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

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

Oregon Insurance Exam Basics

General Information

The state of Oregon 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 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 Oregon insurance regulations and laws that you will need to know in order to operate as an insurance agent.

Score Explanation

In the state of Oregon, you must get 70% or above in order to pass your insurance exam(s).

After you finish your exam, your score will be displayed on your screen and a score report will be emailed to you. If you fail, your score report will include a diagnostic report that you can use to identify your strengths and weaknesses. This can be very useful if and when you decide to re-sit an examination.

If you don’t receive your emailed score report, you can reach out to PSI by emailing them at scorereport@psionline.com. You can also use the aforementioned email to request a duplicate score report.

Note: You will need to include your name, candidate ID number, and confirmation number in order to request a score report via email.

Cost

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

Examination	Cost	Time Allowed
Life & Health Insurance Producer	$55	160 Minutes
Property and Casualty Insurance Producer	$55	160 Minutes
Life Insurance Producer	$45	120 Minutes
Health Insurance Producer	$45	120 Minutes
Casualty Insurance Producer	$45	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.

Oregon 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 and Health Insurance Exam

150 questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation

II. General Insurance

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

III. Life Insurance Basics

1. Personal uses of life insurance
2. Life settlements
3. Determining amount of personal life insurance
4. Business uses of life insurance
5. Types of life insurance policies
6. Licensee responsibilities
7. 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

V. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders

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

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. Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities

1. Taxation of personal life insurance
2. Modified endowment contracts (MECs)
3. Taxation of non-qualified annuities
4. Taxation of individual retirement annuities (IRAs) 
5. Rollovers and transfers (IRAs and qualified plans) and suitability
6. Section 1035 exchanges and suitability

VIII. Qualified Plans

1. General requirements
2. Federal tax considerations
3. Plan types, characteristics, and purchasers

IX. Health Insurance

1. Types of products and benefits
2. Long-term care
3. Blanket
4. Types of health insurance policies
5. Policy exclusion provisions
6. Producer responsibilities
7. Individual underwriting on grandfathered plans

X. Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions

1. Other general provisions
2. Uniform optional provisions
3. Uniform required provisions

XI. Disability Income and Related Insurance

1. Qualifying for disability benefits
2. Individual disability income insurance 
3. Unique aspects of individual disability underwriting
4. Group disability income insurance
5. Business disability insurance
6. Social Security disability
7. Workers compensation

XII. Medical Plans

1. Medical plan concepts
2. Types of providers and plans
3. Oregon requirements (individual and group)
4. Health Care Reform (Affordable Care Act)
5. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requirements

XIII. Group Health Insurance

1. Purpose of group insurance
2. Types of eligible groups
3. Marketing considerations
4. Employer group health insurance
5. Small employer medical plans

XIV. Dental Insurance

1. Pediatric Care (Affordable Care Act)
2. Categories of dental treatment
3. Access to Dental Coverage
4. Employer group dental expense

XV. Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals

1. Medicare
2. Medicare supplements
3. Other options for individuals with Medicare
4. Long-Term Care (LTC) policies

XVI. Federal Tax Considerations for Health Insurance

1. Personally-owned health insurance
2. Employer group health insurance
3. Medical expense coverage for sole proprietors and partners
4. Business disability insurance
5. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs)

Oregon 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

1. Concepts
2. Insurers
3. Producers 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. Oregon laws, regulations, and required provisions

IV. Dwelling Policy

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

VI. Auto Insurance

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

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
7. Farm coverage

VIII. Businessowners Policy

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

IX. Workers’ Compensation Insurance

1. Workers’ compensation laws
2. Workers’ compensation and employers liability insurance policy
3. Premium computations
4. Other sources of coverage

X. Other Coverages and Options

1. Umbrella/excess liability policies
2. Specialty liability insurance
3. Surplus lines
4. Surety bonds
5. National Flood Insurance Program
6. Other policies
7. Residual markets

How to Pass the Oregon Insurance Exam

Passing your Oregon 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 will 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 Oregon.

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

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 Oregon 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 Oregon Division of Financial Regulation, 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

Oregon Department of Insurance Contact Information

Mailing Address:

Oregon Division of Financial Regulation
350 Winter Street, Northeast, Room 410
P.O. Box 14480
Salem, Oregon 97309

Phone: (503) 947-7981

Fax: (503) 378-4351

Email:  DFR.InsuranceHelp@oregon.gov

Website: http://dfr.oregon.gov/

License Search: Oregon Insurance License Search and Lookup