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
Membership organization of individuals especially trained in the application of actuarial mathematics, including compound interest, annuities, life contingencies, measurement of mortality ...
Type of disability income insurance that provides income payments to the wage earner when income is interrupted or terminated because of illness, sickness, or accident and can continue to ...
Bulletin issued June, 1993, with disclosure requirements that strongly suggest that insurance companies establish reserves or add to current reserves for asbestos and environmental risks to ...
Critical point in the total amount of claims paid above which the excess insurance policy pays a percentage (generally 80-100%) of the claims for any policy year experience. ...
Part of a business liability policy that covers an insured for bodily injury or property damage liability to members of the public while they are on his premises. This coverage is available ...
Money expended with the object of profit. The goal of an insurance company is to invest in assets with a rate of return greater than that to be paid out as benefits under its policies. ...
Legislation passed in California that establishes procedures applicable to any worker who incurs a job-related injury. This act has far-reaching implications for workers compensation ...
In life insurance, the exchange of a series of installment payments, as the result of an installment settlement, for a lump sum distribution. ...
Authority to act on behalf of an individual that terminates upon its revocation or death of that individual. ...
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