Dual Regulation of Insurance

Since this country was created, the insurance industry has been principally regulated by the states with infrequent Congressional interventions. As the insurance industry has evolved in recent decades, however, individual states have become unable to adequately regulate some insurers, such as multinational insurers and foreign insurers, because they lack jurisdiction over such entities. Simply having the federal government assume responsibility for regulating insurers will not solve the current regulatory problems, however, because Congress’ past forays into regulating certain areas of insurance generally have yielded poor results. Consequently, this Article makes the novel proposal and argument that, with the creation of the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) in 2010, the time is ripe for dual state and federal regulation of insurance. The FIO could regulate the areas of insurance where states are unable to do so or have done so inadequately while the states could continue to regulate areas where they have demonstrated competence