Do You Need a Pre-Licensing Course for the Washington Life & Health Exam? (2026)

Under Washington law, you do not need a pre-licensing course to take the Life and Disability producer exam. There is one wrinkle you should know about, because it can confuse you when you read the testing vendor's paperwork. We explain it in full below.

Three official sources agree:

• The statute. RCW 48.17.090(2) lists exactly four findings required before a license is approved: you are at least 18 years of age; you have committed no disqualifying act under RCW 48.17.530; you have paid the fees under RCW 48.14.010; and you have passed the examination for the lines of authority you applied for. There is no education clause. HB 1061, effective July 23, 2023, removed the earlier requirement to complete a prelicensure course of study.
• The rule. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner's rulemaking WSR 23-21-103 (Matter R 2023-04), effective November 18, 2023, repealed 21 WAC sections that had implemented pre-licensing education. Among them was the rule that required a certificate of completion before you were admitted to the exam.
• The regulator's own page. The Insurance Commissioner's site states that effective July 23, 2023, Washington no longer requires pre-licensing education to take your insurance exam.

PSI's current Washington candidate bulletin, last revised 8/3/2026, still contains the sentence that pre-license education is required to take the examinations for a full-line license, and its fee table lists a pre-license certificate as required. That conflicts with the statute and rule above.

We treat the bulletin text as leftover wording that was never updated after the 2023 repeal, because the same bulletin does not tell candidates to bring or present any certificate at check-in. But this is an unresolved inconsistency in the vendor's paperwork, and we cannot say that PSI has corrected it. If you want certainty before you pay for an exam, contact the Office of the Insurance Commissioner at (360) 725-7144 or licinfo@oic.wa.gov.

Instead of a course, the state asks for the four findings above. In practice that means:

• Age: at least 18.
• A clean record: no disqualifying act under RCW 48.17.530.
• Fingerprints (residents): a fingerprint-based background check through IDEMIA IdentoGO is required for resident applicants only. The Commissioner's page gives a fee of $52 effective October 1, 2026. You do not need to be fingerprinted before taking the exam, but you must complete it with your application, within 180 days of passing.
• License fee: $55 for the producer license application, and $55 to renew every two years.
• The exam: $55 for the combined Life and Disability exam, or $38 for each single-line exam.

For a candidate taking the combined exam, the exam fee, license application and fingerprint fee come to $162 in total. With two separate exams, the total is $183. Passing the exam does not guarantee a license.

Continuing education is 24 hours in the 24-month period before renewal, of which 3 hours must be ethics education, under WAC 284-17-224.

LanePrep is exam preparation, not a mandated course. Nothing in Washington law requires you to buy it, and nothing replaces the exam itself. What it offers is audio lessons for commutes and quiz practice mapped to the exam outline, including the large Washington law section. Try the course preview, see the full cost of a license, or read how hard the exam is.