The Montana Disability (Accident & Health) Producer License
MCA 33-17-214(2)(b) describes this line as "accident and health or sickness insurance coverage providing for sickness, bodily injury, or accidental death," adding that the coverage "may provide benefits for disability income." MCA 33-17-212(5)(b) names the examination classification more bluntly: "disability insurance."
Which brings up the first thing to get straight. Three current Montana documents call this line three different things. The candidate handbook, #122700, calls the license type Disability and names its two papers "General: Accident & Disability" and "State: Disability." The content outlines, #122703, call the same two papers "Accident & Health - General Knowledge" and "Accident & Health - Montana Specific." The statute says disability insurance. All three are live; none is stale. Montana's health line is simply called disability across most of its own insurance code, and "disability" in Montana usage means health coverage generally, not only disability income.
As with Life, there is no combined paper. Montana publishes no Life & Health producer examination, so a producer who wants both authorities sits both exams and pays both fees. The Life and Disability Consultant exam in the handbook's table is a consultant license under MCA 33-17-505, not a producer shortcut.
This is the longest Montana state portion of the four producer exams - 42 scored questions in 60 minutes, against 36 for Life and 32 for Property. There is a reason for that: Montana's health law carries more state-specific machinery than its life law, from the conversion right that stands in for continuation to a two-track prompt-pay regime and a fully specified external review process.
How the Montana Disability Exam Is Built
| Scored | Pretest | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 - General: Accident & Disability | 50 | 5 | 1 hr 15 min |
| Part 2 - State: Disability | 42 | 5 | 1 hour |
| Total | 92 | 10 | 2 hr 15 min |
That is 102 items in 135 minutes, about 79 seconds per item counting scored and pretest together, which is the count that matters at the desk. The two parts are paced close to evenly here - roughly 82 seconds on Part 1 and 77 on Part 2 - which is unusual among the Montana papers.
The passing standard is 75 and it is scaled. The handbook says the reported number "is neither the number of questions you answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly." Note that CSI's own resident-steps page describes step 1 as passing "with a score of 75% or better" - the state's summary page and the vendor's handbook disagree about what kind of number the 75 is, and the handbook is the document that explains the scoring.
A failed exam is retaken whole. "Candidates who fail an examination and wish to retake it must retake the entire examination, i.e., Parts 1 and 2." You must wait 24 hours before you can even make the reservation, and it cannot be made at the test center.
The fee is $65 and the pass is good for 12 months under MCA 33-17-211(1)(d).
Most Tested Topics on the Montana Disability Exam
Forty-two scored questions on Montana health law is a lot of state material, and Montana diverges from the national baseline in ways that are unusually clean to test - several of its answers are "there is no such rule here, and this is what stands in for it."
| Concept | The Montana rule | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Free look, individual accident and health | 10 days, under the same statute as life - except a single-premium nonrenewable disability policy, which gets none | MCA 33-15-415 |
| Grace period, tiered by premium mode | Not less than 7 days weekly, 10 days monthly, 31 days for all other policies | MCA 33-22-206 |
| Which A&H provisions are compulsory | 33-22-204 through -215, twelve of them, "as those provisions appear"; optional provisions come from a separate range | MCA 33-22-202 |
| State continuation of group coverage | There is none. The substitute is a conversion right, issued without evidence of insurability, elected within 31 days, after at least 3 months of coverage | MCA 33-22-508 |
| Conversion premium ceilings | 200% of the group's customary rate; 150% only if insured MORE THAN 3 years; 150% of the highest rate for an alternative basic plan | MCA 33-22-508 |
| Continuation after a cut in hours | A separate, narrower right: 1 year, and only with the consent of the employer or the trustees | MCA 33-22-507 |
| Medicare supplement free look | 30 days, with the notice prominently printed on the first page or attached to it | MCA 33-22-908 |
| Medicare supplement open enrollment | 6 months from the first day of the first month in which the individual is both 65 or older and enrolled in Part B | ARM 6.6.507B(1) |
| Long-term care free look | 30 days from delivery; and a second 30-day clock for refunds where an application is denied | MCA 33-22-1119(1), (3) |
| External review filing window | 120 days from receipt of the adverse determination; 45 days to decide; 72 hours expedited | MCA 33-32-410(1), (20); 33-32-411(9)(a) |
| Prompt payment of a single claim | 30 days after proof of loss, 60 with a documented request for more information, then 10% annual interest automatically | MCA 33-18-232(1), (2) |
| Continuation for a disabled dependent | Past the limiting age while incapable of self-sustaining employment and chiefly dependent; proof within 31 days | MCA 33-22-506 |
The continuation row is the one to over-learn, because the wrong answer is memorable and the right answer is a negative. National material teaches state continuation as a near-universal fill-in for employers below the federal COBRA threshold, and candidates arrive expecting a number of months. Montana mandates neither a general continuation provision nor an offer of one. Its Chapter 22 Part 5 has three related sections, and while one of them does put a year of continuation on the books, none is a mini-COBRA: 33-22-506 continues a disabled dependent past the limiting age; 33-22-507 allows a person whose hours were cut below the eligibility minimum to stay on the group plan for one year, but only "with the consent of the employer or the trustees," which makes it an option rather than a right; and 33-22-508 gives the real answer - a conversion to an individual or group conversion policy, issued without evidence of insurability, on application within 31 days of termination, available to anyone insured at least three months who has no other major medical coverage. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Watch the premium operator: 33-22-508(4) drops the ceiling from 200% to 150% only where the person "has been insured for more than 3 years," so someone insured exactly three years is still under the 200%. Note what 33-22-508 does not contain: any employer-size threshold at all. There is no sub-20 scope limit because there is no continuation mandate to scope.
The second high-yield item is that Montana runs two different prompt-pay tests, in adjoining sections, measured on different things. MCA 33-18-232 is a genuine per-claim duty: pay or deny within 30 days of receiving a proof of loss, extended to 60 days if the insurer requests additional information, after which the insurer owes the claim plus 10% annual interest running from the date the claim was due. That interest is automatic - the statute imposes it without the claimant asking - and it is waived only where it would come to $5 or less. MCA 33-18-233 is a portfolio test: the commissioner may fine an insurer that fails, as a general business practice, to handle claims properly, and (2) gives a safe harbour measured on the whole book - 90% of the total dollar amount outstanding paid within 20 working days and all of it within 30 working days, over the six months before the hearing. Note the switch from plain days in 232 to working days in 233. And note the sting in 33-18-232(3): compliance or noncompliance with the prompt-pay statute "may not be the basis of a private cause of action," and evidence of it is inadmissible in one.
Taking a Montana Insurance Exam on OnVUE
Pearson VUE runs a live, unsuspended OnVUE page for Montana insurance at pearsonvue.com/us/en/mt/insurance/onvue.html. That matters more than it sounds: several states have had remote testing quietly withdrawn for insurance while their handbooks still printed "yes," so the existence of a current, banner-free vendor page for Montana is itself the finding. What that page does not do is list which Montana exams are eligible, so confirm your specific paper when you book.
The attempt cap is the rule to plan around, and it is the only attempt limit Montana's handbook contains. Publication #122700 says: "Candidates taking an online examination are allowed two attempts per exam. All subsequent examination attempts will have to be taken at a Pearson VUE testing center." The live OnVUE page does not mention this at all - a candidate reading only the vendor's web page would never learn about it. The handbook is silent on any maximum number of test-center attempts; the honest way to state that is that no limit is published, which is not the same as a guarantee that attempts are unlimited.
Check-in begins 30 minutes before your appointment, and it is not a formality: you complete a system check, submit photographs of yourself and of your government-issued photo ID, and perform a 360-degree scan of the room. Budget the full half hour.
The technical requirements are stricter than a normal video call. Windows 10 or macOS 14 or later. A webcam, microphone and speaker - headphones are prohibited. A single display only; a second monitor must be disconnected, not merely switched off. At least 6 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. Every other application closed. Prohibited outright: virtual machines, mobile devices, smartwatches, smart speakers, VPNs, and corporate or public networks - which rules out testing from an agency office on a managed network, a common and avoidable failure.
Identification is tighter online than at a test center. You need a government-issued photo ID whose name matches your booking exactly. Expired, digital and damaged IDs are prohibited - a phone-wallet driver's license will not do, and neither will an ID that expired last month. A candidate under 18 needs a parent or guardian to present their own ID and consent, which is a real scenario in Montana given that the minimum licensing age of 18 under MCA 33-17-211(1)(a) attaches to the license, not to sitting the exam.
Everything else about the exam is unchanged by testing remotely. It is still two parts, still a scaled 75, still $65, and a failure still means retaking Parts 1 and 2 together. And remote testing does not touch the background check: you still mail a paper fingerprint card and $30 to the Montana Department of Justice Criminal Records Division before CSI will issue anything.
Montana Disability License Fees
$65 to Pearson VUE, $30 to Montana Criminal Records, nothing to the state. No pre-licensing course, no application fee, no appointment fee, no renewal fee.
The line item that actually varies is retakes, and the OnVUE cap is what makes it vary. Two online attempts, then test-center only - so the third attempt may carry travel and a day off work alongside the $65. The 48-hour change-or-cancel rule applies either way: less than 48 hours' notice and the fee is forfeited, not banked.
Vouchers are available through Pearson VUE's voucher store for the Montana insurance program. They expire 12 months from issue and the expiration cannot be extended, so buying ahead of a long study plan can quietly waste money.
Montana Disability License Eligibility
The general qualifications at MCA 33-17-211(1) apply here as they do to every Montana producer line: 18 or older, no act that is a ground for discipline under 33-17-1001, fees paid, exams passed within 12 months, residency in Montana or a reciprocating state, competence and trustworthiness and good reputation, and enough training to be reasonably familiar with the code provisions governing your operations.
The funeral director bar reaches this line too, and that surprises people. MCA 33-17-211(1)(h) opens "if applying for a license as to life or disability insurance," so a funeral director, undertaker or mortician - or an officer, employee or representative of one, or anyone holding an interest in or benefiting from such a business - cannot hold a Montana Disability license either. The Life guide covers the bar and its narrow funeral-insurance exception in full. Property and Casualty are unaffected.
A qualification worth reading closely is 33-17-211(1)(g): the applicant must have "experience, training, or instruction" enough to be "reasonably familiar with the provisions of this code that govern the applicant's operations as an insurance producer." In a state with no pre-licensing requirement this is the only competence gate other than the exam itself, and it is drafted as a judgment for the commissioner rather than as an hour count.
Residency is a live condition, not a box ticked once. Under 33-17-211(1)(e), a license "issued based upon Montana state residency" terminates if the licensee relocates to another state. Not lapses - terminates. If you move, you are not a Montana resident producer with an out-of-date address; you are unlicensed here and applying as a nonresident. The Property & Casualty guide covers the nonresident and reciprocity path.
Business entities are handled at MCA 33-17-212(4): where the applicant is a business entity, each individual named in the license as having authority to act for it must meet the same qualifications. And under 33-17-1001(2), a business entity's license may be suspended, revoked, refused or denied if a ground applies to an individual designated in it - the entity does not insulate the people inside it.
Montana Disability Producer Continuing Education
Important CE details: What a long-term care course must contain is prescribed rather than left to the provider. MCA 33-22-1128(4)(a) and (b) require the training to cover long-term care regulations, the services and alternatives available, inflation protection and suitability. Subsection (5) then bars anything insurer-specific and anything that amounts to sales or marketing training from counting, which is aimed squarely at carriers presenting product training as compliance. Verification and record retention fall on the insurer under (6) and (7), not on you, and (8) allows training completed in another state to satisfy the Montana requirement, which matters for a producer licensed across a state line.
The 24-hour core - 24 credit hours per 24-month period, at least 3 of ethics and at least 1 on changes in Montana insurance statutes and rules - is set by MCA 33-17-1203(1)(a) and is explained in full on the Life & Health guide. This page owns the product gate that costs a health producer the most time.
Long-term care is Montana's heaviest training requirement, and it is the only product gate the legislature put in a statute rather than leaving to a rule. MCA 33-22-1128(3) sets two numbers: a one-time course of "not less than 8 hours," and ongoing training of "not less than 4 hours for each 24-month period." It is the only Montana gate that recurs - the annuity course is one-time, the flood course is one-time, and long-term care keeps coming back every cycle for as long as you sell it.
Whether these hours also count toward the 24 is the open question. 33-22-1128(2) says the training "may be approved as continuing education courses under Title 33, chapter 17, part 12" - permissive, and about approval, not about substitution. CSI's licensing page lists the product gates in one place and the 24-hour CE requirement in another and does not say whether they overlap. The safe plan is to treat the 8 and the 4 as sitting outside the 24 until CSI says otherwise in writing.
Like the annuity gate, long-term care training attaches to conduct. CSI's wording is "producers selling long-term care," and MCA 33-22-1128 is framed around the act of selling rather than around holding a Disability line. You can hold this license without owing the 8 hours; you owe them when you sell a long-term care policy.
One mechanical point that affects every Montana producer and gets missed: your provider reports your completions to CSI, and you do not. CSI's own guidance says course completions are reported directly to CSI by the course provider, and that it may take up to 30 days for the provider to report. Combined with CSI's warning that a license may lapse if CE is not completed 30 days in advance of expiration, that reporting lag is the practical deadline - not the expiration date itself.
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