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
Retirement vehicle permitted under section 403 (b) plan of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code for employees of a public school system or a qualified charitable organization. Under such an ...
Same as term Expense Allowance: payment to an insurance agent in addition to commissions. Expense allowances, that differ from company to company, vary with the amount of business agents ...
Accounting procedures that defer the full funding of a life insurance net level premium reserve to accommodate the policy acquisition cost in the early years of a policy. First-year policy ...
Portion of a premium paid by an insured that has been allocated to the insurance company's loss experience, expenses, and profit year to date. ...
Largest property and casualty insurance company trade association in the world (international membership)whose objectives include the service of its membership through positive legislation ...
Legal procedure through which a court determines the rightful claimant (of two or more claimants making the same claim) against a third party. Insurance companies use interpleader if claims ...
Form of insurance that insurance companies buy for their own protection, "a sharing of insurance." An insurer (the reinsured) reduces its possible maximum loss on either an individual risk ...
Insurance company that transfers a risk to a reinsurance company. ...
Premise that, out of a large group of people, a given number will die each year (conversely, a given number will remain alive each year) until all the people in that original group are ...
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