- NJ-LH stands for the New Jersey Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam, split into a Life exam and an Accident and Health exam.
- Each exam is scored separately: 83 Life questions or 88 Accident and Health questions, both under a 3-hour-30-minute limit.
- You need 70% on each exam, plus prelicensing education, fingerprinting, and an application within one year of passing.
- New Jersey common insurance law is the single largest combined content area across both exams.
What Does NJ-LH Actually Stand For?
NJ-LH stands for the New Jersey Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam - the state licensing test that anyone who wants to sell life insurance, health insurance, or both in New Jersey must pass. It is not a designation you earn once and keep forever like a professional certification; it's a regulatory exam tied directly to obtaining a producer license from the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance.
Because "NJ-LH" is a compact acronym, it's easy to confuse with other credentials that happen to share similar letters. On this site, and in every article linked below, NJ-LH refers to exactly one thing: the New Jersey Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam administered through PSI Services. If you've landed here searching for background before you start studying, our What Is NJ-LH? and NJ-LH Meaning articles cover the same ground from slightly different angles if you want a second pass.
Who Administers the NJ-LH Exam?
The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance sets the licensing requirements, but the actual testing is handled by PSI Services, a third-party testing vendor. PSI offers two delivery options: an in-person test center or a live online-proctored exam you take from home or an office.
Whichever format you choose, the rules are the same: no reference materials, no handheld calculators, and if you test remotely, no breaks are permitted during the exam window. That last detail trips up candidates who assume an online exam will feel more relaxed than a test center - it doesn't. If you're deciding between the two delivery methods, it's worth reading through NJ-LH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling before you schedule.
Two Exams, One License Path
A detail that surprises a lot of new candidates: "NJ-LH" isn't a single test. It's actually two separate, independently scored exams that together support a major-line producer license:
- Life exam: 83 scored questions, 3 hours 30 minutes
- Accident and Health exam: 88 scored questions, 3 hours 30 minutes
That's 171 scored questions and 7 hours of total testing time if you sit for both. Each exam may also fold in 5 to 19 unscored experimental questions that PSI uses to evaluate future exam content - you won't know which questions are experimental, so treat every question as if it counts. You must score at least 70% on each exam independently; a strong Life score does not offset a weak Accident and Health score, or vice versa.
Key Takeaway
Prepare for Life and Accident and Health as two distinct exams with two distinct pass thresholds - not one combined score to average toward.
What the 13 Domains Actually Cover
The NJ-LH content outline is organized into 13 domains spread across the Life and Accident and Health exams, each carrying a specific weight normalized across the full 171 scored questions. Knowing these weights tells you exactly where to invest study time.
Domain 5 & Domain 12: New Jersey Laws, Rules, and Regulations Common to Life, A&H, Property, and Casualty (14.6% each)
These are the two largest domains on the entire exam, and they cover the same body of New Jersey common insurance law tested from both the Life and Accident and Health sides. Combined, general New Jersey insurance law is the biggest content area on the whole test.
- Producer licensing rules and standards of conduct
- Unfair trade practices and claims settlement practices
- Statutory definitions that apply across all lines
Domain 2: Life - Policy Riders, Provisions, Options, and Exclusions (12.3%)
A heavily weighted Life-side domain testing your grasp of how policies actually behave once issued - riders, nonforfeiture options, settlement options, and exclusions.
- Waiver of premium, accelerated death benefit, and accidental death riders
- Nonforfeiture options and policy loan provisions
- Common exclusions like suicide and war clauses
Domain 8: Accident and Health - Policy Provisions, Clauses, and Riders (11.7%)
The Accident and Health counterpart to Domain 2, focused on mandatory and optional provisions in health-related contracts.
- Required provisions and optional provisions under NJ law
- Coordination of benefits and pre-existing condition clauses
- Guaranteed renewability and elimination periods
The remaining domains carry smaller but still testable weights: Types of Policies on both the Life (5.3%) and Accident and Health (8.2%) sides, Completing the Application/Underwriting/Delivering the Policy (7.0%), Taxes/Retirement/Other Insurance Concepts (4.7%), New Jersey Laws Pertinent to Life Only (4.7%), Social Insurance (1.8%), Other Insurance Concepts (2.3%), Field Underwriting Procedures (5.3%), and New Jersey Laws Pertinent to Accident and Health Only (7.6%). For a full breakdown of all 13 domains with study guidance for each, see our NJ-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas.
| Domain Group | Approx. Combined Weight |
|---|---|
| New Jersey common law (Domains 5 & 12) | 29.2% |
| Policy provisions/riders (Domains 2 & 8) | 24.0% |
| Types of policies (Domains 1 & 7) | 13.5% |
| Line-specific NJ law (Domains 6 & 13) | 12.3% |
| Underwriting/application (Domains 3 & 11) | 12.3% |
| Taxes, retirement, social insurance, other concepts (Domains 4, 9, 10) | 8.8% |
Exam Format, Timing, and Scoring
Both exams use multiple-choice questions. There's no essay component and no simulation-style questions - just straightforward scenario and definition-based multiple choice, similar in style across both Life and Accident and Health. Each exam runs on its own 3-hour-30-minute clock, so pacing across 83 or 88 scored questions (plus any unscored experimental items mixed in) rarely poses a time-pressure problem for candidates who know the material.
The passing threshold is 70% on each exam, calculated only from scored items - the experimental questions don't count toward or against you, but since they're indistinguishable from scored ones, you have to answer everything as if it matters. For the exact math behind the passing score and how many questions you can afford to miss, read NJ-LH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
From Passing Score to Active License
Passing both exams is a milestone, not the finish line. To actually hold a New Jersey producer license, resident candidates need to complete the full licensing sequence:
- Complete 20 hours of approved prelicensing education per line (Life or Accident and Health), or a 40-hour combined course covering both.
- Present your course completion certificate when required - note that prelicensing certificates do not expire, so you can complete this step well ahead of test day.
- Pass both the Life and Accident and Health exams at PSI, scoring 70% or higher on each.
- Complete electronic fingerprinting as part of the background check process.
- Submit your license application while your passing score is still valid - you have one year from your passing exam date to apply before that score expires.
Some qualified candidates can also receive 60-day temporary work authority, which lets them begin producer activity while the full license application is finalized. If you're mapping out the full sequence before you even schedule an exam date, our NJ-LH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify guide walks through eligibility details step by step.
Key Takeaway
Your passing score has a one-year shelf life. Don't pass the exam and then sit on the application - fingerprinting and paperwork should happen promptly afterward.
Fees, Renewal, and Continuing Education
A major-line producer license in New Jersey costs $150 for a two-year term, plus a separate $20 new-application fee the first time you apply. That's on top of whatever your prelicensing course and exam registration cost. Once licensed, keeping the license active requires 24 continuing education credits per renewal cycle, and at least 3 of those credits must be in ethics. For the full financial picture - course fees, exam fees, license fees, and renewal costs added together - see NJ-LH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
If you're trying to decide whether the time and expense are worth it relative to the career upside, Is the NJ-LH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 lays out that tradeoff in more depth than we can cover in a definitional article like this one.
Who Actually Needs the NJ-LH?
The NJ-LH exam is the entry point for anyone planning to sell life insurance, health insurance, annuities tied to those lines, or related products as a licensed producer in New Jersey. That includes:
- Career agents joining a captive insurance carrier's New Jersey sales force
- Independent brokers who plan to represent multiple carriers
- Financial advisors adding insurance products to an existing practice
- Bank and credit union employees selling insurance products as a secondary line of business
Because the Life and Accident and Health exams are scored separately, some candidates choose to license in only one line first - say, Accident and Health for a benefits-focused role - and add the other later. If you're weighing which roles actually require this license and what day-to-day work looks like afterward, browse NJ-LH Jobs for a more role-specific view.
Whichever path you're on, practicing with realistic scored-question sets before test day is one of the most reliable ways to gauge readiness. You can run through timed practice sessions modeled on the real exam structure over on the main practice test platform, and if you want a broader strategy for turning practice results into a study plan, our NJ-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt pairs well with the domain breakdown above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Two. The Life exam (83 scored questions) and the Accident and Health exam (88 scored questions) are separate, independently timed and scored tests, each requiring a 70% pass score.
The exam itself doesn't expire once passed, but your passing score is only valid for one year for licensing application purposes. The resulting producer license runs on a two-year renewal cycle requiring continuing education.
Yes. Since they're scored separately and tied to prelicensing education per line, you can pursue one line first and add the other exam and license line later.
The exam you passed remains valid; you would need to retest only on the exam you did not pass, since scoring and pass/fail status are determined independently for Life and Accident and Health.
It appears as Domain 5 on the Life exam and Domain 12 on the Accident and Health exam, each weighted at 14.6%. Combined, these make New Jersey common law the largest content area across the full 171 scored questions.