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
Educational organization for insurance women whose objective is to further the interests of these women through education and adherence to professional ethics. ...
Hazard covered under catastrophe reinsurance. This form of excess of loss reinsurance protects the ceding company for loss above the retention limit caused by multiple catastrophic events. ...
Return of a prorated portion of premium after a policy is canceled by the insurer. Under most property and liability insurance policies, the insurer can cancel at any time but must return ...
Provision used to avoid duplication of coverage in other policies; to eliminate coverage for property under the care, custody, and control of an insured business; as well as to avoid ...
Coverage for personal property of a manufacturer on an all risks basis when that property is off the manufacturer's premises. ...
Length of time required to amortize the excess expenses of acquiring a given group of life insurance policies. In acquiring a policy, a life insurance company may incur expenses (such as ...
Transformation of a stock insurance company into a mutual insurance company, in which the stock company buys up and retires its shares. ...
Property owned by two or more parties in such a way that at the death of one, the survivors retain complete ownership of the property. ...
Trade group of independent claims adjusters who settle claims for insurance companies on a fee basis. Some insurers use their own staff adjusters to settle a claim. Others use an ...
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