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
Agreement under which an insurance company promises to pay all compensation and all benefits required of an insured employer under the workers compensation act of the state or states listed ...
Accounting method of establishing data on an annual basis. ...
Refers to the insured or reinsured paying premiums into an account at a commercial bank that will be used to pay for future or past losses. Portions of the premiums not required to pay for ...
Company not licensed by a particular state to sell and service insurance policies within that state. ...
Arrangement, often funded by life insurance, to continue an employee's salary in the form of payments to a beneficiary for a certain period after the employee's death. The employer itself ...
Insurance on the life of the employee, paid for by the company, with the company being the beneficiary under the policy. This insurance vehicle is being used more and more to fund ...
Total estimated cost incurred by a person or persons, a family, or a business resulting from the death or disability of a wage earner (key employee), damage or destruction of property, ...
Organization founded in 1993, the thesis of which is to apply quality management principles to insurance functions. To this end, the organization is involved in insurance industry-wide ...
Coverage in the event a safe of a business is forceably entered, either on or off the premises, and property is stolen from the safe. Also covered is damage to the premises during actual or ...
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