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
Same as term Underwriting Gain Loss): profit ( deficit) that remains after paying claims and expenses. Insurers generate profits from underwriting and from investment income. Their chief ...
Clause added to an insurance policy providing waiver of premium (WP) if the premium payer dies or becomes disabled. For example, this option is available on insurance policies on a child's ...
Named peril policy is how it’s called in the Real Estate Industry the insurance policies that specify the perils it covers. Under a named peril policy, if anything that isn’t ...
Policy provision that provides coverage for continuing payroll expense of all employees of an insured business (except for officers and executives) for the first specified number of days of ...
Minimum degree of injury or loss for which an injured party can sue, even though covered by no fault automobile insurance. Traditionally, an accident victim had to prove the other driver ...
In life insurance, the exchange of a series of installment payments, as the result of an installment settlement, for a lump sum distribution. ...
Percentage of total assets set aside by an insurance company to provide for unexpected losses. In general, a minimum of a 5% surplus ratio (5 cents in reserve for each $1 of assets) is ...
Separate trust established by a charitable entity whose purpose is to receive contributions from numerous donors. All the donors' contributions are commingled. Each donor can retain a ...
Specific date determined by the Internal Revenue Service on which a beneficiary has received a death benefit from an insurance company, an annuitant has received an income benefit, or a ...
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