- CLTC's final exam is 100 multiple-choice questions, closed-book, proctored online, requiring 70% to pass.
- FINRA's professional-designation directory lists no prerequisites for candidates pursuing this designation.
- Classroom candidates must finish the exam within 120 days of the second Master Class day.
- Published eCLTC tuition is $1,280; preparation options include the 16-hour Master Class or the online eCLTC course.
What CLTC Actually Is
CLTC stands for Certification for Long-Term Care, a Certitrek brand built for financial professionals, insurance agents, and planners who work with clients on extended-care planning. It is not a nursing or clinical credential, and it is not affiliated with any of the other acronyms floating around that happen to share the same three letters. If you landed here after seeing conflicting information elsewhere, start with What Is CLTC? or CLTC Meaning to get grounded before you dive into the details below.
This cheat sheet exists to give you a single page you can scan the night before your exam, or the morning of, without wading through marketing copy. Everything here traces back to the issuer's own published materials - no borrowed statistics, no guessed pass rates, no invented salary figures.
Exam Mechanics at a Glance
The final examination is delivered online and proctored, so you'll need a quiet room, a webcam, and a stable connection on test day. It is closed-book - no notes, no course materials, no searching for answers mid-exam. The format itself is straightforward:
- Question count: 100 multiple-choice questions
- Passing score: 70%
- Format: Closed-book, online, proctored
- Prerequisites: None listed in FINRA's professional-designation directory
Because there are no prerequisites, anyone who completes the required coursework can sit for the exam - there's no license requirement or minimum years of experience gatekeeping entry. That said, "no prerequisites" doesn't mean the exam is trivial; it means the coursework itself is the gate. For a deeper breakdown of what "difficult" really means in this context, see How Hard Is the CLTC Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
If you want the exact number restated plainly with no ambiguity, CLTC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass walks through it question by question.
Key Takeaway
70 correct answers out of 100 is your target. There's no partial credit for domain performance - it's one combined score, so don't over-optimize studying one Domain while neglecting another.
The Six Domains, Fast
The course outline organizes content into six Domain labels. These are topic groupings from the official curriculum, not a scored, independently weighted blueprint - so don't assume each Domain carries equal or fixed question counts. Still, knowing what each one covers is the fastest way to organize your review.
Domain 1: Extended Care: Family vs. Statistics
Contrasts personal/family assumptions about aging and care needs against the broader statistical reality of extended-care utilization.
- Why client intuition about "it won't happen to me" often conflicts with data
Domain 2: Extended Care Services
The actual landscape of care delivery - what services exist, where they're delivered, and how they differ in scope.
- Distinctions between care settings and service types
Domain 3: Who Pays for Extended Care
The funding sources clients actually rely on, and the gaps between what people assume and what's available.
- Private pay, insurance, and public program roles
Domain 4: Medicaid v. Long-Term Care Insurance
A direct comparison of relying on Medicaid versus carrying private long-term-care insurance coverage.
- Eligibility realities versus planning assumptions
Domain 5: Proper Implementation of Long-Term Care Insurance
How coverage should actually be structured and put in place for a client's specific situation.
- Matching policy design to client circumstances
Domain 6: The Ethical Promotion of Long-Term Care Insurance
The professional and ethical obligations tied to recommending and selling long-term-care insurance products.
- Standards for responsible client-facing recommendations
For a full treatment of each Domain - including how the topics connect to each other across the course outline - read CLTC Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 6 Content Areas. It's the natural companion to this cheat sheet once you've got the one-page overview memorized.
Prep Paths and Deadlines
Candidates generally choose one of two routes into the exam:
- 16-hour CLTC Master Class: An instructor-led classroom format. If you go this route, mark your calendar - the issuer's instructions require exam completion within 120 days of the second class day. Miss that window and you'll need to sort out your options with the issuer directly.
- eCLTC online course: A self-paced online alternative to the classroom format, useful if your schedule doesn't accommodate a fixed two-day class.
Neither path substitutes for exam-day readiness. The course gets you to the door; the closed-book, 100-question exam is what actually certifies you. Many candidates supplement their coursework with focused review - see CLTC Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt for a structured approach to bridging that gap.
If you're still deciding which prep format fits your timeline, or wondering whether specific scheduling windows apply, CLTC Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling covers the logistics in more depth.
Cost Snapshot
Published eCLTC tuition sits at $1,280. That figure covers the online course itself; it's worth budgeting separately for any renewal or continuing-education costs that follow certification. Because pricing structures can shift and classroom tuition may differ from the online course, treat this cheat sheet as a starting point rather than the final word - cross-check current figures against the issuer's own pages before you commit.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| eCLTC tuition (published) | $1,280 |
| Master Class format | 16 hours, classroom |
| Exam completion deadline (classroom route) | Within 120 days of second class day |
| Renewal | Annual payment required |
| Continuing education | Required every two years |
For the complete cost breakdown, including how tuition fits into the total investment of earning and maintaining the designation, see CLTC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. And if you're weighing whether the investment pays off relative to your career goals, Is the CLTC Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 lays out the considerations without inventing numbers that don't exist yet.
Renewal and Maintenance
Passing the exam isn't the finish line. Maintaining the designation requires two ongoing commitments:
- An annual renewal payment
- A continuing-education course every two years
Neither requirement is unusual for a professional designation, but both are easy to forget once the exam is behind you. Build a simple reminder system - a calendar entry tied to your certification anniversary works fine - so you don't lapse on a technicality after doing the hard work of passing.
Who Actually Uses This Designation
CLTC is built around the practical work of financial professionals and insurance agents who advise clients on extended-care funding decisions - the kind of conversations covered in Domains 3 and 4 above. It signals to clients and referral partners that the holder has studied the mechanics of care costs, payment sources, and ethical sales practices specific to long-term-care insurance, rather than general financial planning credentials that only touch the subject tangentially.
If you're curious how this designation shows up in job postings, title requirements, or hiring conversations, CLTC Jobs covers the practical side of where the credential gets used. And if you want the broader picture of how training providers structure their offerings around the designation, CLTC Training is a useful next stop.
Key Takeaway
This is a domain-specific credential for people already working in insurance or financial planning - not a general-purpose resume booster unrelated to that field.
Final-Week Review Plan
You don't need an elaborate multi-month system to use your last week well. Because the exam draws from six labeled Domains rather than a heavily weighted blueprint, the smartest use of limited time is even coverage rather than obsessing over one section.
Domains 1-2
- Review the family-vs-statistics framing and the landscape of extended-care services
Domains 3-4
- Drill funding sources, then contrast Medicaid reliance against private LTC insurance
Domains 5-6
- Focus on implementation mechanics and the ethical-promotion standards
Full review
- Take a timed practice run on the practice test platform to simulate the 100-question, closed-book format
Running a few timed sessions on a full-length practice test before exam day is the closest you can get to simulating the actual proctored environment without booking the real thing. It also surfaces which of the six Domains still need another pass.
FAQ
The final examination contains 100 multiple-choice questions, delivered online and proctored, and it's closed-book.
You need 70% to pass. See CLTC Passing Score 2026 for a full breakdown of what that means in raw question counts.
FINRA's professional-designation directory lists no prerequisites for this designation, meaning there's no license or experience gate before you can take the course and sit for the exam. Details are in CLTC Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
The issuer's classroom-route instructions require exam completion within 120 days of the second class day, so missing it means you'll need to address the lapse directly with the issuer rather than assuming an automatic extension.
No. This site covers Certification for Long-Term Care specifically, a Certitrek brand tied to financial and insurance planning for extended care. If you encounter different facts elsewhere under the same three letters, they likely describe an unrelated credential.