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
Same as term Dynamic: changing state of the economy associated with changes in human wants and desires such that losses or gains occur. Dynamic changes are not insurable. ...
Section of an insurance company that sells through brokers. Some brokerage departments are self-contained in that they have their own underwriting and marketing staffs. Brokerage ...
Same as term American Risk and Insurance Association: membership organization of companies,academics, and individuals in the insurance business whose interest is to further education and ...
Financial analysis method established by the national association of insurance commissioners (naic) to detect problems of property and casualty insurance companies and life and health ...
Factors taken into account concerning the instrument used in funding a pension plan. For example, an allocated funding instrument guarantees that benefits will be paid for all premium ...
Termination of life. A death certificate is required by a life insurance company for a beneficiary to receive the death payment. ...
Maximum amount of insurance coverage that an underwriter will write on a particular class of property or risk exposure. ...
new dividend option under which the policyowner allows the dividends from the participating policy to be applied for the purposes of accumulating cash values. ...
Physical handing of an insurance policy to the insured. Sales training emphasizes the importance of delivery of a policy by the agent. This develops a caring attitude on the part of the ...
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