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
Inability of the insured to perform one or more of the important daily duties of that insured's occupation. The income payment to the insured is reduced from that of total disability. ...
Liability Insurance is a type of coverage present in Home Insurance as well as other fields of insurance. In Real Estate, Liability Insurance refers to coverage protecting the insured from ...
Form of suretyship. For example, fidelity bonds reimburse an employer for financial loss resulting from dishonest acts of employees. ...
Transfer of high severity risks through the insurance contract to protect against catastrophic occurrences. While insurance is generally not the most cost-effective means of recovery of ...
Coverage for all personal property, regardless of location of an insured and household residents, including children away at school. Written on an all risks basis, subject to excluded ...
Deductible, applied to every loss, expressed as a percentage of that loss. As the loss increases, the deductible amount increases. ...
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 ...
Same as term: statement of opinion : ...
Model state law providing guidelines by regulators for valuation of securities on the books of insurance companies. The act has two sections: one for valuation of fixed rate bonds and debt ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.