New Hampshire P&C Study Guide

The combined paper leans harder on regulator and producer-conduct law than either single line, because a combined licensee is expected to know the rules that govern the practice rather than only the product. New Hampshire has several provisions here with no counterpart elsewhere — including one deadline that matures long before candidates expect it to, and one that does not exist at all.

Who regulates, and under what

The New Hampshire Insurance Department is a standalone department, not housed inside a larger agency. It is headed by a Commissioner appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Executive Council to a 5-year term — appointed, not elected. Insurance law is codified at Title XXXVII of the RSA, with rules in the Ins chapters of the Administrative Code.

Thirteen grounds, and two that are distinctly New Hampshire

RSA 402-J:12, I lists thirteen grounds — lettered (a) through (m) — to deny, refuse to renew, or revoke a producer licence. Eleven track the national model. Two do not:

• Ground I(k) — improperly using notes or any other reference material to complete an examination for an insurance license. Most states treat exam misconduct as a vendor matter. New Hampshire wrote it into the licensing statute.
• Ground I(l) — knowingly accepting insurance business from an individual who is not licensed.

Administrative fines reach $2,500 per violation.

Reporting — same 30 days, two very different triggers

RSA 402-J:17 gives 30 days for both reportable events, but measures them from opposite ends of a process:

• an administrative action — 30 days from final disposition;
• a criminal prosecution — 30 days from the initial pretrial hearing date.

Not conviction. Not indictment. The pretrial hearing, which is near the beginning. A producer charged with something and waiting for trial already has a matured reporting obligation, and waiting for the outcome is itself the violation. Separately, a producer who moves to another state files a change of address with certification within 30 days (RSA 402-J:8, II) — and that filing is free, since RSA 400-A:29 excludes name and address changes from the $50 amendment fee.

Appointment — and whose job it is

A producer may not act as an agent of an insurer without an appointment, and the appointing insurer — not the producer — files the notice within 15 days from the date the agency contract is executed or the first insurance application is submitted, whichever comes first (RSA 402-J:14). It costs $25 to appoint and $25 to terminate. It is also the step a new producer’s first employer most often leaves undone.

On commissions, RSA 402-J:13 bars paying any commission, service fee or other valuable consideration to an unlicensed person for selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance — and bars the unlicensed person from accepting it. Deferred commissions may still be paid to someone who was properly licensed at the time of the transaction.

Premium trust accounts — and the deadline that does not exist

Fiduciary rules live in rule chapter Ins 4300. They moved out of former Part Ins 1303, “Fiduciary Obligation of Agents and Brokers,” into chapter Ins 4300 in 2007. Ins 1305 is “Waiver of Rules” and never carried these duties, so a citation to it is doubly wrong.

Fiduciary funds on New Hampshire business stay in a premium trust account separate from any other account (Ins 4301.04(c)), and “under no circumstances shall an insurance producer place fiduciary funds in a personal or business operating account” (Ins 4301.05(a)). Return premiums must reach the client “no later than 15 days from the date the return premium is determined by the carrier” — the producer holds them in the trust account until then, and they go back to the insurer only “if the return premium cannot be delivered to the insured” (Ins 4301.06).

Now the trap. There is no flat deadline for remitting collected premium. Ins 4301.03(g) makes that timing “governed by the terms of the individual contracts or agreements between the producer and insurer.”

Unfair trade practices New Hampshire added

Beyond the national list, RSA 417:4 names practices many states do not:

• VIII-a — discrimination against living organ donors in life, long-term care or disability coverage;
• XII — collecting premium exceeding the filed and approved rate;
• XIV — reducing limits or increasing premium mid-term without the insured’s consent;
• XVI — coercing a borrower’s choice of insurer as a loan condition;
• XX — steering to a particular auto body or glass repair shop;
• XXI — “most favored nation” provider clauses;
• XXIII — Medicare cold-lead marketing and soliciting unrelated products at Medicare appointments.

The property and casualty guaranty association

RSA 404-B pays the lesser of the insolvent insurer’s own policy obligation or $300,000 per covered claim, with workers’ compensation claims paid in full. There is also a floor: a covered claim must be “in excess of $50” net, and claims cannot be cumulated by assignment to clear it. Insureds with a net worth over $25,000,000 are excluded for liquidations ordered on or after August 23, 2003, and assessments cap at 2 percent of net direct written premiums.

One contrast worth carrying: RSA 408-F:19 bars using the life and health guaranty association as a sales inducement. RSA 404-B contains no matching section.

Renewal — and the deadline that arrives with the reminder

Licences are biennial, expiring on the last day of your birth month. The first term is short or long, running to the second birth month after issue. That anchor is administrative rather than statutory — RSA 402-J:7 establishes the term and RSA 400-A:29 prices the $150 biennial renewal, but neither says what the date keys to.

CE is 24 hours per 24 months, at least 3 and no more than 10 of them ethics, due 60 days before renewal — and it is RSA 402-J:7-a, not RSA 402-J:19 (Severability) or RSA 402-J:10 (Assumed Names), both of which are miscited for CE in circulating material. The requirement does not stack across lines held.

The timing is what costs money. The CE deadline and the opening of the renewal window fall on the same day, and the Department’s reminder email arrives at roughly that point — so a producer who treats the reminder as the starting gun has already missed the CE deadline. Miss the fee instead and RSA 402-J:7 imposes a penalty of double the unpaid renewal fee. A lapsed licence can be reinstated within 24 months without re-examination; past two years you apply as a new licensee, exam included.

New Hampshire allows no CE carryover and grants no exemption for long service or for professional designations. A CPCU with thirty years owes the same 24 hours as anyone else — and the same is true of the exam, since the only exam exemption New Hampshire recognises is prior licensure in another state.