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
Goals of the financial planning process as follows: Standard of Living Maslow's basic needs satisfied such as food, water, clothing, shelter, and nice-to-have discretionary items, such as ...
Tax, under federal and state laws, on transfer of property made without payment or other value in exchange. ...
One of four types of risks used by the society of actuaries (SA) to determine a life insurance company's overall risk profile when fluctuations in interest rates result in abnormal cash ...
Type of commercial insurance that provides coverage for the business under the following policy forms: Form A employee dishonesty involving money, securities, and other properties and may ...
The definition of short rate cancellation is a penalty method that is applied when an insurance policy is canceled before its expiration date. This penalty method uses a table to determine ...
Attachment of decreasing term life insurance to an ordinary life policy to provide monthly income to a beneficiary if death occurs during a specified period. If the insured dies after the ...
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 ...
Amount charged to an insured that reflects expectation of loss for a covered risk; and insurance company expenses and profit. ...
Wording in life insurance policies to determine the order of deaths when the insured and the beneficiary die in the same accident. For example, if the insured is deemed to have died first, ...
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