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
Deduction allowed for gifts and bequests to a spouse for federal estate and gift tax purposes. Under the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), the deduction became unlimited. Prior to ...
Independent insurance salesperson who represents particular insurers but may also function as a broker by searching the entire insurance market to place an applicant's coverage to maximize ...
Individual who has met professional standards of the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor for signing the actuarial reports required by the Employee Retirement Security Act ...
Exposure created by an individual acting as a host serving alcoholic beverages at no charge to persons already intoxicated, resulting in these intoxicated individuals causing property ...
Model state regulation that governs method of selling life insurance to prevent fraud or misrepresentation by agents or insurers. A life insurance disclosure model regulation to help buyers ...
Method for triennial examination of insurance companies as established by the national association of insurance commissioners (NAIC). Teams are composed of representatives from several ...
Type of term life insurance policy that has a face amount that increases to a predetermined sum and then decreases to zero at the termination point of the policy, while at the same time ...
Choice among the following options made by retiree prior to retirement concerning the distribution of benefits: option since all income payments cease upon the death of the retiree. Monthly ...
Incidents covered under workers compensation benefit. ...
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