The Minnesota Life, Accident & Health License at a Glance
A Minnesota Life, Accident & Health license (often written 'LA&H' or just 'Life & Health') lets you sell life insurance, annuities, accident, and health products to individuals and businesses across the state. It is issued by the Minnesota Department of Commerce and is a resident producer license.
You have three ways to qualify: the combined Life, Accident & Health exam, or the standalone Life and Accident & Health exams taken separately. Almost everyone takes the combined exam - it covers all three product worlds in a single sitting for a single $45 fee and one license, with no cost savings to splitting it up.
The path is simple in shape: finish your approved pre-licensing hours, pass the PSI exam, get fingerprinted, then file your application on Sircon or NIPR.
What's on the Minnesota L&H Exam
The combined exam is 135 scored questions in 180 minutes, and you need 70% to pass. A small number of unscored 'pretest' questions may be sprinkled in - they do not count toward your score but do use clock time.
Roughly 105 of the scored questions are general knowledge - product types (whole life, universal, term, annuities; medical expense, disability income, LTC, Medicare supplements), policy provisions and riders, completing the application, underwriting, contract law, and tax treatment. The remaining 30 questions are Minnesota law and regulation.
Because the state blends two product lines into one test, expect the general portion to lean on the concepts that are common to both life and health - renewability, group insurance, replacement, and the application/underwriting process - before drilling into line-specific material.
Pre-Licensing Education (20 Hours Per Line)
Minnesota requires 20 hours of Commerce-approved pre-licensing education per line of authority before you sit for the exam (Minn. Stat. 60K.36 Subd. 4). Because a combined license covers two lines, the typical combined producer completes roughly 40 hours of approved coursework - though many providers package the combined track as a single course; confirm hours with your chosen school.
The course must be approved by the Commissioner before you attend, and the school's education coordinator signs your Course Completion Certificate. Certificates do not expire - but you must bring a PAPER copy to the test center.
Heads up if you carry a designation: Minnesota waives pre-licensing for certain credentials. Life applicants holding CEBS, ChFC, CIC, CFP, CLU, FLMI, or LUTCF are exempt; Health applicants with RHU, CEBS, REBC, or HIA are exempt; and Property/Casualty/Personal Lines applicants with AAI, ARM, CIC, or CPCU are exempt. You will need a current letter of good standing (under 30 days old) from the granting organization.
TESTivity recommends [Achievable](https://app.achievable.me/study/insurance-life-health/purchase#a_aid=getthelicense) to satisfy your Minnesota 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 Minnesota requires.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in Minnesota and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will absolutely help you pass the exam — but 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.
Fingerprinting & Background Check
Every Minnesota producer applicant must submit fingerprints for a state and national criminal history check. The smoothest path is to get printed electronically at your PSI test site, during regular hours, the same day you test - PSI forwards the prints straight to the Department of Commerce.
The fingerprinting fee is $63.75, paid at the test site by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. You will sign a background check authorization form first; that authorization expires one year after signing, so if more than a year passes before you apply, you have to be reprinted and pay again.
Skipping fingerprints on exam day does not stop you from testing, but it will delay your license - so just knock it out the same trip.
Scheduling Your Exam with PSI
Every Minnesota insurance exam runs through PSI. The fastest route is online at test-takers.psiexams.com/mnins - create an account using your name exactly as it appears on your government photo ID, pick Test Center or Remote Proctored, choose a date and time, and pay the $45 fee by card. You can also schedule by phone at (866) 395-1006.
PSI has test centers in Blaine, Brainerd, Duluth, Eagan, Mankato, Rochester, St. Paul, Willmar, and Woodbury, plus remote online proctoring if you would rather test from home on a compatible computer.
Need to reschedule? Do it at least two days before your appointment and you keep your fee. Miss the window - or no-show - and the $45 is gone. A voicemail or email does not count as a cancellation; use the website or talk to a live PSI rep.
What to Expect on Exam Day
Arrive 15 minutes early for check-in and ID verification. You need one valid, unexpired, signed photo ID - a driver's license, state ID, passport, or military ID (military ID is not allowed for remote testing).
Before the clock starts you get an optional 15-minute tutorial that does not eat into your exam time, plus a few sample questions to warm up. Questions appear one at a time, you can flag and revisit anything, and a running timer sits at the top of the screen.
It is a closed-book, proctored test - no phones, notes, smart watches, or outside materials, and at a test center you may get a piece of scratch paper and a pencil to return at the end. The moment you finish you see a pass/fail result on screen, and a score report lands in your email.
Strongly recommended: get fingerprinted at the PSI site the same day you test. The $63.75 fee is paid right there, and skipping it just delays your license.
Applying for Your License
Once you pass, file your producer application online at Sircon (sircon.com/minnesota) or through the NIPR. You have 36 months from your exam date to apply before the passing result expires.
Minnesota charges the license fee per line of authority: $50 per line, so a combined L&H or combined P&C license (two lines each) runs $100, plus a $20 technology fee and a small Sircon/NIPR transaction fee (around $5.60). Budget roughly $228.75 in fixed exam, fingerprint, and application costs before any pre-licensing course tuition.
An individual can hold a producer license before being appointed by a carrier, but you need at least one company appointment to actually transact business in Minnesota (Minn. Stat. 60K.49). Appointments are submitted electronically by the appointing insurer.
Minnesota-Specific Topics You'll Be Tested On
The 30-item state section splits into rules common to all lines and rules specific to life and health. On the common side: the Commissioner's powers, licensing and appointments, license types and termination, and the big block of trade practices - unfair claims settlement, rebating, misrepresentation, defamation, discrimination, twisting, and the penalties that follow.
On the life side, know beneficiary protections and creditor exemptions, the right to cancel (free look), grace period and back-dating rules, credit life and A&H insurance, group life continuation and conversion, the Insurable Interest Act, and Minnesota's replacement regulation.
On the health side, expect mandated coverages - emotionally and physically disabled children, newborns and adopted children, maternity, mental health and chemical dependency treatment - plus continuation and conversion rights (disability, divorce, termination, survivors), Medicare supplement rules, long-term care, HMOs, nonprofit health service plans, and small employer reform.
Both lines share the Minnesota Life and Health Guaranty Association, which protects policyholders if an insurer becomes insolvent - a reliable source of exam questions.
Keeping Your License: Continuing Education
Minnesota producers complete 24 hours of CE every two-year cycle, including 3 hours of ethics. Your renewal deadline is the last day of your birth month, biennially - and your very first renewal lands somewhere between 12 and 24 months after you are first licensed.
No more than half of the 24 hours (12 hours) can be company-sponsored. Minnesota does not allow carryover credit, and you cannot repeat the same course for credit within a single cycle. Helpfully, the state does NOT force you to keep CE confined to your lines - a Life & Health producer can count P&C courses, with a few exceptions like LTC and annuity training.
If you sell annuities, you need a one-time 4-hour annuity best-interest training. If you sell long-term care, you need an 8-hour initial LTC course plus a 4-hour MN-specific Partnership refresher every cycle thereafter.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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