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
Individual to whom rights to a benefit are assigned. A life insurance policy is assigned by the collateral borrower (assignor) to the collateral creditor (assignee) as security for a loan. ...
Facilities for senior adults who pay an entrance fee to move into the facility as well as a monthly fee. The adults receive, in return, a place to live and long-term care usually for the ...
Liability insurance that extends beyond the end of the policy period of a liability insurance policy written on a claims-made basis. Liability claims are often made long after the accident ...
Percentage of total assets set aside by an insurance company to provide for unexpected losses. In general, a minimum of a 5% surplus ratio (5 cents in reserve for each $1 of assets) is ...
Right of a certificate holder to convert group life or group health insurance to an individual policy without a physical examination to furnish evidence of insurability. Usually this must ...
Statement regarding an insured's retention of low-severity risks because they are not catastrophic, and can be absorbed without having a dramatic effect on the financial structure of a ...
Several basic property and/or liability policies combined to form a single policy. For example, the homeowners insurance policy is composed of such basic coverages as broad form personal ...
Same as term Binder: temporary insurance contract providing coverage until a permanent policy is issued. In property and casualty insurance, some agents have authority to bind the insurance ...
Presentation of data that excludes the first 5 to 10 years of experience of those who purchase life insurance. A mortality table shows the number of deaths per 1000 of a group of people. ...
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