North Dakota Life Study Guide

Forty of the 110 scored items on your exam are North Dakota law, and North Dakota’s life chapter has a habit that makes those forty dangerous: it agrees with the national model almost everywhere, and then quietly differs by a year or two in three specific places. Those three places are where the state portion earns its money.

The required provisions — NDCC 26.1-33-05

North Dakota’s life policy provisions read like the standard set until you check the numbers. Incontestability is 2 years from date of issue, with four exceptions rather than the usual one. Two are mandatory — nonpayment of premiums, and “violations of the policy relating to naval or military service in time of war.” Two more may be excepted “at the option of the company”: provisions on total and permanent disability benefits, and provisions granting additional insurance specifically against death by accident. The grace period is 31 days, flat, for every premium mode — North Dakota adopted no tiering on the life side.

Then it starts to drift.

The three numbers that are not the national ones

Suicide runs ONE year. The provision reads: “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.” Read that sentence twice. It contains both a one-year period and a two-year period, and the two-year figure — the one every national text teaches for suicide — is attached to everything else. There is also an exception in the middle for armed forces or military service in time of war, which lifts the caps entirely.

Reinstatement runs THREE years from default, on evidence of insurability satisfactory to the company and payment of arrears with interest. Most national material teaches five.

The age provision reaches UNDERSTATEMENT only. “If the age of the insured has been understated, the amount payable under the policy is such as the premium would have purchased at the correct age.” Overstatement is not reached by the required provision, and misstatement of sex is not addressed at all.

The free look — 20 days, and twice what health gets

NDCC 26.1-33-02.1 is titled Life insurance policies and certificates – Right to return, and it gives 20 days: “A person who purchases a life insurance policy or certificate issued or delivered in this state may return the policy or certificate within twenty days of delivery to the purchaser.”

One number, uniform — North Dakota does not lengthen it for a replacement transaction the way many states do. And it sits in a different chapter from the health rule, so nothing on the page reminds you that accident and health gets only 10 days under NDCC 26.1-36-02.1.

Death claims — the interest runs from the death

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.”

Three details do the work. The deadline is expressed in months, not days. The interest accrues from the date of death rather than from the date proof was filed. And that back-dated interest is conditional — the 180-day proviso is easy to read past, and it is the whole difference between a beneficiary who gets interest running to the death and one who does not. The statute says reasonable interest and names no rate.

Nonforfeiture, settlements and annuities

Nonforfeiture options are required at NDCC 26.1-33-18. Life settlements have their own chapter, NDCC ch. 26.1-33.4, with the viator’s rescission right at 26.1-33.4-10.

Annuities ride on this same Life and Annuity line — there is no separate annuity authority — but they carry a training requirement the life line does not: a one-time four-hour course under NDCC 26.1-34.2-03.1 before you may sell them. It is a training requirement, not continuing education, and the Department does not track completions. Your carrier verifies it.

Solicitation disclosure — and a 10 that is not the free look

NDAC 45-04-01-04 requires a buyer’s guide and policy summary to be delivered before accepting the initial premium — unless the policy contains an unconditional refund provision of at least 10 days, in which case they may be delivered with the policy.

That 10 is a delivery-timing trigger, not a free-look period. North Dakota’s statutory life free look is 20 days regardless. An item that puts “10 days” next to a life policy is usually testing whether you can tell these two rules apart.

The gap: individual life replacement

North Dakota appears to have no standalone individual life replacement regulation — no notice requirement, no comparison duty, no obligation to notify the existing insurer. Replacement rules do exist for long-term care, Medicare supplement and group coverage, and annuity exchanges are reached through the suitability chapter. Individual life is policed only by the general twisting and misrepresentation prohibitions at NDCC 26.1-04-03 and 26.1-04-07.

This is unusual enough to be worth flagging rather than memorising. What is safe to carry into the exam is the general rule: misrepresenting a policy to induce a replacement is prohibited conduct in North Dakota whether or not a dedicated replacement regulation exists.

The guaranty association

Life and health guaranty limits sit at NDCC 26.1-38.1-01(4)(b): $300,000 death benefits, $100,000 net cash surrender values, $250,000 present value of annuity benefits, with an aggregate of $300,000 per life.

Cite the right chapter. NDCC 26.1-38 is repealed — North Dakota repeals cleanly rather than leaving superseded guaranty acts printed in the code, so unlike some states there is exactly one live chapter and it is 26.1-38.1.