Life and health insurance license: fees and hours by state

Three payees for one producer license

A life and health agent, called a producer in most insurance codes, deals with up to three organizations before the license is issued. The exam vendor named by the state bills each sitting: Pearson VUE in states such as Texas, Florida and Colorado, PSI in California, New York and Washington, Prometric in Maryland, Utah and Virginia. The insurance department bills the license, and many departments collect that fee through the National Insurance Producer Registry, which publishes each state's amount on its state requirements pages. NIPR adds its own transaction fee on top of the state fee; it is not counted in the totals here. Finally, 9 of the 27 priced states charge a fingerprint fee, from $30.69 in Arizona to $74 in California.

The license priced on this site covers both the life line and the accident and health (or sickness) line, because most agents who sell to households hold both. Several departments charge per line of authority, so adding health to life doubles part of the bill. Colorado, for example, charges $88 for the two lines together, and Kentucky adds a per-line fee to its base agent fee.

Pre-licensing education: required in some states, repealed in others

The course requirement is the part that has moved most in recent years. Washington dropped pre-licensing education in 2023 and North Carolina repealed its course requirement effective October 2025, while Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia list no course for this license at all. In those 10 states you register for the exam, pass it, have fingerprints taken where required and apply. Free or paid study material is a personal choice there, not a state rule.

Where a course is mandatory, the hour count varies widely. Georgia asks for 16 hours, Wisconsin 0 hours for the two lines, and Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Oregon 40 hours for life and health together. Florida wants a 60-hour approved life and health course, and Colorado sets the highest figure at 100 hours across the two lines. At 15 hours of study a week, 60 hours take about 4 weeks and 100 hours about 7. Course certificates expire: Oregon's one year after completion, while Indiana gives you six months from the end of the course to test. Indiana and Kentucky require a course certificate without stating the hour count on the official pages read, so the calculator shows no hours there.

Exam fees and what a retake adds

The exam is the most predictable fee. It runs from $35 in Virginia to $184 in Illinois for both lines. Most states sell a combined life, accident and health exam at one price, but in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Wisconsin life and health are separate exams, each with its own fee: Illinois charges $92 per exam, Wisconsin $75. A failed attempt is paid again in every state, and when the two exams are separate, only the failed one is repeated. Set the number of attempts in the calculator to see the effect; California's $55 per exam is small next to its $188 license filing fee, so a retake there moves the total far less than in a state where the exam is the main charge.

Renewal, continuing education and licenses that do not expire

Most departments renew a producer license every two years, with 24 hours of continuing education in a typical cycle, ethics hours included. Texas renews for $50, Illinois for $215. Massachusetts uses a three-year cycle at $225 with 45 hours of education, and Arizona a four-year cycle with 48 hours. Florida, Michigan and North Carolina issue a license with no renewal fee: it stays in force as long as the agent completes continuing education on time. The renewal line of the calculator reflects each case.

Fingerprint fees that no department prints

Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee all put fingerprints in the list of steps for a new resident producer, yet none of the official pages read states what the fingerprint vendor charges. Their totals therefore cover the exam and the license only, and the real bill is higher by the vendor's price, which you see when you book the appointment. The same caution applies to Nevada, where fingerprints must reach the division within 90 days of applying. In the states where a fingerprint fee is shown, it is the amount the department or its vendor publishes, sometimes split between a vendor fee and a state police or FBI processing fee, as in $30.69 for Arizona. The renewal costs page compares what the license costs to keep over several years.