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
Protection against natural disasters that may strike crops. Coverage on all risks basis began in 1948 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Premiums reflect actual ...
Maximum that an insurance company can underwrite. The limits of coverage that a property and casualty company can underwrite are determined by its retained earnings and invested capital. ...
Endowment period of time, in life insurance, at which the face amount of the policy is payable to the insured. ...
Special type of charitable remainder trust (CRT) under which a designated beneficiary (cannot be a charitable beneficiary) receives an annual fixed income. The grantor of the trust is ...
(coinsurance) plan where a portion of medical expenses are paid by an insured. Some health insurance policies provide that the insured shares expenses with the insurer according to a ...
Presentation of data that excludes the first 5 to 10 years of experience of those who purchase life insurance. A mortality table shows the number of deaths per 1000 of a group of people. ...
Violation of duty in marine insurance, such as acts of the master and crew of a ship that result in damage to the vessel including purposefully running it aground, diverting it from its ...
Factor considered in determining amount of life insurance to purchase in order that funds will be available to pay for a child's education expenses in the event of the premature death of ...
Property loss in which the insured peril is the proximate cause (an unbroken chain of events) of the damage or destruction. Most basic property insurance policies (such as the standard fire ...
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