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
Table used in calculating minimum non forfeiture values and policy reserves for ordinary life insurance policies. These tables, which give minimum values that must be guaranteed to policy ...
Partnership between an agency of the U.S. government and the Foreign Credit Insurance Association (50 commercial insurance companies, both stock and mutual). Insures that businesses are ...
Property, liability, or health coverage that takes precedence when more than one policy covers the same loss. In order to avoid OVER INSURANCE, or paying an insured more than the actual ...
Insurance company program in which the beneficiary of an insurance policy is encouraged to leave the death proceeds in an account on deposit with the insurance company instead of receiving ...
Coverage in a separate policy or as an endorsement to the commercial general liability (CGL) form, for liability exposures for an employee who drives a leased car or his or her own ...
Procedure in employee benefit plans to calculate life insurance and retirement benefits to which an employee is entitled. ...
Indemnification bond under which a stock certificate holder who loses the original certificate will be issued a duplicate. The indemnity bond guarantees that if the original stock ...
Amount of reinsurance accepted by a second reinsurer which is in excess of the original insurer's retention limit and the first reinsurer's first surplus treaty's limit. ...
Coverage on cargo in overseas ships for war-caused liability excluded under standard ocean marine insurance. Not covered is cargo awaiting shipment on a wharf, or on ships after 15 days of ...
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