Free Connecticut Life & Health practice questions

Answer: C. It must recognize the confinement to the same extent as confinement for any other disease

Connecticut treats cirrhosis of the liver as a medical complication of alcoholism, and such complications must be recognized to the extent the contract specifies for confinement for any other disease. Excluding the confinement is wrong because the section allows these benefits to be left out only when a separate policy issued to the same group includes them, and the stem says none exists. Covering only half the days allowed for other diseases fails the equal-extent requirement. The section does not condition the benefit on completing a treatment program.

Answer: D. Payment is barred, because Jordan solicited insurance without a required license

An insurer or a producer may not pay a commission, service fee, brokerage or other valuable consideration to someone for selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance in Connecticut if that person must be licensed and is not. Jordan solicited insurance without a required license, so the producer may not share the commission. The prohibition reaches producers as well as insurers, covers any valuable consideration rather than only payments labeled commissions, and sets no percentage below which a share is allowed.

Answer: D. A concerted boycott tending to cause unreasonable restraint of insurance business

It is an unfair method of competition to agree to commit, or to commit through concerted action, a boycott, coercion, or intimidation that results in, or merely tends to result in, unreasonable restraint of the business of insurance. The agencies' joint refusal to place business is a boycott by agreement. Because conduct that only tends toward the restraint is enough, the section does not require proof that the insurer actually lost premium. Its text contains no requirement of a prior criminal conviction, and it does not depend on publicizing the agreement.

Answer: B. For up to six months, only after a written request to and written approval by the commissioner

Connecticut lets an annuity insurer reserve a right to defer the cash surrender benefit for no more than six months after the owner demands it and surrenders the contract, and only after the insurer has asked the commissioner in writing and received written approval. The request must address why the deferral is necessary and equitable to all policyholders. Deferring without the commissioner's approval, deferring for twelve months, or relying on a thirty-day notice period instead all depart from that rule.

Answer: D. The insurer or its affiliates, including risk posed by its ultimate controlling person

For an insurer registered under the holding company provisions, Sec. 38a-14a(a)(1) adds to the commissioner's ordinary examination powers the power to examine the company or its affiliates to ascertain its financial condition. That includes the enterprise risk the company faces from its ultimate controlling person, from any member or group of members within its holding company system, or from the system on a consolidated basis. Because affiliates are expressly within the power, it is not confined to the insurer, and nothing in the provision makes it depend on the controlling person's consent or on a finding of insolvency.

Answer: A. It is shielded from disclosure under section 1-210 of the general statutes

Sec. 38a-16(a) lets the commissioner, in an investigation or hearing on any matter under Title 38a, issue data calls along with subpoenas and orders to produce records. Subdivision (2) provides that data supplied in response to a data call is not subject to disclosure under section 1-210. The provision sets no point at which that protection ends, and it contains no requirement to release the data on request or to publish it in newspapers.

Answer: D. To the trustee who qualified, since the designation works without naming a trustee

Connecticut permits a life policy, unless the policy prohibits it, to name as beneficiary the trustee of a trust created by the insured's will, and directs the insurer to pay that trustee once the insured has died and the trustee has qualified. Subsection (b) makes the section govern beneficiary designations by insureds dying after June 15, 1965, whether or not the policy names the trustee. Payment to a contingent beneficiary or to the executor is reserved for listed contingencies, such as no trustee qualifying within one year after death, none of which occurred here, and a guardian has no role under the section.

Answer: D. It is excluded because the owner, not the insurer, bears its risk

The law excludes from coverage any part of a policy or contract that the insurer does not guarantee or under which the owner carries the risk. The subaccounts fit that description, so only the guaranteed fixed account remains eligible for coverage, subject to the statutory limits. The annuity limit caps covered annuity value; it does not bring an unguaranteed portion into coverage. How the subaccount value compares with the fixed account plays no part in the rule, and the interest ceiling is a separate exclusion for interest-rate-based parts.

Answer: D. It may act at its discretion, subject to conditions the Insurance Commissioner approves

For an impaired member insurer, the law says the association may, in its discretion, guarantee, assume, reissue or reinsure the insurer's policies, or provide funds and other means to assure payment of its contractual obligations. Any conditions the association imposes must be approved by the Insurance Commissioner and must not impair the insurer's contractual obligations. Because the authority is permissive, there is no duty to assume every policy at once; the authority exists without any liquidation order; and policy owner consent is not a stated condition.

Answer: B. Within 30 days of delivery, for a premium refund if not satisfied for any reason

Connecticut requires a Medicare supplement policy or certificate to have a notice prominently printed on its first page, or attached, stating in substance that the holder may return it within 30 days of delivery and have the premium refunded if, after examining it, the insured is not satisfied for any reason. The period runs from delivery, not from the application date, and the notice does not condition the refund on an absence of claims or reduce it by claims paid.