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
Type of pension plan in which the employer (if noncontributory plan) or the employer and employee (if contributory plan) make level annual premium payments to fund the future retirement ...
Taking over of an insurance company's assets by the State Insurance Commissioner when examination of the annual report reveals that the company is in substantial financial difficulty. The ...
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 ...
Trust in which rights to make any changes therein are surrendered permanently by the grantor. The grantor uses this type of trust to transfer assets and any potential depreciation out of ...
Premium that can vary up or down, Some life insurance policies permit the company to change the premiums after the policy is in force, depending on mortality experience, expenses, and ...
same as term Lost Policy Receipt: life insurance company form to be signed by a policyholder who wishes to surrender a policy that has been lost. The signed receipt then becomes evidence ...
Government health care program in several European countries that has been proposed in various forms for the U.S., to be administered by the federal government. Plan A would cover all U.S. ...
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 ...
Coverage for property that moves from location to location from the perils of fire, lightning, explosion, windstorm, earthquake, collapse of bridges, flood, collision under one of the ...
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