The NAIC's History and Background
A Tradition of Consumer Protection

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the organization of insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories. The NAIC provides a forum for the development of uniform policy when uniformity is appropriate.

A state regulator's primary responsibility is to protect the interests of insurance consumers, and the NAIC helps regulators fulfill that obligation. That assistance is related to the regulators' shared objectives of financial and market conduct regulation.

State insurance regulators created the NAIC in 1871 to address the need to coordinate regulation of multistate insurers. The first major step in that process was the development of uniform financial reporting by insurance companies. Since then, new legislative concepts, new levels of expertise in data collection and delivery, and a commitment to even greater technological capability have moved the NAIC forward into its role as a multidimensional, regulatory support organization.

With offices in Kansas City, Missouri, New York and Washington, D.C. the NAIC staff provide invaluable support to insurance commissioners. The following lists the primary activities and organizations of the NAIC.

NAIC Office Locations

Switchboard Hours: Mon - Fri 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Central Time)

Most employees work at the NAIC Central Office located in Kansas City, Missouri. This office is home to the following divisions:

Executive – Within the limits of the NAIC constitution, bylaws, policies and procedures, and at the direction of the members, the Executive division is responsible for the administration of the day-to-day operations of the Association.

Financial Regulatory Services - Assist financial regulators in mitigating insolvencies through maintenance of statutory accounting, reporting, the risk-based capital formula, the financial examination system, company licensing and reinsurance regulation. Assist in providing secondary technical support on a variety of international related projects including the NAIC's Solvency Modernization Initiative.

Member Services - Provides support to members and staff in the areas of Education and Training, Member Services, Meeting Planning, and Library Resources.

Communications/Media Relations - Coordinates media/public relations and consumer outreach efforts, including Insure U and Consumer Alerts. Develops and executes the communications plan. Writes speeches for NAIC officers and coordinates media training programs for NAIC members.

Information Systems - Assists insurance regulators by providing technical infrastructure to promote shared regulatory information and systems standardization.

Insurance Products and Services - Markets publications and insurance company financial data to regulators and external customers, designs and maintains the NAIC web site and marketing materials, and has oversight of the System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing (SERFF) and the State-Based Systems (SBS) Program.

Legal - Researches and analyzes developments in insurance law, provides advice to state insurance regulators and serves as in-house counsel to the association.

Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs - Assists regulators in fulfilling their responsibility to protect the interests of insurance consumers by helping coordinate state market regulatory functions such as consumer complaints, market analysis, producer licensing, and regulatory interventions. As part of this effort, the Market Regulation Department provides support to the NAIC's Market Regulation & Consumer Affairs (D) Committee, Consumer Connections (D) Working Group, Market Actions (D) Working Group, Market Analysis Procedures (D) Working Group, Market Conduct Examination Standards (D) Working Group, Special Accreditation (D) Working Group, Producer Licensing (EX) Task Force, Producer Licensing (EX) Working Group, Consumer Board of Trustees, Consumer Liaison Committee, State Consumer Advocacy Forum, and Military Sales (EX) Working Group.

Human Resources and Internal Services - Provides support to staff in the areas of Education and Training, Human Resources and Office Services.

Research - Advises and assists insurance regulators on property and casualty, workers’ compensation and life insurance matters, rate and form regulation, life and health actuarial matters, statistical analysis for all lines of insurance, and develops a number of annual publications on various regulatory and market matters.

Switchboard Hours: Mon - Fri 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Eastern Time)

The NAIC's Securities Valuation Office (SVO) is located in the heart of New York's Financial District. The SVO examines the credit quality and value of insurer's investment portfolios for the benefit of the regulatory community.

Switchboard Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Washington, D.C. is home to the NAIC's Executive Office. This office advises state regulators on policy implications of federal legislation and other federal and international actions affecting their authority over the business of insurance.