Question 1

Can I write the exam with no insurance experience, and is a course required?

Accepted Answer

RIBO's licensing page describes the Level 1 exam as designed for individuals new to insurance, and it puts passing the exam ahead of finding a job at a registered brokerage. The Exam Rules ask for eligibility and identification and never once for experience or a course, so you can register, write and pass without having worked a day in the business.

Question 2

Do I need a job or a sponsoring brokerage before I can hold the licence?

Accepted Answer

To write the exam, no. To hold the licence, yes. O. Reg. 991 requires a broker to carry on business as a sole proprietor, as a partner of a partnership, or as an employee of a member, and By-Law No. 3 puts a Level 1 licensee under the supervision of a principal broker at the active firm licensee that employs or sponsors them. RIBO asks for that job offer as part of the licence application.

Question 3

Will a criminal record or unpaid fines stop me from being licensed?

Accepted Answer

Not on its own. O. Reg. 991 disqualifies an applicant convicted of an offence the nature of which renders him or her unfit to act as a broker, and a later subsection lets the Qualification and Registration Committee look past that where it is satisfied the person will carry on business in accordance with law, integrity and honesty, having regard to the circumstances and to the time elapsed. RIBO asks for a criminal record check less than sixty days old at the application stage. An unpaid fine or an unpaid judgment is not named as a bar anywhere in the Act, the regulations or the by-laws.

Question 4

Where can I get practice questions for the Level 1 exam?

Accepted Answer

RIBO publishes a set of retired exam questions for candidates, linked from its exam page. Beside it sits the competency profile and blueprint, which says what each question is testing. RIBO attaches two warnings to the question set itself: performance on it will not predict success or failure on the exam, and the sampling is not balanced to the blueprint. That set is the only practice material RIBO publishes, so anything else a candidate works through comes from somewhere else.

Question 5

Does RIBO publish an official textbook?

Accepted Answer

No. RIBO publishes a competency profile and blueprint, a Consolidated Examinee Resource carrying the statute, the regulations, the by-laws and OAP 1, a set of retired sample questions, and its Exam Rules. The blueprint says outright that it should help applicants who choose self-study, which fairly describes the whole set: reference material, not a course book.

Question 6

Which prep course should I take?

Accepted Answer

RIBO does not run courses, and it has published no comparison, ranking or endorsement of any Level 1 preparation course. Its exam page names the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario and the Insurance Institute, then leaves the choice to the candidate. This site leaves it there too, since ranking one course above another would mean claiming a comparison that nobody, RIBO included, has ever published.

Question 7

What can I study for free?

Accepted Answer

RIBO's exam page links the competency profile and blueprint, the Consolidated Examinee Resource, the retired sample questions, the Exam Rules, and By-Laws No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. The Resource carries OAP 1 sections 1 to 8, those three by-laws, the Registered Insurance Brokers Act, and O. Regs. 308/98, 990 and 991. The Act and those three regulations are Ontario law, published on ontario.ca and reproduced here section by section. OAP 1 is FSRA's document and the by-laws are RIBO's, so this site describes them and links the official copies instead of republishing them.

Question 8

How long should I study before writing?

Accepted Answer

The blueprint weightings are the only steer RIBO gives on where study time should go, and even they say nothing about how much of it to spend. The exam page sets no minimum and asks for no course, and the Exam Rules stay on eligibility, identification and conduct. Candidates who write about it afterwards describe anything from two weeks to several months, a spread wide enough to be worth very little as a plan.

Question 9

How many questions are there, and how are the sections weighted?

Accepted Answer

On RIBO's exam page as it stood on August 31, 2026, the Level 1 exam is 100 multiple-choice questions over 3 hours. They divide as General Insurance and Industry Knowledge 25, Personal Lines Habitational 25, Personal Lines Automobile 25, Commercial Lines 20, and Travel Health 5. The blueprint sets out the same split as percentages, and has been in effect since January 1, 2025.

Question 10

What are pilot questions and do they count?

Accepted Answer

RIBO's exam page, read on August 31, 2026, prints three numbers separately: 100 multiple-choice questions, 15 piloted questions that will not count towards your overall grade, and a pass mark of 75 out of 100. They fit together one way, since only 100 graded questions reconcile with that pass mark, so you answer 115 questions and 100 of them are scored. Whether a piloted question is flagged as one while you are writing is not something RIBO has published either way.

Question 11

Are there calculations on the exam?

Accepted Answer

Some. The blueprint's critical and analytical thinking competency lists an understanding of math concepts and gives calculating co-insurance and OAP 1 sections 6 and 7 as its examples, and the habitational competency names co-insurance clauses, penalties and basic calculations. One of RIBO's retired sample questions works a co-insurance loss through to a dollar figure. Neither the blueprint nor the curriculum guide mentions proration or short-rate cancellation.

Question 12

Do I have to pass the travel health section separately to sell travel insurance?

Accepted Answer

No. RIBO's exam page states that candidates who pass the current Level 1 exam may sell travel health insurance, and it puts no condition on that section by section. Travel health is one of the five sections the blueprint weights, worth 5 of the 100 questions when the page was last read on August 31, 2026, and the pass mark applies to the paper as a whole.

Question 13

Are the July 1, 2026 accident benefit changes on the exam?

Accepted Answer

O. Reg. 383/24 rewrote the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule on July 1, 2026, making most of the benefits that had been automatic optional instead, and RIBO told licensees to be ready to explain the change. That notice is addressed to licensed brokers, not to candidates, and the training it points at is optional, so it settles nothing about the exam either way. The change did reach candidates in one place. The OAP 1 inside the exam resource is now the wording approved for use on or after July 1, 2026.

Question 14

Why are the questions worded the way they are?

Accepted Answer

The blueprint weights the paper by cognitive level: Knowledge forty to forty-five per cent, Comprehension forty to forty-five per cent, and Application fifteen to twenty per cent. The curriculum guide says the exam stays at remembering, understanding and applying, and leaves analysing and creating to the later levels. In the retired sample questions every item has four options, negative stems are uncommon, and RIBO capitalises the negative word when it uses one.

Question 15

How hard is the exam, and what is the pass rate?

Accepted Answer

The pass mark stood at 75 per cent when RIBO's exam page was last read, on August 31, 2026, and the same page writes it as 75 out of 100. RIBO's 2024/2025 Annual Report puts the pass rate at 51 per cent, from 6,185 exams written of which 3,201 passed, and the report itself describes that rate as having remained stable for the past three years. That 51 per cent is wider than the Level 1 exam on its own. The note with the table counts the RIB Act, Regulations and By-Laws equivalency exam and the Ontario Automobile equivalency exam in the same total, and the report publishes no separate rate for Level 1.

Question 16

Is the exam open book, and what can I take in?

Accepted Answer

No. The Exam Rules prohibit physical and digital resources, books and notes included, and allow only the tools and resources provided within the examination interface, such as an online calculator and a note-taking section. What people mean by open book is the Consolidated Examinee Resource, which RIBO describes as consolidating policies and regulations for the convenience of examinees during the exam.

Question 17

Can I search the Consolidated Examinee Resource during the exam?

Accepted Answer

RIBO describes the Resource as consolidating policies and regulations for the convenience of examinees during the exam. How it behaves on screen, and whether a candidate can search it, is left undescribed in both the exam page and the Exam Rules. Candidates who have written give different accounts, sometimes differing by which provider ran the sitting. Exam Rule 2.5 bears on it from one side only, allowing the tools and resources provided within the examination interface and nothing else.

Question 18

Is the exam online or in person, and what does the online version involve?

Accepted Answer

Either; RIBO offers both. Its fee update of January 1, 2026 sets one fee regardless of the exam provider or of whether the exam is written online or in person. For a virtually proctored sitting the Exam Rules require a room clear of prohibited materials, a single screen, and a webcam framing your whole face, head and shoulders; losing video, audio or screen for more than five minutes terminates the exam and nullifies the result. One break of five minutes or less is allowed with the proctor's prior approval, and the timer keeps running through it.

Question 19

Can I write it from another province or from outside Canada?

Accepted Answer

The Exam Rules turn on who you are, not on where you sit. They require original, valid, non-expired government-issued photo identification, giving a passport and Canadian licences, health cards and permanent resident cards as the examples, and they set no rule at all about the province or country you write from. Separately, RIBO launched a Temporary Labour Mobility Licence on January 5, 2026 for people already authorised to sell property and casualty insurance elsewhere in Canada; it runs six months, is issued once, and routes through the equivalency exams rather than Level 1.

Question 20

I failed. When can I write again, and how many attempts do I get?

Accepted Answer

The Exam Rules, last updated January 15, 2025, set a two-week wait after a failed attempt, allow two attempts per exam provider, and impose an eight-month waiting period after a second failure with the same provider. Writing inside those eight months resets the wait from the most recent attempt and nullifies the result.

Question 21

What is the pass mark, and can a near miss be reviewed?

Accepted Answer

RIBO's exam page put the pass mark at 75 per cent when it was last read, on August 31, 2026. A near miss cannot be reviewed: the Exam Rules limit remarking to the Level 2 Technical and Level 3 Management exams, because those carry constructed questions, and say that an exam made up entirely of multiple-choice questions qualifies for no remark and no appeal.

Question 22

How long do results take?

Accepted Answer

Results come from the exam provider two weeks after the exam date, and RIBO's exam page sends candidates to that provider to collect them. Candidates disagree about whether anything shows on screen the moment you finish, and the two-week turnaround is the only one RIBO has put in writing. If your score report carries a name other than your legal name, the provider has to reissue it against your government-issued identification, and may charge a fee to do so.

Question 23

What is the RIBO equivalency exam, and is it the same as Level 1?

Accepted Answer

It is a different exam. RIBO publishes two: the Act, Regulations and By-Laws exam and the Ontario Automobile exam, each covering one of the content domains Level 1 also tests. The Exam Rules put holders of an active Other-Than-Life licence, or of a licence in another jurisdiction, through a self-check on eligibility, and require everyone else to obtain RIBO's approval to waive the Level 1 requirement before writing one. This site covers Level 1.

Question 24

What is the difference between RIBO, OTL and LLQP, and which do I need?

Accepted Answer

A RIBO licence is the one for general insurance broking in Ontario. The Registered Insurance Brokers Act defines insurance for its own purposes as what the Insurance Act calls insurance, minus life insurance, which puts life outside RIBO altogether. O. Reg. 991 lets a broker also hold a life agent licence, and RIBO confirms that a life and health or accident and sickness agent licence may be held alongside a RIBO one. RIBO treats an adjuster, Other-Than-Life, real estate or mortgage broker licence as a conflict it will not allow.

Question 25

Can I keep another job, or hold a second licence, while I am a broker?

Accepted Answer

O. Reg. 991 requires that a broker's only business or employment be that of an insurance broker, or of an insurance broker and life insurance agent, or such other business as the Qualification and Registration Committee considers appropriate on terms it sets. So a second occupation is not ruled out, but it needs the Committee's agreement, and By-Law No. 3 requires a licensee to tell RIBO within ten calendar days about new or changed secondary employment. The code of conduct in the same regulation adds that an outside interest must not jeopardise the member's integrity, independence or competence.

Question 26

What do I have to do each year to keep the licence?

Accepted Answer

A certificate of registration runs from October 1 to September 30, and By-Law No. 3 requires the renewal application and the annual fee to be filed on or before August 31. On RIBO's fees page the individual licence fee is $240 for the year ending September 30, 2026 and $265 for the year beginning October 1, 2026. The same by-law requires accredited continuing education study hours by September 30 each year, in the number Council determines, and suspends the registration of a licensee who does not complete them.

Question 27

My licence lapsed. Do I have to write the exam again?

Accepted Answer

By-Law No. 3 asks a Level 1 licensee to have passed the appropriate examinations. It does not ask for them to have been passed recently, so a lapse does not on its own undo a sitting you already have. The same section also lets the Qualification and Registration Committee require any additional examinations or training it specifies, so the question is never closed in advance. An unrenewed registration goes into administrative suspension, a suspension unresolved for twelve months ends in cancellation, and a cancelled registration comes back only through a fresh application, which puts an applicant in front of that discretion again. A licensee who resigned rather than lapsed may ask to be reinstated within twenty-four months, on an application, a fee, and confirmation that continuing education was kept up throughout.

Question 28

How many licensed insurance brokers are there in Ontario?

Accepted Answer

RIBO's 2024/2025 Annual Report counts 19,169 Level 1 licensees as of July 31, 2025, with 1,971 at Level 2 and 1,605 at Level 3. Among active licensees, which RIBO counts separately and in slightly smaller numbers, the two largest age bands are 30 to 39 and 40 to 49, and 622 active licensees are 70 or over. The same report counts 1,694 licensed firms. Corporations are the largest type at 832 and non-active firms the second largest at 760, ahead of wholesalers and managing general agents, consultants, partnerships and sole proprietors.

Question 29

What does the exam and the licence actually cost?

Accepted Answer

RIBO's fee update of January 1, 2026 puts the exam at $325 per attempt, payable direct to the exam provider. On the fees page the individual licence fee is $240 for the licensing year ending September 30, 2026 and $265 for the year beginning October 1, 2026. An application filed between July 1 and September 30 pays half of the current year's fee as well as the full fee for the coming year.

Exams	Total	Passed	Pass rate
Level 1, entry-level exams	6,185	3,201	51%
Level 2, technical and commercial	44	19	43%
Level 3, management	37	20	54%
Level 3, accelerated management	32	29	91%

Age	Licensees
18-29	2,640
30-39	5,715
40-49	5,341
50-59	4,386
60-69	2,808
70+	622

Type	Firms
Corporation	832
Non-Active	760
Wholesaler/MGA	84
Consultant	8
Partnership	8
Sole Proprietor	2

Getting started and eligibility