How to Pass the Kansas Life and Health Insurance Exam on the First Try (2026)

Kansas gives you a choice to make before you register: sit a single combined Life and Accident & Health exam (code 12-KS-05), or take one line only, either the Life exam (12-KS-01) or the Accident & Health exam (12-KS-02). All three are administered by Pearson VUE under contract to the Kansas Department of Insurance, and the Candidate Handbook treats them as equal options: candidates "may choose to take the major lines individually or as a combined exam."

Item	Combined (12-KS-05)	Life only (12-KS-01)	Accident & Health only (12-KS-02)
Scored items	140	84	84
Unscored pretest items	14	11	11
Items administered	154	95	95
Time limit	150 minutes	90 minutes	90 minutes
Passing score	70 percent, one score for the whole exam	70 percent	70 percent
Fee per attempt	$64	$57	$57

The passing score is 70 percent. K.A.R. 40-7-13(c) says that persons failing to score at least 70 percent on any examination "shall have failed that examination and shall not be qualified for a license for that class or subclass." The combined exam has one score: the Handbook says candidates "must pass the entire combined exam to qualify for a Kansas insurance license," so you cannot pass the Life half and fail the Accident & Health half separately. The pretest items are unscored trial questions that do not count toward your result, so answer every item as if it counts.

The fee is $64 for the combined exam and $57 for each single-line exam. A candidate who wants both lines registers once and sits once with the combined exam; two single-line exams are two separate $57 fees and two sittings of 90 minutes each. Choose a single-line exam only if you truly need one line.

Every Kansas exam is taken in person at a Pearson VUE test center, never at home. The Candidate Handbook lists Pearson Professional Test Centers in Hays, Overland Park, Topeka and Wichita (and Kansas City, Missouri), plus additional Kansas testing locations at Emporia, Independence, Fort Riley, Pittsburg, Garden City and Salina, and you may also test at any Pearson VUE test center in the US. The combined exam is also offered in Spanish, at test centers only: choose the language when you make the reservation, and you can switch between Spanish and English at any time during the exam.

Pearson's Kansas Insurance Content Outlines (effective March 1, 2025) print the exact number of scored items in every section of the combined exam: nine sections of general knowledge worth 100 items, and three sections of Kansas law worth 40.

Part and section	Items
General knowledge	100
I. Types of Policies, life (whole life, universal, variable and indexed life, term life, annuities)	15
II. Life Provisions, Riders, Options, and Exclusions	15
III. Completing the Application, Underwriting, and Delivering the Policy	12
IV. Retirement and Other Insurance Concepts	8
V. Types of Policies, accident & health (disability income, AD&D, medical expense, Medicare supplement, group, long-term care)	16
VI. Policy Provisions, Clauses, and Riders	15
VII. Social Insurance (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security)	6
VIII. Other Insurance Concepts	5
IX. Field Underwriting Procedures	8
Kansas law	40
X. Kansas statutes and regulations common to Life, Health, Property, and Casualty insurance	18
XI. Kansas statutes and regulations pertinent to Life insurance only (replacement, disclosure, right to return, viatical settlements, annuities)	11
XII. Kansas statutes and regulations pertinent to Health insurance only (policy clauses, group coverage, Medicare supplement, long-term care, advertising, the Affordable Care Act)	11

The Kansas part is 40 of the 140 scored items, and its largest sub-section is the 18 items on statutes and regulations common to all lines: the Commissioner of Insurance (duties, powers, examinations, hearings and penalties), definitions, licensing, maintaining a license, marketing practices such as rebating, misrepresentation and twisting, and the Kansas life and health insurance guaranty association act. Every sub-topic in the Kansas sections carries its own citation printed in the outline, such as K.S.A. 40-4905 for obtaining a license, K.S.A. 40-4903 for renewal and fees, K.A.R. 40-2-12 for replacement and K.A.R. 40-2-15 for right to return. Do not treat Kansas law as a short add-on at the end of your study plan.

LanePrep groups the 140 scored items into eight content chapters plus an exam-day chapter. Chapters 1, 5 and 8 cover the 40 Kansas items (18, 11 and 11), Chapters 2 to 4 cover Life general knowledge (15, 15 and 20), and Chapters 6 and 7 cover Accident & Health general knowledge (31 and 19). Chapter 4 is Sections III and IV together, Chapter 6 is V and VI, and Chapter 7 is VII to IX. That grouping is our own arrangement of Pearson's sections, not the outline's.

The two single-line exams have 84 scored items each. This page and LanePrep's course follow the combined exam's outline; the same Pearson publication prints the outlines for the single-line exams.

Kansas does not require a pre-licensing course to sit for the Life, Accident & Health or combined exam. The Department of Insurance says so on its Producer Examinations page: "Kansas does not mandate pre-licensing education," and you can take the licensing examination without buying exam preparation study materials or taking a study course. Pearson's Candidate Handbook is just as direct: "Kansas does not have a pre-licensing education requirement."

The statutes agree. K.S.A. 40-4905(b) is the complete list of conditions for approving a resident license application: the applicant is at least 18, has not committed an act that is grounds for denial, suspension or revocation, has paid the nonrefundable application fee, and has passed the examination for each line of authority applied for. No education requirement appears in that list, and K.A.R. 40-7-13(a), which defines what the examination tests (the laws of Kansas, general insurance and the specific classes of insurance applied for), names no course or classroom-hour prerequisite. The only education rules in the Uniform Insurance Agents Licensing Act (K.S.A. 40-4901 through 40-4918) and in K.A.R. Agency 40, Article 7 are for continuing education after you are licensed.

Fingerprints are a separate question. A state and national criminal history check is a standard step for a first-time resident applicant. K.S.A. 40-4905(h)(1) says the Commissioner "may" require it, but Pearson's Candidate Handbook and the Department's Producer Licensing page both list fingerprinting as a numbered, non-optional step in the standard application procedure. The background-check fee is $60. The fingerprinting itself is free at the Department's Topeka office and at six Department for Children and Families locations statewide; Pearson also offers optional digital fingerprinting for $20 at its Overland Park, Topeka and Wichita test centers, a convenience charge on top of the $60, not a replacement for it.

No requirement also means no classroom pacing you through the outline above. A course built directly from Pearson's own outline, in the same proportions the exam uses, is the fastest way to replace the structure a pre-licensing class would have given you.

NAIC's compiled pass-rate workbooks for 2024 and 2025 give the combined Life and Accident & Health exam its own row for Kansas. The figures are for all candidates, with both testing modes NAIC reports added together. NAIC does not label the Kansas figures as first-time results, so they are not first-time rates.

Combined exam	2024	2025
Tested	1,590	1,579
Passed	903	929
Pass rate	56.8%	58.8%

The pass rate held essentially flat from 2024 to 2025, moving from 56.8 to 58.8 percent. Neither workbook publishes repeat-taker rates, so these numbers cannot tell you how first-time candidates did on their own. Either way, a large share of candidates did not pass the combined exam in either year. That is the baseline a real study plan has to beat.

The Candidate Handbook sets two separate waiting periods. You must wait at least 24 hours before scheduling an appointment to retest, and a candidate who fails currently must wait at least seven calendar days before retaking the exam. There is no limit on the number of times you may take an exam.

Every attempt is a new fee, $64 for the combined exam or $57 for a single-line exam, and because the combined exam has one score, a retake is the whole exam again, not just the part you missed. To change or cancel an appointment without forfeiting the fee, call Pearson at least 48 hours before the exam.

The LanePrep Kansas Life and Health course is nine audio chapters built from the combined exam's outline, each with its own quiz. The scored-item counts below are out of 140.

Week 1, Kansas Law (Chapters 1, 5 and 8, 40 items together)

• Days 1-3: Chapter 1, Kansas Regulation (18 items, free)
• Days 4-5: Chapter 5, Kansas Life Law (11 items)
• Days 6-7: Chapter 8, Kansas Accident and Health Law (11 items)

Week 2, Life Insurance (Chapters 2-4)

• Days 8-9: Chapter 2, Life Policy Types (15 items)
• Days 10-11: Chapter 3, Life Provisions (15 items)
• Days 12-14: Chapter 4, Life Underwriting and Retirement (20 items)

Week 3, Accident and Health and Exam Day (Chapters 6, 7 and 9)

• Days 15-17: Chapter 6, Accident and Health Policy Types and Provisions (31 items)
• Days 18-19: Chapter 7, Social Insurance and Field Underwriting (19 items)
• Day 20: Chapter 9, Exam Day (no scored items, free), then a timed run through every chapter quiz in one sitting
• Day 21: Re-drill the questions you missed and re-listen to your weakest chapter
• Day 22: Rest the day before your exam

Take the chapter quiz right after each listen and write down which questions you missed. Two days later, before starting the next chapter, answer those same questions again cold. If you are testing on a single line instead of the combined exam, skip the general-knowledge chapters for the line you are not testing (Chapters 2-4 are Life, Chapters 6-7 are Accident and Health) and keep Chapter 1 plus the Kansas law chapter for your line (Chapter 5 for Life, Chapter 8 for Accident and Health); Pearson's outline for the exam you book is the final word on its sections. Chapters 1 and 9 are free at /ks/l-and-h/preview, full audio and the chapter quiz, no signup. The full course is at /ks/l-and-h.

Mixing up the 10-day free look with the 20-day replacement refund. K.A.R. 40-2-15(b) requires the right-to-return notice on an individual life policy to say the owner may return the policy for at least 10 days from delivery and have the total premium paid refunded. For a replacement, K.A.R. 40-2-12(f)(4) adds a second rule: when the replacing insurer issues the new policy immediately instead of waiting out the standard 20-day prior-insurer notification delay, the policy or a separate written notice must state that the applicant has a right to an unconditional refund of all premiums paid within 20 days after delivery. The replacement window is the longer one, which reverses a pattern you may have met in other study materials, where replacement gets the shorter window. Learn both numbers and which situation each belongs to; the outline puts replacement and right to return in the same Life-only section.

Getting the continuing-education calendar wrong. A Kansas producer must earn 18 hours of continuing education every two years, at least 3 of them in insurance ethics (K.S.A. 40-4903(c)). The due date is the last day of your birth month, in odd-numbered years if you were born in an odd-numbered year and in even-numbered years if you were born in an even-numbered year (K.S.A. 40-4902). Courses must be completed during the two-year period they count toward, and a missed report means an automatic 90-day suspension and a $100 penalty per license (K.S.A. 40-4903(e)(2)).

Believing a lapsed license always means retaking the exam. Kansas tiers reinstatement by how long the license has been lapsed, and the exam comes back much later than a skim of the renewal rules suggests. Under K.S.A. 40-4903(e)(6), a new application and a newly passed exam are required only when an individual lets a license expire, in Kansas and everywhere else they are licensed, for four or more consecutive years. A shorter lapse is handled through reinstatement: a $100 fee per license, 18 hours of continuing education and, as the lapse gets longer, more of the application steps again. The Department's Producer Licensing page lists no new exam for any of those tiers, so do not assume a cliff after a year or two.

Flattening the guaranty association limits. The Kansas life and health insurance guaranty association (K.S.A. 40-3001 et seq.) does not use one figure. Under K.S.A. 40-3008(q)(2), life insurance death benefits are covered up to $300,000, with no more than $100,000 of net cash surrender and withdrawal value; annuity benefits up to $250,000 in present value, or $250,000 per payee for a structured settlement annuity; and health insurance in tiers: $100,000 for other health coverages, $300,000 each for disability income and long-term care insurance, and $500,000 for health benefit plans. The same subsection sets an aggregate cap of $300,000 per life, or $500,000 where health benefit plans are involved, and a separate $5,000,000 cap for one holder of multiple nongroup life policies. Do not confuse this fund with the Kansas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, a separate fund created by a separate act (K.S.A. 40-2901 through 40-2919); this exam tests the life and health fund.

Forgetting the annuity training. Since January 1, 2024, a producer who sells annuities must meet the best-interest standard in K.A.R. 40-1-53, and the rule requires a one-time four-credit annuity training course approved by the Commissioner before the producer sells annuities. The standard is part of the Life-only Kansas law on the exam. A producer who does not sell annuities needs no annuity training to keep the Life line, according to the Department's continuing-education page.

Passing is the halfway point, not the finish line.

Bring two forms of current signature ID, in English. The primary ID must be government-issued, with your photo and signature: a driver's license, a U.S. Department of State driver's license, a learner's permit with photo and signature, a national, state or country ID card, a passport or passport card, a military ID, a military dependent ID, or an Alien Registration or Green Card. The secondary ID must bear a valid signature: a U.S. Social Security card, a debit or credit card, or any item from the primary list. Pearson allows no grace period for an expired ID, even where the issuing state allows one. To change or cancel an appointment without forfeiting the fee, call at least 48 hours ahead.

Your passing result is good for two years: the Department's Producer Licensing page says "Licensing test scores are valid for two years from the date of examination." Candidates may apply either before the exam or after passing it.

You apply for the license through NIPR, the National Insurance Producer Registry, paying the $10 application fee (the 2026 amount) and the $60 background-check fee and completing fingerprinting. With the $64 combined exam fee, that is $134 for a first-attempt pass. After you are licensed, renewal comes every two years with 18 hours of continuing education, 3 of them in ethics, and a $4 renewal fee. For the full cost breakdown, including what a retake adds and where LanePrep fits into the budget, see how much a Kansas Life and Health license costs.

Exam structure, fees and the content outline come from Pearson's Kansas Insurance Licensing Candidate Handbook and Kansas Insurance Content Outlines, the Kansas Department of Insurance's producer examinations, producer licensing and fingerprint pages, the Kansas Register's 2026 fee notice, K.S.A. 40-2901 through 40-2919, 40-3008, 40-4902, 40-4903 and 40-4905, K.A.R. 40-1-53, 40-2-12, 40-2-15 and 40-7-13, and NAIC compiled pass-rate data for 2024 and 2025. Read October 2026.