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
Amount subtracted from an annuity or from mutual fund proceeds payable to an annuity owner or mutual fund owner to reflect expense fees described in the annuity contract or mutual fund ...
Evidence of a temporary contract obliging a life or health insurance company to provide coverage as long as a premium accompanies an acceptable application. This gives the company time to ...
Provision in a property insurance policy to the effect that in the event the insured and insurer cannot agree on the amount of a claim settlement, each appoints an appraiser. The appraisers ...
Demand without foundation, such as a claim submitted to an insurance company by an insured who caused a loss, or for a loss that never occurred. ...
Theory that the probability that two independent events will occur is equal to the probability that one independent event will occur times the probability that a second independent event ...
Type of accounting method, in life insurance, designed to match revenues and expenses of an insurer according to principles designed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the ...
Circumstance resulting when government expenditures exceed government income. To finance this difference, the United States Treasury will auction Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. In order ...
Coverage in the event of threats to injure an insured or damage or destroy his property. ...
Physiological or psychological condition that prevents an insured from performing normal job functions. ...
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