Cite as: 510 U. S. 86 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
More problematic are two clauses in ERISA itself, one broadly providing for preemption of state law, the other preserving, or saving from preemption, state laws regulating insurance. ERISA's encompassing preemption clause directs that the statute "shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan." 29 U. S. C. § 1144(a). The "saving clause," however, instructs that ERISA "shall [not] be construed to exempt or relieve any person from any law of any State which regulates insurance, banking, or securities." § 1144(b)(2)(A). State laws concerning an insurer's management of general account assets can "relate to [an] employee benefit plan" and thus fall under the preemption clause, but they are also, in the words of the saving clause, laws "which regulat[e] insurance."
ERISA's preemption and saving clauses " 'are not a model of legislative drafting,' " Pilot Life, 481 U. S., at 46, quoting Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U. S. 724, 739 (1985), and the legislative history of these provisions is sparse, see id., at 745-746. In accord with the District Court in this case, however, see 722 F. Supp., at 1003-1004, we discern no solid basis for believing that Congress, when it designed ERISA, intended fundamentally to alter traditional preemption analysis. State law governing insurance generally is not displaced, but "where [that] law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the full purposes and objectives of Congress," federal preemption occurs. Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U. S. 238, 248 (1984).9
We note in this regard that even Hancock does not ascribe a discrete office to the "saving clause" but instead asserts that the clause "reaffirm[s] the McCarran-Ferguson Act's res-9 No decision of this Court has applied the saving clause to supersede a provision of ERISA itself. See, e. g., FMC Corp. v. Holliday, 498 U. S. 52, 61 (1990) (ERISA-covered benefit plans that purchase insurance policies are governed by both ERISA and state law; self-insured plans are subject only to ERISA); Metropolitan Life, 471 U. S., at 746-747 (same).
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