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
Liability insurance coverage, primarily for shipyards for ocean marine risks, provided in much the same manner as umbrella liability insurance for nonmarine risks. Coverages may be provided ...
Type of excess of loss reinsurance in which the insurance company (cedent) is reinsured in the event there is a casualty loss resulting in at least two insureds generating losses from the ...
Condition in which an applicant has met an insurance company's standards. Requirements include a loss that is definable; fortuitous; one of a large number of homogeneous exposures; and ...
Premium payment made by the policy owner under a universal life insurance policy, usually on an automatic monthly preauthorized bank draft basis. The amount of the payment is established ...
Assets that are not readily convertible into cash 'without a significant loss of principle, such as an automobile, a house, television set, a radio, etc. ...
Written form which has precisely the same terms as the other property insurance policies covering a particular property. ...
Limited special purposes policy that provides liability and physical damage insurance for owners and operators of trucks while engaged in business. This insurance is often purchased by a ...
High severity loss that does not lend itself to accurate prediction and thus should be transferred by the individual or business to an insurance company. ...
Coverage in health insurance by two or more policies for the same insured loss. In such a circumstance, each policy pays its proportionate share of the loss, or one policy becomes primary ...
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