Florida Insurance Fraud Education Committee (FIFEC) Conference

The Florida Insurance Fraud Education Committee (FIFEC) began its formal existence as the DIF/SIU Annual Training Seminar representing the Florida Department of Insurance’s Division of Insurance Fraud and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) community in 1992 at Altamonte Springs. This was the result of several conversations starting in Baltimore at the IASIU Seminar in 1991 between Frank Doolittle, the Director of the Division of Insurance Fraud (DIF), and the leadership of the Central and South Florida SIU Chapters, the only existing SIU Chapters at the time. Given the rapid growth of the SIUs within the insurance industry and with DIF, it was believed that the two groups, the DIF and the SIU community, should establish a formal networking and training relationship. The DIF hosted this first seminar, which was actually a one day open forum-type workshop, with no agenda other than to foster a favorable working environment between the public and private sectors involved in the fight against insurance fraud. This seminar has subsequently been held each year since 1992. It has since been co-hosted by the DIF with Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Jacksonville in 1993; back in Altamonte Springs with State Farm in 1994; at the Radisson in Orlando in 1995 with the Central and South Florida Chapters of the International Association of Special Investigations Units (IASIU); and with Nationwide in 1996.