Free New Jersey Life practice questions

Answer: A. The applicant's ancestry

Under N.J.S.A. Sec. 17B:30-12(a), no person may discriminate against a person or group because of race, creed, color, national origin or ancestry in issuing, withholding, extending or renewing a life or health policy or annuity, in setting its rates, terms or conditions, or in issuing or accepting an application. Ancestry is on that list. Occupation, tobacco use and age are not among the characteristics the subsection names.

Answer: C. June 12

The notice must set the hearing for a date not less than ten days after the date the charges and notice are served. Counting ten days from June 2 gives June 12, the earliest permissible date. June 9 is seven days after service and June 11 is nine, so both fall short of the ten-day minimum. June 22 would satisfy the statute, but it is later than necessary and so is not the earliest date the notice may fix.

Answer: B. Within 30 days after service of the determination

N.J.S.A. Sec. 17B:30-19 provides that when the commissioner's determination does not charge a violation of the chapter, any intervenor in the proceedings may, within 30 days after the determination is served, institute an action in the Superior Court to enjoin and restrain the method of competition, act or practice. The period is 30 days, measured from service; the 10, 60 and 90 day figures do not appear in the section.

Answer: D. A prelicensing course of study for each line of authority sought

Among the findings the commissioner must make before approving a resident individual's application, N.J.S.A. Sec. 17:22A-32(a)(3) requires completion of a prelicensing course of study for the lines of authority applied for, as the commissioner prescribes by regulation. The statute lists no apprenticeship and no college-level course among those findings. A course taken after the license issues cannot satisfy a finding the commissioner must make before approving the application.

Answer: B. It is a prohibited practice, because limiting benefits on that basis is itself barred

New Jersey lists restricting, excluding or limiting benefits under a policy, on the basis that the insured is or may be a victim of domestic violence, as a prohibited discriminatory practice in its own right. It sits in the statute alongside, and separately from, terminating a policy and charging a premium differential, so keeping the policy in force or leaving the premium unchanged does not make a benefit limitation lawful. The section offers no notice to the commissioner that would excuse the practice.

Answer: B. Seek an ex parte court order compelling the witness to comply

The department's general examination power lets the commissioner examine any persons under oath and subpoena witnesses and records on appropriate notice. When someone refuses to obey, the commissioner may go ex parte to a court with jurisdiction over that person for an order requiring testimony, evidence or both. Contempt is the court's sanction for disobeying that court order, so the commissioner does not impose it alone. The power reaches any person, not only licensees, and the provision says nothing about a warrant from the Governor.

Answer: B. It may not act as an insurer in New Jersey until it complies with the code

N.J.S.A. Sec. 17B:17-13(a) bars any person from acting as an insurer in New Jersey without complying with the applicable provisions of the code, so compliance comes first. Hiring licensed agents does not satisfy that requirement, because it falls on whoever acts as the insurer. Formation under New Jersey law does not excuse compliance either, since the prohibition reaches any person. Nor does the section wait for the commissioner to intervene: acting as an insurer without compliance is barred from the start.

Answer: A. In the Superior Court, in a proceeding in lieu of prerogative writ

New Jersey law makes the commissioner's cease and desist orders under the trade practices law reviewable by the Superior Court in a proceeding in lieu of prerogative writ. The Act of Congress of March 9, 1945 is the federal law whose intent the state act follows in regulating insurance trade practices; it is not the route for reviewing the commissioner's order. The statute names neither the Tax Court nor a municipal court as the reviewing court.

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 commissioner 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.

Answer: B. As health insurance, because the definition reaches expense incurred to prevent sickness

Health insurance under the Code is a contract obligating the insurer to provide a benefit for bodily injury, disablement, sickness or death by accident or accidental means of a human being, for expense relating to any of those, and for expense incurred in the prevention of sickness. Because preventive expense is named in the definition, it is not confined to injury or sickness that has already occurred. Life insurance turns on a benefit tied to the cessation of human life, which a reimbursement for preventive care is not. An annuity is defined as a contract outside the life and health insurance definitions, so a contract within health insurance is not an annuity.