State insurance laws impose restrictions and regulatory oversight on the control of insurance companies by parent companies and related entities. Such "insurance holding company" regulation, which has been in place since at least the early 1970s, constitutes a major focus of the U.S. insurance regulatory framework.

Historically the principal features of holding company regulation—as embodied in the Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act (the Holding Company Act), a model law—focused on touchpoints between an insurance company and its affiliates.

The Holding Company Act, which is issued by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, regulates insurance groups (that is, insurers plus their related entities) in large part by considering activities between the insurer and the other companies in the groups. This focus was designed to expose and deter conflicts of interest that could result in enriching a holding company at the expense of policyholders. New York's insurance holding company laws are codified in Article 15 of the Insurance Law, which, although not based directly on the NAIC model, is functionally similar.