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
General: net premium, plus operating and miscellaneous expenses, and agent's commissions. Life insurance: premium before dividends are subtracted. ...
Describing the process of developing the ultimate losses and then adjusting them to the cost levels projected for the period of time to be forecasted. ...
Requirement of the Internal Revenue Service that any dividend payments received are subject to a 20% withholding if the investor fails to furnish the dividend payer with the investor's ...
Smallest acceptable premium for which an insurance company will write a policy. This minimum charge is necessary to cover fixed expenses in placing the policy on the books. ...
Inland marine policy addition that provides coverage to owners of sheep, and to warehouseowners who store wool as well as wool in transit. ...
Insurance written on the personal and real property of an individual (or individuals) to include such policies as the home owners insurance policy and personal automobile policy. ...
Government reinsurance program that provided coverage for U.S. properties during World War II. Private insurers shared the first layer of coverage, with the government providing ...
Contract providing income payments beginning when the named contingency occurs. For example, upon the death of one spouse (the contingency), a surviving spouse will begin to receive monthly ...
Massachusetts commissioner of insurance responsible for the passage of legislation (1861) that guaranteed policy owners of that state equity in the cash value of their life insurance. The ...
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