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
Earnings by an insurance company from dividends on its equity portfolio, rent from real estate and other property it owns, and interest on its bond holdings. ...
Choice an employee can make of receiving higher private pension benefits prior to eligibility for Social Security, and lower pension benefits thereafter. For example, employees taking early ...
Ocean marine insurance covering one trip. Ocean marine insurance is written either for a specific time period or per trip. A voyage policy is usually written for cargo, whereas a time ...
Person who enters property without the right to do so. For liability purposes, it has been held that property owners are not responsible for trespassers as long as they do not intentionally ...
Time frame during which an annuitant makes premium payments to an insurance company. The obligations of the company to the annuitant during this period depend on whether a pure annuity or ...
Type of excess of loss reinsurance in which the insurance company (cedent) is guaranteed reinsurance for future covered losses once they exceed a specified amount on either a per loss, per ...
Classification at death of all pension plans, profit-sharing plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAS), annuities, and installment payments to the extent to which the deceased was ...
Return of a percentage of premium paid by a business firm if its loss record is better than the amount loaded into the basic premium. ...
Sums payable to the winning plaintiff by the losing defendant in a court of law; can take any or all of these forms: general, punitive, and special. ...
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