What This License Is
"Life & Health" in Illinois is two lines of authority — Life and Accident and Health or Sickness — listed together on one Illinois producer licence. There is no combined line and no combined exam.
The path is: a 20-hour pre-licensing course for Life and another 20 for Accident & Health; then four examinations, a General and a State paper for each line; then a single application at $215.
That four-exam structure is the thing to plan around, and it is genuinely unusual. Producers arriving from a state where one 150-question paper buys both authorities are looking at 170 scored questions across four appointments here, governed by two separate 90-day windows — one for each line's pair.
The fee structure runs the other way, in your favour. Illinois charges $215 for the licence, not per line of authority, so both authorities cost one fee — and adding Property or Casualty later would still cost no further licence fee, only coursework and exams.
What the pair covers: the Life line takes in life insurance and annuities, with variable products a separate authority requiring FINRA registration; the Accident and Health line takes in medical, disability, Medicare supplement, dental and vision, and — with the separate 8-hour Partnership certification — long-term care.
Exam Options & Format
Each line is split into two exams. Life is a General paper of 50 scored questions in 85 minutes and a State paper of 31 scored questions in 50 minutes. Accident & Health is a General paper of 50 scored in 80 minutes and a State paper of 39 scored in 55 minutes — the largest state-specific section Illinois sets for any line.
Each pair carries its own 90-day window. The Life General and Life State exams must be passed within 90 days of each other; the same is separately true of the Accident & Health pair. The two lines do not have to be close together — only each pair to itself.
Order each pair together. Exams are $92 each, and Illinois grants a $92 discount when the two exams for a line are processed on the same order. So Life costs $92 and Accident & Health costs $92, for $184 in exam fees — but book any pair as two separate transactions and that line jumps to $184 on its own. The $92 includes a $50 Illinois administrative fee.
The score is scaled. Illinois reports 0 to 100 with 70 to pass, and the handbook states the number "should not be interpreted as the percentage or number of correct answers." Each exam returns a report marked pass or fail before you leave.
Test centres only — Illinois does not offer remote proctoring, and walk-in examinations are not available. Exams are offered in English or Spanish (Castilian).
A sequencing suggestion worth taking: run one line end to end before starting the other. It keeps a single 90-day window open at a time, and lets you apply for the first line while you study for the second.
Most Tested Topics Across Both Illinois State Papers
Seventy of your 170 scored questions are Illinois-specific — 31 on the Life paper and 39 on the Accident & Health paper. The material that spans both lines clusters in three places: what the guaranty association pays when an insurer fails, when a client may hand a contract back, and what a producer must do when replacing one. Every row is verified against the statute or rule cited:
| Concept | The Illinois rule |
|---|---|
| Guaranty limits, life and annuity | $300,000 in net life insurance death benefits; $100,000 in net cash surrender and net cash withdrawal values; $250,000 in the present value of annuity benefits including net cash surrender (§ 531.03) |
| Guaranty limits, health | $500,000 for health benefit plans; $300,000 for disability income; $300,000 for long-term care; $100,000 for other health coverages (§ 531.03) |
| Guaranty aggregate, per one life | $300,000 — "In no event shall the Association be obligated to cover more than an aggregate of $300,000 in benefits with respect to any one life" — except $500,000 where health benefit plan benefits are involved (§ 531.03(b)(i)) |
| Guaranty ceiling, multiple policies | A separate $5,000,000 limit for one owner of multiple nongroup life policies, "regardless of the number of policies and contracts." It sits in a different subsection from the per-life aggregate and is easy to miss |
| Using the association to sell | Prohibited — the existence of the guaranty association may not be used to sell, solicit or induce the purchase of insurance |
| Free look, individual life | 10 days from delivery; surrender the policy with a written request for cancellation and the premium is refunded (§ 224(1)(n)) |
| Free look, annuity | 10 days — and under its own statute, because § 224 expressly excludes annuities. On a variable annuity the refund is not the premium but the difference between premiums paid and amounts allocated to the separate accounts, plus the contract's cash value or reserve on the day the insurer receives it back (§ 226(1)(h)) |
| Free look, individual accident and health | 10 days from delivery, notice printed prominently on the first page or attached — except on single premium nonrenewal policies (§ 355a(5)(a)) |
| Free look, Medicare supplement and long-term care | 30 days each, premium refunded directly (§ 363; § 351A-7) |
| Does replacement extend the free look? | No. Illinois adds no extended free look on a replacement — the ordinary 10 days still applies. What Part 917 adds is procedure, not time |
| Replacement, the producer's duty | Submit the applicant's signed replacement statement not later than at the time of taking the application, present the Notice Regarding Replacement listing the contracts to be replaced, and send copies to the replacing insurer with the application (917.60) |
| Replacement, the insurers' clocks | The replacing insurer forwards the Notice Regarding Proposed Replacement to the existing insurer within 3 WORKING days after receipt of the application, and records are retained 3 years (917.70). Long-term care replacement runs on 5 working days instead (Part 2012) |
| CE headline | 24 hours every two years including 3 of ethics, and the ethics hours must be classroom or webinar. Carryover is capped at 12 hours — and no ethics credit may ever be carried over (§ 500-35; 50 Ill. Adm. Code 3119.45(b)(5)) |
The free-look matrix is the highest-value thing here, and Illinois arranges it in a way that punishes assumption in both directions. The instinct that "life is ten days and everything else is thirty" is half right: life, annuity and individual accident and health are all 10 days, while Medicare supplement and long-term care are 30. The instinct that annuities have no free look — which a careless reading of § 224 invites, because that section opens by excluding them — is simply wrong. Annuities have their own section, § 226, and their own ten days.
The variable annuity wrinkle inside that is worth learning as a concept rather than a sentence. On an ordinary annuity, cancelling in the free-look window gets the premium back. On a variable annuity it cannot, because the money has been in the market: the owner instead receives what was never invested — the difference between premiums paid and amounts allocated to the separate accounts — plus the contract's actual cash value or reserve on the day it comes back. The insured bears the market movement; the insurer returns the charges.
On guaranty limits, two things separate a good answer from a nearly-right one. The per-life aggregate is $300,000 except $500,000 where health benefit plan coverage is in the mix — two aggregates, not one. And the $5,000,000 multi-policy owner ceiling lives in its own subsection, so a question about a business owner holding many nongroup policies is not answered by the $300,000 figure at all.
Finally, the replacement clocks are working days, not calendar days — three of them for the replacing insurer's notice, five for a long-term care replacement. Illinois mixes the conventions across its rules with no pattern to rely on, so read the unit as carefully as the number.
Illinois's 20-Hour Pre-Licensing Requirement — Every Detail
Illinois will not license you until the coursework is on file, and for a Life & Health producer that means two courses and forty hours. Get this step wrong and nothing else in the process can start.
The requirement. 215 ILCS 5/500-30 sets pre-licensing education by class of licence: Life 20 hours; Accident and Health 20; Fire (Property) 20; Casualty 20; Personal Lines–Property Casualty 20; Motor Vehicle 12.5. Every major line is twenty hours — there is no shorter course for a narrower authority.
The classroom rule, and the stale page that gets it wrong. The statute requires that 7.5 hours of each 20-hour course be completed in a classroom OR WEBINAR setting (5 hours for Motor Vehicle). That wording matters, because IDOI's own "Become a Resident Producer" page still says "classroom" and never mentions webinar. The statute was amended to permit webinar delivery by P.A. 102-135 in 2021 and controls. If a provider tells you the 7.5 hours must be in a physical room, they are quoting IDOI's stale page rather than the law.
Delivery formats generally. § 500-35 requires that an approved course provide for "classroom, seminar, webinar, or self-study instruction methods." So the remaining 12.5 hours of each course may be self-study; only the 7.5 must be live.
The certificate and its one-year clock. "All course completion certificates are valid for one (1) year from course completion date," and the rule says the same: the course "must be used within 1 year after completion" (50 Ill. Adm. Code 3119.45(a)(1)). This is the most expensive deadline in the Illinois process — replacing a lapsed certificate costs another twenty hours and another course fee, against $92 for another exam attempt.
You must bring it to the test centre. First-time candidates must present "a current copy of a signed Pre-License Course Certificate" for every exam except Public Adjuster. The original is not required — "acceptable forms of a copy can be a fax, an email, or can be on a device, such as a phone." Retake candidates are not required to present it again.
And IDOI must have it too. "Illinois will not issue a license until prelicensing education is complete and on file with the Department." Passing the exams does not move the application forward if the education has not reached the Department.
Who approves the courses. Education providers register with IDOI at $1,000 annually, pay $50 to certify each pre-licensing or CE course and $20 to renew a course certification. Approved providers are listed through State Based Systems. Verify approval before you pay for a course.
The exemptions — and there are two different lists doing two different jobs.
List one: professional designations waive the coursework only. They are line-specific, and they never touch the examinations. Life: CEBS, ChFC, CIC, CFP, CLU, FLMI, LACP, LUTCF, RICP. Accident and Health: RHU, CEBS, REBC, HIA. Property and Casualty — one combined list: AAI, ARM, CIC, CRM, CPCU. So a CLU is exempt from the Life course and not from the Property course, and CIC and CEBS each appear on two lists. The same paragraph — 50 Ill. Adm. Code 3119.45(a)(2) — adds a route people miss: a college degree in insurance exempts on the same footing as a designation. These apply only to initial licensure.
List two: prior licensure in another state waives both. "An individual who applies for an insurance producer license in Illinois who was previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state shall not be required to complete any prelicensing education or examination." The conditions are that you are currently licensed in that state, or the application is received within 90 days after the cancellation, and the prior state issues a Letter of Clearance stating you were in good standing at cancellation (§ 500-45).
Keeping those apart is the most common failure on Illinois licensing credit. A designation, or an insurance degree, gets you out of twenty hours. Only prior licensure gets you out of an exam.
One more coursework shortcut lives in the statute rather than the handbook: § 500-30 provides that completing the Fire and Casualty pre-licensing courses satisfies the Personal Lines pre-licensing requirement — coursework only, not the Personal Lines exams.
Illinois Exam Day — Check-In, ID, and the Rules That Turn People Away
Everything below comes from the Illinois candidate handbook. None of it is discretionary, and the identification rule in particular forfeits fees every week.
Arrive thirty minutes early. "Candidates should report to the test center 30 minutes before the exam and check in with the test center administrator." That half hour is check-in, not a courtesy margin — and remember you may be doing this twice in a day if you booked a General and a State paper back to back.
Bring two forms of identification. "Candidates must present two forms of current signature identification. The primary identification must be government-issued and photo-bearing with a signature, and the secondary identification must contain a valid signature." Acceptable primaries include a driver's licence, a U.S. Department of State driver's licence, a passport, a military ID, or a Permanent Resident card. The secondary may be a Social Security card, a debit or credit card, or a second document from the primary list.
The name must match exactly, and the consequence is severe. "Identification must be in English and exactly match the name used to register for the exam. If the name on the exam registration does not exactly match the name on the IDs presented, the candidate will not be allowed to test and the exam fees will be forfeited." This is why your Pearson VUE account must be created using your legal name as it appears on the ID. If you booked in a maiden name and carry a married-name licence, fix the reservation days ahead — not at the desk.
First-timers bring the pre-licensing certificate. A current signed copy is required for every exam except Public Adjuster. A fax, an email or a copy on your phone is acceptable. Retake candidates do not need it.
Nothing comes into the room. The handbook's list is deliberately exhaustive: "cellular phones, hand-held computers or other electronic devices, pagers, watches, wallets, purses, firearms or other weapons, hats, bags, coats, books and/or notes, pens, and pencils." Note that pens and pencils are on it — Illinois supplies what you write with. "Candidates must store all personal items in a secure area as indicated by the administrator or return items to their vehicle."
Breaks are allowed but expensive. "Most sponsors allow unscheduled breaks. To request an unscheduled break, the candidate must raise their hand," and then the sentence that matters: "The exam clock will not stop while the candidate is taking a break." You must leave the testing room for any break, "however, candidates are not permitted to leave the floor or building for any reason during this time."
Changing or cancelling: 48 hours. "If you wish to cancel or reschedule your examination without penalty [you] must do so at least 48 hours before the examination." With proper notice the fee transfers to a new reservation or is refunded — card refunds immediately, voucher refunds in two to three weeks. Without it you remain responsible for the fee.
Late or absent. "Candidates absent from or late to an exam who have not changed or canceled the reservation according to the Change/cancel policy will not be admitted to the exam and will forfeit the exam fee." An excused-absence request may be made by calling Pearson within 14 days of the examination date, on grounds of illness, death, a traffic accident, court duty, military duty or a weather emergency.
Booking, for completeness. Reserve online at pearsonvue.com/us/en/il/insurance.html or by calling (800) 274-0402, at least 24 hours before the date you want. Walk-in examinations are not available. Fees are paid at reservation by credit card, debit card or voucher, and are non-refundable except under the change and cancel policy.
Leaving. Each exam hands you a report marked pass or fail before you go. If you failed, wait 24 hours before booking a re-examination. The Personal Lines guide covers how to read the report and what the 90-day clock does next.
What It Costs
The Illinois Life & Health path costs about $399 in state fees on first-time passes: $92 for the Life exam pair, $92 for the Accident & Health pair, and $215 for the licence — charged once, covering both lines.
That single licence fee is the structural advantage of licensing in Illinois. Most states bill per line of authority; Illinois bills per licence, so a producer carrying four lines pays the same $215 as one carrying a single line.
The cost that dominates is the coursework: 40 hours across two IDOI-approved courses, priced by the provider. Confirm approval before paying, and remember each certificate carries its own one-year clock.
Nothing goes to a fingerprint vendor, because Illinois does not print producers. Renewal later is $215 every two years.
If long-term care is in the plan, add the 8-hour long-term care training course. If annuities are, add the one-time 4-credit best-interest course. Both may be credited toward CE.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be at least 18, complete the 20-hour pre-licensing course for each line with an IDOI-approved provider, pass all four examinations with each line's pair inside its own 90-day window, wait five days after the last one, and file through NIPR with the $215 fee.
Designations waive coursework only, by line. Life: CEBS, ChFC, CIC, CFP, CLU, FLMI. Accident and Health: RHU, CEBS, REBC, HIA. None of them waives an examination.
Prior licensure in another state waives both — coursework and exam — if you are currently licensed there or apply within 90 days of cancellation, with a Letter of Clearance certifying good standing at cancellation.
Illinois does not fingerprint producers. The application's background questions carry the whole background review, and a licence revoked or an application denied under § 500-70 carries a three-year ineligibility.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: 24 hours every two years total — holding both lines does not double it — including 3 hours of ethics that must be classroom or webinar. Annuities require a one-time 4-credit best-interest course, and long-term care requires 8 hours one time plus 4 hours before each renewal.
Illinois licences run a two-year term and renew for $215, expiring the last day of your birth month per NIPR. The initial term is prorated to between 18 and 29 months so it lands on that cycle.
CE is 24 hours every two years including 3 hours of ethics, and the ethics hours must be classroom or webinar — self-study will not satisfy them. Twenty-four is the total however many lines you carry, so holding both Life and Accident & Health does not make it forty-eight. Up to 4 of the 24 may come from participation in a professional insurance association, and no single course over 12 hours is approved.
Carryover has a catch worth knowing. Up to 12 hours may carry into the next licensing period — but the rule adds that "no ethics credit hours may be carried over." The three ethics hours must be earned fresh every cycle, however far ahead you are on everything else.
Two product-training rules ride on top for this pair. Annuities require a one-time 4-credit Department-approved best-interest course before you sell one; producers who had completed an older approved annuity course before August 2023 could take a one-time one-credit top-up instead, with both routes due by February 1, 2024. Long-term care requires 8 hours of training one time, then 4 hours before each subsequent renewal, with a 12-month grace period after renewal to finish the ongoing hours (50 Ill. Adm. Code 2012.121; qualified state Partnership programs are one of the rule's mandated topics, and IDOI's producer page describes the requirement as the Long Term Care (Partnership) certification tied to the Health line).
Two mechanical points that end licences. CE must be banked on State Based Systems at least 10 business days before your renewal date — providers have their own submission lag, so IDOI advises finishing coursework about a month out. And a producer who fails to meet the requirement does not get a warning: § 500-35 says the licence automatically terminates. The Property & Casualty guide owns renewal and reinstatement in full.
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