What This License Is
The Life, Accident & Health license carries both New York lines at once: life insurance and fixed annuities on one side, accident, health, disability, Medicare supplement and long-term care on the other. One 40-hour course, one exam, one $80 application.
The arithmetic is what makes this the default recommendation. Licensing Life alone takes 20 hours; Accident & Health alone takes 20; doing them separately means 40 hours of coursework, two $40 exams and two applications. The combined route is 40 hours, one $40 exam and one application - strictly less money and less time for strictly more authority. The only reason to take a single line is genuine certainty that you will never touch the other.
As everywhere in New York, you apply as an agent (representing the insurer) or a broker (representing the insured, Insurance Law 2101(c)). The exam is the same; the distinction governs whom you owe duties to and whether you need a company appointment to activate the licence. Variable life and variable annuities remain outside this licence - they are securities, needing FINRA registration alongside it.
Exam Options & Format
Series 17-55 through PSI: 150 scored questions plus five to ten unscored pretest items, a 2 hour 30 minute limit, $40 per attempt. One hundred and five correct answers pass - New York's flat 70%, published as arithmetic in DFS's own report rather than hidden behind a scaled score.
That works out to a minute per question, which is comfortable if you have done timed practice and punishing if you have not. The combined exam is not harder than the single-line versions question for question; it is longer, and it covers both content outlines, so the failure mode is stamina and breadth rather than difficulty.
You may sit it at a PSI test centre or by live remote proctoring. Remote is genuinely available in New York - the Accident & Health guide covers the tech check, the launch window and the no-breaks rule in detail, and for a 150-minute exam the absence of breaks is worth thinking about before you book.
No attempt limit, no waiting period, but no same-day rebooking either. Each attempt is another $40, and a passing score stays good for two years.
Most Tested Topics on the New York Life, Accident & Health Exam
The combined exam's state-law portion concentrates on three things: New York's replacement and free-look regime, its best-interest standard, and a guaranty association that is built on a different architecture from every NAIC-model state. These are the facts a national prep book will teach you wrongly:
| Concept | The New York rule |
|---|---|
| Free look, ordinary individual life | Not less than 10 nor more than 30 days - the insurer picks the length within that band, so "10 days" is the floor, not the answer. A mail-order policy must give 30 (Ins. Law 3203(a)(11)) |
| Free look, annuities | The same 10-to-30-day band, and 30 days for a mail-order contract (3219(a)(9)) |
| Free look, replacement transactions | 60 days to return a life policy or annuity issued in a replacement, for an unconditional full refund of all premiums and considerations - by a wide margin the longest such window in the country (Regulation 60, 11 NYCRR Part 51) |
| Free look, long-term care | 30 days from delivery (Regulation 62, 11 NYCRR 52.25) |
| Best interest standard | Regulation 187 - New York was the first state to extend a best-interest duty to both annuities and life insurance. Annuities from 1 August 2019, life from 1 February 2020; upheld by the Court of Appeals in 2022 |
| Guaranty association, life and health | The Life and Health Insurance Company Guaranty Corporation of New York (Article 77) |
| Guaranty cap, structure | A single $500,000 aggregate per individual life covering death benefit, cash value, individual annuity and individual health combined - not the NAIC pattern of separate sub-limits |
| Guaranty cap, group annuity | $1,000,000 per contract for an unallocated group annuity or funding agreement |
| Departure from the NAIC model | New York does not follow it. Instead of $300,000 death / $250,000 annuity sub-limits, one $500,000 aggregate - and no cap at all on group health |
| Advertising the guaranty fund | Prohibited - using the guaranty corporation's existence to advertise, solicit or induce a purchase is expressly banned (Ins. Law 7718) |
| CE headline | 15 credits every 2 years, covering all lines held rather than stacking, with mandated single hours of insurance law, ethics, and diversity/inclusion |
The guaranty question is the one most candidates get wrong, and they get it wrong in a specific way. National material trains the NAIC sub-limit pattern - $300,000 death benefit here, $250,000 annuity there, $100,000 cash value - and a New York question offering those figures as options is offering you three plausible distractors. New York abandoned that architecture entirely. There is one number, $500,000, and it is an aggregate across everything on one life. If a stem describes someone with a $400,000 death benefit and a $250,000 annuity at the same insolvent insurer, the NAIC answer pays both and the New York answer caps at $500,000 total.
The free-look band is the second. Almost every outline reduces New York's ordinary life free look to "10 days." The statute says not less than 10 nor more than 30 - a range the insurer chooses within, with mail-order fixed at 30. A well-written question will give you the policy's actual stated period and test whether you know it can lawfully exceed 10. Meanwhile the 60-day replacement window under Regulation 60 is unmistakably New York's, and it is the single most identifiable state fact on this exam: nowhere else is close.
Regulation 187 deserves more than a memorised date. Because it reaches life insurance and not just annuities, it changes the documentation standard for an ordinary term or whole-life recommendation - and New York got there first, which is why it appears in questions framed as suitability scenarios rather than recall. Note too what it does not do: DFS states plainly that Reg 187 requires no specific training course and is not a condition of maintaining your license. The duty to make sure you are trained runs to the insurer. Any "Regulation 187 requires N hours" claim you encounter is describing somebody's product, not the rule.
The 40-Hour Prelicensing Requirement, in Full
New York is one of the states that genuinely gates licensing behind coursework, and the order is not negotiable: approved course, then exam, then application. PSI's bulletin states plainly that you must successfully complete the approved prelicensing requirement before taking the corresponding licensing exam, and the school certificate is a required document with the licence application. So this is the first thing to arrange, not the last - a passing score with no certificate behind it is a passing score you cannot convert.
The hours, by line. DFS publishes the full list; Insurance Law 2103 and 2104 are the statutory source for the 40-hour and 90-hour figures, while the 20-hour single-line courses are set administratively by DFS:
| License | Hours of instruction |
|---|---|
| Life | 20 |
| Accident & Health | 20 |
| Life, Accident & Health (this license) | 40 |
| Personal Lines | 40 |
| Property & Casualty | 90 |
| Life Settlement Broker | 20 |
| Public Adjuster | 40 |
| Excess Line Broker | None |
About the 96- and 43-hour figures you may have seen. Both circulate widely, and both come from adding the review and final-exam time in DFS's course-approval criteria to the classroom hours (90 + 3 + 3, and 40 + 1.5 + 1.5). Read the criteria table itself, though, and DFS's own minimum approvable course hours column says 90 and 40 - the same as the classroom column - with a note that the final-exam and review hours may be part of the classroom minimum rather than added to it. So 96 and 43 are somebody's arithmetic, not DFS's published totals. The requirement is 40 hours for this licence, 90 for P&C.
Formats. Classroom, webinar and DFS-approved internet self-study all count, and DFS is explicit that online courses are held to the same content and exam-security standards as classroom ones - so the delivery choice is genuinely yours. Every approved course ends in a proctored final exam requiring 70%, with identity verification and no notes; an online final is allowed up to three hours. That course final is not the state exam, and passing it is not passing anything except the course.
The designation route. Holding a CLU, CLUA, ChFC or MSFS waives the coursework and substitutes the shorter Series 17-73 Life & Health Laws and Regulations exam - but note the agent/broker split: ChFC and MSFS work only on the broker side, while CLU and CLUA carry across both. The Life guide sets out the whole waiver table, including the CPCU routes and the two consultant licenses that require no exam at all.
One honest gap. A question we get constantly is how long a New York prelicensing certificate stays good for. Some states expire them at a year; you will find claims online that New York's never expire. We could not find that stated on any DFS page, and we are not going to assert it. Treat the certificate as something to use promptly rather than bank, and ask your provider what DFS has told them.
Exam Day: What Actually Happens
Bring one ID, and make sure the name matches. The current bulletin describes a single primary government photo ID - a state driver's licence or ID card, US passport, US military ID, US Alien Registration Card, or Canadian government ID - valid, unexpired, and carrying your photo. (Older material describes a two-ID requirement with a second signature-bearing document; that is the previous rule.) The name you register under must be your legal first and last name exactly as it appears on that ID. A registration in a married name against a licence in a maiden name is a turned-away candidate and a forfeited fee.
Arrive at least 15 minutes early. PSI's language on lateness is blunt: arrive after your scheduled start and "you may not be admitted… and you will forfeit your examination registration fee." For a 2.5-hour exam that you have spent 40 classroom hours preparing for, budget the traffic.
The screening is more thorough than most candidates expect. Pockets are inspected and turned out. Sleeves and pant legs are inspected. Eyeglass frames and apparel are examined. The governing rule is that no prohibited item may be within your reach or line of sight - not merely unused, but not present.
What you cannot bring in: reference materials of any kind; all electronics - phones, cameras, tablets, earbuds, smartwatches, and calculators; hats or headgear other than religious apparel; bulky clothing including cardigans, scarves, vests, jackets and coats; backpacks, purses, notebooks, pens, pencils, food, drink and gum. Dress in layers you can keep on, because the vest you planned to remove is one you cannot wear in.
Anyone who drives you cannot wait for you. PSI's rule is that people accompanying a candidate "may not wait in the examination center, inside the building or on the building's property." Plan the pickup accordingly.
Breaks and scratch paper. At a test centre you may use the restroom with proctor approval, but you get no additional time - the clock runs. Scratch paper is provided and collected when you check out. If you test remotely, there are no breaks at all and no scratch paper; the Accident & Health guide covers the remote rules in full.
Rescheduling: two days, through a human. You can cancel or reschedule without losing the fee only if notice reaches PSI at least two days before the appointment, and only through the website or by speaking to a live representative. Voicemail and email are expressly not acceptable - which is precisely how people lose $40 believing they cancelled. PSI's line is (855) 579-4637; the New York insurance mailbox is DFS@psionline.com, and it is for questions, not cancellations.
Afterwards, your score appears on screen immediately and a report follows by email. The Personal Lines guide covers what the diagnostic on a failed report tells you and how to use it.
What It Costs
$40 for the single combined exam and $80 for a two-year license: about $120 in unavoidable fees. No fingerprint cost - New York does not print producers - and no appointment fee.
Set against the single-line route, the saving is real: two separate licences would mean two $40 exams and two $80 applications for the same 40 hours of classroom time. The 40-hour course is the main expense either way, and it is the same 40 hours Personal Lines demands for one line of authority.
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum age 18, a completed 40-hour approved prelicensing course, a passing Series 17-55 result, and an application filed within two years of passing. Residents file at NY LINX; nonresident individuals use NIPR. There are no fingerprints and no citizenship requirement.
The character review runs on the application's disclosure questions - the Accident & Health guide explains why that carries more weight in a state with no fingerprint check behind it, and what to do about a conviction reached by 18 U.S.C. 1033/1034.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Fifteen credits every two years covering both lines together - New York does not stack the requirement per line. One hour must be insurance law, one ethics and professionalism, and one diversity, inclusion and the elimination of bias.
Your licence runs two years and expires on your birthday - in an even-numbered year if you were born in an even year, odd if odd. The renewal window opens 180 days before expiry. (Business entities run on fixed dates rather than birthdays, and the date depends on which side you are on: DFS's instructions give 30 June of odd-numbered years for a life/accident-and-health agent entity and 31 October of even-numbered years for a broker entity.)
Holding both lines does not double your continuing education. New York's requirement is fifteen credits for the licensee, not per line of authority - the only thing your lines change is which mandated topics sit inside the fifteen. As a Life and Accident & Health licensee you owe the three universal hours; a property/casualty licensee additionally owes a flood hour you do not.
Nothing is due on your first term. CE applies once the licence has been in effect more than two years, so your first renewal is administrative. And if you are a nonresident compliant in your home state, New York asks for nothing further by reciprocity. Selling annuities brings Regulation 187 training alongside CE - but as covered above, DFS sets no hour count for it and does not make it a licensing condition.
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