Exam format, official scope and preparation

The module this guide covers

This is the Common Law Ethics and Professional Practice module of the Canadian Life Licence Qualification Program (LLQP). Quebec's civil-law ethics module is a different assessment. The Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO) coordinate the harmonized curriculum; provincial and territorial authorities administer or arrange examinations and issue licences. OpenExamPrep publishes this independent resource and has no sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation with those authorities.

The official evaluation table assigns 60% to understanding the legal framework governing life insurance and 40% to incorporating legal aspects into an agent's practice. Contract topics therefore deserve more preparation than their position near the beginning of a textbook might suggest. Public benefits, pension rights and beneficiary law are part of that legal component. Ethical sales conduct, privacy and financial-crime compliance belong to the practice component. These are the official component weights, rather than separate invented percentages for individual chapters. See the official Common Law curriculum and AMF evaluation tables.

Questions, time and the passing calculation

• The module contains 25 questions in total, including five unscored pilot questions, and permits 75 minutes. Twenty questions contribute to the result. The passing mark is 60%, equivalent to 12 correct scored responses out of 20. Pilot questions are not identified to candidates, so answer every question with the same care. The Insurance Council of BC's in-person information confirms this format.

• For a hypothetical result, suppose a candidate answers 16 of the 25 questions correctly, but three of those correct responses are pilot questions. The scored result is 13 divided by 20, or 65%, which passes. Dividing 16 by 25 would answer a different question and would not determine the scored mark. Likewise, counting 15 as a universally required pass total wrongly treats all questions as scored.

• Seventy-five minutes divided by 25 gives an average of three minutes per question. That is a planning average, not a rule giving three minutes exclusively to each item. A straightforward licensing question may take less time, leaving room for a multi-step beneficiary scenario. Reserve time to revisit flagged responses. Reading the entire stem first usually saves time because the final sentence identifies whether the task is a legal outcome, a calculation, or the agent's next action.

Course certification and licensing clocks

An approved LLQP course and certification precede the licensing examination. Course completion and examination success serve different purposes. Course certification establishes eligibility to write; passing demonstrates the required assessment result. Neither authorizes insurance activity before a regulator grants the appropriate licence.

For example, BC's course certification is valid for one year. Its required modules must be passed, and the insurance licence obtained, within 12 months of the first module passed; older passes outside that window must be rewritten. Those clocks can have different starting dates. A candidate certified in February who first passes a module in April should record both anniversaries. Passing a later module does not extend the earlier course certification. Consult the BC prerequisites and BC examination rules.

Required modules also depend on the licence sought. Full life and accident-and-sickness qualification uses Life Insurance, Accident and Sickness Insurance, Segregated Funds and Annuities, and Ethics. Accident-and-sickness-only qualification uses the Accident and Sickness and Ethics modules. An Ethics pass alone does not qualify someone to sell annuities.

Administration varies by jurisdiction

Confirm your resident jurisdiction's administrator, permitted reference material, identification requirements, booking procedure and fees before registering. An open-book examination permits only the materials and equipment the administrator authorizes. It does not authorize personal notes, websites, assistance from another person or a candidate's preferred searchable edition.

Ontario discontinued online LLQP examinations effective July 1, 2026, according to Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA)'s examination-integrity announcement. BC does not accept online results from exams written after June 30, 2023. A general administrator webpage offering online appointments elsewhere does not override either restriction. Durham College administers exams for participating jurisdictions; BC's Council administers its own program. There is no single national booking fee.

The rewrite schedule should also be checked locally. BC currently has no waiting period after the first, second or third unsuccessful attempt, but requires a one-year wait after the fourth. Course certification expires independently during that interval. A fresh course does not remove an examination waiting period. Previous attempts in other jurisdictions must be disclosed rather than treated as a new attempt history.

A practical study sequence

Use the official scope as a checklist. Learn what changes a rule before memorizing a number: individual versus group coverage, life versus accident and sickness (A&S), revocable versus irrevocable designation, policy ownership versus the insured life, and contract wording versus statute. Then work original scenarios without consulting the explanation.

For each missed question, record the controlling distinction and a counterexample. If a beneficiary survived the insured, the simultaneous-death rule is irrelevant. If a policy never took effect, a grace period for later premiums cannot create initial coverage. This method connects facts to legal outcomes and makes authorized reference materials useful for confirmation during the timed assessment.