$84 + Fingerprints: South Carolina Life & Health License Cost 2026

Getting a South Carolina Life, Accident and Health producer license costs $84 in required fees if you sit the combined exam once ($59) and apply for your license ($25) — or $143 if you sit the two single-line exams separately ($59 + $59) plus the same $25 application fee. Neither total includes fingerprinting, which every resident applicant must complete but which SCDOI does not price in dollars on its own page, so this guide does not quote a figure for it either.

There is no pre-licensing course sitting on top of either total: S.C. Code § 38-43-100 and Regulation 69-23 condition licensure on passing the exam alone. The cost worth planning for after you are licensed is continuing education, which runs every two years and is billed by whichever course provider you choose.

• Required fees, both lines, first try, combined exam: $84, plus fingerprinting
• Required fees, both lines, first try, two separate exams: $143, plus fingerprinting
• Pre-licensing course: none required
• Fingerprint background check: required (SLED and FBI); fee set by the vendor, not published by SCDOI
• Exam preparation: $0 to several hundred dollars, your choice
• Each retake: $59, whichever exam you retake
• Continuing education: 24 hours every two years

1. Pearson VUE Exam Fee — $59 per attempt

Paid to Pearson VUE when you schedule, per attempt. One $59 fee covers the combined InsSC-LAH03 exam; sitting the two single-line exams (InsSC-Life01 and InsSC-AH02) separately costs $59 each, $118 total. The combined exam is exactly half the price of the two-exam path.

2. SCDOI License Application Fee — $25

Charged by the South Carolina Department of Insurance when you apply for your producer license. Life, Accident and Health is treated as a single combined qualification on the application, so this is one $25 fee whether you got there through the combined exam or through two separate single-line exams.

3. Fingerprint-Based Background Check — Required, Not Priced Here

Every resident applicant must be fingerprinted for a statewide criminal background check with SLED (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) and a national criminal background check with the FBI. Fingerprints stay on file once submitted, with no resubmission required at renewal. SCDOI's own Producer page states no dollar figure for this step, so this guide does not quote one — budget for it and schedule it as soon as you pass.

Add the exam fee(s) to the application fee: $59 + $25 = $84 (combined exam), or two single-line exams at $59 + $59 + $25 application = $143 — both excluding fingerprinting.

If you want both lines of authority, the combined exam is the cheaper and faster route: one $59 fee and one appointment, instead of two $59 fees and two appointments. The combined exam's time limit is 150 minutes; each single-line exam runs 120 minutes, so two separate sittings add up to more total time in the chair as well as more money.

The case for the two single-line path is narrower: if you are certain you will only ever hold one line, sit only that line's exam and skip paying for, or studying, content you do not need. Remember, too, that the combined exam has no partial credit — per Pearson VUE's candidate handbook, you cannot be licensed for either single line unless you pass the complete combined exam, so a candidate who is confident on Life but shaky on Accident and Health risks failing the whole $59 attempt on the weaker half.

South Carolina requires 24 hours of continuing education every two years (S.C. Code § 38-43-106) for producers licensed in property and casualty insurance, life/accident and health insurance, or both — a flat requirement regardless of how many license types you hold. A producer licensed in both property/casualty and life/accident and health must complete at least one-third (8 hours) of the 24 in courses related to each of the two categories.

Up to 18 credit hours may be carried forward to the next biennium. Producers holding a CLU, FLMI, CFP, LUTCF, RHU, REBC, or ChFC (life/health) or CPCU/CIC (property/casualty) professional designation may count designation-maintenance credit toward the 24-hour requirement. A licensee with 25 or more years of South Carolina licensure who is 65 or older is exempt from CE entirely.

South Carolina's CE statute does not carve out a separate minimum number of ethics hours — worth stating precisely rather than assuming every state's CE structure works the same way. CE course prices are set by individual providers, not SCDOI, so this guide does not quote a figure for them.

Every attempt costs the fee again: $59 for a failed combined exam, retaken as the combined exam, or $59 for a failed single-line exam, retaken as that single-line exam — you do not have to retake a line you already passed. You must wait 24 hours before scheduling a reexamination, and each exam may be sat at most six times in a one-year period.

A passed result stays valid for one year for the purpose of filing your license application, and you can file that application as soon as 48 hours after passing. A prompt retake of a failed line does not put a passed line's validity at risk, but there is still no reason to pay the $59 fee twice when one more week of study might avoid it.

How much you spend on preparation is the biggest variable in the whole budget, and the first-time pass rates — roughly 56-65 percent on the combined exam, 56-60 percent on Life, 51-52 percent on Accident and Health — make it a real line item, not an optional one.

$0 — the free stack. Pearson VUE publishes the InsSC-LAH03 content outline with the weight of every section, and its candidate handbook explains the format and fee rules. Together they tell you what is tested, not how it works. Free general-insurance material covers national concepts reasonably well and South Carolina-specific law — producer licensing and SCDOI's powers under Title 38, replacement under Regulation 69-12.1, Medicare supplement and long-term care rules — poorly or not at all.

$14.99-$79 — a focused exam-prep course. LanePrep's South Carolina Life, Accident and Health course is nine audio chapters built from the InsSC-LAH03 outline, with a chapter quiz after every chapter. It costs $14.99 per month or $79 once as the Pass Package. Chapters 1 and 9 are free, no signup, so you can judge the format before paying for either.

Full packages. National prep providers sell bundles with video lectures and a textbook at several times the price of a focused course. Make sure any package you buy is built from the InsSC-LAH03 content outline and names Pearson VUE, not another vendor, as the testing company.

Two realistic budgets, both excluding the fingerprinting charge, which South Carolina requires but does not price on SCDOI's own page.

Pass the combined exam on the first attempt — $84 to $163, plus fingerprinting

• Combined exam fee $59
• License application fee $25
• Preparation: free stack ($0), one month of LanePrep ($14.99) or the Pass Package ($79)

Pass both single-line exams on the first attempt — $143 to $222, plus fingerprinting

• Life exam fee $59
• Accident and Health exam fee $59
• License application fee $25
• Preparation: free stack ($0), one month of LanePrep ($14.99) or the Pass Package ($79)

One retake, combined exam — $143 to $222, plus fingerprinting

• Everything in the combined-exam scenario above
• A second attempt at the combined exam: $59
• In practice, more preparation as well — the same preparation produced the first result

The gap between passing on the first try and needing one retake is $59, the mandatory 24-hour wait before you can even rebook, and however many days it takes to get a new seat after that. That is the arithmetic behind spending something on preparation: the most expensive study material is the kind that sends you back to retake an exam you already paid for once.

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

1. Decide whether you need one line of authority or both. If both, the combined exam is the cheaper and faster route.
2. Prepare with a focused course built for the outline you are actually sitting, so a retake is not the one you need.
3. Book and pass your exam(s) through Pearson VUE, schedule your fingerprint appointment as soon as you pass, and file your application with SCDOI ($25) within the one-year result-validity window.

LanePrep covers step 2: nine audio chapters built from the InsSC-LAH03 content outline, each with its own quiz, for $14.99 per month or $79 once. Chapters 1 and 9 are free. For the exam itself — format, weights and a week-by-week plan — read how to pass the South Carolina Life & Health exam on the first try.

Fees and the continuing-education structure come from Pearson VUE's South Carolina Insurance Licensing Candidate Handbook, the South Carolina Department of Insurance's Producer page, and S.C. Code § 38-43-106. Read October 2026.