Education, examination, application, appointment. The usual education route is a 60-hour approved prelicensing course, completed within four years of applying — and it requires the state examination rather than replacing it. The exam is 150 scored questions in 2 hours 45 minutes at 70%, for $44. A passing score is good for one year, so finish the paperwork inside that window.
Step 1 — Qualify through education
Florida will not let you sit the examination until you have met a prerequisite. For the 2-15 there are two ordinary ways:
- A 60-hour approved course in life and health including variable annuity insurance, completed within four years of your application date.
- A 30-hour life course plus a 40-hour health course. Certain professional designations can substitute for one half or the other — ChFC or FLMI on the life side, and CEBS, ChHC, HIA, REBC or RHU on the health side.
Both of those are marked "Requires State Examination" in the Department’s own qualification document. That phrasing is worth reading twice, because a lot of course marketing implies otherwise: the course is the ticket to the exam, not a way around it.
Florida rule also requires study manuals for all attendees of a prelicensing course, so the materials come with it. See what the 60 hours cover.
Step 2 — Pass the state examination
The 2-15 examination is 150 scored questions plus 15 pretest questions in 2 hours 45 minutes, and the passing score is 70% — the number answered correctly divided by the total. The fee is $44, paid to Pearson VUE when you reserve.
Florida candidates reserve a seat at a physical test center; this examination is not taken from home. You are photographed at check-in, and you leave with a photo-bearing score report marked pass or fail, carrying a numeric score and diagnostic information by content area.
The pretest questions are mixed in with the scored ones and are not identified. There is no way to spot them and no benefit in trying.
Where the exam is won or lost: three of its twelve content areas are Florida statutes and rules — one common to all lines, one for life and annuity, one for health. Together they are 33% of the scored questions, and they are exactly what a generic national study text leaves out.
Step 3 — Apply to the Department
You apply to the Florida Department of Financial Services through its online system, answer the application questions in full and pay the fees. The application also brings the background requirements — fingerprinting and a criminal history review.
Two sequencing facts matter here. A passing score is valid for one year from the date earned; if the licensing process is not completed inside that year, you retake the examination. And a license is only issued to an applicant who has both earned a passing score and completed the application — passing alone is not a license.
Fee amounts and processing times are set administratively and change, so take them from the Department at the moment you apply rather than from any published figure, including ours. We deliberately do not print them.
Step 4 — Get appointed
A license establishes that you are qualified. An appointment is what authorizes you to transact business for a particular insurer, and it is the insurer that files it. Until you hold one, the license sits idle.
The three routes that skip the examination
They exist, they are narrow, and none of them is a shortcut for a first-time candidate:
- A degree carrying at least nine credit hours of insurance instruction with specific instruction in health, life, annuities and variable contracts, evidenced by an official transcript. Marked Exempt from State Examination.
- Transferring an equivalent resident license. Become a Florida resident, having held a valid resident license with the equivalent line of authority for at least one continuous year, and apply within 90 days of becoming a resident. Marked Exempt.
- The CLU designation from the American College of Financial Services, evidenced by an original letter. Marked Exempt.
One near-miss worth knowing: if you moved to Florida more than 90 days ago but held an equivalent license in a reciprocal state within the last four years, you are exempt from the prelicensing course — but you still take the Florida examination.
If the exam does not go your way
Florida allows five attempts at the same examination type in a twelve-month period, and each attempt carries the $44 fee again. The score report you receive on the day breaks your performance down by content area, which tells you exactly where to spend the next two weeks. See retaking the exam.
Start with the part that decides it
340 practice questions across all twelve content areas, weighted the way the state weights them. First 5 free — no account, no card.