Almost since it began, the insurance industry has been regulated at the state level. Its members were wary of federal mandates and federal regulation that would restrict their mobility and impose higher costs. Periodically, Washington policymakers would propose federal intervention, but the states and the industry always successfully fended it off.

However, in response to heightened competition from other financial services firms and the need to function efficiently in the U.S. and global economies, the larger insurance companies and various insurance industry groups have become keenly interested in the concept of federal chartering and regulation. In this unique volume, Peter J. Wallison assembles the viewpoints of representatives across the spectrum of the insurance industry, and among the many stakeholders involved, to examine the pros and cons of the issue.

Peter J. Wallison is codirector of the Program on Financial Market Deregulation at AEI. Contributors to this volume include Jack Chesson of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners; Robert C. Eager and Cantwell F. Muckenfuss III of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Bert Ely of Ely & Co., Inc.; Martin F. Grace and Robert W. Klein of Georgia State University; Scott E. Harrington of the University of South Carolina; J. Robert Hunter of the Consumer Federation of America; Michael Kerley of the National Association of Life Underwriters; Larry LaRocco of the ABA Insurance Association; Robert B. Morgan of the Cinncinati Financial Group; Jack R. Wahlquist of Lone Star Life Insurance Co., and Joel Wood of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers.