What This License Is
A Utah Life and Accident & Health license is not a single line of authority — it is two, the life line and the accident and health line, earned together by passing one combined exam. Both are enumerated separately at §31A-23a-106, and Utah's statutory name for the second is accident and health, never "health" and never "accident and health or sickness."
It is the highest-volume producer license in the state for the obvious reason: it covers the whole individual-and-group market a career agent works in — term and permanent life, fixed annuities, disability income, medical, dental, Medicare supplement, long-term care — from one sitting and one fee.
Two things it does not cover. Variable life and variable annuities need Utah's separate variable contracts line of authority plus FINRA qualification and Utah Division of Securities registration; the life line alone does not reach them. And annuity sales of any kind require a one-time four-credit best-interest training course under R590-230-5 before the first sale.
Exam Options & Format
Series 17-03: 150 questions, 2 hours 30 minutes, $44. The alternative is 17-01 Life (100 questions, 2 hours, $32) plus 17-02 Accident and Health (100 questions, 2 hours, $32) — $64 in fees, 200 questions, four hours of seat time across two appointments.
So the combined exam is cheaper, shorter in total, and finishes in one trip. What it is not is safer. The bulletin states the trade in one sentence: "The combined exam results in one final score. You must pass the complete exam to qualify for a license." There is no partial credit and no banking. A candidate who would comfortably clear 17-01 and narrowly fail 17-02 walks away from 17-03 with neither line and $44 spent.
The honest decision rule: take the combined exam if your practice scores are consistently comfortable on both halves. If one half is genuinely weak, the extra $20 buys two independent verdicts — and a failed single-line exam still leaves you holding the line you passed.
Five unscored experimental questions are seeded through the exam unidentified. The bulletin does not say whether they are inside the printed 150 or additional to it.
Most Tested Topics on the Utah Life, Accident and Health Exam
A combined exam draws state-specific content from both halves, and Utah's most distinctive material sits in the guaranty association limits — where Utah is more generous than the NAIC model — and in the replacement rules. From the TESTivity Utah regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Utah concept | The rule, and where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Guaranty association, life death benefit | $500,000 — where the NAIC model act uses $300,000 (§31A-28-103(8)(b)(i)(A)) |
| Guaranty association, life net cash surrender or withdrawal | $200,000 (§31A-28-103(8)(b)(i)(B)) |
| Guaranty association, health benefit plan | $500,000 — again above the model (§31A-28-103(8)(b)(iii)(A)) |
| Guaranty association, aggregate for any one life | $500,000 in the aggregate, so the categories do not stack (§31A-28-103(9)(a)) |
| Guaranty association, one owner of multiple nongroup life policies | $5,000,000 (§31A-28-103(9)(b)) |
| Guaranty association, unallocated governmental retirement plan annuities | $250,000 in present value, including net cash surrender and withdrawal values (§31A-28-103(8)(c)) |
| Guaranty association as a sales inducement | Prohibited — an insurer, agent or affiliate may not use the association's existence to advertise or solicit, and every policy carries a commissioner-approved summary with a conspicuous disclaimer (§31A-28-119) |
| Free look on a replacement policy | 30 days after delivery of the replacement policy, contract or certificate — triple the 10-day window a new sale carries (§31A-22-423) |
| Producer's replacement duties | Obtain the applicant's statement on existing coverage; present the approved replacement notice no later than at the time of taking the application, identifying each existing policy by insurer, insured or annuitant, and policy number; deliver all printed sales material by policy delivery (§31A-22-429) |
| Continuing education, headline requirement | 24 hours per two-year period, 3 of them ethics, at least 12 in classroom or classroom-equivalent (§31A-23a-202(3)(b)(i)) |
The guaranty rows are where Utah most reliably breaks a memorized national answer. Candidates arrive knowing the model act's $300,000 life death benefit; Utah's figure is $500,000, and the health benefit plan cap is $500,000 as well. The subtler point is the aggregate at (9)(a): $500,000 for any one life, across categories. A fact pattern that adds a $500,000 death benefit to a $200,000 cash surrender and asks for the association's exposure is testing whether you know the categories are ceilings within an aggregate rather than sums.
One caveat, stated plainly because the sources disagree. Utah's statute sets no separate dollar cap on general annuity benefits — §31A-28-103(8)(b)(ii) covers "the covered portion of each benefit provided under the contract" without naming a figure, leaving the $500,000 aggregate-per-life to govern. The $250,000 in the statute appears at (8)(c) and is specific to unallocated governmental retirement plan annuities. The Association's own consumer FAQ nonetheless describes annuities as capped at $250,000 per contract owner, citing an effective date that predates the statute's 2021 amendment. Learn the statutory structure, and treat any exam item that turns on a general annuity dollar figure as one to read very carefully.
The 30-day replacement free look is the other high-yield item. Utah's ordinary free look is 10 days for a new life policy or annuity; put the same product in a replacement transaction and the window triples. Pair that with §31A-22-429's timing rule — the replacement notice comes out not later than at the time of taking the application, not at delivery — and you have the two questions Utah is most likely to ask about replacement.
Exam Day: Check-In, ID and What Not to Bring
More Utah candidates lose an exam fee to the rules below than to anything on the exam itself. All of it is printed in the current bulletin.
Arrive 30 minutes early. The bulletin says you should arrive at least 30 minutes before the appointment, and then makes the consequence concrete: "If you miss your appointment or arrive more than 30 minutes late and are not allowed to test, you will forfeit your exam fee(s)." A 150-question combined exam is a two-and-a-half-hour appointment; build the buffer in.
Bring the right identification — and count it. Utah asks for one government-issued ID carrying both a current photo and a signature. If your ID does not have both, you need two: one with the photo, one with the signature. Acceptable forms are a driver's license, a state-issued ID card, a passport, or a military ID. The name must exactly match your exam registration, "including designations such as 'Jr.' and 'III'." If you registered as Robert and your license says Robert Jr., fix the registration before exam day, not at the counter.
No calculators. At all. The bulletin's language is flat: "No calculators are allowed on these exams." Not a permitted basic model, not one provided on screen as a matter of course — none. Practice the premium-mode and prorating arithmetic on paper.
What stays in the locker. Outerwear, hats, food, drinks, purses, briefcases, notebooks, pagers, watches, cell phones, recording devices and photographic equipment. Weapons are not allowed at any Prometric test center. Large jewelry and eyeglasses are subject to inspection. Treat the ban as continuous rather than as a check-in gate: the prohibited-items list governs the whole appointment, so stepping out to check a phone mid-exam is a testing violation, not a stretch break.
Rescheduling and cancelling. Contact Prometric at least 24 hours before the appointment to move it. Cancel inside 24 hours or fail to appear and the fee is forfeited, exactly as with a late arrival.
If you need accommodations, start a month out. Submit a Testing Accommodation Request Form online or call (888) 226-9406, with documentation of the disability attached. The bulletin is specific: "Thirty days' advance notice is required for all testing arrangements." The bulletin's one published extension figure — time-and-one-half, 150% of the normal limit — is printed for its English-as-a-second-language accommodation, so treat it as an indication of what Utah grants rather than as a blanket ADA entitlement. On Series 17-03, 150% would be 3 hours 45 minutes; confirm your own approved allowance in writing.
Utah's Temporary License — and the Trustee Behind It
Utah issues temporary producer licenses under §31A-23a-114, and it is worth being clear at the outset about what they are not. This is not a work-while-you-study license, and it is not a bridge for someone waiting on a background check. Utah's temporary license exists to keep an existing book of business serviced when the producer who built it cannot.
The terms: the commissioner may issue a temporary individual or agency license "for a period not to exceed 180 days" and "without requiring an examination."
Who qualifies: the surviving spouse or personal representative of a licensee who has died or become disabled; a member or employee of a licensed agency on the death or disability of its designated individual; the designee of a licensed agency entering the armed forces; or, more broadly, any situation where the commissioner considers the public interest will best be served.
The trustee mechanism — the genuinely Utah part. On termination of a license, the commissioner may appoint a licensed trustee to serve the former licensee's insureds. The trustee must be competent and trustworthy, and is compensated out of the commissions on the former licensee's accounts, at a rate the commissioner sets.
Then comes the clause that makes the whole arrangement work, and it is the one worth remembering: it is "a breach of the trustee's fiduciary duty to capture the accounts of trustor's clients, either directly or indirectly." A trustee is a caretaker, not an acquirer. The commissioner may limit a temporary licensee's or a trustee's authority by order, and may revoke a temporary license outright if the interests of insureds or the public are endangered.
For a producer building a practice, the practical read is about succession rather than licensing: Utah has a statutory mechanism that keeps your clients served if something happens to you, and a statutory prohibition on the caretaker walking off with them.
What It Costs
$44 to Prometric for Series 17-03, $38 in fingerprint fees ($32 to the Department for FBI and BCI, $6 to Prometric to process the capture), and $70 to the Department for the individual full-line license — about $152 on a first-attempt pass, for two lines of authority and with no pre-licensing tuition in the total.
The single-line route to the same two lines is $64 in exam fees instead of $44 — the license fee is the same $70 either way, because Utah charges per license, not per line of authority earned on it.
Two figures to hold loosely. The Department's FY2027 Fee Schedule says $70 for a full-line individual license; Prometric's bulletin, current as of September 2025, still prints $75. And neither Sircon nor NIPR publishes its Utah transaction fee in advance. A retake of 17-03 is another $44.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be at least 18 — the application makes you attest to it (§31A-23a-104(2)(b)(iv)) — and hold a Social Security number. Utah requires no pre-licensing education for any line — there is no approved-provider list and no certificate to expire — and no sponsorship.
A producer relocating to Utah applies for the resident license within 90 days of establishing legal residence; inside that window §31A-23a-108 exempts them from examination on lines of authority they already hold. Active-duty military members and military spouses with a valid out-of-state license may be exempt from the license fee under §31A-23a-104(6).
Grounds for denial are at §31A-23a-111(5)(b), centering on fraud, dishonesty and breach of trust. Application fees are non-refundable if the application is denied or incomplete.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Holding two lines does not double anything: Utah scales its requirement to the licensee, not to the number of lines on the license. Annuity sellers add a separate one-time four-credit best-interest course under R590-230-5.
24 credit hours every two years, 3 of them ethics, at least 12 of them classroom or classroom-equivalent — and that is the whole requirement whether you hold one line or six. Utah does not scale CE with the number of lines, and it allocates nothing by line: beyond the ethics hours, "the remaining 21 hours can be in any line."
Life-side producers pick up one separate obligation. Under R590-230-5, selling annuities requires a one-time four-credit approved training course, completed before the first sale for anyone selling on or after July 1, 2024. It counts for at least four CE credits, and substantially similar training completed for another state satisfies Utah's version.
Renewal is on the last day of your birth month, every two years, and CE must be completed and posted by the provider before a renewal will process. The Property & Casualty guide walks the full renewal machinery — the carryover prohibition, the insurer-provided cap, the exemptions, and the one-year reinstatement window that does not reset your expiration date.
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