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
Frequency and severity of accidents resulting from conditions and environment surrounding one's workplace. Occupation is an important underwriting factor when considering an applicant for ...
Same as term Cargo Insurance: shipper's policies covering one cargo exposure or all cargo exposures by sea on all risks basis. Exclusions include war, nuclear disaster, wear and tear, ...
Coverage on all risks basis for such items as binders, reapers, harvesters, plows, tractors, pneumatic tools and compressors, bulldozers, and road scrapers. Excluded from coverage are wear ...
Number of bits a modem can receive or send per second. ...
Agent who is licensed and who markets and services insurance policies in a state in which he or she is not domiciled. ...
Relationship of the frequency of deaths of individual members of a group to the entire group membership over a particular time period. ...
Person who commits a tort, a type of wrongful act, that causes injury or damage. ...
Rate-making division of insurance services offices (ISO) for inland marine insurance coverages of member companies. ...
Expenses taken out when benefits are paid. For example, a specific dollar amount is subtracted from a monthly income payment for company expenses. ...
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