Study guide
11.1 HO-2, HO-3, HO-4, HO-5, HO-6, and HO-8 Compared
Associate in Insurance AINS
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1 Introduction & Exam Overview
1.1 Current Exam Facts 1.2 Designation Path: Core, Concentration, Elective, Ethics 1.3 How to Study for AINS and Use This Guide
2 AINS 101 Assignment 1: Why Do We Have Insurance?
2.1 Risk, Peril, Hazard, and Loss Exposures 2.2 The Risk Management Process 2.3 Insurable Risk, Pooling, and the Law of Large Numbers
3 AINS 101 Assignment 2: How Do Insurers Succeed?
3.1 Types of Insurers 3.2 Premiums, Loss Ratio, Expense Ratio, and Combined Ratio 3.3 Reinsurance, Capital, and Solvency
4 AINS 101 Assignment 3: How Does Underwriting Work?
4.1 Purpose and Steps of Underwriting 4.2 Adverse Selection, Hazards, and Underwriting Authority 4.3 Ratemaking and Premium Components
5 AINS 101 Assignment 4: How Do Insurers Handle Claims?
5.1 From First Notice of Loss to Settlement 5.2 First-Party vs Third-Party and Coverage Determination 5.3 Good Faith, Subrogation, and Salvage
6 AINS 101 Assignment 5: How Do Insurers Reach Customers?
6.1 Independent Agents, Exclusive Agents, and Brokers 6.2 Direct Writers, MGAs, and Digital Distribution 6.3 Producer Compensation and Customer-Facing Roles
7 AINS 101 Assignment 6: What Goes Into an Insurance Policy?
7.1 Declarations, Insuring Agreement, Conditions, Exclusions 7.2 Definitions, Endorsements, and Who Is an Insured 7.3 Legal Principles of Insurance Contracts
8 AINS 101: How Insurers Operate in a Regulated Market
8.1 State Regulation and the McCarran-Ferguson Act 8.2 NAIC, Rate Regulation, and Solvency Oversight 8.3 Producer Licensing, Unfair Practices, and Residual Markets
9 AINS 102 Assignment 1: Why Do People Need Insurance?
9.1 Personal Loss Exposures 9.2 Personal Risk Management and Why People Buy 9.3 Personal Lines Landscape: Auto, Home, Liability, Life, Health
10 AINS 102 Assignment 2: What’s in a Personal Auto Policy?
10.1 PAP Eligible Vehicles, Insureds, and Policy Structure 10.2 Part A Liability and Part B Medical Payments 10.3 Part C UM/UIM and Part D Damage to Your Auto 10.4 PAP Exclusions, Conditions, and Common Endorsements
11 AINS 102 Assignment 3: What’s in a Homeowners’ Policy?
11.1 HO-2, HO-3, HO-4, HO-5, HO-6, and HO-8 Compared 11.2 Section I Property Coverages A–D 11.3 Perils, Exclusions, and Loss Settlement 11.4 Section II Liability (E and F) and HO Conditions
12 AINS 102 Assignment 4: What Other Policies Do People Need?
12.1 Personal Umbrella and Excess Liability 12.2 Scheduled Personal Property, Flood (NFIP), and Earthquake 12.3 Life, Health, and Disability Insurance Basics
13 AINS 102 Assignments 5–6: Evolution and Key Roles
13.1 Telematics, Usage-Based Insurance, and Personal Lines Innovation 13.2 Personal Lines Underwriting and Claims Roles 13.3 Agency, Customer Service, and Cross-Role Collaboration
14 AINS 103 Assignment 1: Why Do Businesses Need Insurance?
14.1 Commercial Property, Liability, Net Income, and Personnel Exposures 14.2 Commercial Risk Management Techniques 14.3 Monoline vs Package and the Commercial Lines Landscape
15 AINS 103 Assignment 2: What’s in a Commercial Property Policy?
15.1 Commercial Package Policy and the BPP Coverage Form 15.2 Basic, Broad, and Special Causes of Loss 15.3 Business Income and Extra Expense
16 AINS 103 Assignment 3: What’s in a Commercial Liability Policy?
16.1 CGL Coverage A — Bodily Injury and Property Damage 16.2 Coverage B Personal/Advertising Injury and Coverage C Medical Payments 16.3 Occurrence vs Claims-Made, Limits, and CGL Exclusions
17 AINS 103 Assignment 4: What Other Policies Do Businesses Need?
17.1 Business Auto Coverage Form 17.2 Workers Compensation and Employers Liability 17.3 Commercial Umbrella, Professional Liability, and Management Liability 17.4 Inland/Ocean Marine, Crime, Surety, Cyber, and Environmental
18 AINS 103 Assignments 5–6: Small Business Coverage and Evolving Roles
18.1 Businessowners Policy (BOP) 18.2 Tailoring Coverage for Small Businesses 18.3 Evolving Commercial Underwriting, Claims, and Producer Roles
19 Ethics 311: Ethical Decision Making in Risk and Insurance
19.1 Ethical Behavior and Professionalism 19.2 Conflicts of Interest and Resolving Ethical Dilemmas 19.3 Institutes Integrity Rules and Ethical Guidelines for Insurance Professionals
20 Electives, Career Path, and Virtual Exam Strategy
20.1 Choosing an AINS Elective 20.2 Related Designations: CPCU, ARM, AIC, API, AU, AIS, AIO, SPPA 20.3 Virtual Exam Strategy, Windows, and Retakes
11.1 HO-2, HO-3, HO-4, HO-5, HO-6, and HO-8 Compared
Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI
The ISO homeowners program packages Section I property and Section II liability; pick the form from occupancy and ownership, not from the fact that someone lives at the address.
HO-2, HO-3, HO-5, and HO-8 are 1–4 family owner-occupant forms; HO-4 is the tenants contents form with no Coverage A dwelling; HO-6 is the condominium unit-owners form.
HO-3 Special Form is the market standard and the AINS default: open perils on the dwelling and other structures, named perils on personal property.
Named-perils coverage requires the insured to prove a listed peril; open-perils (special form) covers direct physical loss unless an exclusion applies—the insurer must prove the exclusion.
HO-8 Modified Form exists for older dwellings whose replacement cost and market value have diverged; building settlement is often functional replacement cost or actual cash value, not a full modern rebuild.
Last updated: August 2026
11.1 HO-2, HO-3, HO-4, HO-5, HO-6, and HO-8 Compared
Quick Answer: The ISO Homeowners (HO) program is a package of Section I property and Section II liability . Eligibility follows occupancy: HO-2, HO-3, HO-5, and HO-8 for a 1–4 family owner-occupant ; HO-4 for tenants (no Coverage A dwelling); HO-6 for condo unit-owners . HO-3 Special Form is the market standard and the AINS default: open perils on the dwelling and other structures, named perils on personal property. Open perils covers direct physical loss unless an exclusion applies—it is not a promise that flood, earth movement, or wear and tear will pay.
AINS 102 Assignment 3, What’s in a Homeowners’ Policy? , is the form chapter. Assignment 1 classified household loss exposures. This assignment puts an ISO form on those exposures. The Institutes workplace skill is operational: a customer service representative (CSR) or producer hears “I rent,” “I own the unit,” or “the house is from 1910,” and does not quote a generic “homeowners policy.” The person matches occupancy to a form and knows whether a loss will be analyzed as a named peril the insured must prove or as a special-form grant the insurer must exclude.
Unless a stem names another form, treat the homeowners policy as HO-3 . Learn HO-2, HO-4, HO-5, HO-6, and HO-8 as documented deviations from that standard.
What the ISO homeowners program is
A homeowners policy is a multiline package . One declarations page, one deductible schedule, one set of conditions, and two coverage parts:
Section I — first-party property: the dwelling, other structures, personal property, and loss of use.
Section II — third-party liability: personal liability and medical payments to others .
It is not a dwelling-fire policy (property only) plus a separate personal liability supplement, although a dwelling program still exists for risks the HO program will not write. ISO publishes the family. Carriers file ISO or independently file look-alikes. State amendatory endorsements change wording. The exam tests program architecture , not one company’s brochure name.
Eligibility: occupancy decides the form
Owner-occupant forms — HO-2, HO-3, HO-5, HO-8. The named insured must own and occupy a 1- to 4-family dwelling used principally as a private residence. An incidental office, studio, or private school in the dwelling may still fit. A working farm, a boarding house, or a building the owner never occupies does not. Mobile homes generally sit outside standard HO-2/3/5/8 eligibility and need a mobilehome program or endorsement.
Tenant form — HO-4 (Contents Broad Form). The insured rents a house or apartment and does not own the structure. There is no Coverage A dwelling grant for the landlord’s building. Contents, loss of use, and Section II are the product. Occupying a unit is not a dwelling-building exposure.
Unit-owners form — HO-6. The insured owns a condominium or cooperative unit. The association master policy typically covers the building shell and common elements. Coverage A on HO-6 is still real: interior building items, improvements and betterments , and real property the association agreement makes the unit owner insure. HO-6 is not HO-4 with a different number.
Do not pick a form from “I live here.” Ownership of the structure, plus how the building is titled, decides HO-2/3/5/8 versus HO-4 versus HO-6.
Named perils versus open perils
Named-perils (specified perils) coverage pays only if a listed cause—fire or lightning, windstorm or hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, aircraft, vehicles, smoke, vandalism or malicious mischief, theft, falling objects, weight of ice, sleet, or snow, accidental discharge or overflow of water from a plumbing system, sudden tearing of a steam or hot-water system, freezing, sudden damage from artificially generated electrical current, volcanic eruption, and the rest of the broad-form list—caused the direct physical loss. The insured has the burden to show a listed peril.
Open-perils (special form; historically marketed as all-risks ) covers direct physical loss to covered property unless an exclusion applies. The insurer has the burden to prove an exclusion. Open perils is not a flood policy, not an earth-movement policy, and not a maintenance contract for wear and tear, settling, or vermin.
That burden shift is the exam point. On an HO-3 dwelling claim, start by asking whether an exclusion applies. On an HO-3 contents claim, start by asking whether a named peril fits. A stain on hardwood and a stain on a sofa after the same pipe burst are not analyzed the same way.
The six forms compared
Form Market name Who is eligible Dwelling / other structures (A / B) Personal property (C) Building settlement flavor
HO-2 Broad Form 1–4 family owner-occupant Named perils Named perils Typically replacement cost if insured to at least 80% of replacement cost
HO-3 Special Form 1–4 family owner-occupant Open perils Named perils Same 80% replacement-cost condition; the market standard
HO-4 Contents Broad Form Tenants / renters No Coverage A on the landlord’s dwelling Named perils Not a building form
HO-5 Comprehensive Form 1–4 family owner-occupant Open perils Open perils Replacement cost / 80% condition; contents often replacement cost by form design
HO-6 Unit-owners Form Condo / co-op unit-owner Coverage A is the unit owner’s building items and improvements Named perils (often endorsable to special) Unit interior and betterments, not the high-rise shell
HO-8 Modified Form Older owner-occupied dwellings that will not support HO-2/3/5 Named perils (often a tighter list) Named perils Often functional replacement cost or actual cash value (ACV)
HO-2 puts the broad named-perils list on both the house and the furniture. It is less common in the voluntary market than HO-3 because the premium gap is often small compared with the special-form dwelling grant. If a stem says Broad Form, do not upgrade it to open perils on Coverage A.
HO-3 is the form you should be able to recite in your sleep. Open perils on Coverage A and Coverage B. Named perils on Coverage C. Owner-occupant. When an AINS item says “homeowners policy” and names no form, treat it as HO-3 unless the facts force another.
HO-4 is renters insurance. A fire in the apartment building does not create a Coverage A claim for the tenant. It may create a contents claim, an additional-living-expense claim, and a Section II claim if the tenant is legally liable. Quoting HO-3 to a tenant is an identification miss, not a generous upgrade.
HO-5 is HO-3 with open perils extended to personal property. Mysterious disappearance of jewelry, rain-soaked furniture with no storm-created opening, and other “no named peril fits” contents losses are why households buy HO-5 or a special-personal-property endorsement on HO-3. Special limits and exclusions still apply. Comprehensive is not unlimited.
HO-6 splits the building with the association master policy. Coverage A exists, but it is not the entire tower. The unit owner still needs a stated Coverage A limit that matches the association agreement (walls-in, original specifications, or improvements).
HO-8 exists because an 1890 masonry row house can have a replacement cost no insured will buy and no underwriter will write at HO-3 rates. Functional replacement (common materials and methods) or ACV keeps the policy an indemnity contract instead of a windfall rebuild in modern luxury finishes.
How to pick the form on an exam stem
Does the insured own the structure occupied as a residence? No → HO-4 (renter) or HO-6 (condo unit). Yes, 1–4 family → owner form.
Is it a condominium or cooperative unit? → HO-6. A master policy on the shell does not turn the unit owner into a renter.
Is the dwelling older, unique, or replacement-cost-far-above-market? → HO-8 may be the only owner form offered.
Does the stem want open perils on contents? → HO-5, or HO-3 plus a special-personal-property endorsement. Unendorsed HO-3 is named perils on Coverage C.
Is HO-3 still the default owner form? Yes.
Exam traps in this comparison
HO-3 is not open perils on everything. Buildings special, contents named.
HO-4 is not a dwelling form. No Coverage A for the landlord’s building.
All-risks is not all losses. Flood, earth movement, ordinance or law (beyond a limited additional coverage), off-premises power failure, and wear and tear still sit outside the grant.
HO-6 Coverage A is real. Improvements, built-ins, and association-required unit-owner building items.
HO-8 is not HO-3 with a bigger deductible. Both the peril list and the settlement method change.
A CSR who can put a phone call onto the comparison table is doing Assignment 3. Later sections open the HO-3 jacket: Coverages A–D, perils and settlement, then Section II and the conditions that decide whether a covered loss actually pays.