Practice Exam

RMI3500: Practice Questions

Each of the following questions would be worth two (2) points

1) Suppose that you and your friend get into an argument about which is the longest river in the world. Your friend insists that it is the Mississippi-Missouri, and ends up betting you a round of drinks. Sure enough, you look it up, and your friend is wrong1. Which of the three forms of overconfidence did your friend display?

2) Explain how currency exchange rate risk would affect someone working in Australia and earning US dollars.

3) Explain how you would use opportunity cost to reduce congestion on Atlanta's roads.

4) Suppose I offer you the following gamble: I will toss a fair coin. If it comes up heads, you get $100; if it comes up tails, you get nothing.

a) What is the expected value of this gamble?
b) State how much you would be willing to pay to play this game. Given this answer, what is your risk premium? (Hint: this requires answering (a). If you could not answer (a), define the risk premium).

5) A strong wind knocks down a big tree at the front of the yard, which smashes into a fire hydrant, which bursts open and the water flows downhill into the insured's home, flooding the basement and first floor. The insurer denies the claim due to flood exclusion. Do you agree with that decision? Explain your reasons.

6) Patrice has a full-time job, but she also has a part-time home business: she sells custom stationary. She does this from her extra room at her home, where she has her samples and meets clients and takes orders. Patrice wonders what the right way is to insure this. Advise her.

7) Denise lives with her parents while she works part-time. She has her own car. Her parents spend half the year in Costa Rica. Denise then uses her parents' car all the time to keep the mileage off her own car. If Denise is in an accident, will her own auto insurance cover the claim? Why or why not?

8) Airport parking can be unavailable and taxis can be expensive during Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Marty decides to help his friends during those holidays who need to get to and from the airport. And Marty wants to make a little extra money. He will charge them $12 to take them to the airport, and $12 to pick them up. He will only do this for his friends or a friend of a friend. If Marty gets into an automobile accident, how should his auto insurance handle the claim?

1. It is generally believed to be either the Nile or the Amazon

RMI3500: Practice Questions

9) The Georgia legislature is in session. A local television host shows video of a capitol hearing and says of a nursing student who is testifying about health care, "she is the best looking witness they've called in a long time. She has a lot of experience with beds, that's for sure. And now she wants to be a nurse. Familiar territory to her. No surprise she was invited to the capital. They are all whores there."

a) If the student makes a claim against the television host, what would her claim be?

b) If the TV host has insurance, what specific type of insurance might cover this, and would it actually cover this claim - why?

10) Explain whether, and why, an underwriter will likely charge more or less premium to insure a 3,000 square meter business building constructed of cinder blocks with fire sprinklers, against a 3,000 square meter pretty wooden loft building with fireplace.

RMI3500: Practice Questions

Case Question - 10 points

(Note: Names have been changed from the original case.)

On August 1, 1989, James Jones shot and killed Brian Smith. Smith, who at that time was residing with the Jones' neighbor, was allegedly intoxicated that afternoon and evening. The Joneses saw Smith acting aggressively and erratically. They were also informed by their nephew, who was visiting them that day, that Smith had told him that he could kill the nephew with his bare hands. About eleven o'clock that evening, Smith shot an automatic weapon into Lake St. Clair and threatened "to kill someone." At that point, James Jones, who had become alarmed at Smith's behavior during the course of the afternoon and was feeling very frightened at Smith's threat to harm someone, retrieved his twelve-gauge shotgun from his garage.

Jones did not use the gun until later that evening when Marion Jones saw Smith scaling up the Jones' garage and approaching the window to the room where she and the children were. Jones did not actually see Smith's weapon, but erroneously assumed that Smith still had the automatic weapon and was going to use it to harm his wife and children. Jones got his twelve-gauge shotgun, aimed at Smith, and shot him in the stomach. Smith died as a result of the shooting.

Despite the fact that Smith was unarmed when Jones shot and killed him, the St. Clair County prosecutor never brought charges against Jones for the shooting.

On November 20, 1989, Smith's father filed a wrongful death action against the Joneses. Does the Jones' insurance company, Auto-Owners Insurance Company, have a legal duty to defend the Joneses? Discuss, citing HO-3.

(Note: While this is based on an actual case, your answer will not be marked in terms of how closely it resembles the decision of the court, but rather on the strength of your argument)