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
Form of excess of loss reinsurance under which each year's reinsurance premium is determined by the amount of the cedent's excess losses for a given period of time, usually three or five ...
Private, not-for-profit-group that develops and publishes safety codes and standards relating to protection of people and property against fire. The NFPA is financed by fees for technical ...
Provision in many property insurance policies that allows an insured to pick coverage for selected perils. The choices are explosion; explosion, riot and civil commotion; explosion, riot ...
Disability in which a wage earner is forever prevented from working because of injury or illness suffered. ...
Reinsurance: surplus reinsurance contracts under which the agreement between an insurer and a re insurer is based on the ceding company's line guide, such that the amount re insured is ...
Policy owner rights under a life insurance policy, including the right to name a new beneficiary at any time and to surrender the policy for its cash value. ...
Policy that remains in full force and effect for the life of the insured, with premium payments being made for the same period. ...
Type of accounting method, in life insurance, designed to match revenues and expenses of an insurer according to principles designed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the ...
Federal law comparable to state workers compensation statutes setting out liability of railroads for work-related injuries or death of their employees. Railroad employees are not covered by ...
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