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
Model state law of the NAIC setting general standards for group life insurance contracts. It specifies which types of organizations can sponsor group life insurance plans and outlines the ...
In a mercantile open-stock burglary insurance policy, the dollar amount of coverage as required by the COINSURANCE clause. This dollar amount is the MAXIMUM PROBABLE LOSS (MPL) of ...
Coverage in the event an employee is kidnapped from an insured business's premises and forced to return to aid a criminal in a theft. ...
Same as term Burglary Insurance: coverage against loss as the result of a burglary. Found as part of the commercial package policy that has generally replaced the special multiperil ...
The term pro rata cancellation comes from the Latin term pro rata, which means in proportion or according to a certain rate. The term pro rata cancellation is used in the insurance business ...
Illness contracted as the result of employment-related exposures and conditions. Coverage for such diseases is found under workers compensation insurance. ...
Form of insurance whereby the buyer (reinsurer) assumes the entire obligation of the cedent company, effected through the transfer of the policies from the cedent to the books of the ...
Coverage when a director or officer of a company commits a negligent act or omission, or misstatement or misleading statement, and a successful libel suit is brought against the company as ...
Certificate of insurance required by law under the auspices of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The endorsement is attached to all inland marine policies issued to interstate motor ...
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