Life and Health Insurance License Georgia: Step-by-Step Guide

Getting your life and health insurance license in Georgia isn't complicated, but it does involve a specific sequence of steps you need to follow in order. Skip one, and you'll find yourself going in circles. This guide lays out the exact process — from pre-licensing education through your first CE renewal — so you know what to expect at every stage.

Georgia Life and Health Insurance License: The Full Process

Here's the high-level roadmap before we get into the details:

1. Complete the required pre-licensing education hours
2. Pass the Georgia insurance licensing exam
3. Submit your license application to the Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner
4. Pay the application fee
5. Receive your license and start selling
6. Complete continuing education (CE) requirements before your renewal date

That's it. There's no background investigation waiting period (unlike some states), and Georgia doesn't require you to be sponsored by an employer before applying for your individual license. You can get licensed independently and then affiliate with an agency.

Pre-Licensing Education Requirements

Before you're eligible to sit for the Georgia insurance exam, you must complete a state-approved pre-licensing education course. For life and health insurance:

• Life insurance: 40 hours
• Accident and sickness (health) insurance: 40 hours

If you're applying for both lines of authority on the same license — which most people do — you complete both courses (80 hours total) and then take both exam sections. Most candidates take a combined course from a single provider that covers both subjects together.

Pre-licensing courses are available in-person and online. Online is far more common now — providers like Kaplan, ExamFX, and AdjusterPro offer Georgia-specific courses. You complete the coursework at your own pace within the provider's access window (typically 90–180 days), but Georgia requires the course to include a final exam with a passing score before you receive your certificate of completion.

Your pre-licensing certificate is valid for 1 year from completion. You must pass the state exam and apply for your license within that year or the certificate expires.

The Georgia Insurance Licensing Exam

Georgia contracts with PSI Services to administer its insurance licensing exams. You schedule your exam directly through PSI after completing your pre-licensing course.

Exam Structure

The Life and Health exam has two separate sections you take back-to-back at the testing center:

• Life Insurance exam: 100 questions, 2 hours
• Health Insurance exam: 100 questions, 2 hours

Both sections are scored separately, with a passing score of 70 (70 correct answers out of 100). If you pass one section and fail the other, you only need to retake the failed section — not both. There's no waiting period between retakes, but you pay the exam fee each time.

What the Exam Covers

The Life Insurance exam covers:

• Types of life insurance policies (term, whole, universal, variable)
• Policy provisions, options, and riders
• Annuities and retirement products
• Georgia-specific insurance laws and regulations
• Federal tax considerations for life insurance

The Health Insurance exam covers:

• Individual and group health insurance
• Disability income and long-term care insurance
• Medicare and Medicaid supplements
• Georgia insurance laws and regulations specific to health
• Federal regulations including ACA provisions relevant to agents

Both exams include a Georgia law and regulation section — roughly 20–25% of questions cover state-specific rules. Don't neglect the Georgia content; it's a meaningful portion of the exam and state-specific material that generic study guides may undercover.

Exam Day: What to Bring and Expect

At the PSI testing center:

• Bring two forms of ID — one must be a government-issued photo ID (driver's license, passport). The name must match your registration exactly.
• No personal items allowed in the testing area: no phones, calculators, notes, or watches
• The testing center provides a whiteboard or scratch paper for calculations
• Results are delivered immediately upon completing the exam — you'll know on the spot whether you passed

Applying for Your Georgia Insurance License

After passing your exam, you apply for your license through the Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner via the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) or Sircon (both are approved submission portals).

Application Requirements

• Exam score report (provided by PSI)
• Pre-licensing education certificate of completion
• Social Security Number
• Application fee: $60 per line of authority ($120 for both Life and Health)
• Disclosure of any background issues (criminal history, regulatory actions) — Georgia requires disclosure but doesn't automatically disqualify based on record

Applications are typically processed within 3–5 business days for clean applications. If there are background disclosures requiring additional review, processing can take several weeks. Your license is issued electronically — Georgia doesn't mail paper licenses. You can print your license certificate from the portal.

Georgia Insurance License Renewal and CE Requirements

Your Georgia life and health insurance license renews every 2 years, on your birthday in your renewal year (the cycle depends on when you were first licensed). Before renewal, you must complete continuing education:

• 24 hours of CE per 2-year renewal cycle
• At least 3 of those 24 hours must be an ethics course
• Georgia does not have a separate long-term care or flood CE requirement for most agents (unlike some states)

CE courses are available online from dozens of approved providers. You can check CE compliance and report completion through the Georgia OCI's online portal or through NIPR. Georgia CE courses must be completed through state-approved providers — courses from unapproved sources don't count.

Background Check and Character Requirements

Georgia requires insurance license applicants to disclose:

• Felony convictions
• Certain misdemeanor convictions (especially financial crimes or crimes involving dishonesty)
• Past insurance license denials, suspensions, or revocations in any state
• Regulatory actions by financial services regulators

Disclosure doesn't automatically disqualify you — Georgia reviews disclosures on a case-by-case basis. However, failing to disclose when required is itself grounds for denial or revocation, and the Department treats non-disclosure seriously. If you have a history to disclose, be accurate and complete.

Life and Health vs. Life Only or Health Only

You can apply for just one line of authority if you prefer. Some agents start with Life Only and add Health later, or vice versa. Each line requires its own pre-licensing hours and a separate exam section. Applying for both simultaneously is more cost-effective (one application, one active license) and typically makes you more employable, since most agency roles expect agents to hold both lines.

How to Prepare for the Georgia Exam

The Georgia life and health insurance exam is a knowledge test — the material isn't conceptually difficult, but there's a lot of it. Passing depends on thorough coverage of the content, not just intuition or general business knowledge.

Effective preparation approaches:

• Use a Georgia-specific pre-licensing course. Generic insurance study materials won't give you adequate coverage of Georgia laws and regulations. Your pre-licensing provider's course should be designed for Georgia specifically.
• Do practice exams. The format is straightforward multiple-choice, but exposure to how the questions are worded helps significantly with pacing and reducing careless errors.
• Focus on policy types and provisions. These appear heavily on both sections. Know the difference between term, whole, and universal life policies — and the specific features of each (cash value, beneficiary designations, surrender charges, policy loans, etc.).
• Know Georgia-specific rules. Free-look periods, replacement regulations, producer conduct requirements — these Georgia rules appear consistently on the exam.

For a broader look at the full licensing process across states, the life and health insurance license guide covers what varies state by state. If you want to start practicing right away, the life and health insurance exam practice guide has questions specifically aligned to the state licensing exam format. And the how to get a life and health insurance license guide gives a national overview of the process if you're comparing requirements across states.

Reciprocal Licensing for Licensed Agents from Other States

If you're already licensed in another state and moving to Georgia — or if you want to sell in Georgia from your home state — Georgia has reciprocal licensing agreements with most states. Under reciprocity, you may be able to obtain a Georgia non-resident license without completing additional pre-licensing education or retaking the Georgia exam.

To qualify for reciprocity: your home state must have a reciprocal agreement with Georgia, your home state license must be in good standing, and you must apply through NIPR or Sircon with the required fee. Not all license types qualify — check the Georgia OCI's reciprocity list for your specific lines of authority.