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
Provision in corporate life insurance policies that allows coverage to be transferred to a new individual with proof of insurability, for a premium appropriate to the age of the new ...
Coverage on an all risks basis through an endorsement to a business property insurance policy in which each sign is specifically scheduled, subject to the exclusions of wear and tear, and ...
Personal view regarding how losses occur and the validity of loss prevention and reduction; also, whether an individual is a risk taker or a risk avoider. For example, if a driver takes the ...
Coverage under which the face value, premiums, and plan of insurance can be changed at the discretion of the policy owner in the following manner, without additional policies being issued: ...
Important means of preventing accidents and injuries. Insurers take corporate safety programs into account when rating workers compensation and other business insurance policies. ...
Insurance company's net gain from operations divided by its adjusted surplus. This is the accounting rate of return on stockholder's equity since the ratio shows the rate of return the ...
Property or liability coverage that provides benefits (usually after a deductible has been paid by an insured) up to the limits of a policy, regardless of other insurance polices in effect. ...
The open perils policy is the counterpart to the named perils policy. In it, any peril NOT mentioned is covered by the policy. Here's an example: let's say you got an open perils policy ...
Scheme to recapture excess pension assets by splitting a qualified plan in two, and terminating one of them. In the mid-1980s, many pension plans became "overfunded" because their ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.