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
Same as term Underwriting Gain Loss): profit ( deficit) that remains after paying claims and expenses. Insurers generate profits from underwriting and from investment income. Their chief ...
Income paid for a specified number of years from an annuity. ...
Intent to defraud. An insured is required to answer truthfully all questions on the application. The insurance company can void a contract if it would not have issued a policy had it known ...
Additional coverage to a property policy. Windstorms are not one of the standard covered perils. If an insured desires coverage for windstorms and hail, an endorsement is required. ...
Financial instrument established irrevocably for a minimum of 10 years, after which the principal reverts to the grantor upon termination of the trust. A key feature is that earnings from ...
Net cost of insurance with no markup to cover an intermediary's profit or expenses. An intermediary, such as a broker, sells an insurance product net; that is, there is no loading for his ...
Automatic right of an insured to renew a policy until a given date or age except under stated conditions. It is extremely important for the purchaser to review the conditions for renewal in ...
Method of terminating a split dollar life insurance policy in which the company transfers its interest in the life insurance policy to the insured employee. Through such a transfer, the ...
Oral or written statement that results in injuring the good name or reputation of another, causing that individual to be held in disrepute. ...
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