Free Maryland Accident & Health practice questions

Answer: C. Once at least 4 days have passed since the failed examination

An applicant for a license outside life, health and annuities who fails an examination must wait until at least 4 days after the most recent failed examination before taking another. A retake on the next available day can fall inside that waiting period. The 30-day figure in the same section is the deadline for grading written examinations, not a retake wait, and the statute measures the wait from the date of the failed examination rather than from any mailing.

Answer: D. Either the application she filed in Virginia or a completed uniform application

Section 10-119(b)(1)(ii) lets a nonresident meet the application condition by submitting or transmitting to the Commissioner either the application she filed with her home state or a completed uniform application. A fresh Maryland resident application is not what the provision calls for, and it does not treat an insurer's affidavit or an NAIC good-standing record as the application. The paragraph's other conditions, such as current resident licensure and good standing in the home state and reciprocity by that state, still apply.

Answer: D. It is an unfair claim settlement practice on this one occasion, since that listing has no frequency condition.

Sec. 27-303 lists conduct that is an unfair claim settlement practice for an insurer, and item (3) is trying to settle a claim on an application altered without notice to, or the knowledge or consent of, the insured. Sec. 27-304 repeats several of the same practices but applies only when they are committed with the frequency to indicate a general business practice; Sec. 27-303 carries no such condition, so one instance is enough. The listing does not turn on who made the alteration or on whether the claim is later paid or denied; it turns on the attempt to settle on an altered application the insured did not know of or agree to.

Answer: C. Within 30 days

Under Section 10-118(b)(2), the insurer has 30 days from appointing a producer to record in its register the producer's name, the license number the Commissioner assigned, the appointment date, and any further information the Commissioner requires. Fifteen days is a period used elsewhere in the same section, for mailing the producer a copy of a notice the insurer has given the Commissioner about a termination, not for recording an appointment. Sixty and ninety days are not the period this provision sets for the register entry.

Answer: D. It is a listed ground: misappropriating or converting money of an insured

Maryland lists, as a ground for denying, suspending, revoking or refusing to renew a license, that the licensee misappropriated, converted or unlawfully withheld money belonging to an insurer, an insurance producer, a beneficiary or an insured. Spending an insured's premium on personal bills fits that ground directly. The answer limiting it to the insurer's money fails because the list expressly includes money of an insured. The ground does not depend on a criminal conviction, and it is a ground for the Commissioner to act on, so it is not left to the insurer alone.

Answer: B. Health maintenance organization plans

Sec. 10-105 covers individual applicants for producer licenses in life insurance, health insurance and annuities, and it extends the same requirements to applicants for fraternal benefit societies, health maintenance organizations, dental plan organizations and nonprofit health service plans. Health maintenance organizations are therefore on the list. Title insurance, surplus lines property risks and personal lines property and casualty insurance are not among the kinds that section names.

Answer: C. When it is done often enough to indicate a general business practice

The statute prohibits the listed acts when they are committed or performed with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice. The test is frequency, so an isolated act on one claim is not what the statute describes. It does not make a prior written complaint or a court finding of liability a condition of the prohibition.

Answer: C. One-third of the actual damages recovered

Sec. 27-305(c)(3) lets restitution for a Sec. 27-303(9) violation include the insured's expenses and litigation costs, including reasonable attorney's fees, and Sec. 27-305(c)(4) caps the attorney's fees recovered from the insurer at one-third of the actual damages recovered. One-half is not the statutory figure, the fees are capped rather than reimbursed in full, and the policy limit is the ceiling the statute places on actual damages, not on fees.

Answer: A. The claimant's actual economic damage, subject to the limits of any applicable policy

Under Sec. 27-305(c)(1) the Commissioner may order restitution to a claimant who suffered actual economic damage because of a violation, and Sec. 27-305(c)(2) caps that restitution at the actual economic damage sustained, subject to the limits of any applicable policy. The wider recovery of actual damages, expenses, attorney's fees and interest is available under Sec. 27-305(c)(3) only for a violation of Sec. 27-303(9), which this is not. The section provides no multiple of damages, and $125,000 is the per-violation penalty ceiling in Sec. 27-305(a)(2) for Sec. 27-303(9) violations, not a measure of restitution.

Answer: B. The Commissioner must order the producer to cease and desist from the practice

Sec. 27-103(a)(1) applies when the Commissioner finds that someone in Maryland has engaged, or is engaging, in a practice that Title 27 defines or prohibits, and it directs that the Commissioner shall then order that person to cease and desist. Inducements of the kind barred by Sec. 27-209 are practices Title 27 prohibits. Past conduct is covered, so stopping before the investigation does not defeat the order. The paragraph reaches any person, not only insurers, and it is the Commissioner, not a court, who issues the order.