This California Life and Health insurance exam study guide organizes preparation into ten study areas, with a free practice link for each. Use it alongside the CDI's current license examination objectives; our topic groups are study categories, not official exam section weights.
Start with a practice check
Try the California Life and Health insurance practice test, note the concepts you cannot explain, then use the topic links below. Each question explains the correct answer, the other choices and a memory hook.
Studying outside California? Use the national Life & Health study guide and national practice test, then add your own state's rules.
The exam at a glance
| Fact | Detail | | --- | --- | | Format | Computer-based, multiple choice, administered by PSI | | Questions | 150 scored — roughly 75 Life items and 75 Accident & Health items, plus 5–10 unscored experimental items | | Time | 195 minutes (about 3 hours 15 minutes) | | Passing score | 60% — 90 correct answers out of 150 | | California-specific content | 20–30% of the exam (CA Insurance Code & Ethics) | | Delivery | PSI test center or remote proctored from home |
If you want the full licensing path around the exam, start with the requirements and cost guide. If you want to know how hard the exam really is, read that guide — the short version: it rewards applied reasoning over memorization, so study by answering questions, not by re-reading.
Now, the ten domains.
1. General Insurance
The foundation everything else stands on: risk (pure vs. speculative), insurable interest, and insurance contract law — offer, acceptance, and consideration; representations vs. warranties; concealment; and the contract characteristics (unilateral, aleatory, conditional) that make insurance contracts different from ordinary ones. It also covers the difference between an agent (represents the insurer) and a broker (represents the insured), plus the basics of agency law.
Why candidates lose points here: the vocabulary feels easy, so people skim it — then miss scenario questions that turn on the exact definition. Drill General Insurance →
2. Life Insurance
The largest domain on the Life side: term vs. permanent policies, whole life and universal life mechanics, riders (waiver of premium, accelerated death benefit, guaranteed insurability), and the standard provisions — grace period, reinstatement, incontestability, and the suicide clause. California adds its own wrinkles, like the 10-day free-look period.
Why candidates lose points here: policy provisions all sound reasonable and similar; under time pressure, candidates mix up which provision does what. Drill Life Insurance →
3. Beneficiaries
Primary vs. contingent, revocable vs. irrevocable, class designations, per stirpes, and what happens when a beneficiary is a minor. California tests the community-property angle heavily: in a community-property state, naming someone other than your spouse can require the spouse's consent.
Why candidates lose points here: the community-property rules are unique to California and unlike anything in the national material. Drill Beneficiaries →
4. Annuities
Annuity types (immediate vs. deferred, fixed vs. variable), the owner/annuitant/beneficiary triangle, accumulation vs. annuity units, and settlement options (life only, period certain, refund options). The vocabulary overlaps with life insurance just enough to breed confident mistakes — this is one of the two domains candidates most often underestimate.
Why candidates lose points here: the owner/annuitant/beneficiary roles and the tax treatment of withdrawals trip up even people with finance backgrounds. Drill Annuities →
5. Taxation
Where the money rules live: premiums are generally not deductible for individuals, death benefits pass income-tax-free, cash-value growth is tax-deferred, annuity withdrawals are taxed on the interest portion first (LIFO), and the seven-pay test determines whether a policy becomes a Modified Endowment Contract (MEC). The exam loves combining two tax rules in one question.
Why candidates lose points here: the rules are simple in isolation and nasty in combination — exactly what scenario questions test. Drill Taxation →
6. Accident & Health Concepts
The regulatory backbone of the health side: what counts as an accidental injury, the ACA's rules (guaranteed issue, essential health benefits, open enrollment), HIPAA portability and privacy, and COBRA continuation. Note the California specifics: Medi-Cal is the state's Medicaid program, and California is one of the few states with its own individual mandate penalty.
Why candidates lose points here: the health side's regulatory texture — who can do what, in which order, with which disclosures — punishes people who studied only the Life material. Drill Accident & Health Concepts →
7. Medical Expense
The largest conceptual chunk on the health side: policy provisions (deductible, coinsurance, copay, out-of-pocket maximum), coordination of benefits and the birthday rule, Medicare parts A/B/C/D, and Medi-Cal. Who-pays-first questions are everywhere on the real exam.
Why candidates lose points here: Medicare and coordination-of-benefits rules have layers that only practice questions can expose. Drill Medical Expense →
8. Disability Income
Own occupation vs. any occupation definitions, elimination periods, benefit periods, residual and presumptive disability, and the difference between non-cancelable and guaranteed renewable policies. Also where workers' compensation (job-related) and private disability coverage (not job-related) diverge.
Why candidates lose points here: near-identical-sounding definitions — the exam's job here is confusing you between adjacent concepts. Drill Disability Income →
9. Long-Term Care
A small domain in course hours but dense with rules: the six activities of daily living (ADLs) that trigger benefits, the California Partnership program and its asset-protection feature, inflation protection requirements, and how tax-qualified LTC policies work.
Why candidates lose points here: eligibility triggers and partnership rules all feel identical under time pressure. Drill Long-Term Care →
10. CA Code & Ethics — 20–30% of your exam
The California-specific layer: licensing rules, replacement regulations (what you must disclose when a new policy replaces an old one), unfair practices (misrepresentation, twisting, rebating), disclosure duties, and the advertising rules. Pure memorization-friendly content with high point value — and the domain procrastinators run out of time for.
Why candidates lose points here: it's the last thing people study and the easiest points to leave on the table. Don't let a 20–30% slice of the exam be the part you prepared for last. Drill CA Code & Ethics →
How to use this guide
Three principles that hold across every domain:
- Question-first, not book-first. Answering questions badly and reading why is the mechanism, not a byproduct. Start with the domains above that scare you most.
- Read why the wrong answers are wrong. Understanding the distractors is what stops you re-picking them in a different scenario. Every question on this site explains all four options.
- Don't skip CA Code & Ethics. It's 20–30% of the exam and pure memorization — the best points-per-hour on the whole test.
For a week-by-week calendar built on exactly this domain structure, read how long you should actually study. Every question on PassSprint is free — start with any domain above, no signup required.
Frequently asked questions
Which domain has the most questions?
The exam splits roughly evenly between the Life side and the Accident & Health side (about 75 scored questions each), but California Code & Ethics content is layered across both halves — that's why it's listed at 20–30% of total exam content rather than as a single block.
Can I pass by skipping a domain?
Mathematically you can miss 60 questions and still pass, so one small domain won't sink you. But one abandoned domain typically costs 10–20 questions — your entire safety margin. Cover everything; drill the weakest hardest.
Should I study the domains in this order?
Use risk, not outline order: start where you're weakest. If you have a finance background, that's probably Taxation combinations and the health-side regulatory texture. If you're brand new, start with General Insurance — every later domain assumes its vocabulary.
Are the free practice questions enough?
For the exam itself, yes — every question on PassSprint is public, free, and comes with the full 3-part explanation. What free pages don't give you is the training layer: randomized practice, timed quizzes, a wrong-answer book, and weakness analysis. That's the $59 Exam Engine — optional, one-time, and the questions stay free either way.