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
Premiums paid with funds that are not borrowed from life insurance. It is important to ascertain the finance charges and the costs/benefits of such a transaction. ...
Discharge of electricity from the atmosphere, one of the perils covered in most fire insurance policies. ...
Earliest age at which an employee can retire without a penalty reduction in pension benefits after having reached a minimum age and served a minimum number of years with an employer. ...
For loss of an obligee in the event that the principal fails to perform according to standards agreed upon between the obligee and the principal. ...
Arguments composed of assumption of risk, contributory negligence, and fellow servant rule. ...
Type of mutual insurance company that requires a substantial initial premium payment. After the initial premium payment is made, future premium payments required will be paid from the ...
Written statement by an insurance company attesting to the powers it has vested in an agent. ...
Arrangement, often funded by life insurance, to continue an employee's salary in the form of payments to a beneficiary for a certain period after the employee's death. The employer itself ...
Person other than the annuitant as designated by the policyholder on whose life expectancy the annuity payment is also based. ...
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