Florida Commissioner Orders Unlicensed Home, Auto Warranty Firms to Cease Ops

Florida’s insurance commissioner has ordered a home warranty company and an auto warranty firm to cease operations after finding they were not fully licensed in the state.

“These suspensions are the result of two market conduct examinations that found iDeal Group, Inc., d/b/a iDeal Auto and First Premier Home Warranty Corp. operated without required licenses,” Commissioner Mike Yaworsky said in a statement.

By statute, companies offering any kind of insurance product must be licensed and authorized to do business in Florida, to help protect consumers, he noted.

Yaworsky filed the cease-and-desist complaints Oct. 7, but did not publicly announce the measures until Wednesday, Oct. 21. The sister companies, based in New York and New Jersey, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Yaworsky’s action came about after the Florida Department of Financial Services notified the Office of Insurance Regulation in December 2025 that Ideal had sold a motor vehicle service agreement to two Florida consumers in 2022, the complaint explains.

In May of this year, Ideal told OIR that it was not conducting business in Florida and that no service warranties were in effect. But two weeks later, after being informed about the two warranties, Ideal acknowledged that at least one warranty was still active, but the company said it was in the process of winding down its operations, the complaint reads.

The home warranty firm had entered into 207 home warranty contracts in Florida in 2023 through 2026, collecting premiums of almost $108,500. First Premier holds a home warranty sales representative license in the state but is not appointed with any licensed home warranty association, Yaworsky’s order said.

“Because First Premier effectuated home warranty contracts as an obligor, and because it does not hold a home warranty association license or certificate of authority as an insurer, it has engaged in the unlawful transaction of home warrant business…” the complaint reads.

The Florida action comes four years after the California Department of Insurance issued a cease-and-desist order against Ideal Group, for failing to be licensed in that state and for denying claims from consumers without showing the claims were not covered by the warranty.

At the time, Ideal Group was owned by Richard and Daniel Beda, the California insurance commissioner said in a bulletin.