What This License Is
In most states, Life & Health is one licence earned in one sitting. In West Virginia it is two. Life and Accident and Health (or Sickness) are separate lines of authority examined by separate papers, and there is no combined Life & Health examination anywhere in the state's exam catalogue — the handbook's Available Exams list, the content outlines and the Commissioner's 2025 pass/fail report were all checked.
So the practical route is: 20 hours of pre-licensing for Life, 20 more for Accident and Sickness, two examinations at $84.00 each, one set of fingerprints, and one $50.00 application that can carry both lines. The application fee is charged per application rather than per line, which is the one place this route gets cheaper rather than more expensive.
Together the two lines cover life insurance, annuities, health and disability, Medicare supplement and long-term care — the full individual-market book. The Life guide covers the life policy provisions in detail and the Health guide covers the accident and sickness ones; this page covers what the two have in common, which is the exam-day process, the pre-licensing requirement, and what happens when an insurer fails.
Exam Options & Format
Two examinations, $84.00 each. InsWV-Life01 is 90 questions in 120 minutes; InsWV-AcSi02 is 90 questions in 120 minutes. There is no discount and no combined paper.
Each of those is itself in two parts — a General Knowledge part and a West Virginia Specific part — so a producer pursuing both lines is looking at four scored components. Each exam's two parts must both be passed within 12 months of the date its first part was passed, or that exam is retaken in full.
The content outlines effective June 16, 2026 give Life 50 scored plus 5 pretest general and 28 scored plus 6 pretest state; Accident and Health gets 50 plus 5 general and 30 plus 6 state.
The passing standard on both is a scaled score of 70 — the handbook states that the reported score is neither the number nor the percentage of questions answered correctly.
There is no order requirement. Many candidates take Life first because its pre-licensing course is the more familiar material, but the Commissioner's 2025 figures suggest the West Virginia Life paper is the harder of the two state parts, at 48% against 59% for Accident and Sickness.
Most Tested Topics Across Both West Virginia Papers
The facts below appear on both papers because they cut across life and health: what happens when an insurer fails, what happens when one policy replaces another, and what the state requires before you may recommend an annuity.
| Concept | The West Virginia rule |
|---|---|
| Guaranty cap, life death benefit | $300,000 in life insurance death benefits, but no more than $100,000 in net cash surrender and net cash withdrawal values — §33-26A-3(c)(2)(A)(i) |
| Guaranty tier, other health coverages | $100,000 "for coverages not defined as disability income insurance or health benefit plans or long-term care insurance" — §33-26A-3(c)(2)(A)(ii)(I) |
| Guaranty tier, disability income and long-term care | $300,000 for disability income insurance and $300,000 for long-term care insurance — §33-26A-3(c)(2)(A)(ii)(II) |
| Guaranty tier, health benefit plans | $500,000 — §33-26A-3(c)(2)(A)(ii)(III) |
| Guaranty cap, annuity present value | $250,000 in the present value of annuity benefits, including net cash surrender and net cash withdrawal values — §33-26A-3(c)(2)(A)(iii) |
| Guaranty aggregate, any one life | $300,000 — except where health benefit plan benefits are involved, in which case $500,000 — §33-26A-3(c)(2)(D)(i) |
| Advertising the guaranty association | Prohibited to "A person, including a member insurer, agent, or affiliate of a member insurer" — §33-26A-19(a). The class is any person; insurers, agents and affiliates are named only as an illustration |
| Replacement free look | 30 days from delivery, with an unconditional full refund of all premiums or considerations paid "including any policy fees or charges" — §114-8-6.1.d, and §33-11-5a(b)(2) |
| Replacement notice to the existing insurer | The replacing insurer must notify any other affected existing insurer within five (5) business days — §114-8-6.1.b |
| Replacement records retention | Replacement notifications retained by producer for at least five years, or until the next regular examination — §114-8-6.1.c |
| Credit for elapsed incontestability and suicide periods | Given where the replacing and existing insurer are the same or affiliates — §114-8-6.2 |
| Annuity best interest, four obligations | Care, disclosure, conflict of interest and documentation — §114-11B-5.1.1 through 5.1.4. The producer "shall act in the best interest of the consumer under the circumstances known at the time the recommendation is made, without placing the producer's or the insurer's financial interest ahead of the consumer's interest" |
| Annuity producer training | A one-time four-hour continuing education annuity training course for producers who sell, solicit or negotiate annuities — Rule §114-11B-6 |
| Continuing education headline | 24 hours per biennial compliance period, three of them ethics |
Four health tiers, and an aggregate with an exception. The single most common error on West Virginia guaranty questions is treating health as one number. It is four: $100,000 for coverages that are not disability income, health benefit plans or long-term care; $300,000 for disability income; $300,000 for long-term care; and $500,000 for health benefit plans. And the aggregate per one life is not a flat $300,000 — subsection (D)(i) raises it to $500,000 where health benefit plan benefits are involved. A question that gives you a claimant with both a life policy and a major medical plan is testing the exception, not the rule.
Two free looks, two triggers. The ordinary free look is 10 days from receipt under §33-6-11b. The replacement free look is 30 days from delivery under §114-8-6.1.d. Different length, different trigger, different instrument — and a replacement sale gets the longer one. Pair that with §114-8-6.1.b's five-business-day notice to the existing insurer and you have the two numbers replacement questions turn on.
West Virginia Pre-licensing Education
West Virginia still requires coursework before you may sit the exam, and it enforces the requirement with an unusual piece of paper.
Twenty hours per line of authority. The OIC's "Apply for a License" document states it as "20 hours per line of authority; i.e. Life, Accident & Sickness (Health), Property, Casualty, Personal Lines." The figure is per line — pursuing both Life and Accident and Sickness means completing the requirement for each. Neither OIC document that states the rule prints a combined total, so add the lines you are actually taking rather than trusting a figure from a study site.
It has not been repealed. Several states have dropped their pre-licensing requirements recently and left their own websites stale for months afterwards. West Virginia has not. Insurance Bulletin 26-02, "Summary of 2026 Legislation," issued April 8, 2026, summarises all ten insurance bills of the 2026 regular session, and none touches pre-licensing education, examinations, continuing education or licence fees. The only producer-licensing item in the session extended the sunset on the fingerprinting rule.
The certificate, and the paper rule. On completion you receive a Certificate of Pre-licensing Course Completion or the PL 789E. The handbook requires candidates taking an exam that needs one to bring a paper copy to the test center, and the licence application then requires the original. The provider packet notes that certificates require original signatures for submission to testing centers. This is a state that wants ink, and the requirement is enforced at the door after the exam fee is already spent.
How long it lasts — and a conflict worth knowing about. The June 2026 handbook says "(Course completion certificates are valid for six (6) months.)" The OIC's own "Adding a Line of Authority" document says pre-licensing certificates are valid for 120 days. Both are current Commissioner-published documents and they do not agree. Work to the shorter figure and you are safe under either reading: schedule the exam well inside four months of finishing the course. If your certificate expires you retake the course, not just the exam.
Who is exempt from the coursework. Surplus Lines applicants, Adjusters and Bail Bonds applicants are not required to complete pre-licensing education. That is an exemption by licence type, and it is a different list from the professional-designation exam waivers — a designation waives the exam, not the course. The Health guide owns both lists and sets them side by side.
Finding an approved course. The OIC's live links for approved courses, the pre-licensing school list, transcript printing and provider lookup all point to Sircon. Several older Commissioner documents, including the October 2020 provider packet and the annuity and long-term care education notices, name Prometric as the state's education administrator. The live links are the better guide; if a provider tells you to file through Prometric, verify with the Licensing Division first.
For providers. Registration runs through Sircon Compliance Express with no registration fee, and a school approval application is required before offering courses. Course approval runs two years, renewal is $40 per course per biennium, and the maximum approval period is six years. Applications are due 60 days before initial presentation, with expedited three-business-day review for an additional $50. Instructors qualify on professional designations — CPCU, CLU, ChFC, FLMI — or equivalent industry experience.
Exam Day at a West Virginia Test Center
Arrive 30 minutes before your examination. That is the handbook's instruction, and it is not padding — check-in, identification and security all happen inside it.
Bring two forms of identification. West Virginia asks for two, and they have different jobs. The primary must be government-issued, photo-bearing and signed — a driver's licence, passport, military ID or state picture ID. The secondary need only contain a valid signature: a Social Security card, a debit or credit card, or any second document from the primary list. Arriving with one ID is the single most common way candidates lose a sitting, and there is no discretion at the desk.
Bring the paper certificate. Candidates taking an exam that requires a certificate of course completion or the PL 789E must bring a paper copy to the test center. Not a photo of it, not a PDF on a phone, not a confirmation email.
Leave everything else. No personal items are allowed in the testing room. The handbook's prohibited list runs: cellular phones, hand-held computers or other electronic devices, pagers, watches, wallets, purses, firearms or other weapons, hats, bags, coats, books, notes, pens and pencils. Watches are on that list — plan to read the clock on the screen. The handbook states no calculator policy either way, so do not assume you may bring one; ask when you schedule.
Breaks do not stop the clock. Most sponsors allow unscheduled breaks, and candidates must leave the testing room for all breaks — but the exam timer keeps running. On a 120-minute paper that is a real trade.
Lateness and no-shows. Walk-in examinations are not available, and reservations must be made at least 24 hours ahead. To change or cancel, call Pearson VUE at (800) 274-2614 at least 48 hours before the exam; with proper notice the fee transfers to a new reservation or is refunded, and without it you forfeit the entire $84.00. The handbook carries its own Absence/Lateness policy and a separate Weather Delays and Cancellations section — worth reading in a state where a winter drive across the mountains is a genuine variable.
Accommodations. Testing accommodations are arranged in advance through Pearson VUE's West Virginia accommodations process, not at the center. English as a Second Language requests use a separate form printed at the back of the candidate handbook. Both need lead time; neither can be sorted out on the day.
When you finish. You leave with your official score in hand. Keep the original passing score report — it is a required attachment to the paper licence application. The Personal Lines guide covers scoring, the scaled 70 and retakes.
What It Costs
Because West Virginia has no combined paper, this route carries two exam fees: $84.00 for InsWV-Life01 and $84.00 for InsWV-AcSi02. Add $47.25 for fingerprinting and $50.00 for the application — which covers both lines, since the fee is charged per application rather than per line — and the fixed cost is about $265.25 on a first-time pass through both papers.
On top of that sit 40 hours of pre-licensing coursework, priced by the provider, and NIPR's transaction fee.
Every retake is another $84.00 against a statutory ceiling of seven additional attempts. Given the Commissioner's 2025 figures — 48% on the West Virginia Life paper and 59% on Accident and Sickness — budgeting for one retake somewhere in the sequence is realistic rather than pessimistic.
Eligibility Requirements
The candidate handbook sets five requirements: be a resident of West Virginia; be eighteen (18) years of age or older; satisfy the Insurance Commissioner that you are trustworthy and competent; take the examinations administered by Pearson VUE; and — the item most study material still gets wrong — sponsorship by an insurance company is no longer required on the application.
A criminal conviction is not an automatic bar. The OIC's Resident Producer FAQ addresses it directly, and the Commissioner maintains a 1033 Information set — 1033 Procedures, 1033 FAQs and a 1033 Short Form Application — with a $100.00 waiver fee on the published schedule. Federal law (18 U.S.C. 1033) bars anyone convicted of a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust from working in insurance without written consent, and the 1033 waiver is how that consent is obtained here.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Twenty-four hours per biennial compliance period, three of them ethics. Up to six hours over the minimum carry into the next biennium, but ethics hours carry forward as general credit only — three fresh ethics hours are due every cycle. Providers have 30 days to file your credits, and the Commissioner warns that courses taken less than 30 days before expiration may not post in time to renew.
24 hours per biennial compliance period, three of them ethics. That is the headline figure, and holding both Life and Accident and Health does not double it — 24 hours covers all the lines you hold.
Both lines carry product-specific training on top. Annuities require a one-time four-hour annuity training course under Rule §114-11B-6 before you sell, solicit or negotiate them, and West Virginia has adopted the NAIC best-interest standard: §114-11B-5.1 requires the producer to act in the consumer's best interest without placing the producer's or insurer's financial interest ahead of the consumer's, with four obligations — care, disclosure, conflict of interest and documentation. Long-term care requires an initial course of not less than eight hours before you sell the product and not less than four hours in each biennium after, under §33-12-8a.
The Property & Casualty guide covers the renewal mechanics — the carryover rule, the 30-day posting trap, the late-renewal ladder and the reinstatement charge.
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Official Links
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