Pre-Recruitment Examinations For Insurance Agents
(Life & General)

Introduction

A critical element of financial sector reforms is the development of a pool of human resources having right skill and expertise in each segment of the industry to provide quality intermediation to market participants. Quality intermediation requires personnel working in the industry need to

1. follow a certain code of conduct

2. Have an understanding of business and skills to service different constituents in the market.

In order to ensure this, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority constituted under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 has notified the IRDA (Licensing of Insurance Agents) Regulations, 2000. Regulation 6 of the Regulations requires that a person desiring to obtain or renew a license to act as an insurance agent or a composite insurance agent shall pass the pre-recruitment examination in life or general insurance business, or both, as the case may be, conducted by the Insurance Institute of India, Mumbai or any other examination body "duly recognised by the authority"

Accordingly, the Insurance Institute of India has developed pre-recruitment examinations in both life and general insurance business. These examinations are administered all over the country manually by the Insurance Institute of India and electronically by the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, Mumbai. The manual and electronic modes of administering examination are the alternatives of each other.

Eligibility For Examination

Regulation 4 of the regulations requires that a person desiring to obtain or renew a license to act as an insurance agent or a composite insurance agent shall possess the minimum qualification of

1. Pass in 12th Standard or equivalent examination conducted by any recognised Board/Institution, where the applicant resides in a place with a population of five thousand or more as per the last census, and

2. Pass in 10th Standard or equivalent examination from a recognised Board/Institution if the applicant resides in any other place.

According to the regulation 5 of the regulations, the persons desiring to obtain or renew a license to act as an agent is required to

1. Complete from an approved institution, at least, one hundred hours' practical training in life or general insurance business, as the case may be, which may be spread over three to four weeks, where such person is seeking license for the first time to act as insurance agent and

2. Complete from an approved institution, at least, one hundred fifty hours' practical training in life and general insurance business, which may be spread over six to eight weeks, where such applicant is seeking license for the first time to act as a composite insurance agent.

Syllabus

Life

Non-Life

Pattern Of Examination

1. Only objective/multiple choice questions are asked.

2. A candidate is required to indicate the correct answer.

3. The examination is of 2 hours duration.

4. Maximum marks are 100. Numerical questions carry 10% of the marks.

5. A candidate is required to secure at least 50% marks to be declared successful.

The candidate taking examination or the sponsoring insurer has the option to choose either of the modes of examination.

Manual Mode

Electronic Mode

Back