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
Statement regarding an insured's retention of low-severity risks because they are not catastrophic, and can be absorbed without having a dramatic effect on the financial structure of a ...
In property insurance, a stipulated agreement between the insurance company and the insured that the amount of insurance coverage under the policy is sufficient to be in compliance with the ...
Deduction allowed for gifts and bequests to a spouse for federal estate and gift tax purposes. Under the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), the deduction became unlimited. Prior to ...
Coverage in which one premium payment is made and the policy is fully paid up with no further premiums required. ...
1890 law prohibiting monopolies and restraint of trade in interstate commerce. The Sherman Act was strengthened in 1914 with amendments known as the Clayton Act that added further ...
Agreement "of utmost good faith." Under law, it is assumed that insurance contracts are entered into by all parties in good faith, meaning that they have disclosed all relevant facts and ...
Event that results in bodily injury and/or property damage to a third party. A clause that is common to most liability insurance policies stipulates that all bodily injuries and/or property ...
Plan in which participant (employee) utilizes spending accounts to pay for health care costs not subject to reimbursement from a health insurance policy or health care provider. The ...
Automatic nonproportional reinsurance treaty or automatic proportional reinsurance treaty that provides coverage for losses upon which claims are made while the treaty is in force, without ...
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