17 Free Iowa Life Insurance Exam Practice Questions (2026)

Iowa's Life questions draw on the General Knowledge part of Pearson VUE's Life exam content outline: 50 scored items in four sections, Types of Policies at 15, Policy Riders, Provisions, Options and Exclusions at 15, Completing the Application, Underwriting and Delivering the Policy at 12, and Retirement and Other Insurance Concepts at 8. Iowa has no combined Life and Health exam, so the Life exam (12-IA-01) stands alone: 87 questions, 77 of them scored, in 2 hours for $44. The other 10 are unscored pretest items. Its Iowa-specific part adds 27 scored items, 15 on laws common to all lines and 12 on life insurance only.

The Iowa Insurance Division determines the passing score and does not publish it, so this guide quotes none. The exam can be taken at a Pearson VUE test center or online through OnVUE. Iowa requires no pre-licensing course, and fingerprints are taken through Fieldprint after you apply for the license, not before the exam.

These 17 questions come from Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of LanePrep's Iowa Life & Health quiz bank, none of them repeated from the free 25-question sample across all eight chapters: 5 on policy types and annuities (Chapter 2), 5 on riders, provisions, options and exclusions (Chapter 3), and 7 on underwriting, contract law and retirement concepts (Chapter 4). Those chapters are worth 15, 15 and 20 of the Life exam's 77 scored items, which together make up the 50-item General Knowledge part. The grouping is LanePrep's, not Pearson VUE's: Chapter 4 teaches the application and underwriting section together with the retirement and other insurance concepts section. Iowa law, in Chapters 1 and 5, is sampled in the free 25-question set. Each question shows its chapter, so a miss tells you exactly which audio lesson to replay.

For context, the NAIC's first-time pass rate on the Life exam was 58.4 percent in 2024 and 60.1 percent in 2025, with test center and online candidates combined in both years. The rate rose 1.7 points between the two years.

Work them before you read the answer. Every question has the explanation folded underneath it. Guessing and then reading is worth more than reading and then agreeing.

Chapter 2 opens the Life set with product matching: the permanent policy whose cash value follows a stock market index but carries a guaranteed minimum interest rate, and what the renewable feature of a 20-year term policy guarantees at the end of the term. Two investment questions follow: the Variable Universal Life feature that lets a policyholder direct the cash value among sub-accounts, and what a 0 percent floor and a 10 percent cap mean together in an Indexed Life policy. The last Chapter 2 question asks what the pay-in phase of a Variable Annuity buys. Chapter 3 begins with the Entire Contract provision and the documents that make up the agreement between the policyowner and the insurer.

Chapter 3 continues with cash, dividends and settlements. It asks how a whole life policyowner can reach $10,000 of cash value without surrendering the policy, and which name goes with the fifth dividend option, the one that uses each year's dividend to buy temporary insurance equal to the policy's cash value. It then asks what a Payor Benefit rider pays when the child it covers dies, and what happens under a Life Income with Cash Refund settlement option if the beneficiary dies before the payments add up to the original death benefit. Chapter 4 begins with underwriting. It asks what the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires when an insurer orders a consumer report on an applicant, and when the Social Security blackout period starts for a surviving spouse.

Chapter 4 closes the Life set with compliance and tax rules. It asks how many days a departing employee has to convert group life coverage to an individual policy without proving insurability, and what right the privacy notice required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act must give the client. Two questions on the 7-pay test follow: what happens when the policyowner makes a material change after the policy has passed the test, and what a large dump-in payment does to a policy that is three years old. The last question returns to consumer reports and asks what an insurer owes an applicant it denies on the strength of a Medical Information Bureau report.

Matching the policy type to the wrong feature. Indexed Life links cash value growth to a recognized stock market index and adds a guaranteed minimum interest rate. Variable Universal Life instead puts the investment choices, and the market risk, with the policyholder, and its distinguishing feature is the ability to direct the cash value among sub-accounts such as stock, bond and money market funds. A floor, such as 0 percent, means the cash value does not fall because the index does. A cap, such as 10 percent, limits the maximum annual gain even if the index performs better. Together they do not guarantee growth of at least 10 percent, and they do not make the death benefit or the premium move with the index. A renewable feature on a term policy guarantees the right to continue coverage for another term without proving insurability, at a higher premium. Converting to whole life without evidence of insurability is a conversion right, and a refund of premiums or an automatic increase in the death benefit is not a renewal feature.

Mixing up the units of a Variable Annuity. During the accumulation, or pay-in, phase the policyowner's contributions purchase Accumulation Units. They are converted into Annuity Units once the payout phase begins, so Annuity Units answer a payout-phase question, not this one. General Account Shares and Paid-up Additions are not units of a variable annuity at all.

Misreading what makes up the contract and how to reach the cash value. Under the Entire Contract provision the policy, a copy of the application and any attached riders or amendments make up the complete agreement. Oral promises made during the application and the insurer's internal underwriting guidelines are not part of it, and neither is the policy document alone. A policy loan lets an owner borrow against the cash value of a whole life policy without surrendering it. It involves no credit check, and an unpaid balance with its interest is deducted from the death benefit. An advance from the death benefit or converting to a term policy and taking the cash value are not the common option the question describes. The one-year term option, also called the fifth dividend option, uses the dividend to buy one-year term insurance, which is how an owner adds a small amount of temporary coverage each year. Paid-up additions, extended term and cash surrender do something else with the dividend.

Reading a rider or a settlement option for more than it pays. A Payor Benefit rider protects the policy's existence if the person paying for it dies or becomes disabled, by waiving the premiums. The rider never pays a benefit of its own when the insured child dies, so the grandmother in question 9 gets nothing from it: no death benefit, no funeral expenses and no monthly income. Under the Life Income with Cash Refund option the insurer guarantees that the total paid out will at least equal the principal. If the primary payee dies before that point, the remaining balance is paid in a lump sum to the named contingent beneficiary. It is not forfeited to the insurer, not paid to the estate until a 10-year period certain ends and not used to buy a new policy for the heirs.

Confusing the notices the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act require. When an insurer orders a consumer report on an applicant, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires written notice to the applicant that a report has been requested. Verbal consent alone, automatic delivery of a copy of the report and a 30-day wait before acting on the information are not the rule. If the insurer denies the application based on a Medical Information Bureau report, it must give the applicant a Notice of Adverse Action that says so and names the reporting agency with its address. It does not have to hand over the MIB report itself, arrange an interview with an MIB underwriter or hide that the MIB was used. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act covers a different notice, the privacy notice. Before an insurer shares nonpublic personal information with nonaffiliated third parties, the client must be given the right to opt out. A premium refund, a right to sue the producer over a data breach and a right to block sharing with the MIB are not part of that notice.

Missing the conversion window. An employee who leaves a job covered by group life insurance has 31 days to convert the group coverage to an individual policy without proving insurability. That is the conversion period in standard group life provisions. The 10-, 30- and 60-day options are the traps, and 30 is the nearest to the right number.

Misplacing the Social Security blackout period. The blackout period is the stretch in which a surviving spouse is not eligible for Social Security survivor benefits. It begins when the youngest child turns 16, which ends the spouse's benefit, not at the breadwinner's death, not at the child's 18th birthday and not when the spouse reaches 60. It follows the dependency period, the time when the surviving spouse has dependent children to support.

Forgetting that the 7-pay test can be failed after issue. A whole life policy that passes the 7-pay test when it is issued is not exempt for good. A material change, such as a significant increase in the death benefit, means the policy must be re-tested, and failing the test reclassifies it as a Modified Endowment Contract (MEC). A policy fails when its cumulative premiums exceed the amount needed to pay it up in seven years, which a large dump-in payment can cause in the third year. The result is permanent MEC status. The policy is not cancelled automatically, not voided for lack of legal purpose and its cash value is not forfeited to the state. Its death benefit does not become taxable as ordinary income, and the insurer does not have to refund the excess within 30 days to avoid MEC status.

How did you score?

13 or more correct: You're clearing most of the life sections. Move to the Accident & Health insurance exam set next, then read how to pass the Iowa Life & Health exams on the first try for the full study plan.

9-12 correct: You're in reasonable shape but not comfortable. Note which chapter your misses fell in and replay that chapter's audio lesson before retesting.

Under 9 correct: Start with Chapter 2 of the LanePrep Iowa Life & Health course and work forward through Chapters 3 and 4 rather than testing yourself again right away. A free preview is available at /ia/l-and-h/preview.

For a 25-question sample across all eight chapters, see the free practice set.

Exam format, fees and content outline item counts from Pearson VUE's Iowa Insurance Licensing Candidate Handbook (publication 121600, July 2025) and Iowa Insurance Content Outlines (publication 121601, effective January 1, 2026); passing score determination from the same handbook; pass rates from the NAIC compiled pass-rate workbooks for 2024 and 2025. Read October 2026.