The Nebraska Life Producer License
Life is the first of the eight named lines of authority a Nebraska producer licence can carry under Neb. Rev. Stat. 44-4054(1), lettered (a) through (h), with (i) left open for "any other line of insurance permitted under Nebraska laws, rules, or regulations", and it takes in fixed annuities as well as life insurance. Variable life and variable annuities sit on a separate line - and Nebraska is unusual here, because the bulletin lists Variable Life and Variable Annuity among the four lines requiring no examination at all, alongside Prepaid Legal, Credit and Surplus Lines Licensee.
What Nebraska does not require is worth stating first, because it removes two steps other states impose. There is no pre-licensing education. The Department says so in its own words - "the Nebraska Department of Insurance does not require pre-licensing education" - and 44-4053 backs it structurally, listing everything the director must find before approving a resident application: at least eighteen years of age, no act that is a ground for discipline under 44-4059, fees paid, and the examinations passed. Education is not on the list. And there are no fingerprints, which the Health guide covers in detail.
The regulator is the Department of Insurance, headed by a Director of Insurance - never a Commissioner. Its authority sits at 44-101.01, but the Director's appointment does not: 81-101 lists the Department as one of twelve code agencies and 81-102 has the Governor appoint its head "subject to confirmation by a majority vote of the members elected to the Legislature." Nebraska's Legislature is unicameral, so one chamber does the confirming work two chambers do elsewhere.
How the Nebraska Life Exam Is Built
| Scored | Unscored | Time | Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life, series 13-01 | 100 | 5 | 2 hours | $43 |
| Life + Accident & Health, series 13-03 | 150 | 5 | 2 hr 30 min | $47 |
Counting every item you will actually answer, the Life paper is 105 questions in 120 minutes - about 69 seconds each. The combined paper is 155 in 150 minutes, about 58 seconds each, so it is materially faster per question even though it is the better value.
Where those numbers come from matters, because the bulletin does not carry them. PSI's Nebraska bulletin publishes the exam series, the fee, the scored item count and the cut score - and no time limits at all. The time limits live in the per-exam content outlines, one PDF per series, which the bulletin reaches only through link annotations. If a source quotes you a Nebraska time limit without naming the content outline, treat it with suspicion.
The passing standard is 70%, and in Nebraska that is a raw count rather than a scaled score. The bulletin prints each cut score twice, as a percentage and as an absolute: "100 Items (70%) or 70 correct." Nothing in the document describes scaling, and no sentence anywhere says the reported number is neither a count nor a percentage. So the arithmetic works normally here: 70 of 100 scored questions on the single-line paper, 105 of 150 on the combined one.
Attempts are unlimited, and the bulletin says so affirmatively rather than by silence: "Nebraska Insurance examinations are open eligibility. You may test unlimited until you pass." The only restriction is same-day rebooking - fail on a Wednesday, call Thursday, retest as soon as Friday.
A passed exam supports a licence application for one year, and the fee is on the same clock: the bulletin states the examination fee "is valid for one year from the date of payment."
Most Tested Topics on the Nebraska Life Exam
Nebraska's life provisions mostly track the standard required-provisions pattern - and then hide their exam points in where the provisions live, what they leave uncapped, and one brand-new subdivision that took effect in 2026.
| Concept | The Nebraska rule | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Free look, life and annuity | 10 days from delivery, and the section is NOT in the required-provisions chain - it covers life and annuity in one sentence, carving out only a credit life policy | 44-502.05 |
| Suicide exclusion period | 2 years, and it sits in the PROHIBITED-provisions section as a ceiling on the insurer: no policy may exclude suicide occurring more than two years after the policy date | 44-503(2) |
| Incontestability, and its two carve-outs | 2 years during the insured's lifetime, except nonpayment - and except stated limits on death from war and from aeronautics other than as a fare-paying passenger of a commercial airline | 44-502(5) |
| Grace period, individual life | One month for premiums due after the first year, with optional interest not exceeding 6% per annum for the days of grace elapsed - flat, not tiered by premium mode | 44-502(2) |
| Reinstatement window, and what scopes it | 3 years from default on evidence of insurability and payment of arrears with interest - but the provision is scoped to the case where the policy value was applied to purchase other insurance | 44-502(11) |
| Is reinstatement interest capped? | No - the section requires arrears with interest and sets no rate at all; the 6% belongs to the grace period, one subdivision away | 44-502(11); contrast 44-502(2) |
| Misstatement of age | The amount payable is what the premium paid would have purchased at the correct age - and contrast group life, where the remedy is instead an equitable adjustment of premiums, benefits, or both | 44-502(6); 44-1607(5) |
| Death-claim settlement clock | Settlement on receipt of due proof of death, or not later than 2 MONTHS after receipt of such proof | 44-502(12) |
| When statutory interest starts on death proceeds | 30 days from receipt of proof of death - but only where the beneficiary elects IN WRITING to take a lump sum | 44-3,143(1)(c), (1)(d) |
| Policy loan interest | An insurer election between a fixed maximum of not more than 8% and an adjustable ceiling, for policies issued on or after 30 August 1981 | 44-502.03(1)(a), (1)(b); 44-502.04 |
| Pre-lapse notice, new for 2026 | At least 15 days before lapse for nonpayment, to the owner AND any assignee of record - and the assignee has the same legal standing as the owner to receive it | 44-502(15)(a), (15)(b) |
| Viatical rescission window | Before the EARLIER of 60 calendar days after execution by all parties or 30 calendar days after the proceeds are paid | 44-1108(1)(f) |
The free look is the highest-value row, and the reason is architectural. Nebraska's required life provisions live at 44-502, which runs to fifteen subdivisions and incorporates the loan-rate, loan-value and nonforfeiture sections by reference. A candidate told to "check the required-provisions section" will read all fifteen and find no free look, and may conclude Nebraska mandates none. It is one section over, at 44-502.05 - a decimal-suffixed sibling - and it is a statute rather than a form-approval standard. Ten days, life and annuity together, credit life excepted. The regulatory side agrees from a different direction: 210 NAC Chapter 33 lets an insurer defer Buyer's Guide delivery to policy delivery only if the policy "contains an unconditional refund provision of at least ten (10) days."
The second-most-missed row is the reinstatement interest ceiling, because the wrong answer is sitting nine subdivisions above the right one. 44-502(2) caps grace-period interest at 6%. 44-502(11) governs reinstatement and requires "arrears of premiums with interest" - full stop, no rate. Nebraska's other interest cap, at 44-502.03, reaches policy LOAN interest and, by its own terms, the interest charged on reinstatement of policy loans. None of them caps the interest on reinstating a lapsed policy by paying back premiums. If an item offers 6% as the reinstatement ceiling, it is testing whether you read one subdivision or two.
Applying for the Nebraska Life License
Nebraska's order is exam first, application second, and the statute makes that structural rather than merely conventional: 44-4053(1)(d) requires the director to find that the applicant "has successfully passed the examinations for the lines of authority for which the person has applied" before approving. You cannot apply into a pending result.
Step one, book and sit the exam. PSI takes reservations online or by telephone. Since 16 March 2026 there is no remote option - the bulletin states "effective 3/16/2026, remote proctored examinations will no longer be available. In-person proctored exams will continue to be available at PSI testing locations." The Property guide covers test centres and exam-day logistics.
Step two, wait for the result to reach the Department. PSI uploads results in about two to three business days, and the Department's own checklist advises waiting twenty-four to forty-eight hours after passing before applying.
Step three, apply. The Department directs applicants to NIPR, and that is the route its own pages describe. But NIPR is not the only one: Sircon also transacts Nebraska resident producer applications and renewals. The Department hosts no application portal of its own - it uses NAIC State Based Systems for continuing education and lookups rather than for applications. The resident producer fee is $50, against a statutory ceiling of $100 at 44-4064(1)(a), and NIPR adds its own transaction charge on top.
Step four, disclose anything you need to disclose. This is where Nebraska replaces the background check most states run. Under the Department's guidance document IGD-F1, an applicant with a felony conviction indicates it on the application, includes a description of the circumstances, and provides court documents or a statement explaining the conviction. The Department's checklist is blunt about the consequence: "if you've answered yes to any background questions this process will take longer." The Health guide walks through what that review actually involves.
Processing runs about three to five business days at the Department once the application is complete. Apply within one year of passing - both the exam result and the exam fee run on that clock.
One thing you do not do is arrange your own appointment. Under 44-4061(2) the APPOINTING INSURER files the notice of appointment, "within fifteen days from the date the agency contract is executed or the first insurance application is submitted" - whichever comes first. The insurer also pays for it: $8 per appointment - a minimum, since the appointment fee is retaliatory on the producer's domicile state and runs higher for some - and $3 to terminate one. And under 44-4061(1), a producer who is not acting as an insurer's agent "is not required to become appointed" at all.
Nebraska Life License Fees
$43 to PSI for the examination and $50 to the state for the licence. Nothing for coursework, nothing for fingerprints, nothing for the appointment.
Two ways to lose the $43 without sitting the exam, both in the bulletin's own list: cancel with less than two days' notice, or fail to appear, or not be checked in by your scheduled start time, or not present proper identification at check-in. Any of the four forfeits the fee. There is no separate rescheduling charge - the penalty is simply losing what you paid.
If you are heading for both Life and Accident and Health authority, compare the routes before booking. Two single-line papers cost $86 and 240 minutes for 200 scored questions; the combined 13-03 paper costs $47 and 150 minutes for 150.
Nebraska Life License Eligibility
44-4053 carries the whole test, and it is short: at least eighteen years of age; has not committed any act that is a ground for denial, suspension or revocation under 44-4059; has paid the fees; and has successfully passed the examinations for the lines applied for. Four findings, and no education element among them. Note what the bulletin adds on top of the statute for a resident applicant: be "competent, trustworthy, financially responsible and have a good personal and business reputation," and "maintain a principal place of residence in Nebraska." There is a residency requirement; what there is not is a residency waiting period.
The list that matters more is 44-4059, because it defines what "has not committed any act" reaches - fourteen grounds, lettered (a) through (n). Two are worth flagging because national material tends to omit them. (f) reaches conviction of "a felony or a Class I, II, or III misdemeanor," which is a lower bar than the felony-only test many states use. And (k) reaches "improperly using notes or any other reference material to complete an examination" - cheating on the licensing exam is itself a licensing ground, not merely a PSI matter.
The rest of the fourteen: incorrect, misleading, incomplete or materially untrue information in the application; violating any insurance law, rule, subpoena or order, of this director or of another state's; obtaining a licence through misrepresentation or fraud; improperly withholding, misappropriating or converting money or property received in the course of doing insurance business; intentionally misrepresenting the terms of a contract or application; unfair trade practices, unfair claims settlement practices or fraud; fraudulent, coercive or dishonest practices, or demonstrating incompetence, untrustworthiness or financial irresponsibility; having a licence denied, suspended, placed on probation or revoked in Nebraska or any other state; forging another's name; knowingly accepting insurance business from an individual who is not licensed; failing to comply with a child support order; and failing to pay state income tax.
Note also 44-4059(6), which cuts the other way: no disciplinary proceeding may be brought "after the expiration of three years from the termination of such license." That is a limit on the regulator's window to act after a licence ends - not a waiting period before you can reapply, and not the length of any sanction.
One duty Nebraska does not impose that many states do: there is no premium trust-account or fiduciary-segregation statute for producers. The old agent-premium section, 44-362, was repealed in 1989 and nothing replaced it. What stands in its place is the disciplinary ground at 44-4059(1)(d) - improperly withholding, misappropriating or converting money received in the course of doing insurance business. The duty is enforced through your licence rather than through an account structure.
Business entities apply separately, and a business entity licence expires on 30 April of even-numbered years rather than on anyone's birthday.
Nebraska Life Producer Continuing Education
Important CE details: Not every Nebraska licensee is on the twenty-four-hour track, and the reduced tracks are worth knowing because one of them sits close to the life line. The Department publishes shorter requirements by licence type: Crop is three general hours plus three ethics for a total of six; Funeral is six plus three for nine; Funeral Director is three plus three for six; Title is six plus three for nine; and a Viatical Settlement Broker who does not hold a life licence owes twelve plus three, for fifteen. That last one is the trap - a life producer who adds viatical work stays on the full twenty-four, because the reduced fifteen-hour track exists only for a broker who holds no life licence.
The core requirement is 44-3904: twenty-one hours of approved continuing education at (1)(a)(i) plus three hours on insurance industry ethics at (2), which the statute makes "in addition to such activities," in each twenty-four-month period. The "twenty-four cumulative hours" clause at (1)(c) caps the subsection-(1) hours a multi-line licensee accumulates - it is not a ceiling on the twenty-one plus three. The Life and Health guide owns that arithmetic and the first-period exemption; this page covers the gate a Life producer actually runs into.
Nebraska's annuity training is a one-time four-credit course, and the trigger is conduct rather than licensure. The Department's guidance document IGD-F6 and the statute at 44-8108(2)(a)(i) agree: "a producer who engages in the sale of annuity products shall complete a one-time four-credit training course approved by the Department of Insurance." Holding a Life line creates no obligation. Selling your first annuity does.
And Nebraska answers the question most states leave open. IGD-F6 states that "resident insurance producers who take the annuity training course may use the credits for their overall CE requirements under NEB.REV.STAT. 44-3904." The four hours are not additional. That is a rare piece of clarity - and it is not uniform across Nebraska's three gates, so do not generalise it. The flood gate is likewise expressly inside the 24 ("these three hours are not required in addition to the normal 24 hours"), but the long-term care gate is only permissive - its training "may be approved as continuing education courses" - which is a statement about approval, not about substitution.
The training sits on top of a best interest regime. Nebraska adopted the NAIC 2020 standard at 44-8106(1): the producer "shall act in the best interest of the consumer under the circumstances known at the time the recommendation is made, without placing the producer's or the insurer's financial interest ahead of the consumer's interest."
Then read 44-8102(2), because it does two things at once that most states' annuity acts do not. It provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed "to create or imply a private cause of action for a violation of the act or to subject a producer to civil liability under the best interest standard of care outlined in section 44-8106 or under standards governing the conduct of a fiduciary or fiduciary relationship." So Nebraska imposes a best-interest duty, and in the same Act declines both to make it privately enforceable and to characterise the producer as a fiduciary. Enforcement runs through the Department.
Excess hours do not carry forward, and a course may not be repeated for credit within the same period. The Casualty guide covers how completions actually reach the Department.
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