Insurance in the United StatesThe first insurance company in the United States underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina, in 1732Insurance could be said to be: the benefit provided by a particular kind of indemnity contract, called an insurance policy; that is issued by one of several kinds of legal entities (stock insurance company, mutual insurance company, reciprocal, or Lloyd's syndicate, for example), any of which may be called an insurer; in which the insurer promises to pay on behalf of or to indemnify another party, called a policyholder or insured; and that protects the insured against loss caused by those perils subject to the indemnity in exchange for consideration known as an insurance premium History The first insurance company in the United States underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina, in 1732. Benjamin Franklin helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly against fire in the form of perpetual insurance. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin's company was the first to make contributions toward fire prevention. Not only did his company warn against certain fire hazards, it refused to insure certain buildings where the risk of fire was too great, such as all wooden houses. Regulation Insurance is primarily regulated at the state level. The federal McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed in 1945, established that federal acts that do not expressly purport to regulate the "business of insurance" do not preempt state laws and regulations that regulate the "business of insurance." Each state operates independently to regulate their own insurance markets, typically through a state department of insurance. Model acts and regulations promulgated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) provide some degree of uniformity between states. These models do not have the force of law and have no effect unless they are adopted by a state. They are, however, used as guides by most states, and some states adopt them with little or no change. In recent years, some have called for a dual state and federal regulatory system for insurance similar to that which oversees state banks and national banks. In the state of New York, which has unique laws in keeping with its stature as a global business center, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was in a unique position to grapple with major national insurance brokerages. Spitzer alleged that Marsh & McLennan steered business to insurance carriers based on the amount of contingent commissions that could be extracted from carriers, rather than basing decisions on whether carriers had the best deals for clients. Several of the largest commercial insurance brokerages have since stopped accepting contingent commissions and have adopted new business models. Organization Insurers in the U.S. may be "admitted," meaning that they have been formally admitted to a state's insurance market by the state insurance commissioner, and are subject to various state laws governing organization, capitalization, and claims handling. Or they may be "surplus," meaning that they are nonadmitted in a particular state but are willing to write coverage there. Surplus insurers are supposed to underwrite only very unusual risks. Although insurance brokers are well aware of what risks an admitted insurer will not accept, they must go through a ritual of shopping around a risk to admitted insurers (who will reject it, of course) before applying for coverage with a surplus insurer. Only the smallest insurers exist as a single corporation. Most major insurance companies actually exist as insurance groups. That is, they consist of holding companies which own several admitted and surplus insurers (and sometimes a few excess insurers and reinsurers as well). There are dramatic variations from one insurance group to the next in terms of how its various business functions are divided up among its subsidiaries or outsourced to third party corporations altogether. An example of how insurance groups work is that when people call GEICO and ask for a rate quote, they are actually speaking to GEICO Insurance Agency, which may then write a policy from any one of GEICO's four insurance companies. The customer then pays their premium to one of those four insurance companies (the one that actually wrote their policy), and any claims against their policy are charged to the issuing company. But as far as most layperson customers know, they are simply dealing with GEICO. Institutions Various associations, government agencies, and companies serve the insurance industry in the United States. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners provides models for standard state insurance law, and provides services for its members, which are the state insurance divisions. Many insurance providers use the Insurance Services Office, which produces standard policy forms and rating loss costs and then submits these documents on the behalf of member insurers to the state insurance divisions. All text of this article available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).
Insurance could be said to be: the benefit provided by a particular kind of indemnity contract, called an insurance policy; that is issued by one of several kinds of legal entities (stock insurance company, mutual insurance company, reciprocal, or Lloyd's syndicate, for example), any of which may be called an insurer; in which the insurer promises to pay on behalf of or to indemnify another party, called a policyholder or insured; and that protects the insured against loss caused by those perils subject to the indemnity in exchange for consideration known as an insurance premium History The first insurance company in the United States underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina, in 1732. Benjamin Franklin helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly against fire in the form of perpetual insurance. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin's company was the first to make contributions toward fire prevention. Not only did his company warn against certain fire hazards, it refused to insure certain buildings where the risk of fire was too great, such as all wooden houses. Regulation Insurance is primarily regulated at the state level. The federal McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed in 1945, established that federal acts that do not expressly purport to regulate the "business of insurance" do not preempt state laws and regulations that regulate the "business of insurance." Each state operates independently to regulate their own insurance markets, typically through a state department of insurance. Model acts and regulations promulgated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) provide some degree of uniformity between states. These models do not have the force of law and have no effect unless they are adopted by a state. They are, however, used as guides by most states, and some states adopt them with little or no change. In recent years, some have called for a dual state and federal regulatory system for insurance similar to that which oversees state banks and national banks. In the state of New York, which has unique laws in keeping with its stature as a global business center, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was in a unique position to grapple with major national insurance brokerages. Spitzer alleged that Marsh & McLennan steered business to insurance carriers based on the amount of contingent commissions that could be extracted from carriers, rather than basing decisions on whether carriers had the best deals for clients. Several of the largest commercial insurance brokerages have since stopped accepting contingent commissions and have adopted new business models. Organization Insurers in the U.S. may be "admitted," meaning that they have been formally admitted to a state's insurance market by the state insurance commissioner, and are subject to various state laws governing organization, capitalization, and claims handling. Or they may be "surplus," meaning that they are nonadmitted in a particular state but are willing to write coverage there. Surplus insurers are supposed to underwrite only very unusual risks. Although insurance brokers are well aware of what risks an admitted insurer will not accept, they must go through a ritual of shopping around a risk to admitted insurers (who will reject it, of course) before applying for coverage with a surplus insurer. Only the smallest insurers exist as a single corporation. Most major insurance companies actually exist as insurance groups. That is, they consist of holding companies which own several admitted and surplus insurers (and sometimes a few excess insurers and reinsurers as well). There are dramatic variations from one insurance group to the next in terms of how its various business functions are divided up among its subsidiaries or outsourced to third party corporations altogether. An example of how insurance groups work is that when people call GEICO and ask for a rate quote, they are actually speaking to GEICO Insurance Agency, which may then write a policy from any one of GEICO's four insurance companies. The customer then pays their premium to one of those four insurance companies (the one that actually wrote their policy), and any claims against their policy are charged to the issuing company. But as far as most layperson customers know, they are simply dealing with GEICO. Institutions Various associations, government agencies, and companies serve the insurance industry in the United States. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners provides models for standard state insurance law, and provides services for its members, which are the state insurance divisions. Many insurance providers use the Insurance Services Office, which produces standard policy forms and rating loss costs and then submits these documents on the behalf of member insurers to the state insurance divisions. All text of this article available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).
Insurance could be said to be:
History
The first insurance company in the United States underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina, in 1732. Benjamin Franklin helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly against fire in the form of perpetual insurance. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin's company was the first to make contributions toward fire prevention. Not only did his company warn against certain fire hazards, it refused to insure certain buildings where the risk of fire was too great, such as all wooden houses.
Regulation
Insurance is primarily regulated at the state level. The federal McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed in 1945, established that federal acts that do not expressly purport to regulate the "business of insurance" do not preempt state laws and regulations that regulate the "business of insurance." Each state operates independently to regulate their own insurance markets, typically through a state department of insurance. Model acts and regulations promulgated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) provide some degree of uniformity between states. These models do not have the force of law and have no effect unless they are adopted by a state. They are, however, used as guides by most states, and some states adopt them with little or no change. In recent years, some have called for a dual state and federal regulatory system for insurance similar to that which oversees state banks and national banks.
In the state of New York, which has unique laws in keeping with its stature as a global business center, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was in a unique position to grapple with major national insurance brokerages. Spitzer alleged that Marsh & McLennan steered business to insurance carriers based on the amount of contingent commissions that could be extracted from carriers, rather than basing decisions on whether carriers had the best deals for clients. Several of the largest commercial insurance brokerages have since stopped accepting contingent commissions and have adopted new business models.
Organization
Insurers in the U.S. may be "admitted," meaning that they have been formally admitted to a state's insurance market by the state insurance commissioner, and are subject to various state laws governing organization, capitalization, and claims handling. Or they may be "surplus," meaning that they are nonadmitted in a particular state but are willing to write coverage there. Surplus insurers are supposed to underwrite only very unusual risks. Although insurance brokers are well aware of what risks an admitted insurer will not accept, they must go through a ritual of shopping around a risk to admitted insurers (who will reject it, of course) before applying for coverage with a surplus insurer.
Only the smallest insurers exist as a single corporation. Most major insurance companies actually exist as insurance groups. That is, they consist of holding companies which own several admitted and surplus insurers (and sometimes a few excess insurers and reinsurers as well). There are dramatic variations from one insurance group to the next in terms of how its various business functions are divided up among its subsidiaries or outsourced to third party corporations altogether.
An example of how insurance groups work is that when people call GEICO and ask for a rate quote, they are actually speaking to GEICO Insurance Agency, which may then write a policy from any one of GEICO's four insurance companies. The customer then pays their premium to one of those four insurance companies (the one that actually wrote their policy), and any claims against their policy are charged to the issuing company. But as far as most layperson customers know, they are simply dealing with GEICO.
Institutions
Various associations, government agencies, and companies serve the insurance industry in the United States. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners provides models for standard state insurance law, and provides services for its members, which are the state insurance divisions. Many insurance providers use the Insurance Services Office, which produces standard policy forms and rating loss costs and then submits these documents on the behalf of member insurers to the state insurance divisions.
All text of this article available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).