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 substandard ratings that shows additions to standard premiums to reflect physical impairments of applicants for life or health insurance. The additions reflect the greater ...
Costs associated with the selling of a new insurance policy to a policyholder. The costs include the acquisition commission as a percentage of the first year's premium, underwriting ...
Publication that lists premiums charged for products sold by an insurance company. A manual also has underwriting guidelines for agents. A life insurance rate manual includes minimum ...
Clause in an insurance policy stipulating that the benefits under the policy will accrue to the right of the insured. For example, if the insured leaves a violin at a repair shop and that ...
Risk management tool to determine risk exposure and to help spread the risk. A risk manager considers a business firm's individual exposures separately. As the number of exposures ...
Donation of amount "A," made by donor X to a charity. The charity agrees to pay donor X an amount ("B") for the rest of donor X's life. Since the donation is used to fund an annuity, only a ...
Agreement of two or more insurance companies to provide a product or service. ...
Modified premium used to calculate cash surrender values in excess of that required by the naic: standard NON FORFEITURE LAW. ...
Contract that details coverage for business property losses in three specific areas: Coverage A (Building). All buildings on the site are covered with no coinsurance requirement and on a ...
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