United States
Hong KongWhen your carrier is paying for the course
Take it. A course someone else paid for is worth more than a course you paid for, and carriers routinely fund a recruit's. Then check five things: which exam it targets, its outline date, whether it has full timed papers, its question volume, and what TDI-approved actually means here.
We sell a course. A carrier's paid-for course is the thing that competes with it most directly, and it competes at a price we cannot match, which is zero to you. So take the free one, and read the rest of this page as a checklist for making it work rather than as an argument against it.
Check one: which examination is it for
This is the check almost nobody makes and it is the one that matters most.
| License | First-time candidates, FY2025 | Passed |
|---|---|---|
| General Lines - Life, Accident and Health | 26,427 | 57.7% |
| Life Agent | 21,186 | 46.7% |
A carrier that sells life products may put you toward the Life Agent license, which is narrower and, by TDI's own figures, passes fewer people. That may still be the right call for the job you are taking. It should be a decision somebody made rather than a default in the enrollment form, and it is worth one email to find out which examination your course prepares you for.
Check two: the outline date
The content outline for this examination changed on 1 September 2026. Material written for the previous outline describes a paper that is no longer set. A course provided by an employer carries the authority of having been chosen for you, which makes an out-of-date one more dangerous than one you bought yourself and were already skeptical about.
Find the version date in the course, or ask the person who bought it. If it predates the change, that is a specific, checkable problem you can raise with a name and a date attached, which is a much easier conversation than a vague worry about quality.
Check three: does it have full timed papers
Pre-licensing courses are built to teach. Question banks are built to measure. The two are not the same product and a course bought to satisfy a training requirement often does the first well and the second barely at all.
What you need is at least two full papers of 130 questions in 150 minutes, on different forms, scored with the general and Texas sides separated. If the course has chapter quizzes and one practice test, it has taught you the material and not tested whether you can produce it at 1.15 minutes a question.
Check four: TDI-approved is not a quality signal here
A provider may describe itself as TDI-approved, and it may well be. It is worth knowing what that does and does not mean for you.
- Texas requires no pre-licensing education for this license. TDI's own page lists three steps: take the examination, get fingerprinted, apply. There is no approved course to complete and no certificate to file
- Approval matters elsewhere. A Texas adjuster really can skip their examination by completing a 40-hour TDI-approved course, and continuing education after you are licensed is a separate regime. Neither applies to getting your first General Lines license
- So approval tells you the provider met an administrative standard for a different purpose. It says nothing about whether the course is written for the current outline or whether it has full timed papers
That is not a criticism of approved providers. It is a warning against reading a badge as an answer to the questions above.
Check five: question volume
This is where a course-shaped product is usually thinnest, and it is the part that decides your score. You want enough questions that you meet each of the 13 outline sections repeatedly, with the near-synonym pairs turning up in the same option lists rather than in separate chapters.
If the free course is short on questions, that is the specific gap to fill, and it is a much smaller purchase than a second course. Do not buy a whole second program to solve a question-volume problem.
What the market charges, for comparison
| Provider | Price read on 6 September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Kaplan EssentialPlus | USD 249 |
| America's Professor | USD 199 |
| JustInsurance | USD 199 |
| Elite Training Academy | USD 49.99 |
WebCE, XCEL Solutions, ExamFX and A.D. Banker also sell into this market and we did not price them on that pass, so this is four providers rather than the field. Whatever your carrier is paying, it is somewhere in this range, and knowing the number makes it easier to ask whether the course is being chosen or renewed.
The honest position
These incumbents are larger and longer-established than in any market this site covers, and the carrier-funded channel is one we do not reach at all. If your employer is buying you a current, well-stocked course, you do not need anything from us and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Where we would still argue our corner: our Texas questions cite the section of the Insurance Code the answer turns on, because we hold 47 chapters of it in full. That is a checkable claim about how the bank was built rather than a claim about outcomes. Nobody, ourselves included, can show you a pass rate by preparation method, because TDI's report does not contain one.
Common questions
Should I take a course my employer pays for?
Yes. A funded course is worth more than one you buy, and carriers recruiting new agents fund them routinely. Check which examination it targets, its outline date, and whether it includes full 130-question timed papers, then fill whichever of those is missing.
Do carriers pay for insurance licensing in Texas?
Many do for new agents, covering the pre-licensing course and sometimes the fees. Texas requires no pre-licensing education for a General Lines life, accident and health license, so a funded course is a benefit rather than a requirement being met.
Does TDI-approved mean the course is good?
It means the provider met an administrative standard for a purpose that does not apply to your first General Lines license, since Texas requires no pre-licensing course for it. Approval says nothing about whether the material matches the outline effective 1 September 2026.
What if my employer's course is out of date?
Raise it with whoever bought it, with the date attached. The content outline changed on 1 September 2026, so a course written for the previous one describes a paper Texas no longer sets. That is a specific, checkable point rather than a complaint about quality.
Do I need anything besides the free course?
Possibly only questions. Courses teach well and test lightly, and this examination is decided by recognition at 1.15 minutes a question. If the course has chapter quizzes and one practice test, add question volume rather than buying a second course.