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
Combination of contributions of many investors whose money is used to buy stocks, bonds, commodities, options, and/or money market funds, or precious metals such as gold, or foreign ...
Choice of beneficiary in which the death benefit of a life insurance policy is retained by the company to be paid as a series of installments of fixed dollar amounts per installment until ...
Type of insurance providing all risks coverage for personal property of the crew and passengers aboard a ship. Marine cargo insurance does not cover personal property of the crew and ...
Model act written and published by the national association of insurance commissioners (naic) whose purpose it is to regulate brokers who control insurance companies. The act permits the ...
Same as term Contingency reserve: percentage of total surplus retained, in insurance company operations, that serves as a reserve to cover unexpected losses as well as to cover the ...
Court-appointed or commissioner of insurance-appointed custodian to manage the affairs of an insurance company whose management is deemed unable to manage that company in a proper fashion. ...
Method of classifying risks to establish equitable rates. In many property and liability insurance lines, the location of an insured has a significant impact on the loss experience. For ...
Losses representing claims paid. ...
Agreement concerning an insured individual, not the insured's property. A property and casualty insurance contract cannot be assigned, since it follows the insured, not the property. For ...
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