West Virginia Life Study Guide

West Virginia’s life provisions look like the NAIC baseline until you check where each one lives. The free look is not in the life article. The suicide cap is not under a heading that says suicide. And the interest owed on a delayed death claim turns on where the insured lived, not on when the claim was filed. Learn the four places West Virginia files things somewhere unexpected and this part of the exam stops being difficult.

The standard provisions — the baseline first

A West Virginia individual life policy carries a 2-year incontestability period from the date of issue, during the insured’s lifetime, with nonpayment of premium always excepted (§33-13-4). The grace period is a flat 31 days for any premium after the first, and — worth underlining — it does not vary by premium mode (§33-13-3). If a claim arises during the grace period, the overdue premium is simply deducted from the proceeds.

Reinstatement runs 3 years from the date of premium default, on written application, evidence of insurability satisfactory to the insurer, and payment of all arrears and indebtedness with interest not exceeding 6% per annum compounded annually (§33-13-12). That 6% is a real statutory ceiling, not a market rate.

The free look lives in Article 6, and it starts at receipt

Search the life article for a free look and you will conclude West Virginia has none. It is at §33-6-11b, which covers “all life or sickness and accident insurance policies” in a single sentence: 10 days, with the notice prominently printed on the first page, and the only carve-out is group annuity contracts issued with qualified plans.

The exam point is the trigger. The statute says the ten days run from receipt, not delivery — and §33-6-5a(b) then tells you how receipt is proved. A hand-delivered policy gets a signed, dated delivery receipt returned to the insurer. A mailed policy either travels certified mail, where the noted receipt date controls, or under a certificate of mailing, in which case the policy is presumed received 20 days after mailing.

The suicide clause hides under “Limitation of liability”

West Virginia does not require a life policy to contain a suicide clause. What it does is cap one. §33-13-25 is captioned Limitation of liability, and it lists the circumstances in which a policy may lawfully exclude or restrict coverage. Item (a)(5) is the one to know: “Death within two years from the date of issue of the policy as a result of suicide, while sane or insane.”

Two details ride with it. Where the exclusion applies, the insurer still owes the policy reserve under §33-13-25(b) — not merely a refund of premiums, which is the answer most candidates reach for. And §33-13-25(c) takes group life, accident and sickness, reinsurance and annuities outside the section entirely.

Interest on death proceeds — a residency test, not a filing deadline

§33-13-14a requires interest on life insurance proceeds not paid when due, and it is unusual twice over. The rate is not a fixed statutory percentage — it is “the current rate of interest on proceeds left on deposit with the insurer,” so the insurer’s own posted rate supplies the number. And the interest runs from the date of death, which the statute expressly designates as the date the proceeds become due.

Now the part that catches transfers from other states. Many jurisdictions condition the entitlement on the beneficiary filing proof of death within some number of days. West Virginia does not. The only qualifier in the section is subsection (c), and it is a residency condition: no interest is required “unless the insured was a resident of this state on the date of his or her death.” Credit life is excluded.

Two more numbers worth carrying

Misstatement of age (§33-13-6) adjusts benefits to what the premium would have purchased at the correct age — and the section reaches age only. Its annuity counterpart at §33-13-21 is captioned Misstatement of age or sex and does reach both. A question that mentions sex is pointing at the annuity section.

Payment of claims (§33-13-14) requires settlement on receipt of due proof of death, and adds that if the insurer specifies a period, that period may not exceed two months from receipt of the proofs. Read it carefully: it is a ceiling on a period the insurer may choose to state, not a free-standing two-month deadline the statute imposes.