The Nevada Life Producer License
Life is the first line of authority listed at NRS 683A.261, which runs from "(a) Life insurance on human lives" through "(l) Personal property storage insurance, as defined in NRS 683A.1828, as a limited line" - crop is (k), and personal property storage is the one people leave off the end. Nevada examines five of those lines and offers two of them through combined papers as well - so a Life candidate has a genuine choice of route, and the choice is worth making before booking rather than after.
The single paper is exam code 01, "NV Life," and the handbook captions it "Life (Includes Fixed Annuities)." That caption is doing work: fixed annuities are sold under this line, while variable life and variable annuities run through separate accounts under NRS 688A.390 and also need federal securities registration. No Nevada statute or regulation names that registration, describes it, or examines it - which is why a Nevada exam item asking for a series number has no Nevada answer.
What makes Nevada's life material worth studying rather than skimming is where the rules live. The required provisions run from NRS 688A.050 to 688A.160 - twelve sections, pulled in by 688A.040(1). Work through all twelve and you will not find the free look, and you will not find the suicide clause. Both are elsewhere in the same chapter, and knowing which section holds which is most of the Nevada-specific half of this paper.
The Nevada Life Exam: Format, Fees and Routes
Exam code 01, 2 hours, $37. The paper is built from two printed content outlines: a Life general-knowledge outline of "50 scored plus 5 pretest questions" and a Life Nevada-specific outline of "30 scored plus 5 pretest questions." That is 80 scored and 10 pretest, 90 items in all, and about 80 seconds an item across everything in front of you.
A caution about those totals, because it matters more here than it looks. Pearson VUE splits the information across two documents and neither carries the whole picture. The candidate handbook prints the exam codes, the time limits and the fees but no question counts. The content outlines print the counts section by section but no time limits and no exam-level total. The 80-and-10 figures above are the sum of the printed sections, not a number either document prints. Every count on this site is derived that way, and stated on the same basis - all items, scored and pretest together - so that the pacing figures can be compared between lines.
| Route | Code | Scored | Pretest | Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life alone | 01 | 80 | 10 | 2 hours | $37 |
| Life and Health combined | 05 | 144 | 15 | 3 hours 35 minutes | $47 |
If you intend to hold both Life and Accident and Health, run the arithmetic before you book. Two single papers cost $74 and take four and a quarter hours across two appointments to answer 168 scored questions. The combined paper, code 05, costs $47 and takes three hours thirty-five minutes to answer 144. It is cheaper, shorter and smaller - and the reason is that the combined paper carries one Nevada-specific outline of 44 questions in place of the two separate ones totalling 68. The trade is that one failure costs both lines at once.
Passing is a score of 70 and it is scaled. NAC 683A.270 fixes the number; the handbook explains what the number is: "Raw scores are converted into scaled scores that can range from 0 to 100. The scaled score that is reported to candidates is neither the number of questions they answered correctly nor the percentage of questions they answered correctly." Nevada's one raw-percentage paper is Bail at 67 percent, under NAC 697.125, and Bail is not a producer line.
Most Tested Topics on the Nevada Life Exam
Thirty of the eighty scored questions are Nevada-specific, and the state's life chapter rewards one habit above all others: checking which section a rule is in before answering what the rule says.
| Concept | The Nevada rule | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Free look, life and annuity together | 10 days, in a single section covering "No annuity contract, pure endowment contract or policy of life insurance" - and it refunds "any premium paid therefor, including any contract or policy fees or other charges" | 688A.165(1), (3) |
| Free look on a replacement | 30 days - same section, next subsection, triple the days, and the trigger is the transaction rather than the product | 688A.165(2) |
| Suicide, and the section it hides in | 2 years, and it is in NEITHER the required provisions nor the prohibited-provisions section - it is one of five permitted exceptions inside "Provisions limiting liability" | 688A.260(1)(b)(5) |
| What is still owed on an excluded death | A reserve. The policy must also provide that the insurer "will pay an amount not less than a reserve determined according to the Commissioners Reserve Valuation Method" | 688A.260(2) |
| Incontestability, and its operator | "Not more than 2 years" - a CEILING on the contestable period, not a floor. Carve-outs are nonpayment and, at the insurer's option, disability and accidental-death provisions | 688A.080 |
| What incontestability does not close | Excluded-risk defences survive it. A separate section preserves "the assertion at any time of defenses based upon provisions in the policy which exclude or restrict coverage" | 688A.170 |
| Grace period | 30 days, or at the insurer's option "1 month of not less than 30 days," with interest "not in excess of 6 percent per annum" - and grace "shall date from the premium due date specified in the policy" | 688A.060 |
| Reinstatement window | 3 years from default, defeated outright by surrender for cash value, exhaustion of cash value, or expiry of the paid-up term insurance | 688A.130 |
| Is reinstatement interest capped? | NOT for life - the section says "any interest due thereon" and fixes no rate. The 6 percent belongs to the grace period, and the ANNUITY reinstatement section caps at 6 percent and allows only 1 year | 688A.130; 688A.060; 688A.240 |
| The death-claim clock, and the interest clock | Two instruments: 688A.140 caps a contractual settlement period at "2 months from the receipt of such proofs"; 688A.410 is a statutory duty to pay "not more than 30 days after the death of the insured" | 688A.140; 688A.410 |
| When interest on proceeds starts | From the DATE OF DEATH - not from proof, and not from day 31 - at a rate expressed as a floor | 688A.410 |
| Policy loan interest | No statutory percentage anywhere. The loan is available after "3 full years' premiums have been paid," at a rate "as may be approved by the Commissioner" | 688A.110(1) |
| Misstatement of age | Life adjusts on age alone; the annuity section reaches age OR sex and lets an overpayment be charged against the next payment with interest capped at 6 percent | 688A.090; 688A.220 |
| Viatical rescission | The SHORTER of 60 days after signing or 30 days after the viator receives the proceeds - payment closes the window early | 688C.095; 688C.300(1) |
| Group life conversion | 31 days, no evidence of insurability, any form except term - and late notice extends it to 15 days after notice, capped at 60 days past the original expiry | 688B.120; 688B.160(2) |
The single highest-value habit on this paper is reading a section to its end. Three of the rows above are traps built the same way. 688A.080 gives two years of contestability and then 688A.170, a different section, says the clause "shall preclude only a contest of the validity of the policy" - so a suicide or aviation exclusion is still assertable in year three. 688A.260(1)(b)(5) permits the suicide exclusion and then 688A.260(2) requires a reserve payment anyway, so the answer to "what does the beneficiary get?" is never zero. And 688A.130 requires "any interest due thereon" without a rate, while the neighbouring 688A.060 and 688A.240 both say six percent - which is exactly how the six percent gets attached to the wrong question.
The second habit is watching which product the section is about. Nevada writes life and annuity rules in matched pairs that differ in one detail each time. Grace: life offers the insurer 30 days or a month; the annuity section says a month floored at 30 days. Reinstatement: life gives 3 years uncapped; annuities give 1 year at 6 percent. Misstatement: life is age; annuity is age or sex. Free look is the exception that proves it - one section, both products, one sentence.
Applying for a Nevada License
Nevada's application sequence has one feature that catches almost everyone, and it is the order. You pass the exam, then you apply, then you get fingerprinted. Not the other way round. The Division states the reason in its own words: "FBI regulations do not allow fingerprinting until after you have submitted a license application." There is no universal service code to look up and no appointment you can make in advance, because the authorization form that tells the vendor what to do does not exist until your application does.
Where you apply: Sircon. The Division directs applicants to it, and it is the only portal the handbook names in its resident application step - "Within one year after passing the examination, apply for your license online through Sircon at www.sircon.com/Nevada." The handbook does name NIPR beside Sircon in its nonresident section, so the exclusivity is about the resident route rather than about the handbook as a whole - "Within one year after passing the examination, apply for your license online through Sircon at www.sircon.com/Nevada." NIPR is accepted and adds a transaction fee the Division puts at $5.50 in its 4/18/25 FAQ - NIPR itself publishes no Nevada figure and prints $5.60 on its add-a-line page, so budget about five and a half dollars rather than an exact number. Printing is priced separately, and its free window runs from ISSUANCE rather than from filing - the handbook says you may print "free for 30 days from issuance," and Sircon that the service is free "for 30 days after an application is approved or renewed." A Nevada application sits through a background cycle first, so the window has not opened on the day you file.
The one-year clock is regulatory, not merely a vendor convention. NAC 683A.270: "The examination must have been successfully completed within 1 year immediately preceding the date of application for the license." The Division states the same rule from the other end - "Within one year prior to applying for a license, you must pass the Nevada Insurance Producer exam that corresponds with the line(s) of authority you want to apply for." NIPR's Nevada page says two years; it is the only source that does.
What the Commissioner must find before approving you is a closed list of four at NRS 683A.251(1): that you have attained the age of 18; committed no act that is a ground for refusal, suspension or revocation; paid all applicable fees, "which may not be refunded"; and passed the examinations for the lines applied for, unless exempt. No education element appears among them, which is the statutory reflection of Nevada having no pre-licensing requirement for producers.
Then the fingerprint step, in the order Nevada actually runs it. File the application through Sircon or NIPR. The confirmation carries a Sircon Confirmation ID or a NIPR Transaction Number. Use it to obtain the Fingerprint Authorization Form, which is released only at that point - and, in the Division's words, "you will indicate on the form which license type you are applying for, and this tells the fingerprint vendor which NRS code to use." Take the form to an approved vendor from the Division's list, which was last updated 5/15/26 and runs to roughly thirty operators across Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, North Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks, Elko and Ely, plus mobile-only providers. The handbook allows 90 days from applying to get the prints in.
Upload what the handbook asks for, all of it, with the application: "Your signed Fingerprint Background Waiver Form; The receipt for your fingerprints; and Any other required supporting documentation." The waiver form is on the Division's site and its English version is dated 5/13/25.
Two costs worth knowing before you start. The Division publishes no live-scan price - each approved vendor sets its own, so it is worth ringing two. What it does publish is the fallback: if you must submit a hard card, "you must include a cashier's check or money order (no personal checks) made payable to the Department of Public Safety for $39." And a consequence rather than a fee: failing to disclose something the background report then turns up costs a further $185 application fee, with no refunds.
A note on the handbook's own step numbering, because it contradicts the Division and it has misled people. The handbook lists fingerprints as step 5 and the application as step 6, while its own text says "within 90 days of applying, submit fingerprints" and the Division says fingerprinting is impossible before the application exists. The Division's page governs. Apply first.
Nevada Life License Fees
$37 for the examination and $185 to the state. No pre-licensing course to buy, no appointment fee payable by you, and no application charge beyond the $185 itself unless you file through NIPR, which adds $5.50.
The $185 is two statutes, and the split explains the licence term. NRS 680B.010(5) prints "Application and license ... $125" directly above "Triennial renewal of each license ... 125." NRS 680C.110(4)(d) adds "(1) Initial fee ... $60" and "(2) Triennial fee ... $60." Both statutes price the licence on the same three-year cycle the licensing chapter sets: NRS 683A.261 is captioned "Issuance, PERIOD OF VALIDITY, renewal ...," and its subsection 10 makes the first renewal date "the last day of the month which is 3 years after the month in which the Commissioner originally issued the license." Note the two details in that sentence - the LAST day of a month, and the month of ORIGINAL issuance rather than an anniversary you might pick.
Adding a line later is $50, not another $185, because Nevada charges per licence rather than per line. That is worth weighing against the exam arithmetic: adding Accident and Health after the fact costs $37 for code 02 plus $50 to add the line, which is $87. Sitting the combined code 05 paper at the outset costs $47 and covers both lines on one $185 application.
Fees you meet later rather than now: renewal at $185 every three years; a late renewal within 30 days of expiry at a statutory "penalty of 50 percent of all applicable fees for renewal"; and reinstatement within 12 months at "a penalty of twice all applicable fees for renewal," without re-examination. The Property and Casualty guide works those figures through.
Nevada Life License Eligibility
Four findings, and no coursework among them. NRS 683A.251(1) requires that the applicant has "(a) Attained the age of 18 years; (b) Not committed any act that is a ground for refusal to issue, or suspension or revocation of, a license; (c) Paid all applicable fees prescribed for the license, which may not be refunded; and (d) Successfully passed the examinations for the lines of authority for which application is made, unless the applicant is exempt from this requirement."
Paragraph (b) is the one with depth behind it. What counts as "an act that is a ground" is set out at NRS 683A.451, and Nevada numbers those grounds rather than lettering them - so the pin cite reads 683A.451(4), never 683A.451(1)(d). There are fourteen, and two of them reach conduct that never happened in Nevada: ground 8 covers fraudulent, coercive or dishonest practices, or demonstrated incompetence, untrustworthiness or financial irresponsibility "in this State or elsewhere," and ground 9 covers denial, suspension or revocation of a producer licence "or its equivalent in any other state, territory or province."
The chapeau of 683A.451 is a sanctions menu rather than a ground, and it is worth reading for what it caps: the Commissioner may place a licensee on probation, "suspend the person for not more than 12 months," revoke or refuse to renew, impose an administrative fine, or take "any combination of the foregoing actions." Every verb in it is permissive.
If you are moving to Nevada with a licence, two separate 90-day clocks apply and they measure different things. The Division: "You must apply for a Nevada Resident license within 90 days of establishing legal residency in Nevada." And separately, on the examination: "If you don't apply within 90 days of the previous state license inactivation date you will be required to take and pass a licensing exam as well." The Property and Casualty guide covers the reciprocity route in full.
Nevada Life Continuing Education
Important CE details: One Nevada obligation reaches a life producer through conduct rather than through the licence, and it is easy to be inside it without noticing. Selling an annuity requires a one-time four-credit training course under the Division's annuity regulation, and holding the Life line is what makes annuities sellable in the first place - Nevada's exam table captions code 01 "Life (Includes Fixed Annuities)." So the licence that qualifies you to sell fixed annuities does not by itself qualify you to recommend one. A producer already licensed when the rule took effect had six months; a new licensee may not sell annuities until the course is done. Enforcement is unusual too: the regulation vests authority exclusively in the Commissioner, with penalties running to $2,000 a violation, and it contains no clause of the kind the NAIC model carries denying a private right of action. The Life and Health guide covers the standard itself and the training gate beside it.
Thirty hours in the three-year period before renewal, three of them in ethics. NAC 683A.330(1) states it, with a condition on the front of the sentence people drop: "to renew a license as a producer of insurance or an insurance consultant, each licensee must certify that he or she has successfully completed 30 hours of approved continuing education within the 3-year period before the date of renewal." The same subsection adds "Three of the 30 hours of continuing education must be in the subject of ethics" and "The hours of continuing education must be related to the line or lines of insurance for which the licensee holds such a license." The three ethics hours are carved out of the thirty rather than added on top, and the remaining hours must relate to the lines of authority held.
Adding lines does not add hours. Thirty is the licensee's total for the period however many lines the licence carries; what changes is the subject matter the twenty-seven non-ethics hours have to cover. The Property and Casualty guide owns renewal mechanics and the Life and Health guide owns the designation-based exemption.
What a life producer should know about reporting is that it is not yours to do. Approved education providers submit credit data to the Division through Sircon "as soon as possible upon completion of the course," and are charged $1 per hour per student for it. Your job is to check the transcript on Sircon rather than to file anything - which also means the practical deadline is earlier than the course date, because the credit is not yours until the provider uploads it.
Quick Reference
Official Links
Don't study generic. Study Nevada.
You've got the roadmap. Now get the Nevada-specific Life question bank, mock exams, and video course built by instructors with 20+ years teaching this material.