Alaska Life & Health Study Guide

A candidate sitting both Alaska exams answers the same Alaska common core twice — roughly thirty questions of licensing, trade-practice and claim-handling material that recur on every line’s state section. This chapter covers the part of that core that pays on both: the guaranty association, the claim clocks, and the trade practices Alaska names by statute.

The guaranty association — limits, and the cap over the limits

The Alaska Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association (AS 21.79) protects policyholders of insolvent life and health insurers. AS 21.79.025 sets the ceilings:

• $300,000 life death benefit
• $100,000 life cash surrender or withdrawal value
• $250,000 present value of annuity benefits
• $500,000 for a health benefit plan
• $300,000 each for disability income and long-term care
• $100,000 for other health benefits

Then the rule that makes those numbers behave differently than they look: there is an aggregate cap of $300,000 per individual life across everything the association pays for that person — rising to $500,000 where a health benefit plan is involved.

Alaska also expressly prohibits using the association as a sales inducement: no person may publish an advertisement that uses the existence of the guaranty association to sell insurance. That prohibition is itself a favorite exam item, because it converts a consumer protection into a producer offense.

Free look, replacement, and the read-aloud duty

The ordinary free look for life and annuity is 10 days (AS 21.45.020(c)(2)). On a replacement it becomes 30 days, unconditional, with a full refund of all premiums including fees and charges — or cash surrender value plus charges for a variable or market-value-adjusted contract (3 AAC 26.805(a)(5)). Long-term care and Medicare supplement each carry their own 30-day look.

Alaska’s replacement procedure asks more of the producer than most states do. Under 3 AAC 26.795 you must read the replacement notice aloud to the applicant before or at the time of application unless the applicant declines, and both of you sign certifying which happened. You retain the statement and the sales material for five years; the replacing insurer notifies the existing insurer within five working days and, within ten days after issuance, tells the applicant about sales materials and gives a compliance contact.

Claim handling — Alaska counts in working days

3 AAC 26 governs claim conduct, and the clocks are stated in working days rather than calendar days — a distinction the exam exploits. An insurer must give written acknowledgment within 10 working days of notification of a claim, reply to other communications within 15 working days, accept or deny within 15 working days of receiving a properly executed proof of loss, and pay undisputed amounts within 30 working days. If more time is needed, written notice of the reason goes out inside the first 15-day window, then further written updates every 45 working days until the investigation closes.

Two Alaska-flavored details ride along. Settlement must be paid by negotiable check payable in cash on presentation to a bank located in this state, by electronic transfer, or by an approved prepaid card. And where a third-party claimant’s limitation period may be about to run, the insurer must warn them in writing at least 60 calendar days beforehand.

Unfair claim settlement practices — and the door that is closed

AS 21.36.125 defines unfair claim settlement practices, and subsection (b) does something distinctive: it expressly forecloses a private cause of action. Enforcement belongs to the Director, who implements the statute through 3 AAC 26 Article 1. Alaska also carries AS 21.36.096, prohibiting denial of a claim for causation, and AS 21.36.185, requiring maintenance of complaint handling records.

The trade-practice sections the content outline names as tested are worth reading by title alone, as each is a plausible exam stem: .030 misrepresentation and false advertising, .050 twisting, .070 defamation, .080 boycott, coercion and intimidation, .090 unfair discrimination, .100 rebates, .160 the right of a debtor or borrower to select the insurance producer and insurer, .190 fictitious groups.