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
Period of time of insurance coverage. If a loss occurs during this time, insurance benefits are paid. If a loss occurs after this time period has expired, no insurance benefits are paid. ...
Detailed descriptive list made available to the survivor (s) of the insured showing: attorney, accountant, insurance agent, and location of important documents such as wills, power of ...
Pooling of assets of two or more pension funds under common portfolio management. ...
Legislation that changed the tax treatment concerning child-care expenses so that an employee who has incurred child-care expenses greater than $4800 and who is participating in a ...
Addition to the pure cost of insurance that reflects agent commissions, premium taxes, administrative costs associated with putting business on an insurance company's books, and ...
Right of a policyholder in life insurance with cash value to elect a smaller, fully paid-up policy, without any further premiums to pay. The amount of the paid-up policy is determined by ...
Pension plan under which both the contribution (employer and employee if a contributory plan) and the benefit structure are fixed. In order to properly maintain the actuarial equivalent, ...
Coverage for the contents of a renter's home or apartment and for liability. Tenant policies are similar to homeowners insurance, except that they do not cover the structure. They do, ...
Requirement of state approval of property insurance rates and policy forms before they can be used. Individual states regulate insurers and approve their rates. There are three methods of ...
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