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
State operated insurance company used in workers compensation insurance in some states where the risks are so great that the commercial insurance companies cannot operate at affordable ...
Coverage for the insured's personal and real property and the insured's own person. Contrast with third party. ...
Plan wherein total withdrawal or income payments from tax deferred savings plans exceed $150,000 in any one year. An excess distribution tax of 15% of the amount greater than $150,000 must ...
Application of conventional terms and conditions to the reinsurance of a risk. Contrast with non-traditional REINSURANCE. ...
Right of one party to use land owned by another party. For example, an electric utility can obtain an easement through court action to place its power lines across someone's property, even ...
Type of inland marine insurance that covers pipelines. Although pipelines are stationary, the coverage is written on inland marine forms because they are considered part of the ...
Theory that the probability that two independent events will occur is equal to the probability that one independent event will occur times the probability that a second independent event ...
Coverage for an advertiser's negligent acts and/or omissions in advertising (both oral and written) that may result in a civil suit for libel, slander, defamation of character, or copyright ...
Method of premium payment under which a temporary premium is charged based on projected loss experience. At the end of the year this premium is adjusted to reflect the actual loss ...
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