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Hong KongLife and health or property and casualty, and what TDI's numbers say about the choice
By pass rate they are a wash: 57.7% for General Lines life, accident and health against 58.3% for General Lines property and casualty in FY2025. The real difference is volume and subject. 26,427 first-time candidates sat life and health; 10,887 sat property and casualty. Choose on the work, not the exam.
People ask which of the two is easier, expecting a gap. TDI publishes the answer for both in the same report, and the gap is six tenths of a percentage point. Whatever decides this for you, it is not difficulty.
The two General Lines exams, side by side
| Examination | First-time candidates, FY2025 | First-time pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| General Lines - Life, Accident and Health | 26,427 | 57.7% |
| General Lines - Property and Casualty | 10,887 | 58.3% |
| Personal Lines Property and Casualty | 5,223 | 66% |
| Life Agent | 21,186 | 46.7% |
| Limited Lines | 1,995 | 68.8% |
Those are TDI's own figures from its FY2025 examination report, and they are first-time candidates, meaning people rather than sittings. The Department publishes this for every insurance examination it runs, in one document, and as far as we can tell nobody puts the rows next to each other.
The row that should stop you
Life Agent. 46.7%, which is more than ten points below the broader life and health license, on a narrower subject. That is the most counterintuitive number in the whole report and it is a strong argument against assuming that a smaller license is a smaller exam. If you were planning to take Life Agent because life is all you intend to sell, look hard at that figure first.
The same logic runs the other way for Personal Lines Property and Casualty at 66%. Narrower, and genuinely easier. There is no rule here, which is exactly why the table is worth reading rather than reasoning from.
What each license actually lets you do
| License | What you can solicit and negotiate |
|---|---|
| General Lines - Life, Accident and Health | Life, accident, health and HMO coverage in Texas |
| General Lines - Property and Casualty | Property and casualty lines. We hold no content outline for it and will not characterize it further |
That second row is deliberately thin. Everything on this site is built from the life and health content outline, the candidate handbook, the Insurance Code and TDI's report. We hold nothing for the property and casualty examination and have never sat it, so a confident paragraph about its structure would be invented. What we can tell you is its pass rate, because TDI published it.
The one structural fact worth carrying across
Your exam is 130 scored questions in 150 minutes, made of 100 general insurance questions and 30 on Texas statute, sat together and scored as one result. The general 100 is not Texas-specific and it is 77% of the paper, which is ours by division. That shape is what makes a life and health license portable in a way people underestimate, and it is covered in the 100/30 split.
How the choice usually actually gets made
By whoever is hiring. Most people sitting either of these exams are heading into a specific role, and the role names the license. A carrier recruiting for life and annuity sales wants life and health; an agency writing homeowners and auto wants property and casualty. The exam is the second question, not the first.
Where the choice is genuinely yours, our opinion is that volume is the signal to read. 26,427 people sat life and health against 10,887 for property and casualty. That is not a statement about which is better. It is a statement about where the hiring is, and it is the closest thing to career data in the Department's report.
Can you hold both?
Agents commonly do, and the usual pattern is one first and the other later once the first is producing. Nothing in the exam structure makes them a package. They are separate examinations with separate content outlines and separate registrations at $49 each, and the Texas portion of each covers different statute.
The no-pre-licensing rule is not specific to life and health. TDI lists three steps for these agent licenses: take the exam, get fingerprinted, apply. The one place a Texas course really does replace an exam is the all-lines adjuster license, which is a different job and a different license entirely.
Common questions
Is property and casualty harder than life and health in Texas?
Not meaningfully. TDI's FY2025 report puts General Lines property and casualty at 58.3% first-time pass and General Lines life, accident and health at 57.7%. Six tenths of a point apart, same regulator, same year. Difficulty is not the deciding factor.
Which Texas insurance license should I get first?
Usually the one your employer or intended line of business names. Where the choice is open, note that 26,427 first-time candidates sat life and health in FY2025 against 10,887 for property and casualty, which says something about where the hiring is.
Why is the Life Agent exam harder than life and health?
TDI reports Life Agent at 46.7% against 57.7% for the broader General Lines life, accident and health license, on 21,186 first-time candidates. It is the most counterintuitive figure in the report, and a good reason not to assume a narrower license means an easier exam.
Can I hold both a life and health and a property and casualty license?
Agents commonly hold both, usually taking one first and adding the other later. They are separate examinations with separate content outlines and separate $49 registrations, and each has its own Texas statute portion covering different law.
Do you cover the property and casualty exam?
No. Everything here is built from the life and health content outline, the candidate handbook, the Texas Insurance Code and TDI's examination report. We hold no property and casualty material, so the only thing we will say about that exam is what TDI published about it.