One-Page Cheat Sheet

Use a recap to identify what you can explain and what needs another look.

What Should You Recall About Shared Foundations?

• Insurance Fundamentals: Risk is uncertainty, a peril causes loss, and a hazard increases its chance or severity. Pooling supports group estimates, while underwriting addresses the risks accepted. Separate agreement, consideration, capacity, and legal purpose from the policy's aleatory, unilateral, conditional, and adhesion features. Identify owner, insured, and beneficiary separately. Insurable interest and effective-date requirements depend on the applicable facts and rules. Calculate benefits from the policy's stated amount or eligible expenses, as appropriate.
• Needs, Applications, and Underwriting: Begin with the need, duration, existing resources, and sustainable premium, then match the product to that problem. The applicant supplies accurate answers and required signatures; the producer submits information, and the insurer underwrites. Consumer reports, medical records, privacy notices, authorizations, test consent, and adverse-action notices follow different rules. A premium receipt creates only the temporary coverage its terms provide. At delivery, compare the issued policy with the request and explain every change, guarantee, exclusion, and replacement tradeoff. For covered cash-value or investment-feature products, the insurer remains responsible for its anti-money-laundering program.

What Should You Recall About Life Insurance?

• Term Life: Term life pays a death benefit for a covered death during a stated period and usually has no cash value. Level term keeps the benefit level, decreasing term lowers it, annually renewable term usually raises premiums with attained age, and return-of-premium term adds a conditional refund at a higher cost. Renewal continues eligible term coverage without new evidence of insurability; conversion changes eligible coverage to a permanent policy within its window. Match the benefit pattern, coverage period, future premiums, deadlines, and refund conditions to the actual need.
• Whole Life: Traditional whole life is designed for permanent coverage when its requirements are met. Ordinary, limited-pay, and single-premium designs change the funding schedule, while the contract controls guaranteed benefits and values. First-to-die coverage generally pays at the first covered death; survivorship coverage waits for the second. Policy loans create debt, dividends are not guaranteed, and surrender ends coverage. When premiums stop, cash surrender pays net value, reduced paid-up insurance keeps a smaller permanent benefit, and extended-term insurance keeps the original face amount temporarily. An elected automatic premium loan uses sufficient value and creates interest-bearing debt.
• Universal and Indexed Life: Universal life separates the death benefit from an account value supported by premiums and credits and reduced by charges, loans, and withdrawals. Flexible premium timing does not remove the funding needed to keep coverage in force. Indexed life calculates interest through a contract formula tied to an external index; the owner does not own the index. Caps, participation rates, spreads, floors, timing, and charges shape the result. A floor can limit a negative index credit while charges still reduce value. Read guaranteed and nonguaranteed illustration columns separately, and check any no-lapse guarantee by its own conditions.
• Variable Life: Variable life uses separate-account investment options, so the policyowner bears market risk and policy value can rise or fall. Traditional variable life generally has scheduled premiums; variable universal life adds flexible premiums and adjustable benefits. Low funding, poor performance, withdrawals, loans, interest, and charges can raise lapse risk. A death-benefit or no-lapse guarantee applies only under its stated conditions and does not guarantee cash value. Prospectuses describe features, risks, and fee categories, while the policy, illustration, and purchase materials supply contract and buyer-specific details. Compare total costs on the same basis.
• Ownership and Beneficiaries: The owner controls rights, the insured is covered, the premium payer pays, and beneficiaries receive designated proceeds. Primary and contingent determine payment order; revocable and irrevocable affect change rights. Loans create debt, withdrawals remove value, collateral assignments secure a limited claim, and absolute assignments transfer ownership. Settlement options change the form and timing of covered proceeds. Legitimate third-party ownership requires the applicable insurable interest and purpose. A life settlement sells an existing policy to a buyer; surrender ends it with the insurer, and settlement proceeds are not automatically tax-free.
• Life Provisions and Riders: A provision states a contract right, duty, promise, limit, or claim condition; an attached rider changes specified coverage. Grace applies before lapse, while reinstatement restores eligible lapsed coverage only after its stated requirements are met. Identify each rider’s covered person, trigger, proof, waiting period, amount, cost, and effect on the base policy. Waiver, disability income, guaranteed insurability, long-term care, and accelerated benefits perform different jobs. A rating changes price; an exclusion changes coverage only under its exact wording. Settlement options change payment form, and post-death interest is generally taxable.
• Annuities: Classify an annuity by premium pattern, income start, and value method. During accumulation, payments and credits or investment results build value, while withdrawals, losses, and charges reduce it. Annuitization generally trades value and control for scheduled payments and is generally irrevocable; systematic withdrawals are different. Life-only, period-certain, joint-and-survivor, fixed-period, and refund choices protect different people for different lengths of time, and more protection commonly lowers the starting payment. Tax deferral postpones tax rather than eliminating it. Qualified, nonqualified, and Roth arrangements have different tax qualifiers, so apply the actual contract and recipient facts.
• Group, Business, Retirement, and Tax: The sponsor owns a group master policy, while members receive certificates; contributory and noncontributory describe funding, and conversion differs from portability. Key-person coverage protects a business loss, while insurance funds a buy-sell obligation created by a written agreement. Size personal or business coverage from obligations, available resources, duration, and affordable funding. Qualified plans, nonqualified compensation, and Social Security benefits follow separate rules. Personal life premiums are generally nondeductible, qualifying death proceeds are generally excluded, and post-death interest is generally taxable. Modified endowment contracts generally use income-first treatment for non-annuity distributions, and annuity tax deferral postpones tax rather than eliminating it.

What Should You Recall About Accident & Health Insurance?

• Health Policy Basics and Cost Sharing: Premium keeps coverage in force; a deductible is an eligible-cost threshold, a copayment is fixed, and coinsurance is a percentage. For expense-reimbursement medical coverage, start claim math with the covered service and allowed amount; fixed-benefit coverage follows its stated benefit. Exclusions remove coverage, while limits cap it. A benefit maximum limits insurer payment; an out-of-pocket maximum limits counted member cost sharing. Federal protections depend on the coverage category. Noncancelable and guaranteed-renewable policies protect continuation differently, and guaranteed renewal can allow class-wide premium changes.
• Medical Plans and Managed Care: Basic policies pay listed benefits; major medical covers broader eligible expenses. Health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization, and point-of-service plans use different common network and referral patterns, but actual terms control. Preauthorization, concurrent review, and retrospective review occur before, during, and after care, and none replaces claim rules. Coordination makes one plan primary and another secondary under the first applicable rule. Subrogation instead seeks recovery from a responsible third party after payment.
• Health Provisions and Field Underwriting: The written policy and attached changes control. Grace periods, reinstatement, free look, and limits on certain defenses answer different questions. Claims move through notice, forms, proof, review, and payment under contract-specific deadlines. The applicant supplies accurate answers, the producer creates and submits the record, and the insurer makes the underwriting decision. A conditional receipt works only under its terms. Consumer-report duties depend on use of an agency report, while health-privacy duties depend on the party's legal status and role.
• Disability Income: Apply the policy's own-occupation, any-occupation, partial, residual, or recurrent definition to documented work capacity and earnings. The elimination period delays payment; the benefit period caps its duration. Offsets apply only to named outside benefits. Personal disability income replaces earnings, while business overhead expense, buyout, and key-employee coverage protect business needs. Riders can add purchase rights, exclusions, or premium relief. Employer or pretax funding generally produces taxable income benefits; employee after-tax funding generally produces excluded benefits.
• Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) and Workers’ Compensation: Accidental death and dismemberment pays scheduled amounts only for covered accidental losses. Disability income pays when the contract's work and income definition is met. Workers' compensation covers qualifying occupational injury or illness under the governing program. A private policy may exclude, coordinate, or offset a named workers' compensation benefit, but filing one claim does not decide another. Disability-benefit taxes follow premium funding, while qualifying workers' compensation and certain permanent-loss payments are generally excluded under their own rules.
• Group Health, Continuation Coverage, and Marketplace: In an insured group plan, the sponsor holds the policy and members receive certificates; a self-funded plan follows its governing documents. Federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act continuation requires a covered plan, a qualifying event causing coverage loss, and an eligible beneficiary. Keep the 18-, 29-, and 36-month maximums separate from the 60-day election window, 45-day first-payment period, and 30-day grace period. Marketplace plans protect pre-existing conditions, while metal levels measure average cost sharing. Limited-benefit products can follow different rules and do not replace comprehensive coverage.
• Health Accounts: A Health Savings Account belongs to the individual, accepts eligible funding from several sources, and carries forward. New contribution eligibility requires qualifying coverage plus no disqualifying coverage, Medicare enrollment, or dependent status. A health Flexible Spending Arrangement is an employer-plan benefit with full elected reimbursement available during coverage and plan-controlled forfeiture rules. A Health Reimbursement Arrangement is employer-funded and employer-sponsored. Qualified Health Savings Account medical distributions can be tax-free, while nonqualified spending is generally taxable and may face a 20% additional tax. An account pays from its available funds and does not change what insurance covers.
• Medicare and Medigap: Original Medicare uses Part A for qualifying inpatient facility care and Part B for physician and outpatient services. Medicare Advantage, or Part C, delivers Medicare benefits through a private plan with plan-specific networks, approvals, costs, and possible drug coverage. Part D covers outpatient prescriptions. Medigap works only with Original Medicare, covers one person, and applies its stated benefit after Medicare pays. Same-letter Medigap policies have the same basic benefits where standardization applies, but premiums and availability can differ. Admission status, approved amounts, current plan documents, formularies, and enrollment rights answer separate questions.
• Medicaid and Social Security: Medicaid is a joint federal-state health program, so eligibility categories, optional benefits, and financial methods can vary by state within federal requirements. Social Security Disability Insurance requires covered work plus the federal disability standard, including inability to perform substantial work and an expected 12-month duration or death. Its usual five-full-month cash-benefit wait is a separate rule. Supplemental Security Income instead uses limited income and resources plus age, blindness, or disability. Dual eligible means separate qualification for Medicare and Medicaid: Medicare generally pays first for Medicare-covered services, and Medicaid remains payer of last resort.
• Long-Term Care and Supplemental Coverage: Long-term-care insurance separates the care trigger, practitioner certification, elimination period, covered setting, payment method, and benefit limit. The tax-qualified activity route generally requires expected substantial assistance with at least two activities considered by the policy for at least 90 days, while certified severe cognitive impairment can qualify through a need for substantial supervision under tax-qualified terms. Expense-incurred, indemnity, and cash methods pay differently. Supplemental products, including accidental death and dismemberment, follow their own narrow triggers and limits. A fixed or supplemental benefit does not automatically reimburse the actual bill or replace comprehensive major-medical coverage.

How Should You Use a Weak Area?

• Explain the distinction before rereading it. Name the product, person, condition, and benefit involved.
• Open the linked rapid-fire sheet, then its full unit when the short explanation is not enough.
• Practice with the full unit's Study Quiz and Flashcard Session, then return to the recap.

The Life and Health General-Knowledge Diagnostics are separate study tools. State-specific requirements and exam rules belong to your state supplement.