State Supervision in Practice

Although the insurance departments of certain leading states have exercised an efficient supervision of the life-insurance business, this cannot be said of the great majority. The complaints most commonly heard against the present system of regulation refer to the results which are the necessary outcome of supervision on the part of fifty-two different states and territories, and which grow out of the many different laws enacted and the different demands and rulings of the insurance commissioners. The most important of the results referred to may be described briefly. Attention has already been directed to the heavy taxation imposed by the states and the lack of uniformity in the methods of taxation. A similar lack of uniformity also manifests itself in the other legislation. As the writer stated on another occasion: "Each year witnesses the enactment of a multitude of new laws by the state legislatures; also a change in numerous existing laws, as well as the introduction of a large number of bills never intended to become law. In fact., bills affecting the interests of insurance companies in one way or another are said to be introduced in our state legislature at the rate of approximately six hundred a year." Another result growing out of state supervision consists of the conflicting rulings of the different state courts on almost every important legal phase of the subject; and the rulings of the state courts, again, are often at direct variance with those of the federal courts. Attention should also be called to the abuse of unnecessarily duplicating examinations at the expense of the companies, and frequently for no other reason than the profit of the examiner.