1.3 Course, CIPR, Provincial Exam, 12-Month Licence Clock, and Rewrite Rules

The only order that works

Life module practicePractice questions with detailed explanations

FSRA describes the pre-licensing course as about 100 hours across all four modules. That is a full-program figure, not 100 hours of Life alone. Many candidates spend an additional 25 to 40 hours on Life product work after the provider’s module test; treat that range as study planning, not a published CISRO hour requirement. Approved providers (CSI, IFSE, Oliver’s, ILScorp, Learnedly, and others on the CISRO list) set tuition. Durham College administers many provincial exams and explicitly does not sell the course or quote provider pass rates.

You cannot book the provincial Life paper on a course-in-progress file. The certificate of completion must be current in CIPR. AIC and FCNB both state that course certification is valid for one year from the certification date. If that year dies before you finish the provincial modules, you are back to the provider, not merely back to Durham’s scheduler. Hold the course certificate and the provincial-exam window in the same calendar, not as two unrelated projects.

The 12-month clock starts on the first pass, not the last

Durham’s licensing note is the sentence candidates miss. Application to the provincial or territorial regulator must occur within one year of the date of passing the first module. Your results email labels that date First Pass Date. If you have not applied for a licence covering the modules you attempted within that year, exam results for all modules are no longer valid and you rewrite all of them. A status of TBD means you have not yet passed a first module, so the licence clock has not started.

Work the dates. Priya passes Life on 20 September 2026—her first pass. She must apply for the licence by 20 September 2027. She then passes Accident and Sickness in March 2027, Segregated Funds in June 2027, and Ethics in August 2027. If she delays the licence application until October 2027 because she is still choosing an agency, Durham’s rule does not preserve the three later passes. The entire set lapses. She does not get to keep Ethics and rewrite only Life.

FCNB’s wording is the same idea from the regulator side: after passing the provincial exam, marks are valid for licensing for a maximum of 12 months from the pass date; wait longer and you re-qualify. Some FCNB pages speak of “the pass date”; Durham is explicit that the trigger is the first module. Plan as Durham states it: first pass starts the year, last pass does not reset it. FSRA’s Ontario page likewise notes that you have one year to apply for your licence from the date you first pass the exam.

Practical sequencing follows from that math. Do not write Life in month 1 and leave Ethics until month 11 unless the licence application can be filed immediately after the last pass. A safer pattern is to sit the remaining modules as soon as the course certificate is in CIPR, then file. Passing Life first is fine; parking the file for eleven months is not.

Four modules, and Quebec’s ethics distinction

A full life licence needs all four:

1. Life Insurance (this guide).
2. Accident and Sickness.
3. Segregated Funds and Annuities.
4. Ethics and Professional Practice — Common Law outside Quebec; Civil Law / Civil Code in Quebec.

Life product content is national. Quebec candidates do not receive a different term/whole-life/UL syllabus; they receive a different Ethics module and book through the AMF rather than Durham. Do not spend Life study time on Civil Code representative-conduct chapters, and do not assume an Ontario Common Law ethics pass is what Quebec will accept. Modules are graded separately. Sixty percent on Life and 55% on Ethics is not an average of 57.5% and a licence; Ethics is still a fail.

People already licensed for Accident and Sickness who later want life authority still have to complete the harmonized LLQP path for the missing modules; AIC’s FAQ is the usual illustration. This guide still teaches Life only. Sister OpenExamPrep exams exist for the other three papers.

Ontario rewrites are not FCNB rewrites

There is no single Canada-wide rewrite ladder. Using one province’s chart in another is a licensing error.

Ontario (FSRA), for a first pass date on or after 1 April 2024: after a failed exam the candidate may write three supplemental exams. A 24-hour wait is mandatory between attempts. Fail the third rewrite—the fourth overall attempt—and you wait one year from that fourth fail, then retake the prerequisite courses before you can register for the initial exam again. If your first pass date is before 1 April 2024, FSRA says you may still be under older rewrite rules; Durham has to confirm that file. Unsuccessful attempts incur additional Durham fees at the July 2026 schedule.

Walk an Ontario Life file. Jordan fails on Monday (attempt 1), waits 24 hours, fails Tuesday (attempt 2), waits 24 hours, fails Wednesday (attempt 3), waits 24 hours, and fails Thursday (attempt 4). Thursday’s fail starts a one-year bar and a course retake, not a fifth sitting on Friday. The 24-hour rule is a minimum, not a suggestion to book four days in a row; fatigue and extra fees make that a poor plan even when it is technically allowed.

New Brunswick (FCNB) publishes a different ladder: a candidate who fails a module rewrites that module; they may rewrite twice, then must wait three months for another attempt; if a fifth attempt is required, wait another six months. Certification from the course provider is still only one year. That is not Ontario’s three-supplementals-then-one-year-plus-courses model. AIC, Insurance Council of British Columbia, Manitoba, and the AMF each have their own administration policies. Read the regulator that will licence you before you burn attempts.

FCNB also notes that people who have not held a licence for two years must retake the LLQP course, pass the provincial exam, and apply again. That is a licensing-gap rule, separate from the 12-month first-pass clock for new applicants.

Booking reality while you study this guide

Ontario: treat in person as the default, confirm any 150 km-style distance accommodation with Durham, and use FSRA’s page for rewrite policy. New Brunswick: Durham still offers in-person Fredericton sittings and online modules. Alberta: AIC, not Durham. Quebec: AMF. Bring government ID and your CIPR number. Official mark letters from Durham go to the candidate, not to an employer, because of privacy rules.

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