Florida’s SB 772, enacted during the 2026 session as Chapter 2026-97 (signed into law May 22, 2026) and effective July 1, 2026, modernizes one of the most common forms of insurance sold through non-traditional distributors: coverage offered by retail vendors at the point of sale. The bill expands “portable electronics insurance” into “portable electronics or eyewear insurance,” bringing eyewear, including smart glasses and both prescription and non-prescription glasses and sunglasses, under the same vendor-distribution framework. A single vendor license now covers both product categories, and licensed general lines agents can offer the coverage at existing agency locations without a separate portable-electronics or eyewear license.

The heart of the framework, and the reason it matters to carriers — is supervision. The supervising entity, either a general lines agent or the insurer itself, must directly oversee the vendor’s sales activity and maintain a training program for the vendor’s employees who sell or offer the coverage. The bill streamlines the appointment mechanics behind that arrangement, allowing branch locations to obtain a single appointment through a lead business location rather than individual insurer appointments, with a reduced renewal fee. The result is a distribution model in which unlicensed retail employees may sell narrowly defined coverage, but only under the active supervision, training, and accountability of a licensed entity.

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SB 772 pairs that flexibility with consumer-protection and money-handling guardrails that compliance teams will own operationally. Vendors must give customers disclosure materials explaining that the coverage is optional and may duplicate protection the customer already holds under a homeowners or renters policy, and setting out the material terms, deductibles, repair-or-replace practices, claims procedures, and cancellation and refund rights. On the premium side, the bill requires clear point-of-sale disclosure, separate itemization of the insurance charge on the customer’s bill, and remittance of collected premium to the insurer or supervising entity within 60 days. No examination is required for the limited license itself — placing the compliance weight on the supervising entity’s program rather than on individual seller testing.

For insurers and general lines agents running vendor programs in Florida, the July 1, 2026 effective date is a firm deadline to update the compliance stack: revise disclosure brochures to reflect the optional-coverage and overlap warnings, extend training curricula to cover eyewear as well as electronics, reconfigure appointment and renewal workflows to the lead-location model, and confirm that premium itemization and the 60-day remittance requirement are enforced in point-of-sale and accounting systems. Programs sold across multiple states should treat Florida’s revised regime as a prompt to audit how every vendor-distribution channel documents supervision and disclosure — the exact areas market-conduct examiners tend to probe first.

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