KS Property & Casualty common mistakes
KS Property & Casualty · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answers Kansas numeric items - auto liability minimums, UM/UIM requirements, PIP minimum benefits, CE hours, appointment and termination notice periods - from a general memory of 'typical state rules' instead of the Kansas figures.
Study guides teach concepts in prose, so numbers get memorized last and are easily blended with figures from other states or from the national portion of the course.
What to do instead
Keep a single-page 'Kansas numbers' card and rebuild it by hand once a week from the official exam outline and statute/regulation citations. Before answering any numeric item, write the rule in one sentence first, then the number.
Uses 'authorized,' 'admitted,' 'licensed,' and 'certificate of authority' as if they were interchangeable - for example, stating that a producer's license authorizes an insurer to transact business in Kansas.
The words are administrative and look similar, and they show up in short regulation questions where the distinction is the entire point being tested.
What to do instead
Anchor each term to its subject: insurers receive a certificate of authority and are admitted/authorized; producers hold a license; a separate surplus lines producer license is required to place coverage with nonadmitted insurers. Build a two-column matching table and quiz yourself on it.
On coinsurance problems, calculates limit divided by (coinsurance percentage times value at time of loss) times the loss, and stops there - reporting a payment that exceeds the policy limit or forgetting the deductible.
The penalty ratio is the only piece that gets drilled, so the cap and the deductible get treated as separate afterthoughts rather than steps inside one calculation.
What to do instead
Do every practice problem in a fixed four-line order: (1) required insurance = coinsurance percentage times value at time of loss; (2) ratio = limit divided by required, capped at 1.00; (3) payment = ratio times loss, capped at the policy limit; (4) subtract the deductible. Write the four lines out every time until it is automatic.
Treats a claims-made policy as covering any act that happened while the policy was in force, so a claim reported during the policy period for an act that predates the retroactive date gets marked as covered.
The occurrence trigger is learned first and dominates recall, and the retroactive date is a single date buried in a fact pattern that is easy to skim past.
What to do instead
For every claims-made question, draw a timeline and mark three points: date of the act, the retroactive date, and the date reported. Coverage requires act on or after the retro date AND report within the policy period or extended reporting period; the ERP extends reporting only, never coverage for new acts.
States that the HO-3 covers both the dwelling and personal property on an open-perils basis.
The form is commonly called the 'special form,' which sounds like all-risk coverage applies to everything in the policy.
What to do instead
Memorize the split explicitly: HO-3 insures Coverages A and B on an open-perils basis and Coverage C on a named-perils basis; HO-5 insures both on open perils. Write that one line at the top of your scratch paper before starting the exam block.
Pays full replacement cost on a dwelling loss without testing whether the limit meets 80% of replacement cost, and without withholding recoverable depreciation until repair or replacement is actually completed.
ACV versus replacement cost is learned as a definition pair rather than as a settlement procedure with conditions attached, so the conditions disappear under time pressure.
What to do instead
Work every loss settlement question as a checklist: valuation method, 80% replacement-cost test, deductible placement, recoverable depreciation holdback, and any special dollar limit for the specific item damaged.
Applies the 'your work' exclusion to a defective product the insured manufactured, or assumes the subcontractor exception to 'your work' is unlimited.
Both exclusions sit in the same block of the CGL form and share the same 'your' framing, so they blur together when read quickly.
What to do instead
Sort by what changed hands: a product is goods sold or distributed (the products-completed operations hazard and the product exclusion); work is construction, repair, or service performed (the work exclusion); impaired property is property that cannot be used because of your defective work. The subcontractor exception attaches to 'your work' only, not to products.
Says a personal auto policy never covers a vehicle the insured does not own, and treats Kansas uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage as an optional coverage that can be declined informally.
'Your covered auto' is a long definition and the drive-other-car grant hides inside the liability insuring agreement; UM/UIM rejection is assumed to follow whatever the candidate's home state does.
What to do instead
Memorize the categories of 'your covered auto' plus the separate non-owned auto definition, including that borrowed and rental private passenger autos are covered for liability and often for limited physical damage. For Kansas, know that UM/UIM must be offered at the liability limits and can be rejected only in the manner the statute requires - a written rejection, not a phone call.
Places a risk in a businessowners policy without first testing eligibility - an ineligible class or occupancy, a building beyond the BOP's height or square-footage ceiling, or limits above the program maximum.
Candidates treat the BOP as 'the small commercial policy' and jump straight to limits and endorsements, skipping the eligibility screen that the exam usually tests first.
What to do instead
Run a three-question eligibility screen before anything else on a BOP question: is the occupancy/class eligible, is the building within the form's age/height/area thresholds, and are the requested limits within the BOP maximum? If any answer is no, the risk goes to a commercial package policy.
Assumes a blanket additional insured endorsement automatically covers a general contractor for the insured's completed operations, and that the additional insured's own policy pays first.
Additional insured status is remembered as a single concept, so the scope-of-coverage wording (ongoing versus completed operations) and the primary and noncontributory grant get overlooked.
What to do instead
Read every additional insured question against the endorsement's actual wording: which entity is scheduled, whether the grant is limited to ongoing operations or extends to completed operations, and whether primary and noncontributory status is granted by the form or must be added separately. Confirm the form number and schedule before deciding.