601.01 Purposes. The purposes of chs. 600 to 655 are:
(1) To ensure the solidity of all insurers doing business in this state;
(2) To ensure that policyholders, claimants and insurers are treated fairly and equitably;
(3) To ensure that the state has an adequate and healthy insurance market, characterized by competitive conditions and the exercise of initiative;
(4) To provide for an office that is expert in the field of insurance, and able to enforce chs. 600 to 655;
(5) To encourage full cooperation of the office with other regulatory bodies, both of this and other states and of the federal government;
(6) To improve and thereby preserve state regulation of insurance;
(7) To maintain freedom of contract and freedom of enterprise so far as consistent with the other purposes of the law;
(8) To encourage self-regulation of the insurance enterprise;
(9) To encourage loss prevention as an aspect of the operation of the insurance enterprise;
(10) To keep the public informed on insurance matters; and
(11) To achieve the other purposes stated in chs. 600 to 655.
History: 1971 c. 260; 1977 c. 339 ss. 27, 28, 43; 1979 c. 89, 102, 177; 1989 a. 187 s. 29.
Why process consumer complaints? A case study of the office of the commissioner of insurance of Wisconsin. Whitford, Kimball, 1974 WLR 639.