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
Insurance purchased from an insurance company that has been licensed in the state in which the policy is purchased. This insurance is purchased through an agent or broker who are licensed ...
Act of stealing. Coverage can be purchased under most property insurance policies such as the homeowners insurance policy. ...
Insurance transactions conducted across national boundaries. Such transactions occur when the insurance company sells insurance outside the country of the company's domicile. ...
Total limit of coverage under all policies applicable to the covered loss for which an insured can be indemnified. For example, if two health insurance policies are in force on the same ...
Same as term Medical Examination: physical checkup required of applicants for life and/or health insurance to ascertain if they meet a company's underwriting standards or should be ...
Small face amount life insurance policy. ...
Insurance company that specializes in underwriting casualty insurance. ...
Division of a sum of money between a deferred annuity and an immediate life annuity certain. ...
Company that buys life insurance policies from policyowners on the lives of insureds who are terminally ill. This type of company pays cash for the life insurance policies, usually in the ...
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