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
In which at least two insurance policies provide identical coverage for the same risk. ...
Arrangement of discretionary income, expenses, and investments in a way that enhances after-tax wealth. Insurance policies can be used to increase after-tax income through the tax-deferral ...
Present value computation of the accrued or projected benefits of a retirement plan. This computation is known as the actuarial valuation because it is based on probability (retirement ...
Record of losses, whether or not insured. This record is used in predicting future losses and in developing premium rates based on expectation of insured losses. ...
Life is unpredictable so to compensate this, people have invented insurance. Insurance deals with unforeseen events. Sometimes insurance companies cover only a part of your losses and a few ...
Amendment that modifies the federal flood insurance program by providing relocation and acquisition coverage for structures in imminent danger from an encroaching shoreline. This amendment ...
Actuarial equivalent method of calculating the premium rate through the development of the following equation: probability that the event insured against occurs x face amount of policy x ...
Aggregate amount of insurance policies that are paid-up (or are being paid) that a life or health insurance company has on its books. The size of a life or health insurance company is often ...
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 ...
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