Legal framework
Formation of a contract (offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, legal purpose), the role of agency law, and the provincial Insurance Acts and regulations that apply in common-law provinces.
LLQP Ethics and Professional Practice module
Ethics looks like the easy module. It is the one with the least margin. Only 20 scored questions count, plus 5 pilots, in 75 minutes, so each scored question is worth 5% of your result and 9 misses mean a fail. Candidates outside Québec write the common-law version, which is a law exam as much as an ethics exam.
| Scored questions | 20 |
|---|---|
| Pilot questions | 5, unscored and not identified |
| Time | 75 minutes, about 3 minutes per item |
| Passing mark | 60%, so 12 of 20 |
| Required for | Both the life licence and the A&S-only licence |
Why 20 questions changes your strategy
On a 30-question module, you can miss 12 and pass. On Ethics, you can miss 8. There is no room for a topic you decided to skip.
The extra time per question is real: use it to read each scenario slowly. Ethics items are often long, and the answer hinges on one word such as “before”, “only” or “unless”.
What the module covers
The curriculum splits Ethics into two competency groups: the legal aspects of insurance contracts, and the rules governing the agent.
Policy provisions
Utmost good faith, misrepresentation and non-disclosure, the contestable period, grace periods, reinstatement, assignment and beneficiary designations.
Claims and benefits
Proof of claim, who is paid, how benefits pass outside or through an estate, and what an agent may and may not do when a claim is disputed.
Rules governing agents
Know your client, needs-based selling, disclosure of conflicts, replacement disclosure, confidentiality and privacy law, record keeping, E&O coverage and continuing education.
A method for Ethics questions
Name the parties
Owner, life insured, beneficiary, insurer, agent. Many wrong answers protect the wrong person.
Find the legal rule
Disclosure, consent, replacement, confidentiality, conflict of interest. Ask which rule the scenario is built around.
Check the timing
Before or after the application, during or after the contestable period, before or after a claim. Timing often reverses the answer.
Eliminate the comfortable option
The distractor is usually what a helpful agent might do informally. The right answer is what the law and the insurer’s rules require.
Common law or Québec civil law
There are two Ethics modules in the LLQP, one for the common-law provinces and one for Québec’s civil-law system.
If you will be licensed in Ontario, BC, Alberta or any other common-law province, you write Ethics and Professional Practice (common law). Québec has its own exam system. CISRO publishes separate sample questions for each Ethics version, and the Alberta Insurance Council lists a separate fee for the Ethics (Québec Civil) exam.
Moving the other way also matters. New Brunswick’s regulator states that Québec candidates must show the common-law Ethics module (112) to be licensed there, rather than the civil-law version (111).
Where candidates trip
- Answering from “what would be nice” instead of what the law requires
- Confusing misrepresentation (a false statement) with non-disclosure (a fact left out)
- Forgetting that a replacement requires written disclosure to the client, comparing the old and new contracts
- Treating an irrevocable beneficiary as changeable without consent
- Ignoring the agent’s duty to the insurer when the question focuses on the client
Scenario
A client in Hamilton tells you, while you fill in the application, that he was treated for high blood pressure last year. He asks you not to write it down because “it is under control now”. What do you do?
You record it. The applicant has a duty to disclose material facts, and you cannot take part in a non-disclosure. If the insurer later discovers the omission, it may contest the policy within the period allowed by provincial insurance law. The wrong answers will offer to “mention it verbally to the underwriter” or to “leave it out since it is controlled”.
Try a question
A policy clause can reasonably be read in two ways. The insurer's reading denies the claim; the beneficiary's reading allows it. How will a court generally interpret the clause?
Who wrote the wording of the contract?
See the answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. An insurance policy is a contract of adhesion: the insurer drafts it and the client cannot negotiate the wording. Courts therefore interpret a genuine ambiguity against the insurer (contra proferentem), in favour of the insured or beneficiary.
Questions about the Ethics module
For the rewrite rules if a module does not go your way, see LLQP retake rules.
Why is the Ethics module the riskiest?
Because it has 20 scored questions instead of 30. Each miss costs 5 percentage points, and the topics are legal rules that common sense does not always predict.
Should I write Ethics first or last?
There is no required order. It tends to read more easily after the product modules, because the scenarios assume you know what a policy, a beneficiary or a segregated fund is.
How should I study for Ethics?
Read the explanation of every practice question, including the ones you got right. Ethics items are built on distinctions such as misrepresentation versus non-disclosure or revocable versus irrevocable beneficiaries, and knowing why the other three options are wrong is what protects you on the day.
Is the Ethics module the same in every common-law province?
The module is harmonized nationally. Provincial rules on topics such as licensing or supervision appear in questions in a general form; the details for your province are in its licensing guide.
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