How to Get Your Arizona Life and Health Insurance License (2026 Guide)
To get an Arizona life and health insurance license you complete five steps: confirm you meet the basic requirements, study for the exam (Arizona requires no pre-licensing course), pass the PSI life and health exam with a score of 70 percent or higher, complete a fingerprint background check, and submit your application through NIPR. Most people finish in three to six weeks. The Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DIFI) issues and oversees the license. The life line lets you sell life insurance and annuities, and the health line covers medical, disability, and long-term care products. This guide walks through each step, the real costs, and the timeline.
What the Arizona life and health license covers
Arizona licenses producers by line of authority. The life line authorizes you to sell life insurance and annuities. The accident and health line (usually just called health) authorizes medical, disability income, long-term care, and similar products. Most new agents pursue both at once because the two markets overlap so heavily: the same client who needs term life often needs disability coverage, and the same small-business owner shopping group health may want key-person life insurance.
You can sit a combined life and health exam in one appointment, or take life-only or health-only if you have a narrower focus. The combined route is almost always the better value for someone building a full practice. If you also want to sell home and auto, that is a separate property and casualty line with its own exam, covered in our guide to becoming an Arizona insurance agent.
Step 1: Confirm you meet the basic requirements
The bar to start is low. You must be at least 18 years old and, for a resident license, live in Arizona. There is no degree requirement and no prior experience requirement. The one area that can trip people up is background history: certain criminal convictions, especially those involving fraud or breach of trust, can require additional review or disqualify an applicant under federal law. If you have anything in your history you are unsure about, contact DIFI before you spend money on the exam so you know where you stand.
Importantly, Arizona does not require a pre-licensing course. That is a genuine cost savings compared with states that mandate 40 or more classroom hours, but it is not a reason to walk into the exam cold.
Step 2: Study for the exam (no course required, but do not skip prep)
The "no required course" rule gets marketed as a shortcut. It is not. The exam still demands a 70 percent score, and candidates who skip preparation because the state does not force it are the ones who pay the exam fee twice.
The life and health material breaks into two buckets. The national content covers insurance fundamentals: policy types, riders, underwriting, taxation of benefits, and the basics of how life and health products work. The Arizona-specific content covers DIFI regulations, state statutes, licensing rules, and unfair trade practices. Candidates tend to over-study the national concepts and skim the state material, which is backwards, because the state section is compact and very learnable if you give it attention. A focused week or two with a strong question bank usually separates a first-attempt pass from an expensive retake. Our breakdown of how to pass the Arizona insurance exam goes deeper on study tactics.
Step 3: Pass the PSI life and health exam
This is the step where the most current information matters, because the logistics changed recently.
Who runs the exam now
PSI administers Arizona's insurance licensing exams. PSI replaced Pearson VUE as the state vendor in September 2025, so any guide still pointing you to Pearson VUE is out of date. You register and schedule through the PSI test-takers portal, and you can sit the exam at a PSI test center or online with remote proctoring.
What is on the exam
The combined life and health exam runs roughly 150 questions, with about 130 scored questions and a set of unscored pretest items mixed in that do not count toward your result. You need 70 percent of the scored questions correct to pass, and you have about two and a half hours. Arizona allows up to four attempts in a 12-month period, though the goal is to pass on the first try and avoid paying again.
Exam logistics and fees
The exam fee runs roughly $40 to $50 per attempt depending on whether you take the combined exam or a single line. Fees change, so confirm the current amount on the PSI portal when you register rather than relying on any third-party figure. Schedule a few days out so you have a firm deadline to study toward, bring acceptable identification, and arrive early. You receive a pass or fail result before you leave the test center.
Step 4: Complete the fingerprint background check
Arizona requires a fingerprint-based background check for resident applicants who do not already hold a print-required license. The results route to DIFI as part of your application review. In some cases applicants submit a Letter of Clearance and upload it to the NIPR Attachment Warehouse under additional licensing documents. Because processing takes time, schedule your fingerprinting around the same time you book your exam rather than waiting until after you pass. Doing the two in parallel can shave a week or more off the gap between studying and being able to work. Confirm the current fingerprinting vendor and process on the DIFI website, since the details can change.
Step 5: Apply through NIPR
Once you have passed the exam and your background check is underway, you submit the license application through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR). The application asks for your personal information, the lines of authority you passed, and background questions. You pay the state license fee plus a small NIPR transaction fee at submission. Confirm the current Arizona producer license fee on NIPR before you apply, because state fees are adjusted periodically. For a full line-by-line cost breakdown, see our Arizona insurance license cost guide.
After DIFI approves the application, your license appears in the state and NIPR records, and you can verify it through DIFI's license lookup. At that point you are a licensed Arizona life and health producer.
After you are licensed: appointments, E&O, and CE
A license is permission to be appointed, not permission to sell. Before you can write a specific company's products, you need a carrier appointment with that company. If you join an agency, they usually arrange appointments once you are contracted. Independent agents set them up carrier by carrier.
Two more realities catch new agents off guard. First, most carriers and agencies require errors and omissions (E&O) insurance before you write business, even though it is not part of the state licensing process. Budget for it as an ongoing first-year cost. Second, the license has to be maintained: Arizona resident producers complete 48 hours of continuing education every four years, including at least 6 hours of ethics, and the license renews every four years on the last day of your birth month. Put that renewal date on a calendar the day you get licensed.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
Most candidates go from decision to active license in three to six weeks. The variable is you: how quickly you study, schedule the exam, and complete fingerprinting. Running the exam booking and fingerprinting at the same time is the single biggest time-saver.
On cost, the major line items are the exam fee (roughly $40 to $50), fingerprinting, the state license and NIPR fees, and optional but recommended exam prep. All in, plan for a few hundred dollars, with prep being the part where spending a little pays for itself by helping you pass on the first try. Skipping a quality course to save money and then failing the exam twice usually costs more than the course would have.
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Official sources & further reading
Always confirm current fees, exam logistics, CE rules, and renewal dates with the official source before you rely on them, because they change.
- Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DIFI)
- DIFI, insurance professionals and licensing
- PSI exams, Arizona insurance candidate portal
- NIPR, license application portal
Last updated: June 2026
Frequently asked questions
Does Arizona require a pre-licensing course for the life and health license?
- No. Arizona has never required pre-licensing education for resident producers, so you can register for the exam without completing a course first. The exam still demands a 70 percent score, so most candidates study with a prep course or question bank even though the state does not mandate it.
Who administers the Arizona insurance license exam?
- PSI administers Arizona's insurance licensing exams. PSI replaced Pearson VUE as the state vendor in September 2025, so older guides that mention Pearson VUE are out of date. You register and schedule at the PSI test-takers portal, then sit the exam in person or online with remote proctoring.
Can I take a combined life and health exam, or are they separate?
- Arizona offers a combined life and health exam as well as life-only and health-only options. The combined exam covers both lines in one sitting and is the efficient choice if you plan to sell life insurance and health products. Confirm the current exam codes and fees on the PSI portal before you register.
How long does it take to get an Arizona life and health license?
- Most people finish in three to six weeks. The timeline depends mostly on how fast you study and schedule the exam, plus the time for your fingerprint background check to clear and DIFI to process the NIPR application. Booking the exam and fingerprinting in parallel shortens the wait.
What can I sell with an Arizona life and health license?
- The life line covers life insurance and annuities. The health line covers medical, disability income, long-term care, and similar accident and health products. Together they let you serve individuals and families on both protection and income needs, though you still need a carrier appointment before writing any specific company's products.
How much continuing education does Arizona require after I am licensed?
- Arizona resident producers complete 48 hours of continuing education every four years, including at least 6 hours of ethics. The license renews every four years on the last day of your birth month. Non-resident licensees in good standing in their home state are generally exempt from Arizona CE.