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
Policy provision that provides coverage for continuing payroll expense of all employees of an insured business (except for officers and executives) for the first specified number of days of ...
Insurance coverage that protects the exporter (even though the exporter may be in total compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract) in the event a foreign government calls the ...
Group appointed by President Nixon in 1971 to study workers compensation laws under the authorization of the occupational safety and health act (OSHA). It issued sweeping recommendations to ...
Person who commits a tort, a type of wrongful act, that causes injury or damage. ...
Policy that comes into existence or adjusts the amount of coverage to provide protection for newly acquired or increasing values of an insured's real or personal property. ...
Act that requires the Department of Labor (DOL) to have a formal program to educate the public about the importance of saving for retirement. The DOL is also required to educate the public ...
An act or violation that consists of two wrongs: tort negligent act or omission by one or more parties against the person or property or another party or parties, liability insurance is ...
Contracts of reinsurance in which expected income from investments is a major component of the UNDERWRITING process. Also, the ultimate liability of the reinsurer is limited. The reinsurer ...
Insurance policy renewable at the option of the insured for a specified number of years or to a stated age. The insurance company cannot refuse to renew the policy and cannot change any of ...
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