NY-LAH Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

The 2025 NY-LAH Pass Rate Numbers

If you're researching the New York Life, Accident & Health Insurance Agent/Broker Exam (NY-LAH), the most concrete data point available is the New York State Department of Financial Services' published pass rate. For the English-language version of the Series 17-55 exam in 2025, the pass rate was 46.63%, based on 13,164 examinees. That means fewer than half of candidates who sat for the exam that year answered enough questions correctly to clear the required threshold.

This is not a "gotcha" statistic meant to scare you away from the license. It's a reality check: the NY-LAH exam, administered through PSI on behalf of DFS, is a real content test covering 18 distinct domains, and it rewards candidates who prepare specifically for its structure rather than those who rely on general insurance knowledge or on-the-job experience alone.

What a 46.63% Pass Rate Actually Means

A near-50/50 outcome tells you two things at once. First, the exam is genuinely selective - it is not a formality tacked onto the 40 hours of DFS-approved prelicensing education. Second, more than half of the people who fail are likely making avoidable mistakes: under-allocating study time to heavily weighted domains, skimming policy provisions instead of memorizing them, or walking in without having practiced under timed, multiple-choice conditions.

For a deeper breakdown of why the exam trips up so many first-time candidates, see How Hard Is the NY-LAH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026. The short version: difficulty comes less from any single hard topic and more from breadth - 18 domains packed into 150 questions means gaps anywhere on the map can cost you points.

Exam Mechanics Behind the Numbers

Understanding exactly how the exam is built helps explain why the pass rate sits where it does. The NY-LAH (Series 17-55) consists of:

• 150 multiple-choice questions, delivered electronically
• 2 hours 30 minutes of total time
• A passing threshold of 105 correct answers, or 70%
• A $40 exam fee per attempt
• Availability at PSI test centers or via remote online proctoring

Eligibility requires candidates to be at least 18 years old and to complete 40 hours of DFS-approved combined prelicensing education before sitting for the exam. Once you pass, the clock starts: you must use that passing result to apply for a license within two years. For the full eligibility checklist, review NY-LAH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and for a precise explanation of the scoring threshold, see NY-LAH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

Domain Weighting and Where Points Are Lost

The current DFS-linked Series 17-55 topic locator (labeled 2018-2019) organizes the exam into 18 domains. Because the exam draws from all 18, a candidate who ignores lower-weighted domains to focus only on life insurance basics can still lose enough scattered points to fail. Here's how the weighting breaks down:

For the complete list of all 18 domains with their exact percentages and subtopics, see NY-LAH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 18 Content Areas. Lower-weighted domains - Federal Tax Considerations (2%), Qualified Plans (2%), and Life Settlement (3%) - feel skippable, but with only 150 questions total, even a 2% domain can represent three or more questions you either get right through preparation or lose through guesswork.

Who Struggles With the Series 17-55

The pass rate data doesn't break candidates down by background, but the exam's structure gives clues about who tends to struggle. Candidates entering directly from the 40-hour prelicensing course without additional review often underestimate how granular the questions get on provisions, riders, and regulatory specifics - areas where the course introduces concepts but the exam demands precise recall.

This exam is the gateway credential for people pursuing work as life, accident, and health insurance agents and brokers in New York - roles found at carriers, independent agencies, and brokerages across the state. If you're weighing whether the license leads somewhere worthwhile, NY-LAH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and NY-LAH Jobs cover the employment landscape, while Is the NY-LAH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 weighs the cost of preparation against the career payoff.

Note also that if your role will involve variable life insurance or variable annuities, passing the NY-LAH alone isn't enough - that authority requires separate FINRA registration and a CRD number. Confusing the state insurance license with securities registration is a common source of downstream confusion after candidates pass.

A Domain-Aligned Study Timeline

Generic study techniques only help if they're applied to the exam's actual weighting. Below is a four-week structure that maps directly to the domains most likely to move your score, front-loading the highest-weighted content first.

For a full walkthrough of this kind of preparation plan, including how to sequence review sessions and drill weak domains, see NY-LAH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. And if you want a compact reference to keep the 18 domains and their weights in front of you during review, bookmark NY-LAH Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.

After You Pass: Fees, Licensing, and Renewal

Passing the exam is a milestone, not the finish line. A few mechanics matter once you're on the other side of the 105-correct-answer threshold:

• Your passing result must be used for a license application within two years, or it expires.
• The individual license fee is $40 per year or fraction of a year, and licenses can be issued for up to two years at a time.
• Once a license has been active for more than two years, renewal requires 15 continuing-education credits.
• Variable life insurance or variable annuity authority requires separate FINRA registration and a CRD number - the NY-LAH exam alone does not grant that authority.

For a complete cost picture across the prelicensing hours, exam fee, and licensing fees, see NY-LAH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. If you're still confirming scheduling logistics before you commit to a study plan, NY-LAH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling covers how PSI testing windows and remote proctoring options work.

Improving Your Odds Above the Average

Given a 46.63% pass rate, the practical goal for any candidate is to prepare in a way that clearly separates them from the roughly half of examinees who don't clear 70%. That means treating the exam as a breadth test across all 18 domains rather than a depth test on one or two favorite topics, drilling the 10%-weighted Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders domain until rider and nonforfeiture terminology is automatic, and running full-length, timed practice sets that mirror the actual 150-question, 150-minute format on the real Series 17-55.

Working through realistic practice questions on our NY-LAH practice test platform lets you simulate that time pressure before exam day, rather than discovering pacing problems for the first time when you're sitting in front of PSI's live interface. Repeated exposure to the question style - scenario-based, provision-heavy, regulation-specific - is one of the most direct ways to close the gap between "familiar with the material" and "ready to answer under a clock."

It's also worth understanding exactly what you're studying for at a conceptual level before you dive into domain drilling. If you landed here without full context on the credential itself, start with What Is NY-LAH? or NY-LAH Certification for the baseline picture, then return to the domain-by-domain breakdown once the fundamentals are clear.

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