New York Insurance Exam Guide: The Property & Casualty Agent and Broker Exam, Series 17-56, Explained

PassProfessor’s New York program. The 9,993-question New York practice bank is built and audited, and enrollment is open. Enroll today and start practicing right away — then use this guide to plan your path to the exam.

Enrollment is open. Enroll in New York Insurance Exam Prep and start practicing today.

1. The New York P&C exam, in one paragraph

The exam that stands between you and a New York property and casualty license is Series 17-56, administered by PSI Services LLC for the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). It is a single, combined examination — 150 multiple-choice questions in 2½ hours — and you pass it with 70% correct. One exam serves two licenses: the Property & Casualty Agent license and the Property & Casualty Broker license both require Series 17-56, so agent candidates and broker candidates study for, schedule, and sit the same test. Before you may take it, most candidates must first complete a DFS-approved pre-licensing course of at least 90 hours. After you pass, you have two years to submit your license application to DFS.

2. Who can take the New York P&C exam?

Agent or broker? Decide first, because the licenses differ even though the exam does not

New York issues two distinct licenses for the same property and casualty authority, and the difference is whom you represent:

• A property and casualty agent represents an insurance company. An agent sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance for the companies that have appointed that agent, and an agent must have at least one company appointment in order to transact insurance business.
• A property and casualty broker represents the public — the insured. A broker can sell, solicit, or negotiate insurance for any insurance company licensed in New York State that deals with brokers.

That distinction matters for your paperwork and appointment obligations, not for your exam: the bulletin lists both licenses against Series 17-56 — same series, questions, outline, and standard. If you later want the other license, a currently licensed broker in the same lines is exempt from the agent exam requirement, and vice versa.

Two neighboring authorities are not Series 17-56, and confusing them is a common and expensive mistake:

• Personal Lines (agent or broker) is its own authority — non-commercial insurance for individuals and families — with its own exam, Series 17-54, and a 40-hour pre-licensing requirement.
• The Property Casualty Laws and Regulations exam, Series 17-74, is a shorter laws-focused exam that appears in one specific situation described below: designation holders who waive the education requirement. It is not an alternative route for ordinary candidates.

The eligibility requirements

Under the bulletin and DFS’s licensing pages, a resident candidate for the P&C agent or broker license must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Complete the pre-licensing education requirement — at least 90 hours of instruction in a Department-approved pre-licensing course for the property casualty line of authority. That figure is the same for the agent license and the broker license, and DFS lists both explicitly on its pre-licensing education page.
• Pass Series 17-56.
• Apply to DFS for the license within two years of passing the examination, and pay the appropriate licensing fee.

On background: DFS reviews your application packet and verifies that nothing in your background should prohibit licensure, and passing does not by itself guarantee a license. One federal rule belongs at the start of your process, before course and exam fees are spent: 18 U.S.C. § 1033 disqualifies anyone convicted of a criminal felony involving dishonesty or a breach of trust from employment in the insurance industry, unless the Superintendent gives written consent to engage in the business of insurance, via the Application for Written Consent filed with the license application.

The 90-hour pre-licensing course — the step that comes before the exam

New York is a pre-licensing-education state, and for property and casualty it sets one of the heavier loads: not less than 90 hours of instruction from a provider DFS has approved, specific to the property casualty line of authority. Three mechanics matter:

1. The course comes before the exam. PSI’s bulletin states the sequence plainly: you must successfully complete the approved requirement before taking the corresponding licensing exam.
2. Your provider issues a School Certificate. Keep it: the bulletin states the certificate is good for a lifetime, and it must be submitted to DFS with your license application.
3. Providers and courses are listed by DFS. Only a Department-approved course satisfies the requirement, so choose from the Department’s approved provider and course list.

Self-study books, video libraries, and practice-question programs — including ours — do not satisfy this requirement and earn no education credit toward the 90 hours. The course satisfies the state and teaches the material; preparation converts that material into a passing score.

Waivers and exemptions from the course

DFS and the bulletin recognize narrow exceptions. Read these exactly, because they are narrower than candidates often assume:

• CPCU designation. A candidate for either the agent or the broker license who holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation may waive the education requirement — and then takes the Property Casualty Laws and Regulations exam (Series 17-74), not Series 17-56. The bulletin’s designation chart lists CPCU for Property Casualty Agent/Broker applicants on exactly those terms.
• Broker experience (Statement of Employer). A candidate for the broker license may waive the education requirement if he or she was regularly employed by an insurance company, broker, or agent for not less than one year during the last three years in responsible insurance duties relating to the underwriting or adjusting of losses in one or more of the listed branches: fire, marine, liability and workers’ compensation, fidelity and surety, property and casualty. The candidate submits a signed, completed Statement of Employer with the license application; DFS notes the application remains pending until the Department reviews and approves the Statement. A related Armed Forces provision can qualify service members on the basis of qualifying employment in the three years before entry into service, if they apply within one year after discharge.
• Designations generally. DFS’s pre-licensing education page lists the designations that can exempt an agent or broker applicant from the pre-licensing course — CPCU, CLU, CLUA, ChFC, and MSFS — but for property and casualty candidates the operative chart in the bulletin is the CPCU route above, with the Laws and Regulations exam attached. Do not assume a designation waives the exam; on the P&C chart it changes which exam you take.

If none of those describes you, plan on the 90 hours. Most first-time New York P&C candidates take the course.

3. The exam, piece by piece

Series 17-56 is built from the content outline printed in PSI’s bulletin. The examinations are closed book — no reference materials, papers, or study materials are allowed at the examination site — and the bulletin explains its own weighting system: the percentages indicate the relative weight assigned to each part of the examination, so that a section weighted at 10% contributes 15 questions on a 150-question examination. The table below applies that method to the published percentages for Series 17-56; where a percentage produces a half-question, the count is shown as an approximation, because PSI publishes percentages, not per-section counts.

Outline section	Published weight	≈ Questions of 150	What it covers
Insurance Regulation	9%	≈14	Licensing and licensee regulation; the Superintendent’s powers; company regulation; unfair practices — misrepresentation, false advertising, defamation, unfair discrimination, rebating; agent appointment and termination; fraud prevention; privacy and compensation transparency
General Insurance	9%	≈14	Risk, exposure, hazard, peril, loss; methods of handling risk; insurable interest; adverse selection and the law of large numbers; types of insurers and distribution systems
Property and Casualty Insurance Basics	13%	≈20	Contracts and policy structure; negligence and liability; rates; underwriting; cancellation principles; valuation, coinsurance, duties after loss, subrogation; Terrorism Risk Insurance
Dwelling (2014) Policy	6%	9	Purpose and eligibility; coverage forms and perils; Coverages A–E; deductibles, exclusions, conditions; New York special provisions
Homeowners (2011) Policy	14%	21	The heaviest named policy section: HO-2 through HO-6 and HO-8; Section I property (A–D) and Section II liability (E, F) coverages; exclusions, conditions, New York endorsements
Auto Insurance	11%	≈17	Personal and commercial auto; Financial Responsibility Law and required limits; the Automobile Insurance Plan (assigned risk); no-fault/PIP; uninsured, underinsured, and supplementary UM coverage; supplemental spousal liability; IIES; rideshare rules
Commercial Package Policy	11%	≈17	Package structure; commercial property and business income; CGL — occurrence versus claims-made, premises/operations, products/completed operations; crime; equipment breakdown; inland marine; farm
Businessowners (2010) Policy	8%	12	Eligibility; property and liability coverage; limits, deductibles, conditions; optional coverages; New York endorsements
Workers’ Compensation Insurance	8%	12	New York Workers’ Compensation Law; exclusive remedy; covered employment, injuries, benefits; the policy, Parts One–Six; premium and experience modification; the State Insurance Fund; Disability Benefits and Paid Family Leave
Other Coverages and Options	7%	≈11	Umbrella/excess and specialty liability; surety bonds; flood (NFIP); excess lines; NYPIUA (the FAIR Plan) and C-MAP; watercraft
Accident and Health Insurance	4%	6	Disability income, medical plan, and group concepts; New York dependent and mandated-benefit rules
Total	100%	150

Four structural facts shape how you should prepare:

1. There is one combined sitting and one result. Property and casualty are not split into separate exams or separately passed portions in New York, and agent and broker candidates share the exam. Your 150 answers produce one outcome against the 70% standard.
2. Policy forms plus basics carry the exam. Homeowners (14%), the P&C basics (13%), auto (11%), and the commercial package (11%) together account for roughly half the test. A study plan that treats commercial lines as an afterthought is a plan to concede about a fifth of the exam before you sit down.
3. New York law is woven through the outline, not quarantined in one section. Regulation is its own 9%, but New York specifics also decide questions inside auto (the Automobile Insurance Plan, no-fault, the Financial Responsibility Law), workers’ compensation (New York’s statute, the State Insurance Fund, Disability Benefits and Paid Family Leave), homeowners and dwelling (New York special provisions), and other coverages (NYPIUA, C-MAP). A purely national course of study leaves those points on the table in at least five sections.
4. Experimental questions may be mixed in. PSI states that, in addition to the number of items specified in the content outlines, a small number — 5 to 10 — of experimental questions may be administered during an examination. They are not scored; they exist to develop future examinations. You cannot identify them, so the only workable strategy is the obvious one: answer everything as if it counts.

4. The passing standard, explained

You pass Series 17-56 by getting 70% correct. PSI’s bulletin states New York’s standard in those direct terms — there is no scaled-score conversion to decode, and no separate passing score for individual sections described in the bulletin. Seventy percent of 150 questions is 105 questions; treat that arithmetic as a floor to clear with margin, not as a study target, because the questions you meet will vary in difficulty and a handful of experimental items may be mixed into your sitting.

What your score report tells you. Your score is displayed on screen at the end of the examination, and a score report is emailed to you. If you pass, keep the original passing score report — DFS requires it with your license application, and it must be dated within two years prior to applying. If you do not pass, the emailed score report includes a diagnostic report indicating your strengths and weaknesses by examination type. That diagnostic is the most useful document a failing candidate owns: it converts a retake from “study everything again” into “repair the sections that cost you,” and it maps to the same outline sections your practice data should already be tracking.

A note on pass rates. Neither the PSI bulletin nor the DFS pages consulted publish a pass rate for Series 17-56; treat any precise rate quoted without an official PSI or DFS publication with suspicion.

5. Fees and registration, step by step

Keep the payments separate — they go to different organizations, at different steps, for different things.

Payment	Amount	Paid to	When
Pre-licensing course tuition	Set by the DFS-approved provider you choose (not a state fee)	Your course provider	Before the exam
Exam fee	$40	PSI	When you schedule your examination
License fee (resident individual)	$80 full fee if the license is issued for more than one year; $40 half fee for a period of one year or less	DFS, with your application	After you pass

Examination fees are not refundable or transferable, and PSI states your examination fee will be forfeited if you do not test within one year of the date PSI receives it. License fees are likewise non-refundable, per DFS.

The sequence, in order:

1. Complete your 90-hour DFS-approved pre-licensing course and obtain your School Certificate from the provider (unless a waiver or exemption in §2 applies to you, in which case confirm your exam series — CPCU holders test on Series 17-74, not 17-56).
2. Create your PSI account and schedule. The fastest route, per PSI, is online through PSI’s New York insurance registration site; telephone registration is available at (855) 579-4637 (registrars Monday–Friday 7:30 a.m.–10:00 p.m., Saturday–Sunday 9:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Eastern Time). Your PSI account ID is your Social Security number, and the first and last name on your account must match your current, valid, government-issued ID exactly. At scheduling you choose your format: a PSI test center or a remote proctored sitting. Pay the $40 fee by credit card (VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover, for telephone registration).
3. If you choose remote proctoring, run the compatibility checks first. PSI directs remote candidates to verify audio, video, webcam, and system compatibility before test day; your booking lets you launch the test within 30 minutes of your booked time, and if you have not started within 15 minutes after your booked time you forfeit your test fee or eligibility. Breaks are not allowed during remote proctored examinations — if you cannot complete the exam without a break, PSI instructs you not to register for the remote format.
4. Protect your appointment. You may cancel and reschedule without forfeiting your fee if your cancellation notice is received 2 days before the scheduled examination date — for a Monday appointment, notice must arrive by the previous Saturday. PSI is specific that a voicemail or email message is not an acceptable form of cancellation; use the PSI website or speak directly to a customer service representative. You forfeit the fee if you miss the appointment, cancel late, fail to check in by your scheduled start time, or fail to present proper identification.
5. Take the exam (see §8 for test day). Your score appears on screen when you finish.
6. Apply for the license (see §6).

Accommodations: PSI centers provide ADA access (ADA-granted candidates schedule by telephone), and candidates whose primary language is not English may request an ESL authorization — time and a half — with a personal request letter and a letter from an English instructor or sponsoring company.

6. After you pass

Passing starts a clock, and the application — not the exam — is what makes you licensed. PSI and DFS are both explicit on the point: passing an examination does not guarantee you will be issued a license; DFS reviews your application packet, verifies your background, and issues the license only on approval of all materials. And if you take an exam unnecessarily or are found unqualified, neither the exam fee nor the license-processing fee will be refunded.

The deadline is two years. Applications must be received within two years from the date of passing the examination; incomplete applications, or applications without the required fee, will not be accepted or placed on file.

How a resident applies. DFS’s Property & Casualty Agent or Broker page directs you to apply online through NY LINX, the Department’s licensing portal. A resident applicant submits:

• The license application itself, obtained through DFS.
• Your pre-licensing education School Certificate — or, for broker candidates claiming the experience waiver, the completed Statement of Employer; or evidence of the qualifying professional designation (CPCU for property and casualty).
• The original passing exam score report, dated within two years prior to applying.
• The appropriate licensing fee — $80 full fee / $40 half fee for a resident individual, as described in §5. DFS accepts credit card, electronic funds transfer (e-check), or paper check, with a $20 fee for a check returned for insufficient funds; a paper-check application stays pending until DFS receives and processes the check.

A note on fingerprinting. The bulletin checklists for the P&C agent and broker licenses do not list a fingerprint step, and DFS’s fingerprinting service-code table lists no P&C agent/broker category; fingerprinting is expressly required for adjuster applicants. Do not import a fingerprint step from another state’s guide — and confirm the current DFS checklist when you apply, because that page governs.

Your license term and what comes next. Individual licenses are issued for up to two years, with an expiration date determined by your date of birth: if you were born in an even-numbered year, your license expires on your birthday in an even-numbered year; if in an odd-numbered year, on your birthday in an odd-numbered year. DFS does not mail paper licenses — use the DFS Producer/Licensee Search to confirm issuance and your license number, and print your license as soon as it is issued. For renewal, resident agents and brokers must complete 15 continuing education credits during each biennial licensing period, completed before the renewal application is processed.

Appointments. A license authorizes you; an appointment connects you to a company. An agent application may be submitted without an appointment, but an agent must have at least one company appointment to transact insurance business, and a notice of appointment must be filed within 15 days of either the date the agency contract is executed or the date the first insurance application is submitted to the company. A broker, representing the insured, places business with authorized companies that accept brokered business and does not work through agent appointments in the same way.

Nonresidents and people relocating. Nonresidents must be licensed and in good standing in their home state; first-time nonresident individual applicants can apply through NIPR. Producers currently licensed, or licensed within the last 90 days, in another state who are relocating to New York may have the education and exam requirements waived, provided their information appears in the National Producer Database (otherwise, a currently dated Letter of Certification from the prior home state is required).

7. Retakes and score validity

• No same-day retake. It is not possible to book a new examination appointment on the same day you have taken an examination, because PSI must process and report results first.
• Earliest retake is fast. PSI’s bulletin gives the worked example: a candidate who tests unsuccessfully on a Wednesday can call the next day, Thursday, and retest as soon as Friday, depending on space availability. The bulletin states no longer waiting period and no attempt-count limit for Series 17-56; each new attempt is a new appointment with the $40 exam fee payable again.
• Use the diagnostic. A failing candidate’s emailed score report includes strengths and weaknesses by examination type. A retake scheduled for Friday with no change in preparation is a fee, not a plan — repair the diagnosed sections first, even if that means choosing a later date.
• Score validity is two years. Your passing score report must be dated within two years prior to applying, and your application must be received within two years of passing. Let that window close and the exam must be taken again.
• Previously licensed? If you were licensed before but have not been licensed within the two years immediately preceding your application date, the bulletin requires you to pass the appropriate PSI licensing exam again and submit a new application with the required documentation.

8. Test day

• Arrive early. PSI instructs candidates to arrive at least 15 minutes before the appointment for sign-in and identification; if you arrive late, you may not be admitted and you forfeit your registration fee.
• Bring exactly one thing, correctly. You must bring one form of valid, non-expired, signature-bearing identification whose name matches the first and last name under which you registered — your legal name as it appears on your government-issued ID. PSI’s bulletin lists the accepted primary identifications, which include a state-issued driver’s license or identification card, a U.S. government-issued passport, U.S. military identification, a U.S. alien registration card, and a Canadian government-issued ID; the ID must contain your photo and be valid and unexpired. A name mismatch or missing ID means no test and no refund.
• Expect real security procedures. Reference materials, electronic devices of any type, non-religious hats or headgear, bulky outerwear, bags, food, drinks, and personal writing materials are all prohibited. At check-in you may be asked to empty and turn out your pockets and have eyeglass frames inspected. Guests may not wait in the examination center. At a test center you may be given scratch paper and a pencil (returned at check-out) and may leave only for the restroom, with proctor permission and no extra time. Remote candidates get no scratch paper and no breaks, must keep hands on the desktop and eyes on the screen, and may never photograph the exam or results.
• Use the tutorial. The on-screen tutorial — up to 15 minutes, not counted against your exam time — teaches the system, with sample questions after it. Take it.
• Work the screen the way it is built. One question at a time, minutes remaining at the top, and you may return to any question and change your answer before time runs out — flag-and-return is a real strategy, and on a minute-a-question test it protects the last twenty questions.
• You can comment on questions using the comments key; PSI’s development staff review substantive comments. Use it for a genuinely defective item, not as a substitute for an answer.
• Results are immediate. Your score is displayed on screen at the end of the examination and your score report is emailed to you. Duplicate score reports can be requested by emailing PSI’s score-report address given in the bulletin.

9. How to study for this exam

The outline in §3 is the syllabus. PSI publishes exactly what the exam covers and how heavily each part counts, and a plan that ignores those weights is a plan to over-study the small sections and under-study the large ones.

1. Sequence the process correctly. Course first (90 hours, DFS-approved, School Certificate in hand), then focused preparation, then the exam, then the NY LINX application inside two years. Candidates who shortcut the course discover the requirement when it costs the most time.
2. Give homeowners and the basics their combined weight. At 14% and 13% they are more than a quarter of the exam. Learn the homeowners forms comparatively — HO-2 through HO-6 and HO-8, Sections I and II, and the New York endorsements — and learn the basics as working concepts (valuation, coinsurance, duties after loss, cancellation) rather than definitions.
3. Treat commercial lines as a first-class block. Commercial package (11%) and businessowners (8%) together outweigh auto. Causes of loss, CGL occurrence versus claims-made, products and completed operations, crime, and equipment breakdown are scenario material — learned by answering questions about businesses, not by reading form summaries.
4. Drill the New York institutions by name. The Automobile Insurance Plan; NYPIUA, the FAIR Plan, and C-MAP; no-fault and the verbal threshold; the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation; financial-responsibility limits; supplemental spousal liability; the State Insurance Fund; Disability Benefits and Paid Family Leave. Finite, concrete, and heavily represented relative to their study cost.
5. Do not neglect the small sections. Dwelling (6%), other coverages (7%), and accident and health (4%) are narrow enough to master completely — cheap points that can carry a mediocre day on a large section.
6. Practice at full length, against the real clock. A minute a question, flag-and-return on the hard ones, nothing left blank. Short quizzes build knowledge; only full simulations build pace and stamina.
7. Read every explanation, especially for questions you got right. A right answer from a wrong reason is a future wrong answer; on a scenario exam, the reasoning is the reusable part.
8. After a failure, study the diagnostic. Rebuild around the sections it flags, then retest — PSI allows a retake as soon as the next-but-one day, but speed is worth nothing without the repair.

PassProfessor’s New York practice bank — 9,993 original questions with an explanation on every question, including 547 on auto insurance, 352 on workers’ compensation, 299 on other coverages and options, and 802 on insurance regulation — is built section by section on this same outline. It is exam preparation only and does not satisfy the 90-hour pre-licensing requirement. The New York Insurance Exam Prep program page shows the full coverage table — and enrollment is open there.

10. Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the New York P&C exam, and how long do I have?
Series 17-56 has 150 questions and a 2½-hour (150-minute) time limit. PSI may also administer 5 to 10 additional unscored experimental questions during the examination; they do not count toward your result.

Do New York agents and brokers take different P&C exams?
No. The agent and broker licenses are different licenses — an agent represents an insurer, a broker represents the insured — but both require the same exam, Series 17-56.

What score do I need to pass?
70% correct, as PSI’s New York bulletin states it. Your score is displayed on screen when you finish and your score report is emailed to you.

Does New York require pre-licensing education for P&C?
Yes. At least 90 hours of instruction in a DFS-approved pre-licensing course for the property casualty line of authority, for both the agent and broker licenses, completed before you take the exam. Your provider issues a School Certificate that is good for a lifetime and goes to DFS with your application.

Are there ways to waive the 90-hour course?
Two narrow ones. CPCU designation holders may waive the education requirement and take the Property Casualty Laws and Regulations exam (Series 17-74) instead of Series 17-56. Broker candidates may waive it through a Statement of Employer documenting at least one year of qualifying responsible insurance employment during the last three years. Most candidates take the course.

How much does the New York P&C exam cost?
The exam fee is $40, paid to PSI when you schedule; it is not refundable or transferable and is forfeited if you do not test within one year of PSI receiving it. The license fee after you pass is separate: $80 full fee for a resident individual license issued for more than one year, or a $40 half fee for a period of one year or less.

How do I register for the exam?
Online through PSI’s New York insurance registration site, or by phone at (855) 579-4637. Your account name must match your government-issued ID exactly, and you choose a test-center or remote-proctored format when you schedule.

Can I take the New York insurance exam online?
Yes — PSI’s bulletin provides for remote proctored testing as a scheduling option, with compatibility checks, launch within 30 minutes of your booked time, a hard start deadline 15 minutes after it, and no breaks during the exam. Test-center testing remains available across New York.

What do I do after I pass?
Apply to DFS within two years of passing — resident individual applications go online through NY LINX — with your School Certificate, your original passing score report, and the license fee. DFS reviews and approves the application before issuing the license; it does not mail paper licenses, so check the Producer/Licensee Search and print your license once issued.

How long is my passing score good for?
Two years. Your application must be received within two years of passing, and your score report must be dated within two years prior to applying.

If I fail, how soon can I retake it?
Not the same day — PSI needs a day to process results. The bulletin’s example: fail on Wednesday, call Thursday, retest as soon as Friday, space permitting. The $40 fee applies to each attempt, and your emailed diagnostic report shows your strengths and weaknesses by examination type.

Do I need to be fingerprinted for a New York P&C agent or broker license?
The application checklists DFS and PSI publish for the P&C agent and broker licenses do not list a fingerprint step — fingerprinting is required for adjuster applicants, a different license class. Confirm the current checklist on DFS’s P&C licensing page when you apply, since that page governs.

What New York-specific topics does the exam test?
Among others: the New York Automobile Insurance Plan (assigned risk), no-fault/PIP and the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, the New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association (FAIR Plan) and C-MAP, the New York State Insurance Fund, the Disability Benefits Law and Paid Family Leave, New York cancellation and nonrenewal rules, and New York special policy provisions and endorsements.

Is a practice program a substitute for the 90-hour course?
No. Practice programs — including PassProfessor’s — are exam preparation only, earn no education credit, and do not satisfy the DFS pre-licensing requirement. You need both steps: the approved course for the requirement, and preparation for the exam.

Verified questions

Every question in this program is original — written for PassProfessor from the official exam blueprint, never copied from a test bank or another provider’s materials. Before enrollment opened, each answer key was independently verified: reviewers re-answered sampled questions blind, disagreements were settled against the primary sources, and every numeric answer was recomputed from first principles. Questions whose facts could not be confirmed were removed, and the bank passed a text-overlap screen. Practice exams draw a fresh, blueprint-weighted set from the full bank on every attempt, so no two practice exams are the same.

Disclaimer

PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider and is not affiliated with the New York State Department of Financial Services, PSI, or any state agency or exam vendor. This guide is general information about the New York licensing exam, current as of October 2026; the New York State Department of Financial Services and PSI publications govern if anything here differs from them.