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
Proposal by Roger Kenney, an insurance journalist, that in order to maintain the solvency of a property and casualty insurance company, insurance premiums written should not exceed more ...
Plan administered through a primary private life insurer and reinsured through other private life insurers, providing a death benefit equal to: one year's salary for active employees at ...
Cancellation of a policy by an insurance company. ...
1961 federal legislation that allows the U.S. Export-Import Bank to set up insurance protection for U.S. exporters against credit risk and political risk in order to help make U.S. exports ...
Additional coverage available on most property insurance policies through the extended coverage endorsement. Windstorms, including hurricanes, cyclones, and high winds, are not among the ...
Same as term Accidental Death Clause: in a life insurance policy, benefit in addition to the death benefit paid to the beneficiary, should death occur due to an accident. In double ...
Phrase in most liability insurance policies that eliminates from coverage damage or destruction to property under the care, custody, and control of an insured. Such coverage is excluded ...
Annuity in which premium payments are used to purchase accumulation units, their number depending on the value of each unit. The value of a unit is determined by the value of the portfolio ...
Insurance company established by a trade group or other association to provide selected types of primary insurance and/or liability insurance for members of the association and access to ...
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