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

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

Virginia Insurance Exam Basics

General Information

The state of Virginia uses Prometric to administer its insurance agent licensing. This means you can register and book all of your licensing examinations through the Prometric 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 Virginia insurance regulations and laws that you will need to know in order to operate as an insurance agent.

Score Explanation

As soon as you complete your exam, a score report will be emailed to you.

The score report will show you your percentage score in each section of the exam(s), as well as your overall score and whether you passed or failed. This can be very helpful if you end up needing to re-sit an examination as a result of failing.

Note: A score of 70% or higher is needed in order to pass an insurance license exam in Virginia.

Cost

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

Examination	Cost	Time Allowed
VA Life & Annuities Exam	$35	120 Minutes
VA Health Exam	$35	120 Minutes
VA Life, Annuities & Health Exam	$35	150 Minutes
VA Property & Casualty Exam	$35	150 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.

Virginia Life and Health Insurance Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by Prometric.

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.

Virginia Life, Annuities, and Health Exam

140 scored (10 pretest) questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation
4. Industry 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. Classes of life insurance policies
6. Premiums
7. Agent 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. Standard provisions
2. Beneficiaries
3. Settlement options
4. Nonforfeiture options
5. Policy loans
6. Dividend options
7. Disability riders
8. Accelerated benefit provision/rider
9. Riders covering additional insureds
10. Riders affecting the 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. 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 accounts (IRAs)
5. Rollovers and transfers (IRAs and qualified plans)
6. Section 1035 exchanges

VIII. Qualified Plans

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

IX. Health Insurance Basics

1. Definitions of perils
2. Principal types of losses and benefits
3. Classes of health insurance policies
4. Limited policies
5. Common exclusions from coverage
6. Agent responsibilities in individual health insurance
7. Individual underwriting by the insurer
8. Considerations in replacing health insurance

X. Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions

1. Uniform required provisions 
2. Uniform optional provisions 
3. Other general 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. Cost containment in health care delivery
4. Virginia eligibility requirements
5. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requirements
6. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs)

XIII. Group Health Insurance

1. Characteristics of group insurance
2. Defined groups
3. Marketing considerations
4. Employer group health insurance
5. Small employer medical plans

XIV. Dental Insurance

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

XV. 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 (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), Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs), and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Virginia Property and Casualty License Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by Prometric.

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.

Virginia Property and Casualty Exam

135 scored (10 pre-test) questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation
4. Industry 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. Virginia 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. Personal liability supplement
7. VA Special Provisions
8. Selected Endorsements

V. Homeowners Policy

1. Coverage forms
2. Definitions
3. Section I — Property coverages
4. Section II — Liability coverages
5. Perils insured against
6. Additional coverages
7. Exclusions
8. Conditions
9. Other policies
10. 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. Boiler and machinery
7. Farm coverage
8. Selected Endorsements

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. Employment covered
2. Virginia Workers’ Compensation Insurance Plan

X. Other Coverages and Options

1. Umbrella/excess liability policies
2. Specialty liability insurance
3. Surplus lines
4. Surety bonds
5. Business management liability
6. National Flood Insurance Program
7. Other Policies
8. Basic Property Residual Market

How to Pass the Virginia Insurance Exam

Passing your Virginia 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

Even though this is not a requirement in the state of Virginia, getting a pre-license course can be incredibly beneficial. These courses can help you get accustomed to the extensive amount of content that you will have to memorize.

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 Virginia 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, 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 using Sircon or NIPR
• Wait for your application to be reviewed

Virginia State Corporation Commission Contact Information

Mailing Address:

Bureau of Insurance
P.O. Box 1157
Richmond, Virginia 23218-1157

Physical Address:
Bureau of Insurance
3rd floor 1300 E. Main St.
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Phone: (804) 371-9631

Email: AgentLicensing@scc.virginia.gov

Website: https://www.scc.virginia.gov/boi/index.aspx

License Search: Virginia Insurance License Search and Lookup