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
Coverage in the event that, while practicing the profession of druggist, an act or omission is committed resulting in bodily injury, personal injury, and/or property damage to a customer. ...
Periodic payments to an injured person or survivor for a determinable number of years or for life typically in settlement of a claim under a liability policy. Terms may include immediate ...
Quantitative measurement of the total costs (losses, risk control costs, risk financing costs, and administration costs) associated with the risk management function, as compared to a ...
Property acquired before marriage by gift, by inheritance, or bought with separate monies. ...
Act that provides new funding for the Bank Insurance Fund and enhances the safety and soundness of the financial system. The FDICIA includes the Foreign Bank Supervision Enhancement Act ...
Deductible, applied to every loss, expressed as a percentage of that loss. As the loss increases, the deductible amount increases. ...
Type of coverage in which an insured's own policy provides indemnity for bodily injury and/or property damage without regard to fault. In many instances it is difficult if not impossible to ...
Balance sheet and profit and loss statement of an insurance company. This statement is used by State Insurance Commissioners to regulate an insurance company according to reserve ...
Action by the owner of a cash value policy to relinquish it for its cash surrender value. Since the depression of the 1930s, companies have reserved the right to delay payment of a cash ...
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