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
Regulation set forth by the national association of insurance commissioners (naic) to govern life insurance sales illustrations. Includes the following major provisions: POLICY OWNER must ...
Part of a marine cargo policy that exempts the policyholder from vouching for the seaworthiness of the vessel. For example, while a purchaser of hull marine insurance warrants that a ship ...
Coverage in which premiums are collected monthly on an ordinary life insurance policy. ...
Provision applied as a rider attached to an ordinary life insurance policy for the purpose of meeting estate planning requirements. When the insured dies, the beneficiary is entitled to ...
Classification of occupations according to the degree of risk inherent in that occupation. ...
Analysis of uncertainty of financial loss. This classification can be according to whether a risk is fundamental, particular, pure, speculative, dynamic, or static. In life insurance the ...
Provision in the Federal Tax Code for favorable treatment of an estate. Under the unlimited marital deduction no federal estate tax is imposed on qualified transfers between a husband and ...
Benefits payable under any insurance policy or annuity contract. ...
Plan under which life insurance is substituted for retirement income. Under the plan, a married individual selects a single life annuity payout from the pension plan, which will generate ...
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