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
Deferred annuity under which one premium payment is made and the annuity is paid up (no further premium payments are required). ...
Coverage for bodily injury, property damage or destruction, for which the insured garage and/or its representatives become legally liable resulting from the operation of the garage. For ...
Same as term Disability Benefit: income paid under a disability policy that is not covered under workers compensation benefits. It is usually expressed as a percentage of the insured's ...
Formal process of setting aside funds on a mathematical basis to provide deferred income benefits. ...
Specific values of securities computed annually by the national association of insurance commissioners (NAIC) as guidelines and procedures for insurance companies in listing of their ...
List of cash allowances for various types of surgeries. ...
Bodily or emotional injury resulting from physical or mental wound or shock. A traumatic injury is caused by something outside the person's body as opposed to a sickness or a disease. An ...
In a commercial general liability (comprehensive general liability) policy, exclusion of coverage for sold premises. The objective of this exclusion is to eliminate coverage for property ...
tort against another person's property, designed to detain or dispose of it in a wrongful manner. For example, wrongful selling of another person's automobile without permission would ...
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