Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
The fiduciary standard is the legal duty requiring a professional who provides advice or exercises discretion over another party's assets to act in that party's best interest, disclose material conflicts, and exercise the skill and prudence appropriate to the responsibility.
The guaranty association assessment mechanism is the statutory process by which surviving licensed carriers in a state fund the guaranty association's obligations to contract owners of an insolvent carrier, subject to state-statutory caps on how much any one carrier can be assessed in a given year.
Insurance department examination is the periodic on-site financial review conducted by a state insurance department of a carrier domiciled in that state, evaluating solvency, reserves, capital adequacy, and compliance with statutory accounting rules.
Insurance guarantee fund coverage limits are the state-set maximum amounts a state guaranty association will pay to any one contract owner of an insolvent insurance carrier, typically expressed as a per-contract-owner-per-carrier limit that varies by state and by line of insurance.
Insurance holding company regulation is the state regulatory regime governing an insurance carrier that is part of a corporate group, addressing affiliate transactions, dividends to the parent, changes of control, and enterprise-level risk oversight.
