Free Practice Questions for Insurance Licensing NY-Independent-General-Adjuster Exam

The correct answer is B — Mobile equipment endorsement. A forklift is ordinarily classified as mobile equipment, rather than an “auto,” because it is principally designed for use off public roads or for operations at a premises. Consequently, it does not automatically fall within the standard Business Auto Coverage Form's normal treatment of covered autos.

A Mobile Equipment endorsement permits specifically described mobile equipment to be treated as a covered auto for the coverages scheduled in the endorsement. Depending on the form and selections, this can extend Physical Damage coverage to the equipment. Forklifts are specifically recognized as classic examples of mobile equipment.

The Miscellaneous Type Vehicle endorsement is primarily associated with personal auto treatment of specialized vehicles and is not the appropriate commercial solution here. The Truckers Coverage Form addresses motor-carrier/trucking exposures. The Drive Other Car endorsement extends specified commercial-auto protections to certain individuals when they use nonowned autos and has nothing to do with insuring a business-owned forklift.

The Series 17-70 outline directly tests Commercial Auto, Business Auto, Physical Damage Coverage, Definitions, and the Mobile Equipment endorsement. The New York examination outline identifies mobile equipment specifically among the selected commercial-auto endorsements.

Thus, B is the technically correct selection.

The correct answer is D — Windstorm. The Commercial Property Causes of Loss — Special Form operates primarily on an open-perils basis. Rather than limiting coverage only to individually listed causes of loss, it generally covers risks of direct physical loss unless the cause is specifically excluded or limited by the form.

The Special Form specifically excludes smog. It also contains a Water exclusion that includes flood, surface water, waves, overflow of bodies of water, mudslide, and mudflow. Consequently, options A, B, and C describe causes specifically removed from the broad Special Form coverage grant.

Windstorm, by contrast, is not generally excluded by the standard Causes of Loss — Special Form. Direct physical damage caused by wind is therefore ordinarily covered unless another exclusion, limitation, endorsement, or property-specific provision applies.

This illustrates an essential adjusting distinction. Under a named-perils form, the insured must establish that the damage resulted from one of the listed covered causes. Under an open-perils Special Form, analysis begins with broad direct physical loss coverage and then determines whether an exclusion or limitation removes the loss.

The Series 17-70 outline specifically covers Commercial Property causes-of-loss forms, exclusions, and open-versus-named-peril concepts.

Therefore, D is correct.

The correct answer is D — Permit the insurer to inspect the vehicle before it is repaired. Under the Personal Auto Policy's duties following an accident or loss, a person seeking physical-damage coverage must give the insurer a reasonable opportunity to inspect and appraise damaged property before repair or disposal. This allows the carrier to document the damage, determine whether it resulted from a covered cause of loss, evaluate repairability, estimate repair costs, establish actual cash value where necessary, and determine whether the automobile constitutes a total loss. Standard personal-auto policy language expressly imposes this duty.

Option A is not universally required for every collision. Police notification is specifically required by the standard policy for situations such as theft, while state law may independently impose accident-reporting obligations in particular circumstances. Option B concerns maintaining coverage before the loss, not a post-loss claim duty. Option C does not express the relevant physical-damage requirement.

The insured must also take reasonable steps to protect the covered auto against further loss and comply with other cooperation and documentation requirements.

The official Series 17-70 outline expressly includes Personal Auto Policy—Coverage for Damage to Your Auto and Duties After an Accident or Loss.

Therefore, the required answer is D.

The correct answer is A. The Hired Auto and Non-Owned Auto Liability endorsement extends a Businessowners Policy's liability protection to specified automobile exposures that otherwise fall within the BOP's auto exclusion.

A non-owned auto is generally an automobile the business does not own, lease, hire, rent, or borrow but that is used in connection with the business. An employee's personally owned automobile being used for company business is the classic example. New York BOP rating material describes Non-Owned Auto Liability as protection for automobiles not owned, borrowed, or hired by the insured, while court decisions applying the endorsement confirm coverage for bodily injury or property damage arising from use of qualifying non-owned autos in the business.

Technically, the endorsement principally protects the business's liability arising from that use; it should not be interpreted as automatically providing personal liability or physical-damage protection to the employee-owner of the vehicle.

Options B, C, and D involve a company-owned automobile. A business-owned van or auto normally requires appropriate commercial automobile insurance and does not become a hired or non-owned auto simply because an employee or customer is driving it.

The Series 17-70 outline specifically includes Businessowners coverage and associated liability concepts.

Therefore, A is correct.

The correct answer is B. Under the standard CGL condition titled Duties in the Event of Occurrence, Offense, Claim or Suit, the insured must see that the insurer is notified as soon as practicable of an occurrence or offense that may result in a claim. The notice should, to the extent possible, identify how, when, and where the occurrence happened, the names and addresses of injured persons and witnesses, and the nature and location of resulting injury or damage. New York Court of Appeals decisions reproduce this CGL condition substantially verbatim.

Option A is incorrect because the standard CGL does not establish a universal seven-day reporting deadline. Option C is defective because cooperation is not discretionary; the insured must cooperate with investigation, settlement, and defense and provide assistance when requested. Option D is far too broad because the policy does not require reporting every business matter.

Once an actual claim or suit is received, additional duties apply, including promptly notifying the insurer and forwarding demands, notices, summonses, and legal papers.

The Series 17-70 outline specifically covers CGL conditions, occurrence versus claims-made coverage, investigation, and duties after loss or claim.

The correct examination answer is B — $100,000. A standard Dwelling Policy primarily provides property insurance; personal liability protection is added through the Personal Liability Supplement. Under that supplement, Coverage L — Personal Liability responds when an insured becomes legally liable for bodily injury or property damage caused by a covered occurrence. Coverage M separately provides Medical Payments to Others. The Series 17-70 outline expressly identifies the Personal Liability Supplement as a tested Dwelling Policy endorsement.

The traditional standard limit associated with Coverage L in licensing material is $100,000 per occurrence. Policy analyses of the ISO dwelling liability supplement also illustrate Coverage L using a $100,000 limit.

A technical distinction is important for claims practice: the actual contractual limit is ultimately the amount shown in the policy declarations or Personal Liability Schedule. Therefore, higher limits may be purchased when offered by the insurer. The question is testing the standard/default licensing-exam limit rather than asserting that every dwelling liability supplement is permanently restricted to $100,000.

Coverage L also generally includes the insurer's defense obligation in addition to covered damages, subject to the policy's exclusions and conditions.

Therefore, the required answer is B.

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 A. After coverage has been verified, the loss investigated, evidence gathered, damages measured, and applicable policy provisions applied, the claim normally advances to settlement and payment. At this stage, the adjuster communicates the valuation and seeks resolution of the amount payable under the policy.

A contemporary claims-process description characterizes the final stage as arranging resolution: once damages and costs are established, the adjuster discusses settlement and arranges payment.

Option B is incorrect because a historical loss run is an underwriting or loss-history document, not a mandatory final step in settling an individual claim. Option C is also incorrect; insurers are subject to regulatory reporting requirements, but an adjuster does not ordinarily submit every final claim payment to the state insurance department as the concluding step of each claim. Option D occurs earlier. Reserves are established and modified throughout investigation as the expected claim cost becomes clearer.

The official Series 17-70 outline specifically identifies Claims Adjustment Procedures, Settlement Procedures, Negotiation, Releases, Advance Payments, Draft Authority, Appraisal, and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Therefore, A accurately describes the normal final settlement phase.

The correct answer is A — Bodily injury. Commercial General Liability terminology defines “bodily injury” broadly to include bodily injury, sickness, or disease sustained by a person, including death resulting from any of these. Food poisoning from improperly prepared chicken salad constitutes sickness or disease affecting a person's body; because the customer dies as a result, the resulting death remains within the bodily-injury definition.

This scenario may also implicate the products-completed operations hazard, because the allegedly defective or contaminated food caused injury after being provided to the customer. Nevertheless, the question asks for the type of loss, not which CGL hazard classification applies. The loss is therefore bodily injury.

Property damage refers to physical injury to tangible property or qualifying loss of use and does not describe injury or death to a human being. “Health injury” is not the standardized CGL category used for this coverage. Personal and advertising injury concerns specifically defined offenses such as false arrest, malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction, certain privacy violations, and specified publication-related offenses—not physical illness from contaminated food.

The Series 17-70 outline expressly covers CGL bodily injury and property damage liability, premises and operations, and products-completed operations.

The correct answer is C — an aggregate limit. An aggregate limit establishes the maximum amount an insurer will pay for all covered claims subject to that aggregate during the applicable policy period, ordinarily one year. The Hartford describes an aggregate limit as the maximum amount an insurer pays for all claims during the policy period.

This must be distinguished from an occurrence limit, which caps the amount payable for one occurrence. For example, a liability policy might provide a $1 million each-occurrence limit and a $2 million general aggregate. Multiple individually covered occurrences can therefore consume the aggregate until the total available limit has been exhausted.

A single limit generally refers to one combined limit rather than separate limits for different components, such as bodily injury and property damage. “Face amount” is terminology more commonly associated with life insurance or other contracts stating a specified benefit amount and does not describe an annual liability ceiling.

The official Series 17-70 outline specifically tests policy limits, per-occurrence limits, per-person limits, general and products/completed-operations aggregate limits, single/split limits, and combined single limits.

Thus, when the question asks for the limit controlling the maximum cumulative payout during the annual policy period, aggregate limit is the precise insurance term.

Therefore, C is correct.