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 for an individual with a residual disability. Benefits are usually payable for the unused portion of the total disability benefit period up to age 65. If an individual is at least ...
Work-related accident. Occupational accidents that injure employees are the responsibility of the employer and are covered by workers compensation insurance. In recent years, the term ...
Coverage following the same structure as group term, the significant difference being that premiums go toward the purchase of permanent insurance instead of term insurance. The employee has ...
State in which an insurance company has its principal legal residence; where an individual resides in a fixed permanent home. ...
Mechanism used by a fidelity and surety insurance company to spread its liability through reinsurance by issuing a surplus treaty as a first layer of coverage, thereby enabling a cedent to ...
Term for operating an automobile while under the influence of alcoholic beverages so as to be unable to drive safely. An insurance company can suspend auto coverage under a personal ...
Standard designed to reduce occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens (microorganisms in human blood that can cause diseases in humans, such as HIV and hepatitis B). The standard ...
Same as term Fronting: procedure under which the CEDING COMPANY (the primary or fronting company) cedes the risk it has underwritten to its reinsurer with the ceding company retaining none ...
Coverage in which the face amount of a life insurance policy declines by a stipulated amount over a period of time. For example, the initial face amount of a $100,000 decreasing term policy ...
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