New York Insurance License Exam

Written by: Ethan Peyton

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New York Insurance License Exam

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

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 New York insurance licensing exam, and on what to do after you pass.

Recommended: Interested in getting started? We recommend using Kaplan’s online study packages, which come with a 93% pass rate.

4.7 out of 5 starsKaplan Education Company

New York Insurance Exam Basics

General Information

The state of New York uses PSI to administer its insurance agent licensing. This means 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 is made up of multiple-choice questions and 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 New York insurance regulations and laws that you will need to know in order to operate as an insurance agent.

Score Explanation

You must score at least 70% correct overall to pass your insurance license exam. You don’t have to reach this mark for each individual section, so long as the overall score is 70%.

Your score will be shown upon completion, so you’ll instantly know whether you passed or not.

The overall score is all that will be shown if you pass. If you fail, a diagnostic report that shows your strengths and weaknesses will also be provided.

Note: You can request a duplicate score report by reaching out to PSI at scorereport@psionline.com. You will need to include your name, candidate ID number, and confirmation number.

Cost

Your New York insurance license exam cost will depend on the number of examinations that you take:

Examination

Cost 

Time Allowed

Life, Accident, and Health 

$33

150 Minutes

Property and Casualty

$33

150 Minutes

Life

$33

120 Minutes

Accident and Health

$33

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.

Recommended Pre-License Course

Over 81% of our readers use Kaplan’s online courses — which come with a 93% pass rate — when preparing for their insurance license exam(s). For comprehensive study packages, StateRequirement recommends:

4.7 out of 5 starsKaplan Education Company

New York Life and Health Insurance 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.

Life, Accident, and Health Agent Content Outline

150 questions 

I. Insurance Regulation 

  1. Licensing
  2. State Regulation
  3. Federal Regulation

II. General Insurance

  1. Concepts
  2. Insurers
  3. Agents and general rules of agency
  4. Contracts

III. Life 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. Differences in life insurance policies
  6. Factors in premium determination
  7. Licensee responsibilities
  8. Individual underwriting by the insurer

IV. Life Insurance Policies

  1. Term life insurance
  2. Whole life insurance
  3. Flexible premium policies
  4. Specialized policies
  5. Group life insurance
  6. Credit life insurance (individual versus group)

V. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders

  1. Required provisions
  2. Beneficiaries
  3. Settlement options
  4. Nonforfeiture options
  5. Policy loan and withdrawal options
  6. Dividend options
  7. Disability riders
  8. Accelerated (living) benefit provisions/riders
  9. Riders covering additional insureds
  10. Riders affecting the death benefit amount

VI. Annuities 

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

VII. Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities

  1. Taxation of personal life insurance
  2. Rollovers and transfers (IRAs and qualified plans)
  3. Section 1035 exchanges

VIII. Qualified Plans 

  1. General requirements
  2. Plan types, characteristics, and purchasers

IX. Life Settlement

  1. Definitions 
  2. Broker License Requirements
  3. Advertising
  4. Privacy
  5. Prohibited Practices
  6. Stranger-originated life insurance

X. Accident and Health Insurance Basics 

  1. Definitions of perils
  2. Principal types of losses and benefits
  3. Classes of accident and health insurance coverage
  4. Types of Limited Policies
  5. Common exclusions from coverage
  6. Licensee responsibilities in individual accident and health insurance
  7. Considerations in replacing accident and health insurance
  8. Community rating of policies

XI. Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions

  1. Required provisions
  2. Other provisions
  3. Other general provisions

XII. Disability Income and Related Insurance 

  1. Qualifying for disability benefits
  2. Individual disability income insurance
  3. Group disability income insurance
  4. Business disability insurance

XIII. Medical Plans 

  1. Medical plan concepts
  2. Types of plans
  3. Cost containment in health care delivery 
  4. New York mandated benefits and offers (individual and/or group)
  5. New York required benefits (individual and/or group)
  6. New York mandated offers (individual and/or group)
  7. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requirements

XIV. Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 

  1. Affordable Care Act

XV. Long-Term Care (LTC) Insurance 

  1. Benefits
  2. New York regulations and required provisions

XVI. Group Health and Blanket Insurance 

  1. Characteristics of group insurance
  2. Types of eligible groups
  3. Regulation of employer group insurance plans
  4. Types of funding and administration
  5. Marketing considerations
  6. Employer group health insurance
  7. Small employer medical plans

XVII. Government Insurance Plans 

  1. Workers’ compensation
  2. Social Security Disability
  3. New York State Disability Benefits Law
  4. Medicaid
  5. Medicare
  6. Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

XVIII. Private Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals 

  1. Medicare supplements
  2. Other medicare options for individuals

We recommend reading our in-depth How to Pass the Life Insurance Exam guide for a better overview.

New York 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 Agent Content Outline

150 questions 

I. Insurance Regulation

  1. Licensing
  2. State regulation
  3. Federal regulation

II. General Insurance

  1. Concepts
  2. Insurers
  3. Agents and general rules of agency
  4. Contracts

III. Property and Casualty Insurance Basics

  1. Principles and concepts
  2. Policy structure
  3. Common policy provisions
  4. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 and Extension Act of 2015
  5. Certificate of Insurance

IV. Dwelling Policy

  1. Purpose and eligibility
  2. Coverage forms — Perils insured against
  3. Property coverages
  4. General exclusions
  5. Conditions
  6. Selected Endorsements
  7. Personal liability supplement

V. Homeowners Policy 

  1. Purpose and eligibility
  2. Coverage forms
  3. Definitions
  4. Section I — Property coverages
  5. Section II — Liability coverages
  6. Perils insured against
  7. Exclusions 
  8. Conditions
  9. Selected endorsements

VI. Auto Insurance

  1. Laws
  2. Personal auto policy
  3. Commercial auto

VII. Commercial Package Policy (CPP)

  1. Components of a commercial policy
  2. Commercial general liability
  3. Commercial property
  4. Commercial crime
  5. Commercial inland marine
  6. Equipment breakdown protection coverage form
  7. Farm coverage

VIII. Businessowners Policy

  1. Purpose and eligibility
  2. Businessowners property coverage
  3. Businessowners liability coverage form
  4. Businessowners common policy conditions form
  5. Selected endorsements

IX. Workers’ Compensation Insurance

  1. Workers’ compensation laws
  2. Workers’ compensation and employer’s liability insurance policy
  3. Volunteer Firefighters/Ambulance endorsement
  4. Premium computation
  5. Other sources of coverage
  6. New York State Disability Benefits Law
  7. Paid Family Leave

X. Other Coverages and Options

  1. Umbrella/excess liability policies
  2. Specialty liability insurance
  3. Excess lines
  4. Surety bonds
  5. National Flood Insurance Program
  6. Other policies
  7. New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association (FAIR PLAN)

XI. Accident and Health Insurance 

  1. Individual health insurance policy general provisions
  2. Disability income and related insurance
  3. Individual disability income insurance
  4. Medical plans
  5. New York dependent requirements (individual and/or group)
  6. New York Required benefits (individual and/ or group)
  7. New York mandated offers
  8. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requirements 
  9. Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
  10. Group health and blanket insurance
  11. Medicare supplements

We recommend reading our Property and Casualty Insurance exam article for a more in-depth overview.

How to Pass the New York Insurance Exam

Passing your New York 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 also 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 legal requirement in the state of New York.

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

  • Online exam simulations
  • Live online training
  • Printable study guides 
  • End of chapter reviews

For more information, we recommend reading our Kaplan Insurance Course Review.

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.

For a more in-depth overview of how you can prepare for your New York insurance exam, we recommend reading our How to Pass the Insurance Exam article.

Getting Your New York 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 24 months after you complete your exam, so if you would like to attempt passing additional insurance line exams before filing your licensing application, you are totally free to do that.

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

  • File your licensing application
  • Wait for your application to be reviewed

Have a look at our How to Become an Insurance Agent in New York review for more information on all the steps that you will need to take after passing your insurance exam.

New York Department of Insurance Contact Information

Mailing Address:

New York State Department of Financial Services
One State Street
New York, New York 10004-1511

Phone: (518) 474-6630

Email: licensing@dfs.ny.gov

Website: http://www.dfs.ny.gov/

License Search: New York Insurance License Search and Lookup

New York Insurance Exams FAQ

How often do I have to renew my license?

You will need to renew your insurance license every two years in order to continue operating as a legitimate insurance agent in New York. The due date for this is your birth date. Example: John Doe’s birthday is on November 12 and was first licensed in 2022. His renewal will be due November 12, 2024. For more information, see our guide on How to Renew Your Insurance License in New York.

How long is the New York insurance exam?

Exams that combine different lines of authority (e.g., Life, Accident and Health, Property and Casualty, etc.) are 150 minutes long. Most single-line exams (e.g., Life, etc.) are 120 minutes long.

How many times can you take the New York insurance exam?

There is no limit on the number of times you can take an insurance license exam in New York. Having said that, you will need to wait at least 24 hours between each attempt.

How many questions are on the New York insurance exam?

This will depend on the exam in question. The combined lines of authority exams are made up of 150 questions. Most other exams consist of 100 questions.

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