The national Types of Life Insurance Policies guide covers term, whole life, universal and variable life, joint life, group life and credit life. This guide covers the Wisconsin rules that apply to those products: group life conversion and facility of payment, variable life licensing, and the limits on policy types Wisconsin allows.

Group life (Wis. Stat. 632.56, 632.57)

• Facility of payment: the insurer may pay up to $1,000 to someone equitably entitled because they paid funeral or last-illness expenses (632.56(3)).
• Conversion (632.57):
  • When group coverage ends, the person may get an individual policy without evidence of insurability by applying and paying within 31 days.
  • The person may choose any form the insurer customarily issues except term insurance.
  • If the person dies during the conversion period, the convertible amount is paid as a claim under the group policy, even if they never applied.

Joint life

• A first-to-die joint life policy pays when the first insured dies.
• A survivorship (second-to-die) policy pays after both have died.

The Wisconsin Life exam outline lists joint life among the policy types tested.

Variable life

• Variable life and variable annuity authority requires verified FINRA Series 6 or Series 7 registration. Wisconsin has no separate state exam for this line (Ins 6.59).

Policy types Wisconsin limits

• Participating policies only for fraternal and mutual life insurers, with narrow exceptions. Stock insurers may issue participating or nonparticipating (632.62(1)).
• Assessable life policies are prohibited (632.41(1)).
• Burial contracts payable to a funeral director are prohibited, except as allowed under 632.415 (632.41(2)).

Common exam traps

• The group life conversion window is 31 days, and term isn't available on conversion.
• Death during the conversion window is paid as if the person had converted.
• Group facility of payment is up to $1,000 for funeral or last-illness costs.
• Variable authority in Wisconsin rests on FINRA registration, with no extra state exam.
• Wisconsin bans assessable life policies.