North Dakota Life & Health Study Guide

Holding both lines in North Dakota means two exams and two bodies of state law. The Century Code puts life in chapter 26.1-33 and health in 26.1-36, wrote them at different times, and made no attempt to harmonise them — so the same concept carries different figures depending which product is in front of you. This part is about keeping the two sets apart.

The free-look spread — four products, three numbers

You will sell all four of these from one desk, and the rules live in four different instruments with nothing to cue the contrast:

Product	Free look	Where
Individual life	20 days	NDCC 26.1-33-02.1
Individual accident & health	10 days	NDCC 26.1-36-02.1
Medicare supplement	30 days	NDAC 45-06-01.1-14(1)(e)
Long-term care	30 days	NDCC 26.1-45-09

The counter-intuitive part is that ordinary health gets the shortest window — half of life’s, a third of the two senior products’. And North Dakota does not extend the life free look for a replacement transaction the way many states do. Twenty is twenty.

Where life diverges from the national model

Three numbers, and all three are lower than what national material teaches:

Suicide runs one year. NDCC 26.1-33-05(12): “These restrictions, except in the case of armed forces or military service in time of war, may only be effective during the first year after the issuance of the policy for suicide and for two years after the issuance of the policy in all other instances.” Both figures sit in that one sentence, the familiar two-year number is attached to everything except suicide, and an armed-forces exception sits between them.

Reinstatement runs three years from default (26.1-33-05(8)), where most texts teach five.

The age provision covers understatement only (26.1-33-05(5)) — it adjusts the benefit where age “has been understated”, says nothing about overstatement, and does not address misstatement of sex.

Incontestability is the ordinary two years, but with four exceptions. Two are mandatory — nonpayment of premiums, and “violations of the policy relating to naval or military service in time of war.” Two more are available “at the option of the company”: total and permanent disability provisions, and provisions granting additional insurance specifically against death by accident.

Where the two chapters agree — and it is the place you expect them not to

Grace is 31 days on both sides. Life is a flat 31 (26.1-33-05(2)). Accident and health is also a flat 31 (26.1-36-04(1)(e) individual, 26.1-36-05(1) group), because North Dakota declined to adopt the NAIC tiering that would have given 7 days for weekly premium and 10 for monthly.

Having spent a whole chapter on divergences, it is easy to assume the grace periods must differ too. They do not — and health’s 31 is itself a deviation from the national model.

Death claims, and interest that starts early

NDCC 26.1-33-05(9) requires payment “not later than two months after receipt of the proof,” with “reasonable interest accrued from the date of death so long as a proof of death is filed within one hundred eighty days after the date of the death.”

The deadline is in months, which is unusual enough to be memorable. The interest is the tested part, and it has a condition attached: it runs from the death rather than from the date proof arrived — but only if proof is filed within 180 days of the death. Miss that and the back-dated interest goes with it. The statute says reasonable interest and names no rate.

State continuation — the health side’s signature rule

NDCC 26.1-36-23 gives 39 WEEKS of continuation after coverage would otherwise terminate. Weeks, not months — roughly nine months, and a figure that is neither six nor nine exactly.

Two more components get tested with it. Eligibility requires the individual to have been continuously insured for the three-month period ending with the termination. And election has two deadlines: within 10 days of the later of termination or notice, and never more than 31 days after termination. Premium is not more than the group rate — North Dakota adds no administrative loading.

The guaranty association

Limits sit at NDCC 26.1-38.1-01(4)(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 · $300,000 disability income · $300,000 long-term care · $100,000 other health
• Aggregate $300,000 per life, rising to $500,000 where a health benefit plan is involved

Cite 26.1-38.1. The predecessor chapter, NDCC 26.1-38, is repealed — North Dakota repeals cleanly, so unlike some states there is exactly one live guaranty act to point at. Using the association’s existence as a sales inducement is prohibited (26.1-38.1-16).

Training: one requirement, and one that does not exist

Annuities need a one-time four-hour training course before you may sell them (NDCC 26.1-34.2-03.1). It is a training requirement rather than continuing education, the Department does not track completions, and it reciprocates with substantially similar training from another state.

Long-term care has no codified hour count. Neither NDCC ch. 26.1-45 nor NDAC 45-06-05.1 imposes producer training hours — the rule puts that duty on the insurer — so the NAIC model’s 8-hour-initial-plus-4-hour figure is not North Dakota law. It does not follow that no training applies: the state participates in the federal Long-Term Care Partnership programme and the Department has issued bulletins on producer training for Partnership-qualified policies, directing producers to their carrier.

Continuing education, for both lines at once

24 hours per two-year cycle, 3 of them ethics (NDCC 26.1-26-31.1), undifferentiated by line — holding both lines does not double it. Up to 12 excess hours carry over, and unusually they run backwards as well as forwards: to the year next preceding or the year next following the one in which they were earned.