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
Same as term Fair access to Insurance Requirements: insurance that grew out of the urban demonstrations and riots of the 1960s. Because of the deteriorated social and economic circumstances ...
Degree of underwriting profit that an insurance company's book of business shows. ...
Approach used for sole proprietorships, partnerships, and close corporations in which the business interests of a deceased or disabled proprietor, partner, or shareholder are sold according ...
Statement prepared by an inspection bureau for a life or health insurance company that summarizes information about an applicant for a policy, including financial standing, morals, physical ...
Trust in which rights to make any changes therein are retained by the grantor. At the grantor's death all rights become irrevocable. This type of trust has several advantages: it can avoid ...
Plan for excess layer (s) of insurance coverage over the primary coverage, for example, if a corporation buys $8 million as excess above a $2 million self insurance retention level. Excess ...
Coverage for the perils of burglary, theft, and robbery. ...
Several different types of perils covered under one policy. ...
Form of state rating legislation that allows each property/liability insurer to choose between using rates set by a bureau or its own rates. Individual states regulate insurers and approve ...
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