Free Maryland Life & Health practice questions

Answer: B. Issue the license, because the subtitle directs issuance to every qualifying applicant

The Commissioner shall issue a license in the applicable kind or subdivision of insurance to each applicant who meets the subtitle's requirements. Because the statute says shall, issuance is required for a qualifying applicant rather than left to open discretion. The provision ties issuance only to meeting the subtitle's requirements; it adds no provisional period and no county-level approval.

Answer: A. Each insurer authorized to transact insurance in Maryland

Section 10-118(b)(1) places the duty to keep a producer register on each insurer that is authorized to do insurance business in Maryland. The register is the insurer's own record of the producers it has appointed. The Commissioner does not keep the register for insurers; the same section makes the register open to the Commissioner's inspection. A producer keeps its own appointment documentation and a list of the insurers that appointed it, not a register of other producers. The section gives the National Association of Insurance Commissioners no duty to keep an insurer's register.

Answer: C. Notice of both the hearing and the charges being brought against the person

Sec. 27-103(a)(3) requires the Commissioner to give the person notice of the hearing and of the charges. Withholding the charges until the hearing leaves out one of the two required elements. The statute does not call for delivery of a final order before the hearing, and the hearing it describes is held by the Commissioner, not scheduled by a court.

Answer: C. The attempt is itself a ground for the Commissioner to deny the license

The Maryland ground covers an applicant who has obtained a license, and also one who has attempted to obtain a license, by misrepresentation, concealment or other fraud. Because the attempt is enough, the Commissioner may deny the application without waiting for a license to issue, which rules out both the answer saying nothing can be done and the answer requiring the Commissioner to wait. The Commissioner is not limited to a fine either: denial of the license is an available response on this ground.

Answer: C. 16 hours

For a producer who is also a licensed funeral director or mortician, who sells only life insurance or annuity contracts funding a pre-need contract, and who is not a viatical settlement broker, the Commissioner may require no more than 16 hours per renewal period. Lee meets each condition. The 24-hour figure is the general ceiling for a licensed individual, and the 8-hour figure applies to a producer who had held a license for 25 or more consecutive years as of October 1, 2008, which Lee, licensed in 2015, could not have. No 12-hour ceiling appears in the section.

Answer: B. It is prohibited, because an incomplete comparison meant to induce a surrender is unlawful even if it fails.

Sec. 27-213 bars any person from making an oral or written statement that misrepresents, or draws incomplete comparisons of, a policy's terms, conditions or benefits in order to induce a policyholder to surrender, exchange, convert, forfeit, retain or lapse a policy. Leaving the old policy's cash values out of the side-by-side is an incomplete comparison aimed at a surrender. The statute covers attempting or tending to induce, so the client's decision to keep the old policy does not cure the conduct. It reaches incomplete comparisons as well as false statements, so the accuracy of each separate statement is no answer, and it names oral statements expressly.

Answer: C. It is prohibited, because paid employment offered as an inducement is barred

Sec. 27-209(a) applies to life insurance, health insurance and annuity contracts, and unless law expressly provides otherwise it bars a person from knowingly offering, as an inducement to the insurance or annuity, paid employment or a contract for services of any kind. A job offered in exchange for buying an annuity is that inducement. The $50 allowance in paragraph (a)(4) is limited to educational materials, promotional materials and articles of merchandise, so it does not cover wages, and the section contains no exception for an offer that is reported to the Commissioner.

Answer: C. Both are open to inspection and examination by the Commissioner

Under Section 10-118(d)(1)(i), the insurer's register and the producer's record of an appointment are both available for the Commissioner to inspect and examine. The paragraph immediately following, 10-118(d)(1)(ii), allows both to be kept electronically, so a paper-only rule is wrong. Nothing in the paragraph makes the Commissioner's access depend on the producer's consent, and the records are expressly open to the Commissioner rather than closed to it.

Answer: A. The Commissioner must refuse to renew, suspend, or revoke the certificate

Sec. 4-113(a) uses mandatory language: the Commissioner shall deny a certificate to an applicant, or refuse to renew, suspend, or revoke an existing one, when any listed ground exists, and failure to pay required premium taxes is one of those grounds at paragraph (a)(5). Because the subsection says the Commissioner shall act, treating action as optional misreads it. Subsection (a) does not require a penalty to be tried first or a court order to be obtained before the Commissioner acts.

Answer: C. At least once every 5 years

Sec. 2-205(b)(2) sets a floor: each domestic insurer and health maintenance organization must be examined no less often than once in every 5-year period. Three-year and four-year intervals are not the interval this paragraph states. The Commissioner may also examine whenever it is considered advisable under Sec. 2-205(b)(1), but for domestic insurers and HMOs paragraph (b)(2) adds a mandatory minimum, so examination is not left to discretion alone.