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
Coverage provided for the insured's personal property in the event the insured incurs a loss resulting from theft, burglary, robbery, or malicious mischief, regardless of whether the loss ...
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. ...
Coverage in the event an employee is kidnapped from an insured business's premises and forced to return to aid a criminal in a theft. ...
Pension funding agreement under which funds paid into a retirement plan are not currently allocated to purchase retirement benefits. The funds of one plan can not be commingled with funds ...
Method of underwriting by which one or a group of Lloyd's underwriters write business on behalf of a number of Lloyd's syndicates and other insurance companies. Among the benefits of ...
Property or liability coverage that provides benefits (usually after a deductible has been paid by an insured) up to the limits of a policy, regardless of other insurance polices in effect. ...
Curve that results when yields on short-term treasury issues exceed those on long-term government debt. A widely accepted theory holds that when short-term and intermediate term issues are ...
Deleveraging of the insurance company's balance sheet. ...
Extension of coverage available under the Standard Fire Policy. The standard policy only covers the perils of fire and lightning. The endorsement covers riot, riot attending a strike, civil ...
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