Definition of "Open competition law"

Form of state rating legislation that allows each property/liability insurer to choose between using rates set by a bureau or its own rates. Individual states regulate insurers and approve their property insurance rates. There are three methods of rate approval in addition to open competition: prior approval rating, modified prior approval rating and file and use. At one time the insurance industry operated like a cartel, with rates set by bureaus and filed with the insurance commissioners of each state. Experts believed that competition would result in either unfairly high rates or unreasonably low rates that would lead to mass insurance company insolvencies. But open competition became widespread after New York State adopted it in 1969.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Insurance Terms

Limitation imposed on insurance companies by state law. States oversee the insurance industry, being responsible for making certain that the rates are fair, reasonable, and adequate, and ...

Right of a beneficiary of a life insurance policy to exchange the future installments due that beneficiary for a lump sum distribution. ...

Provision in business interruption insurance that excludes coverage for continuing the wages of rank and file employees. Business interruption insurance covers an employer for loss of ...

Section of the Internal Revenue Code that provides for the taking of the proceeds from one life insurance policy or annuity and the reinvesting of these proceeds immediately in another life ...

Covers all employees of a business on a blanket basis with the maximum limit of coverage applied separately to each employee guilty of a crime. ...

Assumption of total disability when an insured loses sight, hearing, speech, or a limb. When such a loss occurs to an insured with disability income insurance, the insurer often assumes ...

Individual retirement account established under the tax reform act of 1986, for a spouse who has unearned income. The maximum annual combined contribution into the worker's and spouse's IRA ...

Ratio of the company's investment in noninvestment grade bonds dividend to its adjusted surplus. This ratio shows how vulnerable the company's surplus is to the market fluctuations in ...

Methods for payment of the value of a policy. An insurance company can select one of three options in settlement of a loss: make a cash payment; take possession of damaged or destroyed ...

Popular Insurance Questions