New Jersey Life & Health Insurance Exam 2026

What This License Is

A combined Life, Accident & Health authority carries both New Jersey lines on one producer licence: life insurance and fixed annuities on one side; accident, health, disability, Medicare supplement and long-term care on the other. It is issued by DOBI, the combined Department of Banking and Insurance, under the Insurance Producer Licensing Act of 2001.

The structural fact that governs everything else: New Jersey has no combined Life & Health examination. PSI's exam list has Life and Health as separate major-line exams with nothing joining them. DOBI recognises a combined 40-hour prelicensing course, and NIPR issues one licence carrying both lines - but you qualify by sitting two exams, 83 questions and then 88.

That is worth pausing on, because it inverts the advice that works in most states. In New York or Texas, taking the combined exam is strictly cheaper than taking two singles - one sitting, one fee, two lines. In New Jersey there is no such discount. What the combined path saves you is coursework: 40 hours covering both lines instead of 20 plus 20 taken separately, which is the same total. In practice the saving is in scheduling and in buying one course rather than two.

So the honest framing is this: pursue both lines because your practice needs both, not because combining them is cheaper. It very nearly isn't.

Variable products remain outside this licence - variable life and variable annuities are securities, needing the Life line plus a separate Variable line of authority and FINRA registration. New Jersey asks for a CRD number and waives the Series 63.

Exam Options & Format

Two exams, taken separately, in either order:

Each carries five to nineteen unscored experimental items on top of the scored count, and each gets the full 3 hours 30 minutes - New Jersey gives every producer exam the same window regardless of length, so both of these are comfortably paced compared with, say, the 112-question Personal Lines exam.

Both exams may be taken on the same day if PSI has the seats, but they are two separate registrations with two separate fees. Most candidates take them a week or two apart, which is the sensible approach: 171 scored questions in one day is a long day, and there is no discount for compressing it.

PSI publishes no series or exam-code number for New Jersey - names only. Each score report is valid for one year, so if you space the exams out, watch the clock on the first one: your application must be filed within a year of passing.

If you hold a qualifying designation the coursework goes away but the exams do not. On the life side New Jersey accepts CLU, ChFC, CFP, CIC, CEBS, FLMI or LUTCF; on the health side RHU, CEBS, REBC or HIA. The Life guide has the full table and the 90-day waiver trap.

Most Tested Topics on the New Jersey Life & Health Exams

Across both sittings, New Jersey's state-law content concentrates in two places: the free-look regime, where New Jersey does something no other state does, and a guaranty association built on more generous limits than the NAIC model. These are checked against the statutes and regulations:

The annuity free look is the best question on this exam, and it is a question about an absence. Every candidate arrives knowing that annuities carry a free look - ten days, twenty, thirty depending on the state. New Jersey requires none, and DOBI has said in a rule adoption that it lacks the statutory authority to impose one. Insurers voluntarily provide something in most contracts, but that is a product feature rather than a legal right. A stem asking what free look New Jersey law guarantees an annuity buyer has a correct answer that feels wrong.

The guaranty limits are the second, and they run the opposite direction from the usual trap. National material teaches the NAIC model - $300,000 death benefit, $100,000 cash value, $250,000 annuity. New Jersey pays $500,000 on the death benefit and puts no cap at all on health claims. Candidates who confidently answer $300,000 are answering the model, not the state. Note the pattern: New Jersey raised the death benefit ($300,000 to $500,000), the annuity present value ($250,000 to $500,000) and the aggregate ($300,000 to $500,000), and removed the health cap entirely - while leaving cash surrender value at $100,000 and the deferred-annuity surrender value at $250,000, both matching the model. A targeted enhancement, not a wholesale rewrite.

And on the life free look, resist the flat number. The regulation requires a period of not less than 10 days, expressly allowing it to run as long as a year. A well-written question gives you the policy's actual stated period and asks whether it complies - and a 30-day free look on a New Jersey life policy is perfectly lawful.

The Prelicensing Requirement, in Full

New Jersey genuinely gates licensing behind coursework, and the order is fixed: approved course, then exam, then fingerprints, then application. You will need the completion certificate physically at the test centre, so this is not a step to leave until later.

The hours, by line (N.J.A.C. 11:17-3.4 and DOBI's producer FAQ):

Notice that the combined course is simply the sum. Forty hours is 20 plus 20 - New Jersey gives no volume discount on education any more than it does on exams. What the combined course buys is a single enrolment, a single provider and a coherent sequence rather than two disconnected courses.

Ethics is embedded rather than bolted on. N.J.A.C. 11:17-3.4 requires every prelicensing course to cover state regulatory jurisdiction, the Commissioner's powers and methods of regulation, producer licensing, producer trade practices, standards of conduct and ethics, doing business as a licensed producer, and insurance fraud detection and prevention. DOBI notes the 20 hours absorbed the topics once covered by a separately mandated 15-hour insurance-regulation block, so there is no separate ethics module to buy.

Formats. Traditional classroom, self-study, and interactive online all qualify through DOBI-approved providers. DOBI publishes the approved provider list as a spreadsheet on its site.

The certificate never expires - and this is where New Jersey rewards planning. PSI's bulletin states it in those words: "Prelicensing education course completion certificates never expire." You can complete the course, life can intervene, and the certificate is still good years later.

But an approved WAIVER expires in 90 days, and the two get conflated constantly. If you hold a qualifying designation, or you are exempt because you were licensed for the same lines in another state, that exemption comes as a waiver - and N.J.A.C. 11:17-3.4 provides that "Waivers shall expire in 90 days from the date of issuance and shall thereafter be reissued or renewed for good cause only." Note the escape valve at the end: a lapsed waiver is not automatically fatal, but reissue is discretionary and turns on good cause. Request it when you are ready to test rather than when you first start thinking about it.

One further exemption worth knowing: an applicant previously licensed for the same lines in another state is exempt from both prelicensing and the examination - either while currently licensed, or where the prior licence went inactive or was cancelled within the previous 90 days in good standing. The Property & Casualty guide covers the reciprocity route in detail.

Exam Day: What Actually Happens

Arrive 30 minutes early. New Jersey asks for more lead time than most states, which typically say fifteen. Part of that is a second document check at the door.

Bring one primary ID - and it has to carry three things. PSI requires a government-issued, current and unexpired identification bearing your name, signature and photograph. State driver's licence, state ID card, US passport, US military ID, alien registration card or Canadian government ID. The bulletin is blunt that "No form of temporary identification will be accepted" - a paper interim licence issued while you wait for a plastic card is exactly the thing that gets people turned away.

And bring a second document: your prelicensing completion certificate. Life, Health, Property, Casualty, Title, Personal Lines and limited-line Bail Bond candidates must present the certificate - electronic or hard copy, both accepted - or a DOBI-issued waiver. Surplus Lines, Public Adjuster and instructor candidates are exempt from this. Failure to present the required documents means denied admission and a forfeited fee.

What you cannot bring in: reference materials of any kind; all electronic devices - phones, tablets, cameras, smartwatches and calculators; headgear other than religious apparel; bulky clothing; backpacks; food and drink; writing materials; reading materials; smoking products; and wallets. Dress in layers you can keep on rather than layers you plan to remove.

Reschedule or cancel at least two days out. Notice reaching PSI two days before the exam date preserves your fee; anything later forfeits it.

Afterwards, two things happen. Your score appears on screen immediately and a report is emailed - the Personal Lines guide covers the diagnostic on a failed report. And if you passed, you are evaluated on the spot for the 60-day Temporary Work Authority, answering DOBI screening questions whose answers cannot be changed once confirmed. That combination - a consequential, irrevocable questionnaire administered at the end of a 210-minute exam - is worth preparing for as carefully as the exam itself. The Personal Lines guide sets it out in full.

Breaks: the bulletin explicitly prohibits them for remotely proctored exams. It does not state a separate in-person break policy, so we are not going to invent one - ask the proctor at check-in if it matters to you.

What It Costs

Roughly $310-$330 in unavoidable fees if you pass both first time: two exam fees, $66.05 for one Live Scan appointment, and about $170 for one NIPR filing ($150 licence plus $20 online processing; $40 and about $190 on paper). The 40-hour combined course sits on top.

Only the exam fee doubles. The licence fee, the fingerprint appointment and the application are all paid once regardless of how many lines you carry - New Jersey issues a single producer licence listing your authorities.

On the exam fee, New Jersey's two primary sources disagree - PSI's currently served bulletin says $38 and DOBI's producer FAQ says $47, the $38 sits in a bulletin PSI stamps January 2023 while DOBI's page is live-maintained. Budget $47 per exam, so $94 for the pair, and expect possibly less.

Eligibility Requirements

At least 18, a completed 40-hour combined approved course (or qualifying designations), passing results on both exams, Live Scan fingerprints as a resident applicant, and a NIPR application within one year of passing. A resident licence needs a New Jersey residence or business address and no PO box.

Because each score report is good for a year, spacing the exams widely is the one scheduling risk here - the clock on your first pass runs while you prepare for the second. Nonresidents are not fingerprinted and apply on the strength of a home-state licence in good standing.

Keeping Your License Active

Your licence runs two years and expires on the last day of your birth month, with a first term stretched to at least 18 months (N.J.A.C. 11:17-2.1). Business entities are different - they expire biennially on May 31.

Holding both lines does not double your continuing education. New Jersey's 24 credits belong to the licensee, not to each authority: a producer carrying Life, Accident & Health, Property and Casualty owes 24, exactly as one carrying a single line does. Three of the 24 must be professional ethics, and one of those three may be an insurance-fraud course instead.

Two product-specific trainings sit alongside it, and both are on your side of the house. Selling annuities requires the one-time four-hour best-interest course under N.J.A.C. 11:4-59A - producers who already held a Life authority when the rule took effect on 21 April 2025 had until 21 October 2025 to comply. Selling long-term care requires eight hours initially and four hours every 24 months thereafter under N.J.A.C. 11:4-34.29, and the training may not be insurer- or product-specific. Both count toward the 24.

Up to 12 non-ethics credits carry over once to the next term; ethics credits never carry. Producers holding a professional certification with its own CE obligation may bank the equivalent of 12 credits a year with verification from the granting body. Nonresidents compliant at home owe New Jersey nothing. The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal and the lapse rules.

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