$122.50 + Fingerprints: Pennsylvania Life & Health License Cost 2026

The state and vendor fees to get a Pennsylvania Life, Accident and Health producer license add up to $122.50 if you pass the exam on the first attempt: $55 for the PSI exam, $55 for the license application and an online service fee of about $12.50. On top of that comes fingerprinting, which is done at an IdentoGO enrollment center and paid at the center; the Pennsylvania Insurance Department does not publish that amount in its candidate bulletin, so budget for it separately.

What is missing from that list is as important as what is on it. Pennsylvania no longer requires a pre-licensing course, and it has no separate ethics-course requirement before the license is issued. The only cost the state does not set a price for is exam preparation, and that one is not avoidable in practice: the exam fails roughly four in ten first-time candidates.

• Required fees: $122.50, plus fingerprinting paid at the IdentoGO center
• Pre-licensing course: none required since April 29, 2025
• Exam preparation: $0 to several hundred dollars, your choice
• Each retake: another $55

Four payments are mandatory for a resident candidate taking the combined exam and applying for a producer license with both the life and the accident and health lines of authority.

1. PSI Exam Fee — $55

Paid to PSI when you schedule, per attempt. One $55 fee covers the combined Life, Accident and Health exam (Series 16-03). The fee is the same whether you test at a PSI test center or by remote proctoring, and it is not refundable or transferable.

2. Resident Producer License Application Fee — $55

Paid to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department with your application, which you file online through Sircon or NIPR — the PSI test site has a kiosk for exactly this purpose, so most candidates apply minutes after passing. A single application covers the lines of authority your exam qualifies you for; you do not pay twice for life and health when you apply for both together.

3. Online Service Fee — about $12.50

Charged by the online licensing service when you submit the application electronically. The bulletin describes it as variable and gives $12.50 as the approximate figure. A paper application avoids the fee but is only permitted if you are unable to apply online, needs a cover letter explaining why, and takes considerably longer to process.

4. Fingerprinting — paid at the IdentoGO center

Every new resident producer applicant must submit fingerprints for an FBI criminal history check under 40 P.S. §310.5. You register with IdentoGO online or by phone using the Insurance Department's service code (1KGBGJ), then pay at the enrollment center after your prints are taken. Credit card, debit card, certified check or money order are accepted; cash and personal checks are not. The department does not publish the amount, which is why this guide does not quote one.

Total in published fees: $55 + $55 + $12.50 = $122.50, plus the fingerprinting charge. None of it depends on how you prepare.

Pennsylvania sells the exam three ways. The Life exam (Series 16-01) and the Accident and Health exam (Series 16-02) are $45 each; the combined Life, Accident and Health exam (Series 16-03) is $55. If you intend to hold both lines, the combined exam saves $35 against taking the halves separately, and it saves a second appointment, a second morning off work and a second set of nerves.

The opposite calculation matters too. Adding a line of authority to an existing license later costs $25 plus the $45 exam for that line, so a candidate who takes Life only now and Accident and Health in a year will have paid $115 in fees for what $55 would have bought in one sitting. Unless you are certain you will only ever sell one line, the combined exam is the cheaper route.

One more data point before choosing the half exam because it looks easier: the Life-only exam's first-time pass rate was about 55% in 2024 and 2025, below the 61–65% of the combined exam.

Until April 2025, anyone applying for a Pennsylvania producer license had to complete a 24-credit-hour pre-licensing education course before sitting the exam. Act 142 of 2024 (signed October 31, 2024) deleted that requirement from the Insurance Department Act, effective April 29, 2025. The Insurance Department's licensing portal confirms it: the pre-licensing education requirement has been removed.

The result is that the pre-licensing packages sold as a legal prerequisite are now optional preparation. You still need to learn the material — the exam has not become easier, and the 2025 pass rate was lower than 2024's — but you decide how, and you are no longer paying for a seat-time certificate. If a provider is still quoting a 24-hour course as mandatory for the Pennsylvania exam, its information is out of date.

Pennsylvania also has no ethics or state-law course that must be completed before the license is issued. The requirements in the PSI bulletin are age, residence, English, the exam and fingerprints. Nothing else.

The exam is 150 scored questions across thirteen content sections, with a 70% pass mark and a first-time pass rate of 64.5% in 2024 and 61.1% in 2025. How much you spend on preparation is the biggest variable in the whole budget, and the cheapest option is not always the cheapest outcome.

$0 — the free stack. PSI publishes the Series 16-03 content outline with the weight of every section, and its Candidate Information Bulletin explains the format and procedure. Together they tell you what is tested, not how it works. Free flashcards and videos cover the general insurance concepts reasonably well and the Pennsylvania-specific rules — the Unfair Insurance Practices Act, replacement, the mandated benefits, Medigap and long-term care under 31 Pa. Code — poorly. Viable for a disciplined candidate with a background in the industry.

$15–$79 — a focused exam-prep course. LanePrep's Pennsylvania Life & Health course is nine audio chapters built from the Series 16-03 outline, with chapter quizzes and two chapters dedicated to Pennsylvania regulation and policy law. It costs $79 once or $14.99 per month; a candidate on the three-week plan can be done inside a single month. Chapters 1 and 9 are free, no signup, so you can judge the format before paying.

Full packages. National prep providers sell Life and Health packages with video lectures, a textbook and instructor access at several times the price of a focused course. The structure suits complete beginners and candidates whose agency reimburses the cost. Make sure any package you buy has been updated for the Series 16-03 outline in force from March 2026 and the post-Act 142 rules, and that it is not still built around the old 24-hour course.

Retakes — $55 each

Every attempt costs the $55 PSI fee again. Pennsylvania sets no limit on attempts and no waiting period beyond the next day, so there is no rule stopping you from rebooking quickly — but the 2025 first-time pass rate was 61.1%, and the state does not publish how repeat candidates do. Budget for one retake and prepare so that you do not use it.

A missed appointment

Rescheduling is free if PSI receives the notice two days before the exam. Later than that, a no-show, arriving after the start time or turning up without a matching, unexpired photo ID all forfeit the fee, and you pay $55 for a new slot.

Letting the exam expire

You must submit the license application within one year of passing. Miss that window and you take the exam again and pay for it again. The kiosk at the test site exists so that this does not happen; use it.

Fingerprinting in the wrong order

Fingerprint results that arrive at the department without a corresponding license application are destroyed, and you pay the IdentoGO fee again and resubmit. Register with IdentoGO only after you have passed and applied.

Taking the halves separately

Two $45 exams instead of one $55 exam, and $25 more to add the second line to the license later. See the section above.

These are not part of the entry cost, but they arrive two years later and are easy to forget when comparing the price of a license against the income it is meant to produce.

• Continuing education: 24 hours in each two-year licensing cycle, required by Act 147 of 2002. Course prices are set by private providers. Failing to complete the 24 hours within the cycle results in termination of the license, not just a late fee.
• Timing: CE credit only counts for courses taken after the license issue date. A course taken while you wait for the license to be issued earns nothing.
• Adding a line of authority later: $25 plus the exam fee for that line.

Renewal is a filing, not a re-examination. Once licensed, you never take the exam again as long as the license stays active and the CE is done.

Two realistic budgets. Both exclude the fingerprinting charge, which is paid at the IdentoGO center and not published by the department, and both are the same whether you test in person or remotely.

Pass on the first attempt — $122.50 to $201.50

• PSI exam fee $55
• License application fee $55
• Online service fee about $12.50
• Preparation: free stack ($0), one month of LanePrep ($14.99) or lifetime access ($79)

One retake — $177.50 to $256.50

• Everything above
• A second exam appointment: $55
• In practice, more preparation as well — the same preparation produced the first result

The gap between the two scenarios is $55 in fees and at least a day's delay — usually weeks — before you can apply, be appointed and be paid. A failed attempt costs almost as much as the application itself. That is the arithmetic behind spending something on preparation: the most expensive study material is the kind that leaves you sitting the exam twice.

For most self-directed candidates the cost-optimal path is:

1. Book the combined exam ($55) through PSI and give yourself three weeks.
2. Prepare with a focused course and a question loop so the first attempt is the only one.
3. After the pass: apply at the test-site kiosk ($55 plus about $12.50), then register with IdentoGO and pay for fingerprinting at the center — all within the one-year window.

LanePrep covers step 2: nine audio chapters built from the PSI Series 16-03 outline, chapter quizzes, and dedicated chapters for Pennsylvania regulation and policy law, for $14.99 per month or $79 once. Chapters 1 and 9 are free. For the exam itself — format, weights and the week-by-week plan — read how to pass the Pennsylvania Life & Health exam on your first try.

Exam format and fees come from the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin for Pennsylvania (effective January 22, 2026); pass rates from the NAIC compiled pass-rate reports for 2024 and 2025. Read October 2026.