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 outside an insured's home for personal items usually carried or worn while traveling. Protection is for personal property (apparel and jewelry), not for real property or property ...
Fund established to pay specified losses, usually the low severity property losses. This type of account is an excellent device in conjunction with a self-insurance plan, in which the fund ...
Any of a number of types of surety bonds that the law requires of government contractors, licensed businesses, litigants, fiduciaries, government officials, and others whose performance of ...
Same as term Office Burglary and Robbery Insurance: coverage for the office of a business, or an individual in a general office building or other structure. Includes burglary of a safe; ...
Organization formed to encourage research in insurance and to foster an exchange of ideas and research methodology among the society members. ...
Sum it takes to replace an insured's damaged or destroyed property with one of like kind and quality, equivalent to the actual cash value, minus physical depreciation (fair wear and tear) ...
difference between the face value of a permanent life insurance policy and its accrued cash value. The pure cost of protection is based on this difference. For example, if the face value ...
Compensation payable to the owner of a ship detained for reasons beyond his or her control who incurs a loss of earnings because of the delay. Detainment can be caused by a delay in the ...
Same as term Contingent Business Income Coverage Form: coverage for loss in the net earnings of a business if a supplier business, subcontractor, key customer, or manufacturer doing ...
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