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
Statement issued by the insurance company denying a claim under the insurance policy on the grounds that a condition or policy provision has been breached. ...
Wrongful conduct causing false arrest, invasion of privacy, libel, slander, defamation of character, and bodily injury. The injury is against the person in contrast to property damage or ...
Crime against the state for which an officer of the state can bring legal action. Society is harmed by an individual breaking the laws of the state. Usually there is no statue of ...
Coverage for liability for damage to property of others from untimely discharge of fire-fighting sprinkler systems. This coverage is available as an endorsement to broad-form comprehensive ...
Payment to an insurance agent in addition to commissions. Expense allowances, that differ from company to company, vary with the amount of business agents place with that company and the ...
Life insurance contract that combines TERM LIFE INSURANCE with WHOLE LIFE INSURANCE. The term portion of the contract expires after a stipulated time period. If the insured dies during this ...
Method of depreciating an asset in which its useful life is divided into an appropriate number of years (or other periods), the final salvage value is deducted, and the asset is written off ...
One of four SEC divisions that administers the procedure through which public companies must disclose all relevant material in order that a potential investor might make an informed ...
Applicable rate, in property insurance, of each location multiplied by the value of the real and/or personal property at that location, all of which is divided by the total value of all ...
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