What This License Is
A North Carolina Life license lets you sell life insurance and annuity products to people and businesses in North Carolina. It is issued by the North Carolina Department of Insurance.
Licensing runs through the same process as every North Carolina producer line — the difference is the focused Life exam. Note that North Carolina requires 20 hours of pre-licensing education for this line before you can sit for the exam.
Exam Options & Format
The Life exam is Life Agent (Pearson VUE, two-part exam): 60 total (55 scored + 5 pretest) questions, 1 hr 15 min, $45 per attempt. Passing standard: 70 (scaled).
North Carolina does not offer a combined exam for these lines — each line of authority is its own exam, so producers who want both simply take both exams.
Pre-Licensing Education - 40 Hours for Full L&H
North Carolina requires 20 hours of approved pre-licensing education per line of authority. Because Life and Accident & Health are separate lines, full Life & Health authority means 40 hours total - 20 for Life and 20 for A&H.
Courses are delivered classroom, correspondence-workbook, or internet self-study by NCDOI-approved providers. The course content outline in the candidate handbook is the exam blueprint - every question is written from it.
Your exam authorization is valid for a limited window (commonly cited as 90 days or up to five attempts), so line up pre-licensing and your exam date close together.
TESTivity recommends [Achievable](https://app.achievable.me/study/insurance-life/purchase#a_aid=getthelicense) to satisfy your North Carolina pre-licensing requirement. Achievable is an approved provider, its insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, and completing the Achievable course earns you the certificate of completion North Carolina requires.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in North Carolina and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will absolutely help you pass the exam — but treat them as a supplement to your Achievable course, not a substitute for it.
Disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page.
Apply Through NIPR, Then Fingerprint
Complete your resident application and pay fees on NIPR (www.nipr.com) before you can schedule an exam. NIPR reserves your National Producer Number (NPN) and Pearson VUE emails your authorization to test with a 6-month eligibility window.
After applying, submit Live Scan electronic fingerprints within 30 days at a local law enforcement agency that offers the service - North Carolina does not use a private vendor like IdentoGO. Bring the SBI Electronic Fingerprint Submission Release form (printed from the NIPR email) and a photo ID; upload the certified pages to the NIPR Attachment Warehouse.
Once your exam result and SBI/FBI background check clear, NCDOI issues the license and you print it yourself through SBS Connect, usually 48-72 hours after the issuance email.
What the Life & Health License Costs
Plan on two exam fees (Life + A&H) at $45 each, a $50 registration fee per line of authority (so $100 for both Life and A&H), and a one-time $38 SBI/FBI criminal-check fee. NIPR adds a small transaction fee, and your local Live Scan site may charge a small fingerprinting fee at its discretion.
That puts state and exam costs at roughly $228 before your pre-licensing course (priced by the provider). There is no producer renewal fee in North Carolina.
North Carolina-Specific L&H Topics You'll Be Tested On
The NC State Supplement on both the Life and A&H exams pulls directly from Chapter 58 of the General Statutes. High-yield areas include the powers of the Commissioner of Insurance, the Unfair Trade Practices Act (twisting, churning, rebating, defamation, unfair discrimination), and the Insurance Information & Privacy Protection Act.
On the Life side, expect questions on the North Carolina Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association (Article 62), life insurance solicitation and replacement rules, the free-look period, fraternal benefit societies, and viatical settlements (G.S. 58-58-205).
On the A&H side, expect the nature-of-policies provisions (Article 51), group health continuation and conversion privileges (Article 53), mandatory vs. optional individual health provisions, and Medicare Supplement / Long-Term Care - which in NC is a separate license that requires the A&H license first.
Guaranty-association coverage in NC follows the NAIC model (roughly $300,000 life death benefit, $100,000 cash value, $250,000 annuity present value, and higher health figures), but the state-specific questions are fair game on both exams. The exam content outlines in the candidate handbook are your best guide to what NC-specific topics will be tested.
Keeping the License: Continuing Education
Resident producers complete 24 CE hours every two years, including 3 hours of ethics. Your compliance date falls on the last day of your birth month, in an odd or even year matching your birth year. North Carolina has no separate renewal application or renewal fee - meeting CE is what keeps the license active.
Excess CE hours carry over to the next cycle. Prometric administers CE for NCDOI. Miss the deadline and you have a 4-month grace window plus a reinstatement fee before the license goes inactive.
After You Pass
A license alone does not let you sell - you must be appointed by at least one insurer, and you can only sell the products of carriers that appoint you. Keep your mailing, residential, and email addresses current with NCDOI within 10 days of any change.
Most L&H producers add Medicare Supplement / Long-Term Care authority next (it builds on your A&H license), or cross over to Property & Casualty to serve households with both needs.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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