Free Montana Property practice questions

Answer: B. It is an unfair practice, because the section reaches untrue insurance statements put before the public in any way.

The section defines as an unfair and deceptive practice putting before the public an advertisement or statement about the business of insurance that is untrue, deceptive, or misleading. The section names familiar media and then adds a catchall for any other way of reaching the public, so a social media video is covered and the list is not a closed set of media. The section attaches to whoever makes the statement or causes it to be made, directly or indirectly, and its text says nothing about the insurer authorizing it. Its text also contains no requirement that a consumer rely on the statement or buy a policy.

Answer: A. Within 21 days after it receives her written request

Montana Code Ann. Sec. 33-15-1107(1) gives an insured who sends a written request within 60 business days of the date the cancellation or nonrenewal notice was mailed a right to the information the insurer or producer relied on, and the insurer or producer must furnish it within 21 days of receiving the request. The 60 business days is the insured's window to ask, not the insurer's time to answer. The response period runs from receipt of the request, not from the mailing of the notice, so a 45-day count from mailing is wrong, and 10 days is not the period this section sets. Because the reason here is not nonpayment, the exception in subsection (2) does not apply.

Answer: A. Consider the report and any rebuttal, then enter an order on it

Mont. Code Ann. Sec. 33-1-409(3) requires the commissioner, within 30 days after the rebuttal period ends, to fully consider the report together with any rebuttal and relevant examiner workpapers and to enter an order. That order adopts the report as filed or with changes, rejects it and sends the examiners back to reopen the examination, or calls an investigatory hearing. Public inspection comes later: once a report is adopted, it stays confidential for 30 days before it is opened to the public. Directors file affidavits only after an adopted report is issued, and they swear that they received it, not that they agree with it. The section does not route the report to a court for approval before the commissioner acts.

Answer: D. Not less than 3 years after the date the services were fully performed

Sec. 33-17-511 requires an insurance consultant to keep each memorandum or contract for at least 3 years, counted from the point the services have been fully performed. The period is 3 years, not 5 or 1, and it runs from completion of the services, not from the signing date, a payment date or a policy anniversary. The same section also requires the memorandum to carry the consultant's Montana insurance license number, be signed by the party to be charged, and define the services and the compensation.

Answer: D. When the agent cannot lawfully perform the act but the other person lawfully can

Unless the principal has specially forbidden it, a Montana agent may delegate powers to another person only in four cases: when the act is purely mechanical, when the agent cannot lawfully perform it and the subagent can, when local usage is to delegate, or when the principal specially authorizes the delegation. The statute permits delegation in those cases and in no others. Being too busy, finding someone cheaper, and an agency that is about to end are not among the four cases.

Answer: B. At least once every 5 years

Mont. Code Ann. Sec. 33-1-401(1) lets the commissioner examine an authorized insurer's affairs, accounts, records and assets as often as the commissioner considers advisable, but it also sets a floor: each authorized insurer must be examined at least once every 5 years. The provision does not demand an annual examination, and a 10-year interval would exceed the 5-year maximum gap. Discretion alone is also wrong, because the commissioner's judgment about timing operates on top of the mandatory 5-year schedule.

Answer: D. $9,750, the stated value minus the deductible

Mont. Code Ann. Sec. 33-24-103 applies to policies, other than motor vehicle policies, that insure specifically listed items of personal property. Where the insurer places a specific valuation on an item and bases the premium on it, a covered total loss must be computed at that stated valuation, and the only deduction permitted is the deductible selected in the policy. The payment is therefore $10,000 less the $250 deductible, or $9,750. Paying the full $10,000 ignores the selected deductible, which the statute expressly allows. Paying on the $7,000 market value, with or without the deductible, disregards the stated valuation the statute requires.

Answer: A. A certificate of registration as an administrator, issued by the commissioner

Montana bars a person from acting as an administrator, or representing to the public that it is one, unless it holds a certificate of registration as an administrator; the commissioner issues that certificate. The section names that certificate and no other credential, so a producer license, an insurer's appointment notice, or a consultant license does not satisfy it.

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. Through an association that assesses the cost of that protection among insurers

The law states its purpose as providing a way to pay covered claims without excessive delay and without financial loss to claimants or policyholders when an insurer becomes insolvent, helping detect and prevent insurer insolvencies, and providing an association to assess the cost of that protection among insurers. None of the other funding sources named in the choices appears in that purpose statement.