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
Maximum amount of a specified type of insurance coverage, according to underwriting guidelines, that an insurance company feels it can safely underwrite on a particular exposure without ...
Coverage for automobile or aircraft operators if they are sued for negligently killing or injuring a passenger. The PERSONAL AUTOMOBILE POLICY (PAP) provides MEDICAL PAYMENTS INSURANCE for ...
Limit allowed by law on employee salary reduction plans. Many pension plans, as well as the popular 401 (k) plan, allow employees to set aside pre-tax dollars in a company-sponsored ...
Smallest face amount of life insurance that an insurance company will write on any one person. ...
Rules used by state regulators to value securities on the books of insurance companies. Bonds with acceptable credit quality are carried at amortized value, which is the face value plus or ...
In an insurance policy, sentences and paragraphs describing various coverages, exclusions, duties of the insured, locations covered, and conditions that suspend or terminate coverage. ...
Annuity that can be paid either with a single premium or a series of installments. For example, an annuitant pays a single premium of $100,000 on June 1 of the current year and is scheduled ...
Demographic designation used in life insurance to calculate premium rates for life and health insurance and annuity contracts. Since females have a longer life expectancy than males of the ...
Bureau insurer that files its statistical and underwriting experience with a rating bureau. ...
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