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
Replacement car or additional car as used in the personal automobile policy. ...
In workers compensation insurance policies and several business property and liability policies, review of the payroll of a business firm in order to determine the premium for coverage. ...
Minimum of care owed by one party for the physical safety of another. Liability suits are brought because of negligent acts and omissions resulting from failures to exercise due care. ...
To accept by a reinsurer, part or all of a risk transferred to it by a primary insurer or another reinsurer. ...
Threatening act, physical and/or verbal, which causes a person to reasonably fear for life or safety. For example, if a boxing champion said he was going to hit someone, this would probably ...
Maximum amount of insurance that an insurance company will issue on a particular risk exposure. This limit is used by the insurance company to avoid having to pay for a loss on the exposure ...
Insurance for owners and operators of private, municipal, or commercial airports, as well as fixed-base operators, against claims resulting from injuries to members of the general public or ...
Insurance that covers each and every loss except for those specifically excluded. If the insurance company does not specifically exclude a particular loss, it is automatically covered. ...
Type of excess of loss reinsurance in which the insurance company (cedent) receives payments from its re-insurer in a specific pattern of payments. ...
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