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
Provision in a marine insurance policy in which agreement has been reached between the insured and the insurance company concerning the worth of the property that is to be covered under the ...
Federal statute relating to drug abuse policies that requires all employers with federal contracts at least equal to $25,000 to certify, as a condition of receiving a federal contract, that ...
Situation wherein the agent's conduct causes a client or prospective insured reasonably to believe that the agent has the authority to sell an insurance policy and contract on behalf of the ...
Coverage protecting future profits to be earned from a manufacturer's inventory. A manufacturer may lose all or part of an inventory of finished goods due to a peril such as fire and still ...
Means of projecting the costs of pension plans on a level basis over a specified future period of time. The actuarial value of each employee's future benefits to be paid at retirement is ...
Presence of other contract (s) covering the same conditions. When more than one policy covers the exposure, each policy will pay an equal share of the loss. ...
Health plans established by associations of hospitals and physicians to provide hospital service and care, and medical and surgical care. ...
Legal right of a passenger in an automobile involved in an accident to bring a liability suit against the driver. It is deemed that a special standard of care is owed by an automobile ...
Estimate of an asset that is used to determine tax obligations. It is usually in the interest of the owner to have a low value put on a piece of property for tax purposes. However, the ...
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