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
Annuity modified joint life and survivorship annuity under which the income payments are reduced to one-half or two-thirds of the initial income amounts upon the death of the first ...
Determination that investments by parents in their children's education through the purchase of Series EE Savings Bonds, which generate interest income, are tax-exempt if the proceeds are ...
Coverage required by the laws of a particular state. For example, many states stipulate minimum amounts of automobile liability insurance that must be carried. ...
Life insurance accounting method that does not require any terminal reserve for a policy at the end of the first year. First-year policy acquisition expenses, such as agent commission, ...
Expenses that have or may not yet have been paid by an insurance company. ...
The term pro rata comes from Latin and translates to in proportion, proportionally, the proportion of, proportionately determined, or according to a specific rate. It is often used in legal ...
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 ...
1961 federal legislation that allows the U.S. Export-Import Bank to set up insurance protection for U.S. exporters against credit risk and political risk in order to help make U.S. exports ...
Expense listed on the Income and Expenditure accounting statement for the unexpired insurance policy owned. ...
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