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
Property coverage for a builder of ships until possession passes to the owners. Protects against pre-launch and post-launch perils. Coverage can be purchased on an all risks basis subject ...
Most generally, twisting in insurance is regarded as an unfair trade policy or practice. Twisting means a life insurance policy holder’s misrepresentation on behalf of an insurance ...
tort against another person's property, designed to detain or dispose of it in a wrongful manner. For example, wrongful selling of another person's automobile without permission would ...
Membership organization of state insurance commissioners. One of its goals is to promote uniformity of state regulation and legislation as it concerns the insurance industry. The NAIC ...
New pension-accounting rule created by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The objective of this rule is to clarify pension accounting so that investors, employers, and employees will ...
Assets from a will transfer into an established life insurance trust. Through this mechanism, assets that have been probated are transferred into a living trust. ...
Broad type of marine legal liability coverage, hull marine insurance is limited to an insured ship. With the addition of a running down clause, a policy can be extended to cover liability ...
Ownership of tax-free or tax-deferred investments by a child or for a child, given that these investments will not reach maturity before the child attains at least age 14. The objective is ...
Amount paid to an insurer. Determination of the actual cost (not the price paid) of a life insurance policy has been widely discussed for many years in life insurance and consumer circles. ...
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