HBA-JLV C.S.H.B. 1684 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1684 By: Solomons Financial Institutions 4/2/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law provides that the seller of certain insurance products may charge a policy or agent fee to defray the costs incurred in the writing and processing of the insurance product. Current law does not provide, however, that a policy or agent fee may be financed under a retail installment contract. This is important to the purchaser of an insurance product purchased to protect the person during the term of a retail installment contract. While such an insurance product may be legally financed along with everything else under the retail installment contract, under the terms of the Finance Code, an accompanying policy fee may not be financed causing the holder to pay cash out of pocket. C.S.H.B. 1684 provides that a policy fee may be financed along with other legal charges under a retail installment agreement. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1684 amends the Finance Code to authorize a holder of a motor vehicle retail installment contract to include, as a separate charge in the contract, a policy or agent fee charged in connection with insurance provided to the holder as additional protection for the contract. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1684 modifies the original to make a technical correction by removing the word "finance" from the caption to conform to the body of the bill.