This course provides an overview of the regulatory system that governs the insurance industry as well as insight into the industry's business structure and its product mix, from traditional insurance to complex securities products. It traces the development of insurance regulation and examines its underlying objectives. It covers the key elements of state insurance regulation-licensing of insurance companies and agents, rate setting, solvency controls, and the liquidation process, focusing on the model laws that are in force in most jurisdictions. It considers the manner in which consumer rights are protected. The course examines the McCarran-Ferguson Act's allocation of authority between the state and federal governments and the ever-developing body of case law interpreting the Act. It reviews the provisions of the 1999 financial reform legislation (Gramm-Leach-Bliley ) that allows insurance companies to enter into business combinations with other financial services providers and allocates regulatory jurisdiction over insurance activities. The course looks at the express and implicit policy questions that lie behind insurance regulation. It concludes with a look at two emerging issues, the controversy over health insurance and the debate over federal chartering of insurance companies.