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
Professional designation earned after the successful completion of six national examinations given by the insurance institute of America (IIA). Covers such areas of expertise as premium ...
Protection for all classes of business including automobile, fire, general liability, homeowners, multiple peril, burglary, and glass, by combining the contracts for these classes of ...
Liability incurred by a parent by reason of a tort committed by his or her minor child. ...
Coverage in the event that the negligent acts or omissions of an insured result in damage or destruction to another's property. Coverage can be purchased with bodily injury liability under ...
Same as term Annuity: contract sold by insurance companies that pays a monthly (or quarterly, semiannual, or annual) income benefit for the life of a person (the annuitant), for the lives ...
Type of business interruption insurance policy that provides a specific daily dollar amount benefit to the business owner for each day the business is unable to resume normal business ...
Same as term Excess of Loss reinsurance: method whereby an insurer pays the amount of each claim for each risk up to a limit determined in advance and the reinsurer pays the amount of the ...
a large number of homogeneous exposures (in order for the deviation of actual losses from expected losses to approach zero, and thecreditability of the prediction to approach one). loss ...
In property insurance, percentages of basic coverages which may be applied to provide coverage for other real and personal property. For example, under the homeowners INSURANCE POLICY ...
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