Indiana Life Insurance Exam 2026

What the Indiana Life Line Covers

Indiana issues one producer license and lists lines of authority on it. The line here is Life, and it carries life insurance and annuities — fixed annuities sit inside the Life line, not beside it. The licensing authority is the Indiana Department of Insurance (IDOI), headed by a Commissioner appointed by the Governor, with the substantive law in Title 27 of the Indiana Code and the rules in Title 760 of the Indiana Administrative Code.

Two boundaries matter before you buy a course. First, variable life and variable annuities are a separate Indiana line — Variable Life and Variable Annuity — and on top of the state line you need your FINRA securities registrations, because a variable contract is a security whatever the license says. A Life-only credential does not reach variable products. Second, health is entirely outside this line. Disability income, Medicare supplement, long-term care and group health all belong to Accident & Health, and if there is any chance you will quote them, read the exam comparison in the next section before you enrol.

There is one Indiana quirk worth filing away now, because it explains a lot of confusing search results: Indiana also runs short Laws & Regulations exams — 35 questions for Life, $50 — that are not an alternative route for an ordinary candidate. They exist for two narrow populations: applicants who hold a designation that waives the pre-licensing course, and lapsed licensees reinstating without completed CE. The waivers section below explains exactly who lands in the first group.

For the 20-hour pre-licensing course Indiana requires before this license can issue, TESTivity recommends Achievable. The Achievable insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, so the two are designed to work together.

One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in Indiana and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will absolutely help you pass the exam — but treat them as a supplement to your Achievable course, not a substitute for it.

Disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page.

Exam Options & Format

Indiana's Life exam is 95 scored questions plus 5 unscored pretest items — 100 on screen — in 120 minutes, for $69 paid to Pearson VUE at reservation. There is no series number to quote: the August 2026 candidate handbook identifies every Indiana exam by name only, so anyone selling you a "Series 21"-style code for Indiana has invented it.

The passing standard is the part worth reading twice. The handbook states it flatly — "Candidates need to achieve 70% to pass the IDOI exams" — and nowhere uses scaled-score language. That makes Indiana one of the states where the number on the wall is the number you need: about 67 of the 95 scored items. The 5 pretest questions are unscored and unmarked, so treat all 100 as live.

The combined alternative is the Life & Health exam: 150 scored plus 10 pretest — 160 on screen — in 180 minutes, and it is the same $69. The trade is not exam money, it is course hours: 20 for Life alone against 40 for the combined credential. A Spanish-language version of both exams is offered at identical length, time and fee.

There is no online option. Indiana does not appear on Pearson VUE's list of state insurance programs offering OnVUE remote proctoring — eleven other states do — and the current handbook never mentions remote delivery. Every attempt is in a test center, and Indiana's footprint is unusually wide because Ivy Tech Community College sites deliver alongside the dedicated Pearson centers. The Health guide covers test centers and scheduling in detail.

Two scheduling numbers to keep: reserve at least 24 hours ahead, and call Pearson at (866) 895-0496 at least 48 hours before your appointment to change or cancel. Miss that window and the $69 is gone — the handbook says the fee is "non-refundable and non-transferable."

Most Tested Topics on the Indiana Life Exam

Indiana's life questions cluster exactly where the state's numbers depart from the national outline. Each of these is anchored in the Indiana Code, and each is a place a nationally-trained candidate drops a mark:

The viatical rescission window is the single most reliable Indiana life question, because it is not the flat fifteen days most states use and most courses teach. Indiana gives the viator whichever period is longer — fifteen days from receiving the proceeds, or thirty days from execution of the contract. Those diverge constantly in practice: a contract executed on 1 March that funds on 20 March runs to 4 April — fifteen days from funding — because that falls after 31 March, which is thirty days from execution. Reverse the timeline, with a contract funding three days after execution, and the thirty-day leg governs instead. An item that offers you a bare "15 days" is testing whether you noticed the comparison.

The 10-day free look is the second dependable point, and it fails candidates in the opposite direction — they over-answer it. National material trains people toward 20 or 30 days, and Indiana's individual life period is a plain ten. Note that this is the life-policy number specifically; long-term care and Medicare supplement run on a different, longer clock, and the Life & Health guide sets the whole ladder out side by side. Finally, keep the annuity best-interest rule filed as a sales-conduct standard with a training gate attached — 760 IAC 1-72 took effect July 1, 2024, and the four-hour course it requires is a prerequisite to selling, not a CE credit you can count toward your 24 hours.

Applying for Your Indiana License — Every Step

Indiana does not run its own application portal. You file through Sircon at sircon.com/Indiana — the Vertafore system Indiana also uses for approved-provider lookups and CE transcripts — or through NIPR at nipr.com. IDOI still accepts the NAIC Uniform Application on paper by mail, though nothing about that route is faster.

Step 0 — Understand the sequence, because it is a three-step chain with a clock on it. Indiana's order is pre-licensing course → exam → application, and there is no fingerprint step anywhere in it. The clock is the certificate: IDOI is explicit that "the certificate is valid for six months. You must pass your exam and apply for your license during this six-month period." The deadline therefore attaches to the course, not to the exam score — Indiana publishes no standalone score-expiry window, which is why you should treat the certificate date as the only date that matters.

Step 1 — Finish the 20-hour Life course. Take it from an IDOI-approved provider; the approved-provider search lives on Sircon. The provider issues your Certificate of Completion, and that certificate both permits you to sit and starts the six months.

Step 2 — Pass the Life exam. Results are immediate: the handbook says the exam "will end automatically when the examination time has expired, and candidates will leave the test center with their official score report in hand." The Personal Lines guide covers score reporting and the retake rules in full.

Step 3 — File in Sircon or NIPR. The resident producer application fee is $40, and IDOI describes it as "a nonrefundable application fee of $40 and an online processing fee" — the processing fee is the portal's own charge, it varies between Sircon and NIPR, and IDOI does not publish the amount, so check it at checkout rather than budgeting a figure you read somewhere. You must be at least 18 and you must maintain a valid business email address, which NIPR states as a licensing requirement rather than a convenience — Indiana corresponds with producers electronically.

Step 4 — Answer the background questions properly, and attach documents to every "yes." This is where Indiana differs most from its neighbours. There are no fingerprints to schedule: the disclosure questions are the background review. NIPR's instruction is direct — "If applicant responds 'yes' to one of the background questions please submit supporting documents electronically." The Personal Lines guide walks through what triggers disclosure and what documents regulators expect.

Step 5 — Watch the 30-day deficiency clock. This one closes files. IDOI: "Application submissions still incomplete after 30 days from the submission date will be closed for deficiency." An application closed for deficiency is not a pause — you re-file, and if your six-month certificate window has run out in the meantime, you are back to the course.

Step 6 — Allow 7–10 business days. That is IDOI's published processing time for a clean file. IDOI Producer Licensing is reachable at (317) 232-2389 or agentlicensing@idoi.in.gov — worth having if a filing stalls, because Indiana does not publish a status tracker of its own.

Which Credentials Waive an Indiana Requirement — and Which Don't

Indiana grants waivers under IC 27-1-15.6-9, and the single most important thing to understand about them is what they do not touch. Indiana's waivers are education waivers. There is no outright exam waiver for any designation. A holder of a qualifying credential skips the pre-licensing course — and then sits a short State Laws & Regulations exam instead of the full one. IDOI puts it plainly: applicants "receiving a pre-licensing waiver only complete State Laws & Regulations testing."

So what does a waiver holder actually sit? The Laws & Regulations exams, which are their own short papers at their own price: Life Laws & Regulations, 35 questions, 60 minutes, $50; Health Laws & Regulations, 35 questions, $50; Life & Health Laws & Regulations, 40 questions, $50; Property & Casualty Laws & Regulations, 40 questions, $50. Same 70% standard, same test centers. For a CLU applying for a Life line, the practical effect is real money and real time saved — no 20-hour course and a $50 exam instead of a $69 one — but it is emphatically not "no test."

One transcription caveat worth knowing before you argue with a reviewer. IDOI's own resident-licensing page renders the Chartered Financial Consultant designation as "CFC" rather than the standard ChFC. The substance is not in doubt — the designation is The American College's Chartered Financial Consultant — but if a reviewer queries an abbreviation mismatch between your certificate and the state's page, that typo is the reason.

And there is a second Indiana waiver that is not a designation at all. Under IC 27-1-15.6-18(4), Title producers must complete 10 hours of instruction covering ethical practices, Indiana insurance law, title insurance principles and the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (12 U.S.C. 2608) — even though Title requires no exam whatsoever. It is the mirror image of the waiver: course without exam, where a waiver gives you exam without course. Credit, Travel and Portable Electronics require neither.

For non-resident producers moving into Indiana, the waiver question does not arise at all: IDOI requires "no pre-licensing study course or examination" of a non-resident from a reciprocal state. The Property & Casualty guide covers reciprocity and non-resident licensing in full.

What It Costs

The government-and-vendor side of an Indiana Life license is genuinely small: $69 to Pearson VUE for the exam, $40 to IDOI at application, plus the portal's own processing fee at checkout — about $109 all in, the processing fee being the one component neither IDOI nor this page can put a number on. There is no fingerprint fee, because Indiana takes no fingerprints, and no separate exam fee payable to the state; the $69 goes to Pearson at reservation, by credit card, debit card or voucher, never at the test center.

The costs that are easy to forget are the ones that repeat. Every retake is another full $69 — Indiana imposes no attempt cap, but it discounts nothing either. Adding a line later is a $40 amendment fee plus that line's own course and exam, which is the arithmetic behind taking the combined Life & Health exam up front if health is remotely likely. And all of it is nonrefundable: IDOI says "all license application fees are nonrefundable and nontransferable," and the handbook says the same of exam fees.

Renewal, two years out, is another $40. If you sell annuities, budget the one-time 4-hour best-interest course on top of your CE — it is a prerequisite to selling, not a credit against the 24 hours. The Property & Casualty guide covers the renewal and reinstatement fee ladder, including the $120 late penalty.

Eligibility Requirements

You must be a natural person at least 18 years old (IC 27-1-15.6-6), maintain a valid business email address, and — for a resident license — have your principal residence or principal place of business in Indiana. You must complete the 20 hours of approved Life pre-licensing unless a credential under IC 27-1-15.6-9 waives it, and you must pass the exam and file the application inside the six-month certificate window.

There is no fingerprint requirement and no separate criminal-history submission for a resident producer. Character is assessed from the background questions on the application, backed by whatever documents you attach. A history is not automatically disqualifying in Indiana, but an undisclosed one is a different and worse problem — misrepresentation on the application is independently actionable, and it is evaluated as a candour failure on top of whatever the original matter was.

Where an existing book of business needs servicing, IDOI "may issue a temporary resident insurance producer license for not more than 180 days if deemed necessary for the servicing of an insurance business in the best interests of the public" under IC 27-1-15.6-11. Note the standard: it is discretionary, and it is about continuity of service to policyholders rather than about an applicant waiting on their own file. The Health guide covers the standard and its limits.

Keeping Your Indiana Life License Active

Indiana licenses run two years and expire on the last day of your birth month. Renewal is $40 through Sircon or NIPR, and IDOI emails a renewal invoice roughly 90 days out — while warning that "if for some reason you do not receive a renewal invoice, it is still your responsibility to renew your license."

The requirement is 24 hours of Indiana-approved CE per cycle, and because you hold a Life line, 3 of those hours must be ethics. That conditionality is a real Indiana distinction and it is widely misreported: IDOI ties the ethics hours to Life and/or Accident & Health licensure specifically — "3 of which must be an Ethics course if Accident & Health and/or Life licensed" — rather than imposing them on every producer. Up to 12 hours carry into the next cycle, but ethics and long-term care hours never carry.

Two product gates sit outside the 24 and catch Life licensees in particular. Annuities: producers licensed on or after July 1, 2024 must complete a "one-time four-hour course that includes the best interest standard before engaging in the sale of annuity products in Indiana" — before selling, not before renewing. Producers licensed earlier owed a one-hour bridge course by January 2, 2025. Long-term care, if you ever add the Accident & Health line: an 8-hour initial course before marketing LTC, then 5 hours every two years. The Health guide covers the LTC ladder, including the Partnership course.

Missing CE does not generate a tidy fine — the penalty is structural. The license simply lapses, and reinstating it inside twelve months costs the $40 renewal plus a $120 penalty, and if the CE was not complete before expiration you must also pass the Laws & Regulations Assessment. Past twelve months IDOI "will not be able to have the license reinstated" at all: you repeat pre-licensing and the full exam from scratch. The Property & Casualty guide sets out the whole reinstatement ladder.

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