Company Overview

Texas Department of Insurance regulates the insurance and workers' compensation industries for the State of Texas. 

The recorded history of insurance law in Texas and the predecessors of the Texas Department of Insurance date back to 1876 -- the year Mark Twain published "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and Colorado became the 38th state.

The constitution of Texas adopted that year authorized the Legislature to create the office of Insurance Commissioner when it deemed it necessary.

Two years earlier, the state had made its first effort to regulate the insurance business in Texas. The state's economy and population were growing, and wildcat insurance schemes were common. The 14th Legislature in 1874 passed a law regulating the life and health insurance business in the areas of company formation, activities and coverage.

The Legislature also gave the State Comptroller of Public Accounts supervisory authority over insurance -- one of many duties imposed on him by statute. There was, however, no insurance department in existence at that time.

In the early days of statehood, practically all insurance business in Texas was written by companies organized in other states and foreign countries. According to State Comptroller's records, out of 61 companies doing business in Texas in 1874, only four were domestic.

Until the 1876 State Constitution was adopted, Texas insurance corporations were created by special act in the various state legislative sessions. These domestic companies ventured into the business -- mostly fire and marine insurance -- in competition with financially stronger and more experienced out-of-state companies. As a result, most of them either went bankrupt or had to be reinsured and taken over by their out-of-state counterparts.