Candidates who desire to apply for a license in the major lines of property, casualty, personal lines P&C, life, or accident and health insurance licenses in Wisconsin (see list of major lines below) must complete prelicensing education at an approved school prior to sitting for an examination. A listing of approved schools is available on this web site.

The prelicensing education is not a preparatory course for passing the examination. The intent is to provide a broad overview of insurance concepts, state laws, and ethics.

The course content provided by approved schools will include eight hours of study of the Principles of Insurance, General Wisconsin Insurance Laws, and Ethics. Once this eight hours is completed, it need not be repeated for each line. Twelve hours regarding Policies, Terms and Concepts, and line-specific insurance law must be completed for each major line. Therefore, a candidate applying for all four major lines would be required to complete a total of 56 hours of education prior to testing.

Upon successful completion of the education requirement, you will receive a Certificate of Prelicensing Education. Your school is required to electronically bank your course information within 10 days of completion. This is required in order for you to apply for a license once you are successful on the exam(s).

Candidate Handbooks, which include exam and reservation information, are available from the schools (see Approved Prelicensing Education Schools in Wisconsin) as part of their instructional materials. Information in the Handbook will outline Wisconsin's electronic testing procedure. This system allows you to register with the testing service by telephone at least one (1) business day in advance of an exam. The exam fees are $50 for one line, $85 for two. The Candidate Handbook is also available on Pearson VUE's (formerly Promissor) Web site. $18 will be collected by the testing service to complete an electronic Crime Information Bureau report from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. This report is required and is valid for 180 days.

The Intermediary's Guide to Wisconsin Insurance Law has been developed by OCI as a study guide for the law portion of the exam. The guide should be made available from the approved schools. However, you can obtain a copy from OCI for $3.00. All orders must be prepaid. Send requests to: Agent Licensing Section, P.O. Box 7872, Madison, WI 53707-7872. The Intermediary's Guide to Wisconsin Insurance Law is available to be downloaded below. Note, however, that you will need an Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print the application, which you can download at no cost from Adobe .

Exemptions to the education requirement include those candidates applying for the limited lines of Title, Credit, and Legal Expense. Candidates who have completed a two-year Wisconsin technical college degree in insurance, a four-year college degree in business with an insurance emphasis, or those who hold the appropriate designations identified in s. Ins 26.04 (2) (g), (h), and (i), Wis. Adm. Code, are also exempt. If any of these exemptions apply to you, the Candidate Handbook and Prelicensing Exemption Form are available on-line.

Major Lines

Life (includes credit life, pre-need funeral expense, fixed and variable annuities)

Accident & Health (includes credit accident & health, disability, long-term care, Medicare supplement)

Property (includes auto*, homeowners*, fire, hail, wind, livestock mortality, inland marine, crop, pet, mechanical breakdown, gap plus, window etching)

Casualty (includes auto*, homeowners*, fidelity, steam boiler, title, worker's comp., debtors, credit unemployment, prepaid legal expense, surety, town mutual nonproperty, mortgage guaranty, gap, errors and omissions)

Personal Lines P&C (property and casualty insurance sold to individuals and families for primarily noncommercial purposes)

*(Note: To sell auto and/or homeowners insurance, an agent must hold both property and casualty lines)