Pass the Insurance Licensing New York Insurance NY-Independent-General-Adjuster Questions and answers with CertsForce

The correct answer is C. Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) is specifically designed to address claims arising from wrongful employment-related conduct. Core exposures include wrongful termination, workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and other specified employment practices. Current EPLI coverage descriptions expressly identify discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination as principal covered allegations.

Option A is incorrect because EPLI may be written as a standalone policy or incorporated within broader management-liability programs. It is not restricted to being an endorsement to Directors and Officers insurance.

Option B is incorrect because the standard Commercial General Liability policy is not basic professional or employment-practices liability insurance. In fact, many employment-related practices exposures are specifically excluded or inadequately addressed under conventional CGL coverage.

Option D concerns occupational bodily injury. An employee physically injured in the course of employment would ordinarily look to Workers Compensation and Employers Liability, not EPLI. EPLI primarily addresses wrongful employment decisions and conduct rather than workplace accident injuries.

The adjuster must therefore distinguish an employment-practices wrongful act from an employment-related bodily injury. One is principally a management/professional liability exposure; the other is a Workers Compensation/employers liability exposure.

Therefore, C accurately describes the purpose of EPLI.

The correct answer is A. Standard homeowners property forms contain a broad earth movement exclusion, encompassing events such as earthquake, landslide, mudslide, earth sinking, rising, or shifting, subject to the precise policy wording and any endorsements purchased. Earthquake coverage ordinarily requires a separate endorsement or policy. The Series 17-70 examination outline specifically requires knowledge of Homeowners Policy additional coverages, perils insured against, exclusions, conditions, and selected endorsements, including an earthquake endorsement.

The remaining choices describe protections commonly appearing as Additional Coverages rather than general exclusions. Debris Removal reimburses reasonable expenses for removing debris of covered property following a covered cause of loss. Insurance-regulator guidance confirms debris removal is ordinarily incorporated into homeowners coverage when the underlying damage results from an insured peril.

Likewise, Property Removed protects covered property against direct loss while it is being removed from endangered premises to safeguard it from an insured peril, subject to the form's time limitations. Fire Department Service Charge provides a specified additional amount when an insured incurs a contractual fire-department service charge. These provisions are standard examples of homeowners additional coverages.

Therefore, among the four choices, earth movement is the excluded cause of loss.

The correct answer is D — The value of the claim. Coverage verification is performed to determine whether the insurance contract potentially responds to the reported occurrence. The adjuster first confirms that the policy was in force on the date of loss, because a loss occurring outside the effective policy period normally cannot trigger that contract. The adjuster must also establish that the claimant or affected party qualifies as the named insured or another insured person under the applicable provisions.

For a property claim, the adjuster must verify that the damaged property is property insured by the contract, at an insured location where applicable, and subject to the relevant coverage. These are fundamental coverage questions.

The value of the claim, however, concerns loss measurement rather than initial coverage verification. Once coverage has been established, the adjuster evaluates the extent of damage, repair or replacement costs, actual cash value or replacement cost provisions, depreciation, deductibles, limits, coinsurance, and other valuation considerations.

Coverage and valuation must therefore be distinguished. A loss may be covered even though its final monetary value has not yet been determined.

Series 17-70 reference topics: Insurance Basics — Policy Period, Named Insured, Covered Property, Coverage Analysis, Loss Adjustment, and Claim Valuation.

The correct answer is C — principal. A surety arrangement involves distinct parties. The principal is the person whose obligation or performance is being guaranteed. In a bail bond transaction, the criminal defendant is the principal because the bond guarantees the defendant's compliance with the conditions of release, particularly appearance before the court when required.

The surety is the party guaranteeing the obligation and potentially becoming liable under the bond when its terms are breached. The obligee is the party in whose favor the obligation runs—typically the court or governmental authority in a bail context. An indemnitor is a person who agrees to reimburse the surety for losses arising from issuance of the bond. “Indemnity” itself refers to the reimbursement obligation or agreement, not the defendant's party designation.

The New York PSI licensing outline identifies the parties to a surety bond as principal, indemnitor for principal, obligee, and surety. It also specifically uses the phrase “Surrender of principal (defendant),” directly confirming that the defendant is the principal in bail-bond terminology.

Understanding these roles is essential because each party has distinct contractual rights, duties, and financial responsibilities.

Therefore, the defendant on a bail bond is the principal, making C correct.

The correct answer is D — Flood. Standard homeowners insurance does not treat flood as one of its basic insured perils. Flood is generally excluded from ordinary homeowners property coverage and normally requires separate flood insurance, such as coverage obtained through the National Flood Insurance Program or an eligible private flood insurer.

By contrast, riot or civil commotion, smoke, and volcanic eruption are among the standard named causes of loss appearing in homeowners forms. The Insurance Information Institute's comparison of homeowners perils identifies riot/civil commotion, smoke, and volcanic eruption as covered causes while explaining that flood requires separate protection.

The exclusion of flood is particularly important for adjusters because “water damage” is not a single coverage category. The adjuster must determine the actual mechanism and source of water—such as plumbing leakage, rain entering through covered storm damage, surface water, tidal overflow, sewer backup, or flood—and then apply the specific policy language.

The official Series 17-70 outline requires knowledge of the Homeowners 2011 Policy, including perils insured against, exclusions, and conditions. It separately identifies the National Flood Insurance Program elsewhere in the broader property curriculum.

Therefore, the peril that is not a basic homeowners peril is D — Flood.

The correct answer is C — submitting surveys of the insured business to the insurer. The CPP Common Policy Conditions grant the first named insured several special rights and responsibilities. The first named insured may cancel the policy by providing the required written notice, is the party to whom applicable premium refunds are sent, and is authorized to make policy changes with the insurer's consent. Therefore, requesting an adjustment to policy limits falls within the first named insured's authority to seek policy changes.

The Inspections and Surveys condition operates differently. It gives the insurer the right, but generally not the obligation, to make inspections and surveys, provide reports concerning conditions found, and recommend changes. The policy does not impose a standard responsibility on the first named insured to prepare and submit surveys of the business. Standard common-policy wording expressly assigns the inspection-and-survey right to the insurer.

The first named insured also has important premium-related functions. Standard CPP wording provides for return premiums to be sent to the first named insured and recognizes the first named insured's cancellation authority.

The Series 17-70 outline specifically tests CPP components, Common Policy Declarations, Common Policy Conditions, and the First Named Insured.

The correct answer is C. A valid acceptance of an ordinary settlement offer must generally constitute unconditional assent to the offer's terms. Under the traditional common-law mirror-image principle, an alleged acceptance that changes, qualifies, or makes acceptance contingent upon an additional term is ordinarily treated as a counteroffer rather than acceptance of the original offer. Cornell's Legal Information Institute describes the mirror-image rule as requiring unconditional assent without modifications.

Therefore, there is no rule allowing the accepting party to add “one contingent stipulation” while still necessarily creating an acceptance. Even one material condition may prevent formation of the settlement on the original terms.

Option A is an element of proper acceptance. Option B is also correct because acceptance must ordinarily be manifested or communicated through an appropriate word, act, or other authorized method. Option D reflects the principle that the offeree—the person to whom the offer was made—is the party possessing the power to accept it. Cornell notes that an offer grants the offeree the power to accept and create a binding agreement.

Settlement agreements are contracts, so ordinary principles of offer, acceptance, consideration, authority, and mutual assent apply.

Accordingly, C is the statement that does not constitute a proper element of acceptance.

The correct answer is D — limited health insurance policies. Limited health insurance is designed to provide benefits for a narrowly defined event, disease, service, or category of loss rather than the broad spectrum of expenses normally addressed by comprehensive medical coverage.

A travel accident policy provides narrowly focused accident protection associated with travel or specified transportation exposures. Similarly, a specified or dread-disease policy pays benefits only when the insured experiences a specifically designated condition, such as cancer or another condition listed in the contract. Because their benefit triggers and covered losses are intentionally restricted, both fit the limited-policy classification.

The Series 17-70 examination outline makes this distinction directly. It includes Limited versus comprehensive coverage, “Limited policies,” “limited benefits and amounts,” and specifically identifies Accident-only and Specified (dread) disease policies among the tested forms.

Options A and B describe methods of organizing insured persons rather than the limited nature of the coverage. Option C, “personal health policies,” is too broad and does not identify the essential characteristic being tested.

An adjuster must recognize that a limited policy does not provide general medical insurance merely because an insured experiences medical expenses. Benefits are payable only when the loss falls within the policy's narrowly stated coverage trigger.

Therefore, D is correct.

The correct answer is C — MRI. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) produces detailed images by using a powerful magnetic field, radiofrequency energy, and computer processing. Unlike conventional X-rays and computed tomography (CAT/CT), MRI does not use ionizing radiation.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirms that MR images are created without ionizing radiation and notes that MRI provides especially strong soft-tissue contrast, allowing differentiation among structures such as muscle, fat, water-containing tissues, joints, the brain, and other organs.

CAT or CT scanning, option A, uses X-ray technology and therefore involves ionizing radiation. Conventional X-rays, option D, obviously also rely on ionizing radiation. Ultrasound, option B, does not use ionizing radiation either; it uses high-frequency sound waves. However, the question specifically asks for high-quality magnetic images, which uniquely identifies MRI among the choices.

An adjuster handling accident, disability, health, or workers compensation claims must understand diagnostic terminology because medical imaging reports may establish the existence, severity, location, and causation of an alleged injury.

The Series 17-70 outline specifically tests Understanding the Language of Medical Reports, including medical terminology and abbreviations, basic anatomy, and common injuries and diseases.

The correct answer is D — Arbitration. Arbitration is a dispute-resolution mechanism in which a disagreement is submitted to a neutral arbitrator or arbitration panel rather than being resolved solely through continued negotiations between the parties. Depending on the insurance coverage and policy provision involved, arbitration may be used to resolve specified disputes concerning entitlement to recovery, damages, or other issues identified in the contract or applicable law.

The question states that Steve rejects the insurer's settlement offer and asks which common policy provision provides a mechanism for disputing the settlement. Of the available choices, arbitration is the only recognized dispute-resolution provision.

A preferred settlement is not a standard policy dispute mechanism. A competitive bid is an estimating or procurement technique and does not determine contractual disputes between an insured and insurer. A market value clause concerns valuation methodology and does not itself create a formal procedure for resolving a contested settlement.

An adjuster must also distinguish arbitration from appraisal. Appraisal is commonly designed to resolve disputes solely over the amount of property loss, whereas arbitration can address disputes according to the scope established by the applicable contract or statute.

Series 17-70 reference topics: Auto Insurance — Claim Settlement, Arbitration, Appraisal, Loss Valuation, and Dispute Resolution.