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
Risk-creating device as compared with insurance, which is a risk-reducing or -eliminating device. This is a form of speculative risk. ...
Package coverage for a dwelling and its contents, barns, stables, and other land structures as well as liability coverage. By means of a number of special forms that follow the format of ...
Employee's full entitlement, with no waiting period, to benefits under a pension or retirement plan. In the case of a contributory plan, there is immediate vesting of the employee's own ...
cost of annuity based on expectation of life of the annuitant and the expense and profit loadings of the insurance company. ...
Exception in general liability policies for all expenses associated with product recall. In recent years, there have been increasing instances of federal recalls. In addition, there have ...
Unincorporated association with each insured insuring the other insureds within the association. (Thus, each participant in this pool is both an insurer and an insured.) An attorney-in-fact ...
1837 British case that established that an employer was not responsible for injury to an employee if the injury was caused by another employee. Prior to this, English common law provided ...
Coverage for the owner of an airplane in circumstances where use of the owner's premises as an aircraft hangar results in bodily injury or property damage to a third party. Excluded from ...
a contract in life insurance that includes elements of whole life and term insurance. in pensions, a combined life insurance policy and a side (auxiliary) fund to enhance the amount of a ...
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