Pennsylvania Insurance License Exam

Passing your Pennsylvania insurance license exam is a pivotal part of becoming a licensed insurance agent in the state of Pennsylvania.

In this guide, we’ll break down the general information that you need to know in order to pass your exam, outline the differences between each examination line, and offer tips on both: how to prepare for your Pennsylvania insurance licensing exam, and on what to do after you pass.

Pennsylvania Insurance Exam Basics

General Information

The state of Pennsylvania uses PSI to administer its insurance agent licensing. This means that you can register and book all of your licensing examinations through the PSI website. Your test can be carried out online or in person.

Each major insurance line examination includes both general and state-specific material.

The general questions test your federal insurance product and agent knowledge, whereas the state-specific questions test you on the Pennsylvania insurance regulations and laws that you will need to know in order to operate as an insurance agent.

Score Explanation

After you complete your test, your score will be displayed on screen and a score report will be emailed to you.

If you failed your exam, your score report will include a diagnostic report that you can use to identify your strengths and weaknesses. This can be very useful if you want to re-take your exam in the future.

You can request a duplicate score report by emailing PSI at scorereport@psionline.com. Keep in mind that you will need to include your full name, candidate ID number, and confirmation number.

Note: A score of 70% or higher is required in order to pass your insurance license exam(s) in Pennsylvania.

Cost

Your Pennsylvania insurance license exam cost will depend on the type and number of examinations that you take:

Examination	Cost	Time Allowed
Life, Accident, and Health	$53	170 Minutes
Property & Casualty	$53	170 Minutes
Accident and Health	$43	120 Minutes
Life Insurance	$43	120 Minutes

Note: You should focus on one exam at a time. This will likely increase the amount of time and effort you can allocate to each examination and should allow you to feel more prepared when you sit your exam.

Pennsylvania Life and Health Insurance Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by PSI. 

We recommend using it as a checklist when working through your pre-license education course. This way, you’ll be absolutely sure that you haven’t missed any topic that you will be tested on later on. 

Life, Accident and Health Insurance Exam

150 questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation

II. General Insurance Concepts

1. Risk
2. Classifications of Insurers
3. Elements of a Contract
4. Authority and Powers of Producers
5. Legal Interpretations Affecting Contracts

III. Life, Accident, and Health Insurance Basics

1. Insurable Interest
2. Personal Uses of Life Insurance
3. Determining Amount of Personal Life Insurance
4. Business Uses of Life Insurance
5. Viatical and life settlements
6. Classes of life insurance policies
7. Factors in Premium Determination
8. Premium Frequency 
9. Producer responsibilities
10. Field Underwriting
11. Policy Delivery
12. Company Underwriting
13. Definitions of Perils
14. Types of Losses and Benefits
15. Limited Health Insurance Policies
16. Common exclusions from coverage
17. Classification of Risks
18. Considerations in replacing health insurance

IV. Types of Life Insurance Policies

1. Term Life Insurance
2. Whole (Permanent, Ordinary) Life Insurance
3. Universal Life
4. Index Whole Life
5. Specialized Policies
6. Group Life Insurance

V. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders

1. Standard Life Insurance Provisions
2. Beneficiary Designation Options
3. Types of Beneficiaries
4. Beneficiary-Related Clauses
5. Settlement Options
6. Nonforfeiture Options
7. Policy Loan and Withdrawal Options
8. Dividend Options
9. Disability Riders
10. Riders Covering Additional Insureds
11. Riders Affecting Death Benefit Amount

VI. Annuities

1. Annuity principles and concepts
2. Immediate versus deferred annuities
3. Annuity (benefit) payment options
4. Annuity products
5. Uses of annuities

VII. Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy Provisions

1. Required Provisions
2. General Policy Provisions
3. Other General Provisions

VIII. Disability Income and Related Insurance

1. Benefits Determination for Disability
2. Qualifications of Disability
3. Individual Disability Income Insurance
4. Unique Aspects of Individual Disability Underwriting
5. Group Disability Income Insurance
6. Business Disability Insurance
7. Social Security Disability

IX. Medical Plans

1. Medical Plan Concepts
2. Provisions and Clauses
3. Types of Medical Plans
4. Cost Containment in Health Care Delivery
5. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
6. Pennsylvania mandated benefits

X. Group Health Insurance

1. Characteristics of Group Health Insurance
2. Employer Group Health Insurance
3. COBRA

XI. Dental Insurance

1. Categories of dental treatment
2. Indemnity plans
3. Employer group dental expense

XII. Health Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals

1. Medicare 
2. Medicare Supplement Insurance
3. Other options for individuals with Medicare 
4. Long-Term Care Policies
5. Levels of Long-Term Care
6. Types of Long-Term Care
7. Long-Term Care Pennsylvania regulations and required provisions

XIII. Federal Tax Considerations for Life and Health Insurance 

1. Requirements of Life Insurance Qualified Plans
2. Federal Tax Considerations for Qualified Plans
3. Qualified Plan Types, Characteristics, and Purchasers
4. Taxation of Personal Life Insurance
5. Modified Endowment Contracts (MECs)
6. Health Insurance Premiums and Benefits
7. Consumer-Driven Health Plans

Pennsylvania Property and Casualty License Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by PSI.

You should use this outline as a checklist when working through your pre-license education course in order to ensure that you haven’t missed any topic that you will be tested on later on.

Property and Casualty Insurance Exam

150 questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation

II. General Insurance Concepts

1. Risk
2. Classifications of Insurers
3. Elements of a Contract
4. Authority and Powers of Producers
5. Legal Interpretations Affecting Contracts

III. Property and Casualty Insurance Basics

1. Insurable Interest
2. Damages
3. Liability
4. Underwriting
5. Rate Development
6. Types of Hazards
7. Types of Loss
8. Loss valuation
9. Basic Types of Construction
10. Negligence
11. Accident versus Occurrence
12. Policy Structure 
13. Policy Conditions
14. Limits of Liability
15. Coinsurance
16. Specific, Scheduled, and Blanket Insurance
17. Named Insured Provisions
18. Insurer Provisions
19. Third-Party Provisions
20. Pennsylvania Laws, Regulations and Required Provisions

IV. Dwelling Policy Concepts

1. Dwelling Policy (’14)
2. Coverage Forms Specifying Perils Insured Against
3. Property Coverages
4. Dwelling Policy Exclusions
5. Dwelling Policy Conditions
6. Dwelling Policy Endorsements

V. Homeowners Policy Concepts

1. Homeowners Policy (’11)
2. Perils Insured Against
3. Homeowners Policy Coverage Forms
4. Property Coverages
5. Liability Coverages
6. Homeowners Policy Exclusions
7. Homeowners Policy Conditions
8. Homeowners Policy Endorsements

VI. Personal Automobile Policy

1. Personal Automobile Policy
2. Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law
3. Personal Automobile Policy Liability (’05)
4. Personal Injury Protection/First Party Benefits
5. Pennsylvania Assigned Risk Plan
6. Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage
7. Physical Damage
8. Proof of coverages

VII. Commercial Automobile Policy

1. Commercial Automobile Policy
2. Commercial Automobile Policy Liability
3. Physical Damage
4. Other Commercial Automobile forms (e.g., Motor Carrier, Auto Dealers)
5. Proof of coverages
6. Selected endorsements
7. Commercial carrier regulations

VIII. Commercial Property Policies

1. Commercial Package Policy
2. Commercial Policy Components
3. Commercial Property Forms
4. Commercial Property Endorsements
5. Commercial Inland Marine
6. Equipment Breakdown Coverages
7. Farm Property

IX. Commercial General Liability

1. Commercial Policy Components
2. Commercial General Liability coverages
3. Elements of Commercial General Liability
4. Occurrence versus Claims-Made
5. Claims-Made Features
6. Commercial General Liability Exposures

X. Commercial Crime

1. Definitions
2. Insuring Agreements
3. Coverage Form Classifications (types of coverage forms only)
4. Other crime coverages

XI. Businessowners Policy — Property

1. Characteristics and purpose
2. Businessowners Section I — Property
3. Businessowners Section II — Liability
4. Businessowners Section III — Common Policy Conditions
5. Selected endorsements

XII. Workers’ Compensation Insurance

1. Definitions
2. Coverages
3. Benefits
4. Levels of Disability
5. Accident versus Occupational Disease and Illness
6. Federal Laws
7. Pennsylvania Workers Compensation Act
8. Rating and Job Classification
9. Claim Reporting Procedures

XIII. Other Types of Property and Casualty Insurance

1. Specialty Liability Insurance
2. Surety Bonds
3. Personal Umbrella, Commercial Umbrella, and Excess Policies 
4. Farmowners/RanchOwners Policy
5. Mobile Home Policy
6. Purpose of Difference in Conditions
7. Flood Insurance
8. Residual markets including FAIR Plans
9. Alternative funding mechanisms
10. Federal Crop Insurance (RMA)
11. Ocean Marine
12. Other policies

How to Pass the Pennsylvania Insurance Exam

Passing your Pennsylvania insurance exam ultimately comes down to your mindset and degree of preparation.

We have composed a few helpful exam tips and tricks that should help you perform as well as you can during your exam day.

Get a Pre-License Course

Getting a pre-license course can go a long way in helping you get accustomed to the prolific amount of content that you will have to memorize. It is also a requirement in the state of Pennsylvania.

We recommend ExamFX’s course because it offers a variety of helpful features, including:

• More course options than any other provider
• Impressive 93% overall licensing exam pass rate
• Generous money-back guarantee

Make Enough Time to Study

Not leaving enough time to prepare is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you do not pass your exam on your first attempt.

Remember, there are zero questions on your exam that are based on common sense or critical thinking. All questions are purely factual, and so will relate to how well you understand and remember the content that you have learned.

We recommend allocating around one to two weeks to prepare for your exam, as this should allow you to go through all of the material at least twice.

Control Test Anxiety

Even though you cannot control whether you get exam anxiety or not, you can take a few steps when preparing to limit its effect on your performance:

• Establish a consistent pretest routine — Acclimate yourself to exam conditions by following a specific routine on each practice exam at home. This should help you feel less anxious during your exam day.
• Get plenty of sleep — Lack of sleep can exacerbate your anxiety and increase your self-doubt. Make sure you are consistently getting a good night’s sleep in the week leading up to your exam.
• Study effectively — This sounds obvious, but make sure you are actually tailoring your studying to the exam that you are taking. Remember, there are no critical thinking or common sense questions involved.
• Arrive early — If you are planning to sit your exam in person, we recommend you arrive at least 30 minutes before it’s due to start in order to get used to your surroundings and have time to check in with your center’s administrator.

Getting Your Pennsylvania Insurance License

Your next steps will depend on whether you actually passed your exam, as well as on whether you plan to get licensed for any additional lines.

You can apply for your license up to 12 months after you complete your exam, so if you would like to attempt passing additional insurance line exams before filing your licensing application with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, you are totally free to do that.

After you have passed your insurance licensing exam, you will need to:

• Complete a fingerprint and background check
• File your licensing application
• Wait for your application to be reviewed

Pennsylvania Insurance Department Contact Information

Mailing Address:

1326 Strawberry Square
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120

Phone: (717) 787-3840

Fax: (717) 783-9326

Email: ra-in-producer@pa.gov

Website: https://www.insurance.pa.gov/Licensees/Pages/default.aspx

License Search: Pennsylvania Insurance License Search and Lookup