What This License Is
In Kentucky, "Life & Health" is not a license — it is two lines of authority on one agent license: life, and accident and health. KRS 304.9-030 lists them separately, 806 KAR 9:025 examines them separately, and 806 KAR 4:010 charges for them separately. What you get at the end is a single license listing both lines.
That structural fact drives everything on this page. There is no combined Life & Health exam, so you sit two exams at $50 each. Pre-licensing is 40 hours — 806 KAR 9:025 §1(1) requires "forty (40) hours for life and health insurance … or twenty (20) hours for each line of authority, as applicable." The license costs $120: $40 for the license class plus $40 for each line.
It is worth stating plainly that the Department's own consumer-facing page understates the pre-licensing requirement, describing a flat "20-hour pre-licensing classroom or self-study course for their requested lines of authority." The regulation, which controls, sets 40 hours for the life-and-health combination. Book 40.
Exam Options & Format
Two exams, taken in either order, at $50 apiece. Kentucky administers both itself — no PSI, Pearson VUE or Prometric writes, administers or grades a Kentucky licensing exam, and there is no candidate handbook — and schedules them through the DOI eServices portal after your application has been processed and your documents accepted. (PSI holds a Department contract on the continuing-education and pre-licensing side; it has nothing to do with your exam.)
You need 70% on each exam to earn its line of authority; a pass on life does nothing for health and vice versa. Each is graded on completion. Retakes are $50, unlimited, with no waiting period, and require Form 8304 mailed to the Division of Licensing in Frankfort — but every attempt has to land inside the 120 days your application stays alive.
Note one asymmetry in the fee schedule, because it is genuinely counterintuitive. Kentucky's Form 8304 states that property and casualty exams requested at the same time cost $50 total, not $100. No equivalent rate exists for life and health. If you are budgeting from a friend's P&C experience, add the second $50 back in.
Most Tested Topics on the Kentucky Life & Health Exams
Across two exams the material that shows up on both — and that candidates most often get wrong — clusters around the guaranty association, the replacement rules, and the mechanics of continuing education. The line-specific policy provisions are broken out on the Life guide and the Health guide; these are the shared ones. From the TESTivity Kentucky curriculum, statute-verified:
| Concept | The Kentucky rule |
|---|---|
| The safety net | The Kentucky Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association, with its coverage limits in KRS 304.42-030 — the scope section, not the powers section at -080 where candidates often look |
| Life death benefit cap | $300,000 |
| Life cash surrender cap | $100,000 net cash surrender or net cash withdrawal value |
| Annuity cap | $250,000 present value of benefits, including net cash surrender and withdrawal values |
| Health benefit plan cap | $500,000 — the highest single figure in the Kentucky schedule |
| Disability income and long-term care cap | $300,000 each |
| Other health coverage cap | $100,000 for health coverages that are not disability income, a health benefit plan, or long-term care |
| Aggregate per any one life | $300,000 — except $500,000 where the benefit is a health benefit plan |
| Guaranty association as a sales tool | Using its existence in a sale, solicitation or inducement is prohibited outright (KRS 304.42-190) |
| Free look on a replaced policy | 30 days from delivery, with an unconditional full refund of all premiums including fees and charges (806 KAR 12:080 §5) — sitting on top of the statutory floor of not less than 10 days that KRS 304.15-050(2) requires on any ordinary life policy |
| Replacement notice, both directions | The replacing insurer notifies the existing insurer within 5 business days; the existing insurer furnishes policy information within 5 business days of the owner's request (806 KAR 12:080) |
| Continuing education | 24 hours per biennium, 3 of them ethics, counted inside the 24 — plus up to 12 carryover hours into the next period (KRS 304.9-295) |
The guaranty table is worth memorising as a shape rather than as eight numbers. Kentucky follows the NAIC model but tiers health where many states use one figure: $500,000 for a health benefit plan, $300,000 for disability income and long-term care, $100,000 for everything else health. The aggregate rides along with that tiering — $300,000 per life normally, lifting to $500,000 only when a health benefit plan is in the picture. A question that gives you a claimant with both a life policy and a major-medical plan is testing whether you noticed the exception.
On replacement, the number candidates miss is not the 30-day refund — it is the five business days, running in both directions. Most prep teaches the replacing insurer's notice duty and stops. Kentucky imposes a matching five-business-day duty on the existing insurer to hand over policy information once the owner asks. Note also that the replacement regulation is 806 KAR 12:080; 806 KAR 12:030 and 12:031 are repealed and still indexed by search engines, so a candidate checking a citation online can easily land on dead law.
Pre-licensing Education: 40 Hours, and the Department's Page Says 20
Kentucky is one of roughly twenty states that still require pre-licensing education, and the requirement is tiered rather than flat. 806 KAR 9:025 §1(1) sets it out in one sentence: an applicant "shall complete a prelicensing course of study approved by the commissioner for a minimum of forty (40) hours for life and health insurance, forty (40) hours for property and casualty insurance, or twenty (20) hours for each line of authority, as applicable, for the lines of authority included in the application."
So: 20 hours for a single line taken alone. 40 hours for life and health together. 40 hours for property and casualty together. Anyone applying for both life and health owes forty.
This is where Kentucky's own materials will mislead you. The Department's continuing-education and pre-licensing page describes the requirement as a "20-hour pre-licensing classroom or self-study course for their requested lines of authority," and a 2021 Agent Licensing FAQ repeats "20 hours of pre-licensing training for each major line of authority." Neither states the 40-hour combined tiers. The regulation controls, and a candidate who books 20 hours on the strength of the web page arrives at an application the Department will not process. Book 40.
Format and provider. Classroom or self-study, including internet-based delivery, from a provider on the Department's approved list — there are separate lists for independent providers and for company providers. A course that is not on the list does not count, regardless of how good it is. The paperwork flows from the provider, not from you: 806 KAR 9:025 §1(4) requires the prelicensing provider to submit proof of completion to the Department and to you on Form CPL-01, "Certificate of Prelicensing Course Completion," or electronically through insurance.ky.gov. You then upload your copy to eServices with the rest of your documents. The regulation sets no deadline for that filing (the 30-day reporting rule in §5(3) applies to continuing education providers), which is precisely why confirming it landed is worth doing yourself.
The course of study is valid for one year from the date of completion (806 KAR 9:025 §1(3)) — note that the regulation attaches the one year to the course, not to the certificate as such. That is a real constraint when paired with the 120-day application window: if you finish the course, wait ten months, then apply, you have two months left to get an application filed, documents reviewed and two exams passed.
Who is exempt. Variable life and variable annuity authority carries no pre-licensing requirement, and neither do the KRS 304.9-230 limited lines. Prior licensure exempts you under KRS 304.9-170 — same lines in Kentucky within the last 12 months, or the same lines in another state if you are currently licensed there or within 90 days of a cancellation in good standing. No professional designation exempts anyone. Kentucky grants no CLU, ChFC, CPCU, FLMI or LUTCF waiver of either pre-licensing or examination, which is a real departure from states that do.
TESTivity recommends Achievable to satisfy your Kentucky pre-licensing requirement. Achievable is an approved provider, its insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, and completing the Achievable course earns you the certificate of completion Kentucky requires.
One distinction to be clear about: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in Kentucky and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will help you pass the exam — treat them as a supplement to your Achievable course, not a substitute for it. Disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page.
Exam Day When the Regulator Is Also the Proctor
Kentucky's test day looks different from a vendor state's, and mostly in your favour. There is no candidate handbook to memorise because there is no vendor — you are sitting an exam written and proctored by the Department of Insurance, at its own Frankfort office or at one of fourteen other sites, most of them Kentucky Community & Technical College campuses. The Property guide lists them.
Bring one photo ID. The Department's testing-site schedule says to bring a "valid drivers license, or other government issued photo identification," and its exam page states that "government-issued photo ID must be provided in order to take any exam." That is one form of identification, not the two-ID standard PSI and Pearson VUE impose. Make sure the name on it matches the name on your application and your pre-licensing certificate exactly.
Arrive fifteen minutes early. Here the Department's two documents disagree: its testing-site schedule — currently revised 14 July 2026 — says to arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled time, while its exam web page says 10. Take the earlier figure. There is no downside to sitting in a hallway for five minutes, and the exam page also warns that "if you fail to arrive by your scheduled test time, you may forfeit your placement at the testing site due to availability."
You must have an appointment. Form 8304 puts it in capitals: "WALKINS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO TEST WITHOUT A SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT," and the site schedule repeats that walk-ins are not accepted. Form 8304 adds that requests to test at a regional site must be made at least one day before the examination date. Consultant examinations are not booked online at all — those are scheduled by telephone on (502) 564-6004, because the Department has to warn the site about the extended three-hour sitting.
Changes need 24 business hours. The Department's schedule sheet says changes "should be made 24 business hours prior to the scheduled time" — over a weekend that is a materially longer runway than 24 clock hours, so a Monday appointment needs to be moved by Thursday. Examinations cannot be rescheduled for the same day. A late cancellation or a no-show can forfeit the $50, and 806 KAR 9:025 requires an individual who fails to appear as scheduled to reapply and remit all required fees again. If you are unwell, ring Licensing on (502) 564-6004 — the Department reschedules for illness at no additional cost. Special accommodations must be approved by Licensing before you schedule, by email to DOI.LicensingMail@ky.gov.
On personal property the Department is explicit, and stricter than people expect. Its schedule sheet instructs candidates to "lock all personal belongings inside vehicle — purse, laptop, study materials, cellphones, smart watches, etc.," and adds that "no visitors are allowed inside during testing." A smart watch counts. What Kentucky does not publish is a formal prohibited-items list or any calculator policy, because there is no candidate handbook to carry one — so do not import a vendor's rules and assume they apply; ask the site proctor rather than guessing. Equally, there is no remote-proctoring option. Every Kentucky source describes in-person, appointment-based testing at physical sites — if you have tested from home in another state recently, that is not available here.
The exam is computerised and graded on completion, so you will know before you leave the building. A pass releases nothing on its own: your application is already on file and paid, so what happens next is the Department finishing its review, not you starting a new process.
What It Costs
About $220 to the Commonwealth on first-attempt passes: $100 in examination fees — two separate $50 exams, because Kentucky offers no combined life-and-health sitting and no discount for taking both — plus $120 for the license, being $40 for the resident individual agent license class and $40 for each of the two lines of authority.
Outside that: your 40 hours of pre-licensing education, priced by the provider; the Administrative Office of the Courts fee for the criminal record report, which the Department does not publish; and NIPR's transaction fee, which NIPR expressly excludes from its published Kentucky tables. Both unpublished fees are shown to you at the point of payment.
Two forward-looking costs are worth knowing now. Selling annuities requires four hours of initial annuity training first; selling Partnership long-term care requires eight hours initially and four more every biennium. And at renewal, a resident individual agent with an active insurer appointment pays $0, one without pays $40 — an appointment is worth more than it looks.
Eligibility Requirements
At least 18; 40 hours of approved pre-licensing education across the two lines; 70% on each of the two examinations; and an AOC criminal record report where Kentucky is your home state (KRS 304.9-105; 806 KAR 9:025). The Health guide walks the background report and the application's disclosure questions in detail.
Every agent applicant must also be financially responsible and remain so while licensed: errors-and-omissions cover of not less than $20,000 for any single occurrence and $100,000 in the aggregate within one year, or a $20,000 cash surety bond executed by an insurer, or an exclusive-agent insurer's written assumption of responsibility at $20,000 per occurrence that cannot terminate before the appointment does (KRS 304.9-105(1)(f)).
Refusal grounds under KRS 304.9-440 include several that are easy to overlook: obtaining a license by misrepresentation or fraud, improperly withholding or converting money or property, cheating on a licensing examination, accepting business from an unlicensed entity, child-support non-compliance and tax violations. Sanctions range from probation of up to 24 months through suspension and revocation to a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation for an agent (KRS 304.99-020).
Continuing Education and Renewal
Important CE details: Holding two lines does not double the requirement — 24 hours covers the licensee, not each line, and a person holding several CE-required licences completes the hours once (KRS 304.9-295). What does stack is product training: 4 hours before selling annuities and 8 hours plus 4 per period before selling Partnership long-term care, both under 806 KAR 9:025 §5(2).
24 hours every two years, 3 of them in a course concentration in ethics, counted inside the 24 rather than added to it (KRS 304.9-295). Holding two lines does not double it — the requirement attaches to the licensee, and someone holding several CE-required licenses completes the hours once, credited across all of them. Up to 12 excess hours carry into the next compliance period. Note where that number lives: KRS 304.9-295 authorises carryforward and lets the commissioner cap it by regulation, and it is 806 KAR 9:025 §5(5) that sets twelve. The further restriction that carried hours count only as general hours comes from the Department's CE web page rather than from either text.
Your compliance date is the last day of your birth month, in the year matching your birth year's parity. Proof must reach the commissioner within 60 days after it. Kentucky tracks CE in DOI eServices rather than through Sircon or a national clearinghouse, and providers are required to report completions there within their own deadlines — but confirming your record is right is your job.
Two product-training obligations sit on top of the 24 and behave differently from CE. Annuities: four hours of initial training before you sell, solicit or negotiate one, and a one-time additional credit hour for anyone whose annuity training predates January 1, 2022 (806 KAR 9:025 §5(2)). Long-term care: eight hours initially plus four more hours in every biennial compliance period for Partnership-qualifying products — a recurring obligation, not a one-off. Insurers must verify annuity training before permitting a sale, so a carrier will stop the business before the Department does.
If the hours are not done, the license expires unless the commissioner grants an extension of up to two years. Renewal fees arriving within 60 days after expiration are accepted with a penalty and no interruption of the license; that is a separate and shorter mechanism from the 12-month window to complete delinquent hours and reinstate a cancelled license without re-examination. The Property & Casualty guide separates the two clocks and covers the renewal cycle in full.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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