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
The term mutually exclusive defines an instance when the occurrence of a specific event makes the emergence of another event impossible. Then, two or more things can be described as ...
Endorsement to a fidelity bond or surety bond to cover losses that occurred after lapse of the discovery period of the previous bond. Coverage is limited to the amount provided by the ...
Endorsement to a property insurance policy providing all risks coverage for insured property. Excluded properties include residences, farms, and manufacturing properties. This endorsement ...
Approach in pension plan funding under which a separate account is maintained for comparing actual contributions to the plan with the minimum contributions required to meet future employee ...
Coverage in the event of property damage or destruction resulting from wrongful installation of equipment. ...
Report that an insurance company must file annually with the State Insurance Commissioner in each state in which it does business. The statement shows the current status of reserves, ...
Coverage for direct or indirect property loss that can be analyzed under the following headings: Peril a particular peril may be included or excluded. For example, the Standard Fire Policy ...
Amount of the insurance company's liabilities for claims that have not been settled. If this reserve increases significantly in relation to the company's surplus, the risk is greater for ...
Means of borrowing at no charge by a policyowner under universal life insurance policies. ...
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