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
Arrangement by an employer in which employees share in profits of the business. To be a qualified plan, a predetermined formula must be used to determine contributions to the plan and ...
Actual amount of total losses paid by an insurance company during a specified time interval. ...
Entitlement to pension benefits without a reduction, even though an employee is no longer in the service of an employer at retirement. For example, under the ten year vesting rule, an ...
Under Section 1035 of the Internal Revenue Code, stipulation that the exchange of one life insurance policy for another life insurance policy will generally not result in a recognized gain ...
Coverage for liability exposure resulting from the activities of a business; includes: direct liability acts of the business resulting in damage or destruction of another party's property ...
Association of life insurance companies focusing on legislation and public relations that may affect the life insurance business on federal, state, and local levels. Membership is composed ...
Method of accessing capital by the insurance industry in order to hedge against a future catastrophic occurrence. The mechanism works as follows: Primary insurance company AJAX pays a ...
Annuity contract. If the annuitant dies before receiving income at least equal to the premiums paid, a beneficiary receives the difference in installments. If the annuitant lives after the ...
Insurance policy that pays a face amount/ lump sum if the insured is diagnosed with a specified critical illness. This sum is paid directly to the insured regardless of any other sources of ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.