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
Premium charge for a policy that is going to be in force for less than the normal period of time. ...
Limitation under a contributory pension plan of an employee's right to receive vested benefits. The employee can withdraw contributions to the pension plan only according to stated ...
Coverage for an insured when negligent acts and/or omissions result in bodily injury and/or property damage on the premises of a business, when someone is injured as the result of using the ...
Financial statement, issued by the insurance company on a monthly basis to its agents, showing for each agent his or her commissions earned, premiums written, policy cancellations, and any ...
Special-purpose health insurance policy that covers an insured for accidents while traveling. The policy may cover the insured for one specific trip or one particular type of travel, or it ...
One that provides group health or pension benefits for a multiemployer plan. To lower the cost, small firms band together to take advantage of the economies of large group underwriting. ...
Actual or attempted malicious and deliberate burning of a physical asset owned by another party. Coverage against arson is provided under property insurance, but only if the insured has not ...
Coverage on an all risks basis for glass breakage, subject to exclusions of war and fire. Thus, if a vandal throws a brick through a window of an insured's establishment, the coverage would ...
Asset excluded from the financial statements submitted to the state insurance examiner because the asset has virtually no value in meeting claims in the event the insurance company must be ...
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