

To file forms with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, you work through the OIR’s Industry Portal at iportal.fldfs.com, which routes you into one of three underlying systems depending on what you’re filing: iApply for certificate of authority applications and company admissions, the Insurance Regulation Filing System (IRFS) for product review and data filings, and the Regulatory Electronic Filing System (REFS) for financial documentation.¹ Each system has its own login tied to the filing entity, its own forms, and its own fee rules, and selecting the wrong one is the most common reason a filing stalls before it reaches an analyst.

Pick the Right System Before You Start

The Industry Portal is a single sign-on gateway, but what sits behind it is three separate workflows:¹

iApply handles certificate of authority applications and company admissions.
IRFS handles product review filings, data collection filings, company contact information, and personal injury protection (PIP) contact information.
REFS handles financially related documentation, requests, and correspondence.

Product form filings go through IRFS. Annual financial statements go through REFS. A new company application goes through iApply. Each system requires its own credentials, so register in the one you actually need before building your package.

Inside the system, you choose the filing type, complete the required data fields, and attach supporting documents as PDFs, spreadsheets, or scanned affidavits. The system blocks submission if a mandatory field is blank. Once you submit, you receive a unique filing or tracking number and an automated confirmation email. Save that number. Every follow-up question, request for additional information, and final determination will reference it.

Certificate of Authority Filings

An insurer needs a certificate of authority before writing any policies in Florida, and the application runs through iApply.² Foreign and alien insurers file using the Uniform Certificate of Authority Application (UCAA) package referenced in Florida Administrative Code Rule 69O-136.002.³

Core Documents

Florida Statute 624.413 sets the baseline application contents: company name, home office location, lines of insurance you intend to write, state of domicile, and a certified copy of the corporate charter or articles of incorporation.⁴ The OIR’s checklists then layer on specific forms:

Biographical affidavits on Form OIR-C1-1423 for every controlling person at the applicant and parent companies, including officers, directors, controlling shareholders, and partners. Answer every question; enter “N/A” where a question does not apply, and leave nothing blank.²
Fingerprint cards for the same individuals, following the procedure in Form OIR-C1-938.
A sworn financial statement as of December 31 of the preceding year, prepared under statutory accounting principles and signed by at least two executive officers.⁴
Uniform Consent to Service of Process on Form OIR-C1-1524, designating the Florida Chief Financial Officer as the company’s agent for service of legal process.
Management Information Form OIR-C1-2221 describing management structure and planned operations.
The NAIC company code, which the National Association of Insurance Commissioners assigns as a unique identifier used across state jurisdictions and which appears on the UCAA application and on financial statement filings.⁵

Foreign insurers also submit a certified copy of their most recent home-state examination report, which must cover a period ending within five years of the application date.⁴

Capital and Surplus

Florida sets minimum capital and surplus levels that vary by insurer type, generally running from $2.5 million to $5 million, and the OIR can require higher amounts based on the applicant’s business plan.² The statutory framework sits in Section 624.407.

Review Clock

Once the OIR accepts your application as complete, it targets a 60-day review.² Under Chapter 120, if the OIR neither approves nor denies within 180 days of receiving the original submission, or within 30 days after a public hearing, the certificate is deemed approved so long as the applicant has met every statutory prerequisite.⁶ That 180-day clock starts from the original filing date, so each round of OIR questions eats into the time left for substantive analysis.

Product and Rate Filings

After licensure, policy forms and rates have to be filed before coverage is sold. Product form filings and rate filings are separate submissions through IRFS, even when they cover the same product.

Form Filings

Every policy form, endorsement, rider, and application used in Florida must be filed and approved before use under Sections 627.410 and 627.411.⁷ A complete package includes:

The Universal Standardized Data Letter on Form OIR-B2-1507.
A detailed letter of transmittal describing the product type and how it will be marketed. If the product will be sold or delivered online, the transmittal must explain how electronic marketing and delivery will comply with Florida law.
The applicable line-of-business checklist. Submitting a life insurance form on a property and casualty checklist will get it rejected.
For life forms, an actuarial certification confirming that the form has no impact on reserve and nonforfeiture values. For health forms, a certification that the form has no impact on rates.
For resubmissions, the previous OIR file number, the date of the prior action, and copies of all earlier correspondence.⁷

When a filing is complete, the OIR’s life and health product review team targets a two-week turnaround.⁸

Property and Casualty Rate Filings

Section 627.062 gives property and casualty insurers two routes:

File and use: file at least 90 days before the proposed effective date. The OIR has 90 days to issue a notice of intent to approve or disapprove, and if it does nothing in that window, the rate is deemed approved.⁹
Use and file: implement the rate first, then file within 30 days. The trade-off is that the OIR can later order refunds of any portion of premium found to be excessive.⁹

Either way, actuarial support for the proposed rates is a standard component, and rates cannot be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory under the statute.¹⁰

Fees and Payment

Florida Statute 624.501 sets the fee schedule, and the OIR collects in advance. A filing is not legally considered filed until the payment clears.¹¹ Common amounts include:

Certificate of authority application: $1,500
Filing articles of incorporation outside a COA application: $10
Filing an amendment to articles of incorporation or charter: $5
Filing bylaws or bylaw amendments: $5

These are OIR filing fees only. Fingerprint processing, background investigations, and actuarial services are additional costs the applicant pays separately.¹² The portal accepts electronic funds transfer and major credit cards and generates a digital receipt; match that receipt to your filing number for audit tracking. If a payment bounces or an EFT fails for insufficient funds, the OIR can administratively close the filing without review.

Foreign insurers may also owe retaliatory fees under Section 624.5091 if their home state charges Florida insurers higher aggregate taxes, fees, or penalties than Florida charges similar insurers from that state. The calculation compares the total burden Florida imposes on the foreign insurer against what the insurer’s home state would charge a comparable Florida company with identical premiums, personnel, and property.

After You Submit

Hold onto the filing or tracking number the portal generates. Analysts route every request for additional information through that identifier, and resubmissions tied to a prior file number are treated as continuations rather than brand-new filings.

On a rate filing, if the OIR disapproves, it issues a notice of intent to disapprove, which is formal agency action under Florida’s Administrative Procedure Act.⁹ Requests for additional information or notices of preliminary findings during review do not toll the 90-day file-and-use clock, so the review cannot be extended indefinitely through follow-up questions.

For a certificate of authority denial, the applicant can challenge the decision through the administrative hearing process under Chapter 120, including a formal hearing before an administrative law judge because the denial affects substantial interests. The 180-day deemed-approved provision acts as a backstop: if the OIR simply fails to act within the statutory window, the application is approved by operation of law, provided every licensing prerequisite is met.⁶

For a product form disapproval, the OIR identifies the statutory provisions the form violates. You can revise and resubmit or contest the disapproval. On resubmission, include the previous OIR file number, the date of the prior action, and copies of all earlier correspondence so the filing is handled as a continuation.⁷

1
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. iPortal
2
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Company Admissions
3
Cornell Law Institute. Florida Administrative Code R. 69O-136.002 – Foreign and Alien Insurers Filing for a Certificate of Authority
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 624.413 – Application for Certificate of Authority
5
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. FORM 2C – Uniform Certificate of Authority Application (UCAA) Corporate Amendments Application
6
Florida Senate. Chapter 120 – 2024 Florida Statutes
7
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. OIR-B2-521: Individual Health Outline of Coverage Checklist
8
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Life and Health Product Review
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 627.062 – Rate Standards
10
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 627.062 – Rate Standards
11
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 624.501 – Filing, License, Appointment, and Miscellaneous Fees
12
Florida Senate. Florida Code 624.501 – Filing, License, Appointment, and Miscellaneous Fees