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
Procedure in which investment income is paired with each life insurance policy according to the time frame in which the premiums for that particular policy are received. ...
Time interval between the date benefits end under Social Security and the date these benefits resume. For example, survivor benefits are paid only as long as the parent (if less than age ...
Branch of knowledge dealing with the mathematics of insurance, including probabilities. It is used in ensuring that risks are carefully evaluated, that adequate premiums are charged for ...
Provision of liability policies and the liability sections of package insurance policies, such as the personal automobile policy (pap), that pay medical expenses without regard to fault. ...
Specified limit on the dollar amount of coverage for a given loss. ...
Falsification of a material fact in such a manner that, had the insurance company known the truth, it would not have insured the risk. A material misrepresentation gives an insurance ...
Agreement of two or more insurance companies to provide a product or service. ...
Monetary value of the reputation of a business. Goodwill is an intangible asset and thus may be difficult to measure. ...
Continuing on an indefinite basis. ...
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