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 that provides insurance coverage for the insured in the event the damage or destruction of non-owned property reduces or terminates the insured's earnings. For example, if the insured ...
Immediate taking-into-account of present interest rates, mortality experience, and expenses in premiums currently charged. This is critical to the formulation of current assumption whole ...
Coverage for an insured in the event that he writes and publishes libelous statements and the injured party brings suit against the insured. ...
Exposures usually excluded from life and health insurance, or subject to a maximum limit if covered. ...
Representative of an insurance company in soliciting and servicing policyholders. An agent's knowledge concerning an insurance transaction is said to be the knowledge of the insurance ...
Method of setting a dollar value on loss suffered by an insured. In some cases, a loss is straightforward, such as the cost of gallbladder surgery. But with burglary of a home or a traffic ...
Insured whose rights against a third party are transferred to an insurance company (the subrosee) according to the process required by the subrogation clause in the policy. ...
Special endorsement to personal automobile policy (pap) covering loss of records, tapes, and other sound equipment caused by an insured peril in an insured automobile. ...
Same as term Excess of Loss reinsurance: method whereby an insurer pays the amount of each claim for each risk up to a limit determined in advance and the reinsurer pays the amount of the ...
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