Free Wisconsin Life practice questions

Answer: D. The insurer is not discharged, because delivery to its agent gave it actual notice

Under Wis. Stat. Sec. 632.48(2), an insurer that pays a properly designated beneficiary is discharged unless it has actual notice of a change, and it has actual notice when the change is requested in the insurer's prescribed form and delivered to an intermediary representing the insurer. Dana used the insurer's form and gave it to the insurer's agent, so the insurer had notice even though its home office never saw the form, and paying the brother did not discharge its obligation to the son. Sec. 632.48(1)(b) lets a policyholder change a beneficiary who is not explicitly irrevocable without that beneficiary's consent, and as between beneficiaries any act that unequivocally shows the intent to change is enough, so the change did not wait on an endorsement.

Answer: A. Sound actuarial principles backed by reliable data, or actual or expected experience

Wisconsin bars an insurer from refusing, limiting, or charging a different rate for the same coverage because of a mental or physical disability unless the refusal, limitation, or rate difference is based on sound actuarial principles supported by reliable data, or on actual or reasonably anticipated experience. An agent's impression of the applicant is neither actuarial analysis nor experience data. The applicant's agreement to pay more is not one of the statutory bases. A blanket surcharge on everyone with a disability is exactly the kind of differential the statute requires to be supported by data or experience.

Answer: B. Before March 1 or within 30 calendar days after it

Wis. Admin. Code Ins Sec. 6.57(2) requires notice of the termination of an individual intermediary's appointment to be filed with the commissioner before, or within 30 calendar days of, the termination date. The 15-day figure is a different deadline in the same rule: before or within 15 days of filing that termination notice, the insurer must send the agent written notice that the agent is no longer appointed. Since the question asks about filing with the commissioner, 15 days is wrong. The rule contains no 10-business-day or 60-day filing deadline.

Answer: D. It is permitted, since savings from mass marketing may be passed on in premium

Wisconsin forbids an insurer, its employee, or an insurance intermediary from trying to persuade someone to buy or drop an insurance contract by offering benefits the policy does not specify. The same subsection states that it does not prevent premium reductions that reflect expense savings, including commission reductions, from any form of mass marketing. So the reduction here is not an unfair inducement. The subsection sets no requirement that the commissioner approve each reduction beforehand or that the reduction be offered to every applicant in the state.

Answer: C. The managing general agent will account to the insurer and remit funds at least monthly

Wisconsin's managing general agent rule bars anyone from acting as a managing general agent until a written contract with minimum terms is in place. One required term is that the managing general agent renders accounts detailing all transactions and sends the insurer the funds due under the contract on at least a monthly basis. The same rule requires the contract to forbid assigning the contract in whole or in part and to forbid appointing a submanaging general agent. It also makes claim files the joint property of both parties, with the files becoming the insurer's sole property, not the agent's, upon an order of liquidation.

Answer: B. No, because that provision applies only after at least 3 full years of premiums

The standard nonforfeiture law requires an ordinary life policy to promise a cash surrender value on surrender within 60 days after a premium default only once premiums have been paid for at least 3 full years; 5 full years is the period for industrial insurance, not ordinary insurance. Surrendering inside the 60-day window is necessary but not enough on its own, so a policy with only 2 years of premiums paid is not required by this provision to pay a cash value.

Answer: A. The amount of coverage her premiums would have bought at age 47

Under Wis. Stat. Sec. 632.46(3)(a), when the age of the person whose life is insured is misstated and the error is not corrected during that person's lifetime, the amount payable is what the premium paid would have purchased at the correct age. Ellen was within the insurer's age limits, so the premium-refund rule in Sec. 632.46(3)(b), which applies when the person was beyond the insurer's maximum age, does not apply. The two-year incontestability rule in Sec. 632.46(1) expressly yields to the misstated age provision, so five years in force does not entitle the beneficiary to the full face amount. The statute's remedy for a misstated age is this benefit adjustment, not voiding the policy.

Answer: B. Simple interest at 7.5 percent per year

Wisconsin requires an insurer to pay every claim promptly and treats a claim as overdue if it is not paid within 30 days after the insurer is given written notice of the covered loss and its amount. All overdue payments carry simple interest at 7.5 percent per year. The interest is simple, not compound. The 12 percent figure was the rate under earlier law, as the court decisions noted under the section record, and it is not the current rate. No 18 percent rate appears in this statute.

Answer: A. At least 3 years after the policy terminates or lapses

The rule requires an intermediary to keep policyholder records, meaning the applications, change requests, claims and complaints connected with a policy written through the intermediary, for no less than 3 years measured from the policy's termination or lapse. Counting from the date of issue or from the intermediary's license renewal uses the wrong starting point, and the rule sets 3 years, not 5.

Answer: A. No, because the program must be completed within one year before the test date

Applicants for a property, personal lines, casualty, life, or accident and health license must finish at least 20 hours of commissioner-approved prelicensing education no more than one year before the date they test. A program finished 14 months earlier falls outside that window, so it does not count even though it had the required hours. The rule sets one year, not 180 days or two years, and the timing matters as much as the hour count.