What This License Is
The Pennsylvania Life Insurance and Annuities line of authority lets you sell life insurance and fixed annuities. It is issued by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID), one of the oldest insurance regulators in the country, under a Commissioner appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. Producer licensing sits in the Insurance Department Act at 40 P.S. 310.1 et seq., with regulations in Title 31 of the Pennsylvania Code.
The line's name does the work: annuities are inside it. Fixed and indexed annuities need nothing further, though you will need a 4-credit best-interest training course under Act 99 of 2021 before you actually sell one. Variable life and variable annuities are securities and need the Life line plus FINRA registration on top.
The headline change is what is no longer here. Until 29 April 2025 Pennsylvania required 24 credit hours of preexamination education before you could sit. Act 142 of 2024 deleted that requirement outright - not reduced it, deleted it - along with the study certificate that used to accompany the exam application. Nothing replaced it. The examination is now the only knowledge gate between you and a licence.
That makes the decision about which exam to take more consequential than it used to be, because the coursework is no longer the thing you are economising on. The comparison is below.
Exam Options & Format
The Life exam is Series 16-01: 100 scored questions in 2 hours, at $45 an attempt. PSI adds "a small number (5 to 10) of 'experimental' questions" that are not scored - and note the bulletin's wording that "sufficient time to answer them is included in the examination time," which is a polite way of saying you get no extra minutes for them.
The pass mark is stated plainly: "In order to pass the examination, you must achieve a minimum score of 70%." PSI's Pennsylvania materials contain no scaled-score language, no equating language and no conversion table - so plan against 70 of the 100 scored items. (Strictly, the bulletin states the standard without saying whether any scaling sits behind it; what it publishes is a percentage.)
The combined route is where the money is. Pennsylvania offers a single Life, Accident & Health exam (Series 16-03): 150 scored questions in 2 hours 50 minutes for $55. One sitting, both lines. Taking Life and Accident & Health separately means two exams at $45 apiece - $90 - so the combined exam is $35 cheaper and one fewer trip, for both lines instead of one.
That is a genuinely unusual bargain. Plenty of states make you sit two exams for two lines with no discount at all. Pennsylvania gives you a real one, and with pre-licensing gone there is no longer a coursework penalty for the broader licence either.
There is no cap on attempts, and no fixed waiting period - but you cannot rebook on the day you tested. PSI's own worked example is a candidate who "tests unsuccessfully on a Wednesday can call the next day, Thursday, and retest as soon as Friday, depending upon space availability." So about two days in practice, and another $45 each time.
Most Tested Topics on the Pennsylvania Life Exam
Most of Pennsylvania's life provisions track the NAIC model closely, which is good news - it means the state-law points cluster in a small number of places where Pennsylvania picked a different number. Those places are worth memorising precisely:
| Concept | The Pennsylvania rule |
|---|---|
| Incontestability, individual life | 2 years - the policy is incontestable once it has been in force for two years during the insured's lifetime, except for nonpayment of premium (40 P.S. 510(c)) |
| Grace period, individual life | 30 days (one month), during which the policy stays in force - and the insurer may charge up to 8% annual interest on the overdue premium (40 P.S. 510(b)) |
| Reinstatement window | Within 3 years of the date of default, with proof of insurability and payment of overdue premiums with interest (40 P.S. 510(k)) |
| Reinstatement interest ceiling | Overdue premiums bear interest at a rate not exceeding 8% a year - note this is the same 8% figure the grace period uses, which is unusual; many states set the two differently |
| Free look, new individual life policy | 10 days to return the policy for a full premium refund (40 P.S. 510c(a)(1)) |
| Free look, new annuity contract | 10 days for a fixed or variable annuity (40 P.S. 510d(a)(1)) |
| Free look on a replacement, by replacing insurer | Two different numbers, and which applies depends on whose policy is being replaced: 45 days where the new policy replaces one issued by the same insurer or insurer group, and 20 days where it replaces one from a different insurer |
| Required nonforfeiture options | Cash surrender value, reduced paid-up insurance, extended term insurance, under Pennsylvania's Standard Nonforfeiture Law (40 P.S. 510.1) |
| Viatical settlements | Regulated under the Viatical Settlements Act (40 P.S. 626.1 et seq.); providers and brokers must be licensed |
| Viator's rescission | An unconditional right to rescind within 30 days of the contract date and at least 15 calendar days from receipt of the proceeds - and if the insured dies during the rescission period the contract "shall be deemed to have been rescinded" (40 P.S. 626.8(h); the 15-day figure also appears in the disclosure section at 626.7(a)(5)) |
| Annuity best interest | Adopted as Act 99 of 2021, effective 20 June 2022, with a producer duty of care and a one-time 4-credit training course |
The replacement free look is the single best question on this exam, and almost every summary gets it wrong by flattening it. Pennsylvania does not have a replacement free look - it has two, and the discriminator is not the product or the premium but whether the replacing insurer is the same one that issued the old policy. Same insurer or insurer group: 45 days. Different insurer: 20 days. If a stem tells you the agent moved a client from one company to another, that detail is the question.
The counter-intuitive part is which way round the numbers run. You might expect an internal replacement - same carrier, same paperwork - to get the shorter window and an external one the longer. Pennsylvania does the opposite, and gives the same-insurer replacement more than twice the review period.
The 8% figure is the second thing to hold onto, because Pennsylvania uses it twice. It caps the interest an insurer may charge on an overdue premium during the 30-day grace period, and it caps the interest on overdue premiums at reinstatement. Candidates who memorised "6%" from a generic outline - the figure several other states use - will be wrong on both.
Applying for Your License - Every Step
Pennsylvania runs the sequence in an order that catches people out, and getting it wrong costs real money. Pass the exam, then apply, then get fingerprinted. Not the other way round.
Step 1 - Pass Series 16-01. The statute is explicit that the exam comes first: "Prior to applying to the department for an insurance producer license, an individual shall pass an insurance producer licensing examination required for the lines of authority for which a candidate desires a license." Your passing result is good for one year, and that is your deadline to file.
Step 2 - Apply immediately, ideally before you leave the building. PSI's bulletin directs you to "use the kiosk at the PSI test site to complete your license application online at www.sircon.com/pennsylvania or www.nipr.com," adding "or you may apply using your own computer." The kiosk exists precisely because the fingerprint step is gated on the application, and every day you delay is a day of dead time.
Step 3 - Choose Sircon or NIPR. Both work; Pennsylvania uses both, and the Department maintains CE transcripts through Sircon specifically. The fee is $55 for a resident individual producer licence, or $110 for a nonresident. Adding a further line of authority to an existing licence typically runs $25.
Step 4 - Now book the fingerprints, and not before. This is the step with the trap. The bulletin's warning is unambiguous: "individuals should not register for a fingerprinting appointment and submit their fingerprints until after they have passed any examination requirements and applied for licensure," because "any fingerprint results received without a corresponding license application will be destroyed, and individuals will be required to repay the fingerprinting fee and resubmit their fingerprints at an IdentoGO center." Register at IdentoGO under Insurance Department service code 1KGBGJ. The Casualty guide walks the process through step by step.
Step 5 - Answer the questions truthfully. PSI's bulletin puts it bluntly: "Applications that are found to contain inaccurate or untruthful responses may be denied." If you have a criminal history, PID runs an optional Pre-Licensing Program that pre-screens it and tells you how your circumstances are likely to be treated - worth using before you spend $45 on an exam. Do not confuse that programme with pre-licensing education; despite the name it is a criminal-record review, and the education requirement no longer exists.
What the statute actually asks of you is shorter than most summaries suggest. 40 P.S. 310.6(a) requires that the applicant has reached 18, has not committed a prohibited act, has passed or is exempt from the examination, and "possesses the general fitness, competence and reliability sufficient to satisfy the department that the applicant is worthy of licensure." There is no statutory Pennsylvania-residence requirement and no read-and-write-English requirement in that section - both circulate widely and neither appears in the statute. (Paragraph (3), the old education condition, was deleted by Act 142.)
What It Costs
The published fees come to about $100: $45 to PSI for the exam and $55 to the Department with a resident application. On top of that sits the IdentoGO fingerprint fee.
We are not going to quote a fingerprint figure, because nobody publishes one. PID's licensing page and PSI's bulletin both describe the payment - made at the IdentoGO centre after your prints are taken, by credit card, debit card, certified check or money order only - without stating an amount, and IdentoGO's scheduling flow does not display it before you book. Expect a modest fee in the range other states charge for a state-and-FBI check, and confirm it when you register.
What is not on this list is the reason Pennsylvania is now cheap: there is no pre-licensing course to buy. In a 40-hour-course state the classroom is usually the largest single line item; here it is zero. Retakes are $45 apiece with no attempt limit, and exam fees are "NOT REFUNDABLE OR TRANSFERABLE."
Eligibility Requirements
Be 18 or older, commit no prohibited act, pass Series 16-01 (or hold a designation that waives it), and satisfy the Department that you possess "the general fitness, competence and reliability" to be licensed. That is the statutory list at 40 P.S. 310.6(a), and it is shorter than the versions you will find elsewhere.
A designation can skip the exam entirely. 40 P.S. 310.4(d) exempts holders of the CLU from the life and accident-and-health examinations, the CPCU from property, casualty and accident-and-health, and the CIC from life, accident-and-health and property-and-casualty - along with anyone already licensed for those lines in another state. ChFC is not on the list. The Life & Health guide sets out the full waiver table, and it is worth reading before you register for anything, because with pre-licensing repealed the exam is the entire remaining requirement.
Fingerprinting applies to initial resident applicants. Nonresidents, people merely adding a line of authority to an existing licence, surplus lines applicants and motor vehicle appraisers are not fingerprinted.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Twenty-four credits every two years, at least three of them ethics. Transcripts are maintained through Sircon.
Your licence runs two years and expires on the last day of your birth month. Each cycle needs 24 credit hours, of which at least three must be ethics - a requirement Act 142 of 2024 added at the same moment it repealed pre-licensing, effective 29 April 2025.
That pairing is worth noticing, because it tells you what the legislature actually did: it moved Pennsylvania's mandatory education from the front of a producer's career to the middle of it. You no longer sit 24 hours of coursework before your first sale; you sit 24 hours every two years for as long as you hold the licence, and three of them are now ethics.
Carryover is unusually generous. The statute permits a licensee to "carry forward excess continuing education credit hours up to a maximum of 24 credit hours from one licensing period to the next" - a full cycle's worth, where many states cap carryover at a handful of hours or forbid it entirely.
Two product-specific trainings sit alongside CE for a life producer. Annuities require the one-time 4-credit best-interest course under Act 99 of 2021. Long-term care - if you add health authority and sell it - requires 8 hours initially and at least 4 hours in every subsequent 24-month cycle under 31 Pa. Code 39a.9, with Partnership sellers including a 1-hour Medicaid course inside the initial eight.
The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal, the late-renewal tiers and what happens when a licence lapses - and Pennsylvania's answer there has a sharp edge worth knowing in advance.
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