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 companies that seek an economic advantage, thereby increasing their returns on equity by utilizing their specialized knowledge about a given line of insurance, territory, or risk ...
Bureau insurer that files its statistical and underwriting experience with a rating bureau. ...
pool that contains various reinsurance companies with each sharing reinsurance contracts on a pro rata basis as they are submitted to the pool. market that operates much like the New York ...
Same as term Elimination Period: form of deductible usually found in disability income insurance; for example, no benefits may be payable for a length of time beginning with the first day ...
Assets of an insurer that are due and payable in the current year but have yet to be received by the insurer. ...
Irrevocable trust into which the grantor places assets and receives in turn a fixed amount of income from a fixed annuity (amount of income stipulated at the time the trust is established) ...
Coverage primarily for the liability of an individual or organization that results from negligent acts and omissions, thereby causing bodily injury and/or property damage to a third party. ...
Excess coverage over the first layer of medical insurance to provide for catastrophic medical payments. The first layer may be either group or individual medical insurance, or an individual ...
Inquiry conducted by a committee of the legislature of the State of New York in 1905 that looked at abuses of life insurance companies operating in the state. This study led to stricter ...
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