Test Your Insurance News Knowledge

Are you an insurance news hound? Test your insurance news IQ and find out. The following questions and answers (see bottom of the page) were developed based on news stories published on InsuranceJournal.com and ClaimsJournal.com in 2011. Good luck!

1. Which of the following mergers/acquisitions was NOT announced in 2011.
   Applied Systems Buys Artizan
   ACE to Acquire Penn Millers
   MarketScout to Acquire Aon’s Agency Specialty Product Network (ASPN)
   Nationwide and Harleysville Insurance to Merge
   Allstate to Buy Esurance
2. Which of the following CEOs announced their retirement in 2011?
   Liberty Mutual’s Ted Kelley
   Applied Systems’ James P. Kellner
   Zurich/Farmer’s Paul N. Hopkins
   Lloyd’s Lord Levene
   All of the above
3. What is the name of Progressive’s usage-based private passenger auto insurance program?
   iDrive
   Cartrack
   Measured Miles
   Snapshot
4. A 1099 tax reporting mandate, passed as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, would require businesses to file a 1099 for all business-to-business transactions for goods or services totaling more than $600 over the tax year. A repeal of this mandate passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan support, but President Obama vetoed it.
   True
   False
5. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 rejected a class action employment discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart because:
   The statute of limitations has passed.
   The female employees in 3,400 stores did not have enough in common to qualify as a single class-action lawsuit.
   There was insufficient evidence that there was damage from the alleged discrimination.
6. Four former executives at General Re and one at AIG won reversals of their convictions over a reinsurance transaction that prosecutors said fraudulently boosted AIG’s loss reserves.
   True
   False
7. Unitrin changed its name to:
   Uninsurance
   Insunit
   Kemper
   K-Unit
8. Deadly storms in April set a U.S. record for the most tornadoes within one month. The final report for the month showed there were how many storms?
   753
   247
   101
   1,113
9. In Oklahoma, tort reform legislation passed in 2011 that capped non-economic damages in bodily injury cases at:
   $225,000
   $350,000
   $500,000
   $1 million
10. What was the total amount of insured losses in Texas from wildfires in 2011 as of early December?
    $2 billion
    $750 million
    $500 million
    $925 million
11. Which former state insurance commissioner was criticized for issuing him or herself insurance licenses before vacating office?
    Mississippi’s George Dale
    Georgia’s John Oxendine
    South Carolina’s Eleanor Kitzman
    West Virginia’s Jane Cline
12. In 2011, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s two-tier statutory cap on damages.
    True
    False
13. In which Midwest state did a coalition of business leaders promote during this year’s legislative session the “Fix the Six” agenda, which sought employment law, workers’ comp, tort and unemployment insurance reform, a franchise tax cap and elimination of the minimum wage escalator?
    North Dakota
    Missouri
    Minnesota
    Michigan
14. Which Midwest state racked up more than $1 billion in insurance claims from spring and summer storms in 2011, beating a previous record of $700 million paid in 1992?
    Missouri
    Ohio
    Michigan
    Kansas
15. In November, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law a bill that bans the use of which of the following factors in underwriting and rating private passenger auto insurance?
    Insured’s occupation
    Insured’s taste in music
    Credit scores
    Income level
16. Before this year’s Hurricane Irene, when was the last time a hurricane made landfall in the United States? And what was that hurricane’s name?
    Katrina in 2005
    Fred in 2009
    Earl in 2010
    Ike in 2008
17. New York Transportation Department recently used which of these novel schemes to promote its traffic safety campaign?
    Mimes mimicking traffic accidents
    TV ads with Angelina Jolie as a spokesperson
    Hiring former Occupy Wall St. protesters as crossing guards
    Haiku poetry on road signs
18. How many names of Atlantic hurricanes have been retired since 1953, the year the World Meteorological Association began naming tropical storms?
    55
    75
    83
    100
19. What is the strangest reason given for a car recall earlier this year?
    Ghost face due to faulty airbag deployment
    Passenger ejection seat did not work
    Yellow sac spiders in ventilation system
    Navigation system only had Klingon setting
20. Earlier this year, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reported on the states with the most stolen watercraft between Jan. 1, 2009 and May 31, 2011. Choose the correct answer identifying the top five states reporting the most watercraft thefts.
    Louisiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Florida
    Alaska, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas
    Florida, California, Texas, North Carolina, Michigan
    Montana, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona
21. “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a suit over money he was paid by a convicted Ponzi scheme operator in Texas Hold ‘Em matches with several high-profile individuals. Another notable actor has settled. What 1970s show did the actor star in?
    “Battlestar Galactica”
    “Good Times”
    “Welcome Back, Kotter”
    “Rockford Files”
22. What merchandise did the wife of an Arizona man taken down by police at a Wal-Mart say her husband placed under his waistband to free his hands so he could help his grandson caught in the crush of holiday shoppers?
    A power tool
    A video game
    Kitchen utensils
    A package of holiday greeting cards