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
Insurance coverage that protects a contractor or other type of business providing a service for expenses incurred in the event a contract is not ratified by a foreign government. For ...
Paid loss experience for the period of time from January 1 to December 31 of a specified year (not necessarily the current year). ...
Operator with no liability insurance. If a non-insured driver hits another car, the victim sometimes has no recourse against the driver. For this reason, many motorists carry uninsured ...
Circumstance under which there is a significant deviation of the actual aggregate losses from the expected aggregate losses. For example, a hurricane is a hazard that is catastrophic in ...
Technique of risk management (better known as retention or self insurance) under which an individual or business firm assumes expected losses that are not catastrophic losses through the ...
Type of disability income policy used to provide funds for the ongoing monthly business expenses (such as employee salaries, utility charges, rent, and equipment payment due) necessary to ...
Individual who sells and services insurance policies in either of two classifications: Independent agent represents at least two insurance companies and (at least in theory) services ...
Viewpoint that an insurer whose liability policy is in force at the time of an accident or injury should pay a claim. See also long-tail liability; manifestation/injury theory. ...
Risk management control procedure that emphasizes safety management. Its purpose is to reduce the frequency and severity of potential losses. Business firms apply this procedure by posting ...
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