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
Top state regulator of the insurance business who is either elected to office or appointed by a state to safeguard the interests of policyowners. ...
Retirement center with a focus on group living arrangements for senior citizens. The center has separate apartments for each resident as well as an on-site nursing facility. Generally, ...
Coverage provided for individuals or businesses for loss due to forgery or alteration of such financial instruments as notes, checks, drafts, and promissory notes. ...
Federal tax imposed on the estate of a decedent according to the value of that estate. The first step in the computation of the federal estate tax owed is to determine the value of the ...
Futures contracts based on automobile and health reinsurance policies to be traded on the Commodity Future Exchange of the Chicago Board of Trade. The purpose is to allow insurance ...
Policy that allows premium payments to vary, within certain limits, at the option of the policyholder. In return, the death benefit and rate of cash value accumulation vary with the premium ...
Financial instruments whose principal and income are established in advance according to contractual terms set forth in the financial instrument's document. Examples of such investments ...
Underwriting phrase denoting the best judgment based on the experience of an underwriter, in classifying a particular risk. ...
Coverage under a commercial workers compensation policy for situations in which an employee not covered under workers compensation laws could sue for injuries suffered under common law ...
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