State Supervision And Regulation
Primary responsibility for overseeing the insurance industry that has rested with individual states since 1945, after Congress passed the MCCARRAN-FERGUSON ACT (PUBLIC LAW 15). In addition to supervision and regulation, states receive taxes and fees paid by the industry that amount to several billion dollars a year. State insurance laws are administered by state insurance departments that are responsible for making certain that (1) rates are adequate, not unfairly discriminatory, and not unreasonably high, and (2) insurance companies in the state are financially sound and able to pay future claims. To this end, states set requirements for company reserves, require annual financial statements, and examine company books. Each state has an insurance commissioner or superintendent who is either elected or appointed by the governor, with responsibility for investigating company practices, approving rates and policy forms, and ordering liquidation of insolvent insurers. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS (NAIC) has drafted model legislation and worked for policy uniformity, but regulations vary widely from state to state.
Whether insurers should be regulated by the states or the federal government remains at issue, but so far insurers and the NAIC lobbying have been effective in resisting federal regulation. Nevertheless, the federal government has a profound effect on the insurance industry through its taxes and a variety of regulations.
Popular Insurance Terms
Future benefits to be paid to the policyholders and beneficiaries, assigned surpluses, and miscellaneous debts. These primary liabilities take the form of reserves, which must be listed on ...
Table used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in evaluating split dollar life insurance plans as to the extent of the economic benefit that is considered taxable ordinary income to the ...
Coverage on an all risks basis, subject to exclusions of war, wear and tear, loss resulting from delay, loss of market, infidelity of the insured's employee, loss due to rain, sleet, snow, ...
Federal legislation that established the old age survivors, disability, and health insurance (OASDHI). ...
To place insurance in force on an individual, individuals, or an organization. ...
Physician who conducts physicals of applicants for life and/or health insurance. This physician is selected by the insurance company at its expense. ...
Contract providing a monthly income benefit to members of a group of employees. A group annuity has the same characteristics as an individual annuity, except that it is underwritten on a ...
Same as term : Self Insurance: protecting against loss by setting aside one's own money. This can be done on a mathematical basis by establishing a separate fund into which funds are ...
Total of the insurance company's mortgages whose interest has not been paid for at least three months. These are mortgages upon which the insurance company is in the process of foreclosing, ...
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