New Hampshire Life & Health Study Guide

There is one organising idea behind the state-law half of this exam, and grasping it early is worth more than memorising any single number: New Hampshire keeps much of its consumer-protection law in Department rules rather than in the RSA. Free looks, replacement duties, annuity suitability — none of them are in the insurance code. A candidate who studies the statutes carefully and stops there will conclude New Hampshire has no free look at all, which is both wrong and the most confidently given wrong answer on this paper.

Three free looks, one rulebook, none in the statute

New Hampshire runs three different windows and they come from the same body of form rules:

Product	Window	Rule
Individual life and annuity	10 days	Ins 401.05(f)
Individual accident and health	30 days	Ins 401.06(b)(10)
Any replacement transaction	30 days	Ins 302.06(a)(4)

Long-term care (RSA 415-D:7) and Medicare supplement (RSA 415-F:6) are 30 days as well. Life, at ten, is the outlier.

Ins 401.05(f) prescribes the wording verbatim and requires it “in a conspicuous place on the face page”: the policy “may, at any time within 10 days after its receipt by the policyholder, be returned by delivering it or mailing it to the company or to the agent through whom it was purchased.” On return it is void from the beginning and premium is refunded.

The rest of RSA 408:13, in six paragraphs

The life policy-requirements statute covers premiums, grace, entire contract, incontestability, misstatement and suicide — and nothing else.

Incontestability is 2 years during the insured’s lifetime, with a post-issue increase in death benefit carrying its own fresh 2 years from the date of the increase. Suicide is a ceiling, not a mandate: New Hampshire does not require a suicide clause, but if one exists it cannot apply past the second anniversary. Misstatement reaches age or gender, adjusting to the benefit the most recent mortality charge would have purchased at the correct age or gender.

And the grace period has no statutory number: RSA 408:13, II requires one for every premium except the first, then delegates — “The commissioner may adopt rules to establish the length of the grace period.” Contrast that with the health side, where RSA 415:6, I(3) spells out three: 7 days weekly premium, 10 monthly, 31 all other policies.

Health’s own numbers — and where continuation diverges

After 2 years, only fraudulent misstatements can void an accident and health policy — New Hampshire’s time limit on certain defenses framing. Notice of claim runs 20 days; proof of loss 90 days — stretched to a full year for Medicare supplement on a claim for any other loss, though not on a claim paid periodically for a continuing loss, where the 90 days runs from the end of the period the insurer is liable for.

State continuation at RSA 415:18, XVI is where three federal instincts go wrong at once. There is no twenty-employee floor — though RSA 415:18, XVI(i) excludes group policies issued to small employers of size one — and the section reaches any group policy covering a New Hampshire resident, expressly including one “delivered or issued for delivery in this state or any other state.” The election window is 45 days, not sixty. And there are five durations rather than two: 18 months base, 39 WEEKS when the entire group policy terminates, 29 months for a disability determined within the first 60 days, 36 months for certain dependent events, and an open-ended period for a spouse aged 55 or older after death, divorce or legal separation, running until that spouse becomes eligible for another employer group plan or for Medicare. Premium caps at 102 percent.

The guaranty association — and the aggregate that is not the largest cap

New Hampshire’s life and health guaranty limits, at RSA 408-F:5, III(b):

• $300,000 life insurance death benefits
• $100,000 net cash surrender and withdrawal values
• $250,000 present value of annuity benefits
• $500,000 health benefit plans (basic hospital, medical or major medical)
• $300,000 disability income · $300,000 long-term care · $100,000 other health
• Aggregate: $300,000 for any one life — except $500,000 where a health benefit plan is involved

That aggregate is the part candidates skip. It is neither the largest single cap nor the sum of the caps, and the $500,000 exception is what an item gives you when it describes a person holding both a life policy and a major medical plan with the same insolvent insurer.

Using the guaranty association as a sales inducement is expressly prohibited and is itself an unfair trade practice (RSA 408-F:19). Note there is no matching section in the property and casualty act, RSA 404-B.

Replacement, annuities, and the training that does not exist

Replacement is governed by rule Ins 302, which sets duties for producers, for insurers using producers, and for both the replacing and the existing insurer — with the 30-day right to return disclosed as notice.

Annuity recommendations run under Ins 305, effective February 16, 2024: act in the consumer’s best interest “without placing the producer’s or the insurer’s financial interest ahead of the consumer’s interest.”

Here is the part to not import from national material: New Hampshire sets no producer training hour count — not for annuities, and not for long-term care. Ins 305 has no counterpart to the NAIC model’s producer-training section, and the LTC rules put the duty on the insurer, which must establish producer training requirements and train producers in its suitability standards. Your carrier will require training. The state does not set the hours.

Keeping the license, and the citation that is usually wrong

24 hours of CE per 24 months, of which at least 3 and no more than 10 may be ethics — New Hampshire caps ethics as well as requiring it. Due 60 days before renewal, and renewal falls on the last day of your birth month, biennially. Passing the licensing exam satisfies the ensuing renewal.

The section is RSA 402-J:7-a. It is not RSA 402-J:19, which is Severability, and not RSA 402-J:10, which is Assumed Names — both are miscited for continuing education in circulating material.