How to Pass the Missouri Life & Health Exam on the First Try (2026)

Missouri does not force every Life and Health candidate through the same exam. You choose between two separate single-line exams — the Life Insurance Producer exam and the Accident and Health Insurance Producer exam — or one combined exam, the Life, Accident and Health Insurance Producer exam, that covers both lines in a single sitting. Each single-line exam delivers 90 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest questions, in 2 hours, for $32 per attempt. The combined exam runs 3 hours for $40 per attempt; Missouri's own content-outline documents disagree with themselves on the combined exam's exact scored-question count, so no number for it is stated here.

Passing any version takes a scaled score of 70 on a 0-100 scale — set by the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance together with Pearson VUE, not a raw count or a plain percentage of questions answered correctly. Every version is delivered only at a physical Pearson VUE test center; Missouri's candidate handbook describes no remote or online-proctored testing option. A candidate who does not pass must wait one day before scheduling a reexamination, and reservations for a reexamination are not made at the test center itself.

Sitting the two single-line exams separately costs $64 total ($32 each). Sitting the combined exam once costs $40 total — the combined exam is both the cheaper and the faster path to both lines of authority: one fee and one 3-hour appointment instead of two fees and two 2-hour appointments on separate days. If you already know you want both the Life and the Accident and Health lines, the combined exam is the straightforward choice.

If you only need one line of authority, sit only that line's exam. A candidate who only wants the Accident and Health line pays $32 and studies one set of chapters rather than paying for, and studying for, material tied to a line of authority they are not applying for.

Missouri does not require a pre-licensing course of study before you can sit either exam. RSMo §375.015 lists the full set of qualifications for an individual producer license: you must be at least 18 years old, have no disqualifying background acts, pay the license fee, and successfully pass the examination for the line of authority you are applying for. No course-of-study or classroom-hours clause appears anywhere in that qualifications section.

Skipping a course you were never required to take does not mean skipping preparation. The pass rates below are the reason why.

NAIC compiles first-time, English-language pass rates by state and exam, in-person and remote testing combined. For Missouri: Life Insurance Producer — 64.4% in 2024 (1,578 candidates, 1,016 passed) and 53.1% in 2025 (2,469 candidates, 1,312 passed). Accident and Health Insurance Producer — 55.0% in 2024 (298 candidates, 164 passed) and 59.6% in 2025 (733 candidates, 437 passed). Life, Accident and Health Insurance Producer, the combined exam — 58.2% in 2024 (1,528 candidates, 889 passed) and 60.2% in 2025 (4,414 candidates, 2,659 passed).

Candidate volume for all three exams grew substantially between the two years, so treat a single year's number as a range rather than a fixed target: Life has run 53-64%, Accident and Health 55-60%, and the combined exam 58-60%. None of the three is close enough to a coin flip to study casually, and none of them rewards memorizing only the Missouri-specific law while treating the general-knowledge sections as filler.

Pearson VUE's content outlines, effective February 1, 2026, list exactly how each single-line exam's 90 scored questions divide. On the Life Insurance Producer exam: Types of Policies (15 items), Life Provisions, Riders, Options, and Exclusions (15), Completing the Application, Underwriting, and Delivering the Policies (12), Retirement and Other Insurance Concepts (8) — 50 general-knowledge items — plus Missouri-specific law: Common to All Lines (20) and Pertinent to Life Insurance Only (20), 40 items. On the Accident and Health Insurance Producer exam: Types of Policies (16), Policy Provisions, Clauses, and Riders (15), Social Insurance (6), Other Insurance Concepts (5), Field Underwriting Procedures (8) — 50 general-knowledge items — plus the same structure of Missouri-specific law: Common to All Lines (20) and Pertinent to Accident and Health Insurance Only (20), 40 items.

On each single-line exam, Missouri-specific law is 40 of the 90 scored items — nearly half the exam — split evenly between the 20 items common to both lines (licensing, marketing practices, fiduciary responsibilities, commissions, the Missouri Insurance Guaranty Association) and the 20 items specific to the line you are sitting. Underestimating that 40-item block because it feels like memorization rather than insurance theory is a common way for a candidate who knows the products well to still miss the scaled score of 70.

The Missouri-specific sections on both exams draw on three chapters of the Missouri Revisor of Statutes: Chapter 374 (the Director of Commerce and Insurance's powers), Chapter 375 (producer licensing, marketing practices, fiduciary responsibilities, commissions, and the Missouri Insurance Guaranty Association), and Chapter 376 (life and accident and health required provisions, Medicare supplement, long-term care, group insurance, small employer group, and minimum maternity benefits) — plus two sets of regulations: 20 CSR 700-1 (licensing) and 20 CSR 700-3.200 (continuing education), and the 20 CSR 400 series (life and accident and health policy-form rules).

Licensing qualifications are tested under RSMo §§375.015, 375.016, and 375.018; examinations under §375.016 and §375.141(11); continuing education under §375.020, §§375.029-.030, and 20 CSR 700-3.200. Those same citations appear, unchanged, in both the Life-specific and Accident and Health-specific portions of the outline — it is the same 20-item licensing-and-regulation block either way.

The LanePrep Missouri course is nine audio chapters built directly from the outlines above, each with its own quiz. Chapter 7 (Missouri Laws Common to All Lines) is tested on both exams; Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 8 are Life-only; Chapters 4, 5 and 6 are Accident and Health-only; Chapter 9 is exam-day strategy with no scored weight.

Sitting only the Life Insurance Producer exam (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9): Chapter 1 — Types of Policies (15 items), Chapter 2 — Provisions, Riders, Options and Exclusions (15), Chapter 3 — Completing the Application, Underwriting and Delivering the Policies; Retirement and Other Insurance Concepts (20), Chapter 7 — Missouri Laws Common to All Lines (20), and Chapter 8 — Missouri Laws Pertinent to Life Insurance Only (20). Those five chapters cover all 90 items on the Life exam (15+15+20+20+20).

Sitting only the Accident and Health Insurance Producer exam (Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9): Chapter 4 — Types of Policies (16), Chapter 5 — Policy Provisions, Clauses and Riders; Social Insurance (21), Chapter 6 — Other Insurance Concepts, Field Underwriting Procedures, and Missouri Laws Pertinent to Accident and Health Insurance Only (33, which already folds in its own 20-item Missouri-specific block), and Chapter 7 — Missouri Laws Common to All Lines (20). Those four chapters cover all 90 items on the Accident and Health exam (16+21+33+20).

Sitting the combined exam: you need all nine chapters — the combined outline reweights the same Life and Accident and Health material, plus a Missouri-specific portion of its own (Common to All Lines, Pertinent to Life Insurance Only, Pertinent to Accident and Health Insurance Only), rather than testing anything new.

Week 1: Chapter 1, then Chapters 2-3 and 8 if you are on the Life path, Chapters 4-6 if you are on the Accident and Health path, or both sets if you are sitting the combined exam. Week 2: Chapter 7 — Missouri Laws Common to All Lines, tested on every version — followed by re-drilling whichever chapter quiz flagged the most misses. Week 3: Chapter 9 — Exam Day: Pearson VUE, Scoring and Strategy, then a timed run through every chapter quiz you need for your exam in one sitting, then book.

Take the chapter quiz after each listen and write down which questions you missed; two days later, before starting the next chapter, answer those same questions again. That short loop is where the retention comes from — listening alone feels productive but does not tell you what actually stuck. Chapters 1 and 9 are free at /mo/l-and-h/preview — full audio and quiz, no signup.

Exam structure, fees and passing score from Pearson VUE's Missouri Insurance Licensing Candidate Handbook (Stock #1226-00, 03/2026). Content outline weights from Pearson VUE's Missouri Insurance Content Outlines #122601 (effective February 1, 2026). Pass rates from the NAIC 2024 and 2025 compiled pass-rate reports. Read October 2026.