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
Form of deferred annuity; a life insurance policy that usually guarantees from 120 to 180 monthly income payments to the annuitant at retirement. If the annuitant dies during the deferral ...
Financial analysis method established by the national association of insurance commissioners (naic) to detect problems of property and casualty insurance companies and life and health ...
Relationship of gains from investments (including realized capital gains) resulting from insurance operations to earned premiums. ...
Performance of a deed or function. Certain acts are prohibited from coverage in insurance. For example, if the insured commits a felony, the insured's beneficiary cannot collect under the ...
Provision found in current assumption whole life insurance policies under which the insurance company retains the contractual right to recalculate the premium (after a minimum period of ...
Value of an insurance company or other company that consists of capital and surplus and an estimated value for business on the company's books. ...
Bond guaranteeing that a contractor will perform under the contract in accordance with all specifications of the bid submitted. ...
Trust established under the auspices of the Internal Revenue Code that permits the maintenance of a separate account within the employer's defined benefit pension plan from which to pay the ...
Government agency, under the McCarran-Ferguson act (public law 15), that has no authority over insurance matters to the extent the states regulate insurance to the satisfaction of Congress. ...
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