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
Theory developed in 1931 by H. W. Heinrich; states that an accident is only one of a series of factors, each of which depends on a previous factor in the following manner: accident causes ...
Provision in a property, liability, or health insurance policy stipulating the extent of coverage in the event that other insurance covers the same property. ...
Business owned by stockholders, as contrasted to a mutual insurance company, which is owned by its policyholders. Many major life insurers are mutual companies whereas some leading ...
Trust in which rights to make any changes therein are surrendered permanently by the grantor. The grantor uses this type of trust to transfer assets and any potential depreciation out of ...
Latin phrase meaning "without which not," signifying a legal rule in tort and negligence cases. Under this rule, a plaintiff trying to prove that an injury was a direct result of a ...
Difference in the amount of losses between the beginning and end of a time period. ...
Authority of states to tax the insurance companies they regulate. States levy income taxes, real and personal property taxes, and special levies, the most important of which is a premium ...
Coverage in health insurance by two or more policies for the same insured loss. In such a circumstance, each policy pays its proportionate share of the loss, or one policy becomes primary ...
Designation earned by passing 10 national examinations on subjects including mathematics of life and health insurance, actuarial science, insurance, accounting, finance, and employee ...
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