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
Organization founded in 1993, the thesis of which is to apply quality management principles to insurance functions. To this end, the organization is involved in insurance industry-wide ...
Uneven quality of a product made by the same manufacturer. A manufacturer is responsible for producing products of similar quality, and can be held liable for those that deviate materially ...
Total amount of insurance on an insurer's books at a particular time. ...
Measure of the sensitivity of the insurance company's liability for the resultant higher expense rates than charged for in the premium. ...
Section of a policy specifying: parties to the contract (the insurance company and the person or business to be insured); terms of the policy when it goes into force, and when it ends; ...
Insured, or an applicant for insurance, with lower expectation of incurring a loss than the standard applicant. For example, an applicant for life insurance who does not smoke can usually ...
Addition to boiler and machinery insurance that covers loss to property or equipment caused by an interruption of power by a public utility. Coverage is available either on an hourly or ...
Sum total of the annual effective rate of return earned by an owner of a bond if that bond is held until its maturity date. This effective return includes the current income generated by ...
Amount established by an insurance company, but not required by state law, for any of a number of reasons, such as a reserve for payment of future dividends. A voluntary reserve is likely ...
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