Free Maine Life & Health practice questions

Answer: B. A signed affidavit from both partners and records such as a joint lease or a joint bank account

As a condition of eligibility, Maine lets the insurer ask the policyholder and the domestic partner to sign an affidavit that they meet the statutory definition of domestic partner and to show documentation such as a joint deed, mortgage or lease, a joint credit card or bank account, or powers of attorney naming each other. Both the affidavit and the documentation are permitted, so a choice treating either one as barred is wrong. The same section separately provides that financial dependency of the partner on the policyholder may not be made a condition of eligibility.

Answer: C. Rescission is barred, because the error was neither fraudulent nor intentional

Once an individual or group is covered under a health plan subject to this section, Maine bars rescission, with one exception: a covered person who committed fraud or made an intentional misrepresentation of material fact prohibited by the plan's terms, to the extent consistent with section 2411. An honest mistake about a minor matter is neither fraud nor an intentional misrepresentation of material fact, so the carrier may not rescind. The exception turns on fraud or intent, not on the mere existence of a misstatement, on when it is discovered, or on how claims compare with the carrier's projections.

Answer: A. The policy is treated as void from the start, as if never issued, and Dana gets back the premium she paid.

Maine requires every individual life policy to let the purchaser return it within 10 days of delivery and receive a refund of the premium paid if, after examining it, she is not satisfied for any reason. Dana returned it 7 days after delivery, and the statute allows the policy to go back to the agent through whom it was applied for as well as to the insurer's home or branch office. Once returned, the policy is void from the beginning as though it had never been issued, so the insurer keeps no premium for the days in between. No defect has to be shown, because dissatisfaction for any reason is enough.

Answer: D. A gift basket costing $75, delivered to each client once during the calendar year

Maine's permitted-activities provision lets an insurer, an insurer's employee or a producer give gifts in marketing aimed at selling or keeping insurance contracts, provided the cost stays at or below $100 per person per year, and lets them run raffles or drawings only if entry costs nothing and no prize is worth more than $500. Gifts and prizes may not take the form of cash. A $75 basket given once in the year fits within the gift limit. The $75 in an envelope is cash, which the provision forbids whatever the amount. The $150 anniversary gift is over the $100 yearly cap. The free drawing meets the no-cost condition, but its $700 prize is above the $500 ceiling.

Answer: C. 30 months from the date the form is signed

A Maine disclosure authorization form must state how long it remains valid, and for life, disability or long-term care insurance the cap depends on why it was signed. When it is signed to collect information for an application, a reinstatement or a request to change benefits, the period may be no longer than 30 months from signing. The duration of the claim is the cap only for an authorization signed in connection with a claim for benefits, which this one was not. The term of coverage plus renewals is the cap for health or medical insurance, not life insurance. A 24-month period measured from issue is not the cap: the rule runs from signing and allows 30 months.

Answer: C. The contract alone, since no copy of the application was attached at issue

For annuity and pure endowment contracts other than reversionary, survivorship or group annuities, Maine requires a provision stating either that the contract is the entire contract between the parties or, when a copy of the application is endorsed on or attached to the contract at issue, that the contract and the application together form the entire contract. Here no copy was attached, so the application does not join the entire contract and the contract alone controls. The provision names only the contract and, when attached, the application, so neither the application standing alone nor a sales illustration is the entire contract.

Answer: A. Only if the consumer requested it and the annuity was identified to the consumer in writing at least 48 hours before the appointment

Under Maine's unfair solicitation provision, it is an unfair trade practice to use an appointment made to discuss or sell Medicare products as a vehicle for soliciting life insurance, health insurance or annuity products, unless two conditions are both met: the consumer requests that solicitation, and the products are clearly identified to the consumer in writing at least 48 hours before the appointment. Spoken agreement at the start of the meeting meets neither the writing condition nor the advance timing. A written description handed over during the meeting comes too late. Annuity products are expressly among the products the provision covers.

Answer: D. All are waived except those the nonresident licensing section itself imposes

When a nonresident applicant holds a valid home-state license and the home state licenses Maine producers on the same basis, Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 24-A, Sec. 1420-O(1) directs the superintendent to waive the license application requirements, with one exception: the requirements imposed by the nonresident licensing section. So the requirements do not all apply in full, and the waiver does not reach the nonresident section's own conditions. Waiving only the examination understates the waiver, which covers every application requirement outside the nonresident section.

Answer: D. Within 30 days after the final disposition of the matter, with a copy of the consent order

A Maine producer must report to the superintendent any administrative action taken against her in another jurisdiction, or by another governmental agency in Maine, within 30 days after the final disposition of the matter, and the report must include a copy of the order or consent order or other relevant legal documents. The trigger is the end of the matter, not the date the action was first brought. The event that starts the clock for a criminal matter, the initial pretrial hearing date, belongs to a separate duty. The deadline runs from the matter, not from the producer's renewal cycle.

Answer: D. Before the producer begins using the trade name

A producer doing business under any name other than the producer's legal name must notify the superintendent prior to using that assumed name. Notice within 30 days after first use or at the next renewal comes after the name is already in use, and notice only when someone asks may never be given at all. The obligation is triggered before the name is used.