The North Dakota Life and Health Producer Licence
This is the licence a producer selling both life and health products in North Dakota holds — but it is not a licence you can sit one exam for. North Dakota offers no combined Life & Health examination. Life and Annuity is one 110-item paper; Accident and Health is another. Two sittings, two $64 fees, $128 in exam costs.
What you are not charged twice for is more interesting. NDCC 26.1-01-07 sets the licence fee at $100 per licence, and lines of authority ride on that single licence. And the fingerprint check is a once-in-a-career event: the Department states that a resident producer "adding a line of authority to an existing license" is not re-fingerprinted. So the second line costs an exam fee and nothing else.
That makes the order genuinely strategic. You can take both exams and request both lines on one application, or take one, get licensed, and add the second later for the price of its exam. The second route gets you earning sooner; the first gets it all done inside one one-year window.
Eligibility is short: 18 years old, pass the exams, one fingerprint check, file at NIPR within one year of passing. No pre-licensing course. And since April 24, 2026 there is no remote testing option — both papers are sat in person.
This guide owns two things: what actually happens at the test centre, and North Dakota's temporary licence, which matters more in an agency than most producers realise.
Two Exams, No Shortcut
| Exam | Scored items | Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Life and Annuity (Product and Laws) | 110 | 150 min | $64 |
| Accident and Health (Product and Laws) | 110 | 150 min | $64 |
| Property (Product and Laws) | 110 | 150 min | $64 |
| Casualty (Product and Laws) | 110 | 150 min | $64 |
| Personal Lines | 110 | 150 min | $58 |
There is no row here for a combined paper, and that is the point. In a state with a Life & Health exam you would sit roughly 150 items once. North Dakota asks for 220 scored items across two appointments and charges for both. It is worth knowing before you plan a timeline, because it is two trips to a test centre rather than one.
Each paper is 110 scored items in 150 minutes — about 82 seconds an item — and PSI's content outlines break that into 40 state-specific items and 70 general items. That 36% state weighting applies to both papers independently, so you are learning two bodies of North Dakota law, not one.
PSI adds 5 to 10 unscored experimental questions to each. The 70% pass mark applies to the 110 scored items on each paper separately — 77 correct. Passing one does not carry to the other.
On sequencing. Nothing in the rules requires an order, but the one-year clock argues for taking them close together: each passing score is valid for one year and the licence application must reach the Department inside that window. Passing Life in March and Health in November leaves the Life result with four months left on it.
Most Tested Topics Across the North Dakota Life and Health Exams
Sitting both papers means holding two sets of North Dakota numbers that look similar and are not. The state put life in chapter 26.1-33 and health in 26.1-36, wrote them at different times, and made no attempt to harmonise them — so the same concept carries different figures depending which product is in front of you. From the TESTivity North Dakota regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Concept | The North Dakota rule |
|---|---|
| The free-look spread | Four products, three numbers, and no page shows them together: individual life 20 days (NDCC 26.1-33-02.1) · individual accident and health 10 days (NDCC 26.1-36-02.1) · Medicare supplement 30 days (NDAC 45-06-01.1-14(1)(e)) · long-term care 30 days (NDCC 26.1-45-09). Life gets double what health gets (multiple) |
| L&H guaranty, the full schedule | $300,000 life death benefits · $100,000 net cash surrender and withdrawal values · $250,000 present value of annuity benefits · $500,000 health benefit plans · $300,000 disability income · $300,000 long-term care · $100,000 other health · aggregate $300,000 per life, rising to $500,000 where a health benefit plan is involved (NDCC 26.1-38.1-01(4)(b)) |
| Which guaranty chapter is live | NDCC ch. 26.1-38.1. The predecessor chapter, NDCC 26.1-38, is REPEALED — and North Dakota's code repeals cleanly, unlike states that leave superseded guaranty acts printed in the book. Cite 26.1-38.1 (NDCC ch. 26.1-38.1) |
| Guaranty association as a sales inducement | Prohibited. Using the existence of the association to sell, solicit or induce a purchase is barred (NDCC 26.1-38.1-16) |
| Suicide vs. all other restrictions | The same sentence gives one year for suicide and two years for every other restriction. Most states use two for both, so the trap is finding the familiar number attached to the wrong half of the provision (NDCC 26.1-33-05(12)) |
| Reinstatement, life | Three years from default. National material commonly teaches five (NDCC 26.1-33-05(8)) |
| Grace period, both lines | 31 days — and unusually, the same figure on both sides. Life is 31 flat, and accident and health is also a flat 31, because North Dakota did not adopt the NAIC tiering of 7 days weekly / 10 monthly. This is the one place the two chapters agree, and candidates who expect them to differ get it wrong (NDCC 26.1-33-05(2); 26.1-36-04(1)(e)) |
| Death claim payment | Within two months of receipt of proof, with reasonable interest accrued from the DATE OF DEATH — but only "so long as a proof of death is filed within one hundred eighty days after the date of the death." The back-dated interest is conditional, and the statute names no rate (NDCC 26.1-33-05(9)) |
| State continuation | 39 weeks, elected within 10 days of the later of termination or notice, outer cap 31 days, at not more than the group rate, and only for someone continuously insured for the 3 months before termination (NDCC 26.1-36-23) |
| Annuity training | A one-time four-hour course before selling annuities — a training requirement, not CE, not tracked by the Department (NDCC 26.1-34.2-03.1) |
| Long-term care training | No hour count in statute or rule — NDCC ch. 26.1-45 has no producer training section and NDAC 45-06-05.1 puts the duty on the insurer, so the NAIC model's 8-plus-4 is not codified here. But North Dakota participates in the federal Long-Term Care Partnership programme and the Department has issued bulletins on producer training for Partnership-qualified policies, directing producers to their carrier. Ask the carrier rather than assuming none (NDCC ch. 26.1-45; NDAC 45-06-05.1; NDID Partnership training guidance) |
| CE, the headline numbers | 24 hours per two years, 3 of them ethics, with up to 12 excess hours carried forward or backward. Undifferentiated by line — holding both lines does not double it (NDCC 26.1-26-31.1) |
The free-look spread is the highest-yield cluster for a dual-line producer, precisely because you sell all four products from the same desk and the numbers live in four different instruments. Twenty for life. Ten for health. Thirty for Medicare supplement and thirty for long-term care. If you remember one thing from this table, remember that health is the short one — which is counter-intuitive, since health policies are the ones a consumer is most likely to want to reconsider.
The guaranty aggregate is second, and the detail candidates skip is that it is neither the largest single cap nor the sum of them: $300,000 per life, except $500,000 where a health benefit plan is in the picture. An item describing someone who held both a life policy and major medical with the same failed insurer is testing that exception.
Third, note the one place the two chapters agree — the 31-day grace period. Having spent this whole table on divergences, it is easy to assume the grace periods must differ too. They do not. Life is 31 and health is 31, and health's 31 is itself a deviation from the NAIC model that would have made it vary by premium mode.
What Actually Happens at the North Dakota Test Centre
Since April 24, 2026 there is no remote option in North Dakota, so both of your papers are sat in a room. And because this licence needs two exams, you will do this twice — worth getting right the first time.
Arrive 30 minutes early. PSI's instruction is plain: "You should arrive 30 minutes before your appointment." That half hour is check-in, identification and seating, not slack. Three of the six North Dakota centres are on university or college campuses — Grand Forks, Minot and Williston — where parking and building access take longer than a commercial site. The Property guide lists all six with addresses.
Bring one piece of identification, and check it the week before. North Dakota requires one form: current and unexpired, government issued, and carrying your name, signature and photograph. Accepted forms include a driver's licence, a state or national identification card, a passport or passport card, a military ID, and an alien registration or green card. A plastic learner's permit counts only if it carries both photo and signature.
The signature requirement is the one that trips people. Some non-driver state ID cards are issued without a signature panel, and a document missing one will not seat you. "No form of temporary identification will be accepted" — a paper interim licence issued while a replacement is in the post does not work.
What you cannot bring in. Reference material of any kind, scratch paper, pens and pencils, phones, cameras, laptops, tablets, watches, calculators, headgear other than religious, bulky clothing, backpacks, food, drink, wallets and reading material. Note scratch paper and writing implements are on that list — the centre supplies whatever it permits — and note watches, which candidates forget they are wearing.
Pace, because 150 minutes is less than it sounds. 110 scored items plus up to 10 unscored means about 120 questions in 150 minutes — roughly 75 seconds each once the experimental items are counted. There is no reading time carved out and no break. Forty of your scored items are North Dakota law; those tend to be quicker to answer or not at all, so the general questions are where the clock actually goes.
When you finish, your score appears and a report follows. 70% passes — 77 of the 110 scored items — and North Dakota's 70 is a genuine percentage rather than a scaled score, so the arithmetic is exactly what it looks like. The Personal Lines guide covers results and retakes in full.
If you need to move an appointment, PSI's window is 2 days before the scheduled date, and "a voicemail or email message is not an acceptable form of cancellation." Do it on the website or by speaking to a representative. Inside the window, or as a no-show, the fee is forfeited — fees are "not refundable or transferable".
One errand worth combining. PSI centres roll fingerprints during regular testing hours, "on the day of examination" included. If you are making the trip anyway and this is your initial licence, bring a $40 check or money order payable to the North Dakota Attorney General and get it done in the same visit. The Casualty guide covers the detail.
North Dakota's Temporary Producer Licence
Most states use this slot for pre-licensing education. North Dakota requires none, which frees it for something an agency is far more likely to need in an emergency: the temporary licence at NDCC 26.1-26-26.
What it is. A licence issued without an examination, "for a period not to exceed one hundred eighty days." It is not a trainee permit and not a way to start selling while you study. It exists so that a book of business does not go unserviced when the person who serviced it cannot — which is why every ground for issuing one is somebody else's misfortune.
When the commissioner may issue one. The statute reaches the surviving spouse, next of kin, or employees of a producer who has died or become disabled, so the business can be wound up, sold or continued; the members or employees of a business entity licensee in comparable circumstances; the designee of a producer entering active service in the armed forces; and other circumstances where the commissioner considers the public interest served. That last ground is deliberately open — North Dakota did not close the list.
Why 180 days is tighter than it sounds for a life and health book. Six months is not long to sell an agency or transition a client list, and life and health business is the worst case: policies are long-dated, beneficiaries need servicing at unpredictable moments, and annuity holders have suitability paperwork that cannot simply wait. In practice the durable answer is usually that somebody in the agency gets licensed rather than that the temporary licence bridges the whole gap.
And in North Dakota that is a realistic plan, which is not true everywhere. There is no pre-licensing course to sit through, unlimited retakes with no waiting period beyond same-day, and a single fingerprint check that never repeats. A motivated employee can book a PSI seat, pass, and file at NIPR inside the 180 days — the binding constraint is test-centre availability, not regulatory delay. In a state with a 40-hour course requirement and a four-week background queue, that would not be true.
What a temporary licence does not do. It does not exempt anyone from appointment. NDCC 26.1-26-13.1 still requires the appointing insurer to file notice within 30 days of the later of the agency contract or the first application, and that filing is the carrier's obligation. Nor does the temporary licence waive the conduct rules: the prohibition on borrowing from a client (NDAC 45-02-02-14.1) and on writing excessive or unnecessary coverage (NDAC 45-02-02-14) apply to a temporary licensee exactly as they do to anyone else.
The better answer, when it is available. If the person stepping in is already licensed in another state, they may not need a temporary licence at all — NDCC 26.1-26-25(1) takes both prelicensing education and the examination off an applicant "who was previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state." The Property & Casualty guide walks that route and its limits.
What the North Dakota Licence Costs
North Dakota's entry cost is middling, and the shape of it is unusual: there is no course to buy, but there is a fingerprint fee, and the licence fee is charged per licence rather than per line — so the more lines you take, the better the arithmetic gets.
| Item | Cost | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
| Two exams, at $64 each | $128 | PSI |
| Pre-licensing education | $0 — not required | — |
| Fingerprint check | $40 | ND Attorney General (check or money order) |
| PSI fingerprint rolling, if used | $29 | PSI |
| Initial licence fee | $100 | ND Insurance Department, via NIPR |
| Running total | about $268 |
The $100 comes from NDCC 26.1-01-07: "For issuing an insurance producer's license, one hundred dollars." Lines of authority ride on that single licence, so a producer who sits Life and Annuity, Accident and Health, Property and Casualty pays four exam fees but still one $100 licence fee.
The $40 is not optional and not payable by card. It goes to the North Dakota Attorney General by check, cashier's check or money order — "STARTER CHECKS... CASH AND CREDIT/DEBIT CARDS ARE NOT VALID PAYMENT METHODS." The $29 is separate and only applies if you have PSI roll your prints at a test centre; go elsewhere and you skip it.
Exam fees are not refundable and not transferable, and each fee stays valid for one year from the date of payment. There is no retake discount — a failed attempt costs full price again.
The recurring cost is small. The biennial continuation is $25 under NDCC 26.1-01-07, plus whatever your CE courses cost. What is expensive is missing it: there is no late fee to pay, because there is no late renewal. A cancelled licence is replaced by a new application at $100.
The $128 in exam fees is the unavoidable cost of North Dakota having no combined paper. Everything else is single: one $100 licence fee, one $40 fingerprint check, one $25 biennial continuation, and one 24-hour CE requirement covering both lines.
Eligibility Requirements
North Dakota's bar is low and its paperwork is specific. You must be at least 18, pass the examination for each line you want, clear a fingerprint-based criminal history check, and file through NIPR within a year of passing.
No pre-licensing education. NDCC 26.1-26-13.2(1) requires only that a resident applicant "must pass a written examination unless exempt under section 26.1-26-25." There is no coursework condition anywhere in the chapter, and the Department confirms applicants "will not have to provide verification of study." North Dakota is one of the states where the exam is the whole gate.
Fingerprints, but only once. Every applicant for an initial resident producer licence submits fingerprints for a state and national check through the ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the FBI. The Department is explicit that this does not repeat: "Resident producers adding a line of authority to an existing license are not required to be fingerprinted after passing the exams." Nor is it repeated at renewal. The Casualty guide walks the process step by step.
The background review beyond the prints runs through the Uniform Application's disclosure questions. A "yes" answer obliges you to attach a written explanation and the underlying court or regulatory documents. The Health guide covers what triggers disclosure and how the Department reads it.
Grounds to refuse or revoke are enumerated at NDCC 26.1-26-42, and the one worth naming here is 26.1-26-42(10): "An improper withholding of, misappropriating of, or converting to one's own use any moneys belonging to policyholders, insurers, beneficiaries, or others received in the course of one's insurance business." North Dakota has no express premium-trust-account rule, so that misappropriation ground is doing the work a fiduciary regulation does in most states.
Two conduct rules in the administrative code have no national counterpart and apply from your first day licensed: a producer may not borrow money from a client (NDAC 45-02-02-14.1), and may not knowingly write excessive or unnecessary coverage (NDAC 45-02-02-14).
Keeping the North Dakota Life and Health Licence
Important CE details: 24 hours per two-year cycle, 3 of them ethics. Up to 12 excess hours carry over in either direction — forward to the next year or back to the preceding one. Providers have 15 days to file your credits, so a course taken in the final fortnight may not post in time. Miss the continuation and there is no grace period and no reinstatement: the licence is cancelled and you reapply as a new applicant for $100.
North Dakota does something almost no other state does: it issues a licence with no term at all. NDCC 26.1-26-31 is titled "Term of license" and then declines to give one — "A license issued under this chapter continues in force in perpetuity unless" one of eight conditions fails. The licence does not expire. It gets cancelled.
The conditions that end it include suspension or revocation, the licensee's death or an entity's dissolution, loss of residency, failure to meet continuing education, and failure to file the biennial continuation and pay its fee. Those last two are the ones a working producer actually has to manage.
The biennial continuation — NDCC 26.1-26-13.4 and NDAC 45-02-02-05.1. You file a continuation and pay $25, due "on or before the last day of the month of the licensee's birthday following the two-year anniversary of the issuance of a license." The commissioner must give at least 60 days' notice of the deadline, and the renewal window opens about 90 days before.
The CE requirement — NDCC 26.1-26-31.1. "Continuing education of not less than twenty-four hours of approved coursework, of which three hours must be in ethics", per two-year cycle. There is no line-specific allocation: 24 hours covers you whether you hold one line or five.
The carryover rule is genuinely unusual and worth exploiting. Excess hours — up to 12 — "may be credited to the year next preceding the year in which they were earned or to the year next following." Carryover that runs backwards as well as forwards is rare. A producer who over-studies in one year can apply the surplus to the year just gone as well as the year ahead.
Reporting has a fifteen-day tail that catches people. CE providers have 15 days to file your credits with the Department. A course completed inside the last fortnight before your deadline may not post in time, and the Department judges you on what is on file. Finish early enough that the provider's filing window closes before yours does.
Exemptions are narrow. Producers licensed exclusively for title, travel and baggage, surety, bail bonds, legal expense or credit insurance are exempt (NDAC 45-02-04-09.3), though they still file the continuation. The commissioner may grant an extension of up to one year (NDAC 45-02-04-08). And there is a grandfathered senior exemption frozen in time: no CE is required of a producer who, "as of January 1, 2010, is at least sixty-two years of age" and whose combined years of continuous licensure and years of age equal 85. It is a snapshot of that single date — it does not roll forward to anyone who reaches those numbers later.
And then the part that costs real money: there is no grace period and no reinstatement. The Department's own wording is blunt: "There is no grace period after the due date. If not renewed before the expiration date, your license and appointments will be canceled and you will have to reapply with an initial application and $100 fee." Your appointments go with it. The administrative rule that once carried a lapse procedure, NDAC 45-02-02-07.1, was repealed effective December 1, 2001 — do not rely on any summary that still cites it.
Annuity training is separate from CE. Selling annuities requires a one-time four-hour training course under NDCC 26.1-34.2-03.1. It is a training requirement, not a CE requirement, the Department does not track completions — carriers verify — and it reciprocates with substantially similar training completed in another state.
Long-term care is different, and this is where national material misleads. North Dakota's statutes and rules set no producer training hour count for LTC: NDCC ch. 26.1-45 contains no producer training section, and NDAC 45-06-05.1 puts the obligation on the insurer to establish agent training requirements. So the familiar 8-hour initial plus 4-hour recurring figure — the NAIC model regulation — is not codified here. Do not read that as "no training at all", though: North Dakota participates in the federal Long-Term Care Partnership programme, and the Department has issued bulletins on producer training for Partnership-qualified policies. The Department's own guidance is to "contact their company for long-term care partnership training requirements." Ask your carrier.
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