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
Annual contributions to a pension plan that exceed or are smaller than the minimum required for future employee benefits currently being earned; and any supplemental liability for past ...
In insurance, debit agents list of total premiums to be collected. This also applies to the geographical area in which an agent collects the premiums. ...
Frequency and severity of accidents resulting from conditions and environment surrounding one's workplace. Occupation is an important underwriting factor when considering an applicant for ...
Type of individual retirement account (IRA) allowed by the employee retirement income security act of 1974 (ERISA), in which contributions are paid into the bank's interest-bearing ...
Insurance company's total premium income plus investment income. ...
Circumstance where an insurance company takes the place of an insured in bringing a liability suit against a third party who caused injury to the insured. For example, if a third party, ...
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 ...
Method of accessing capital by the insurance industry in order to hedge against a future catastrophic occurrence. The mechanism works as follows: Primary insurance company AJAX pays a ...
Party that shares in the loss under an insurance policy or policies. ...
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