DE-LH Certification

What Is the DE-LH Certification?

The Delaware Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam, referred to on this site as DE-LH, is the state licensing test that qualifies an individual to sell life insurance and accident and health insurance products in Delaware. It is not a private designation or a national credential - it is a state-administered producer exam tied directly to the Delaware Department of Insurance's licensing process. If you've landed here after reading a different definition of "DE-LH" elsewhere, note that this article and every other page on this site refer exclusively to the Delaware Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam.

For a plain-language breakdown of the exam's purpose and scope, see What Is DE-LH? and DE-LH Meaning. If you want the short version of what the letters stand for, check What Does DE-LH Stand For?.

Who Regulates and Administers the Exam

The exam is regulated by the Delaware Department of Insurance and administered at the testing level by Pearson VUE. Delaware does not run a single combined "life and health" test - it uses two separate major-line exams: one for Life insurance and one for Accident and Health insurance. Candidates pursuing a full life and health producer license typically sit for both.

Exam Structure: Two Major Lines, One Test Day

Each major-line exam - Life and Accident and Health - is built the same way: a general knowledge portion covering national insurance concepts, and a state-specific portion covering Delaware statutes, regulations, and bulletins. According to the current candidate handbook, the two exams together total 221 multiple-choice items: 182 scored questions and 39 pretest (unscored) questions. Each exam runs 2 hours and 15 minutes, for a combined 4 hours and 30 minutes if you take both in one sitting.

It's worth flagging a documentation quirk here: while the handbook cites 39 total pretest items across both exams, the separate content-outline PDF references only five general pretest questions per exam - a total of ten. The two official documents don't reconcile on this non-scored count, so treat the pretest-item figure as an area where Delaware's own materials disagree, and don't stress if your actual test-day count differs slightly from what you memorized.

Both the Life exam and the Accident and Health exam are offered in Spanish, and both are delivered at Pearson VUE testing centers. There is no requirement in Delaware for a specific prelicensing education course before sitting for either exam, which puts more weight on self-directed study using a structured outline like the one in DE-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.

The 17 DE-LH Exam Domains

DE-LH content is organized into 17 domains spread across the two exams. The first eight domains sit under the Life exam (general knowledge plus Delaware-specific content), and the remaining nine sit under the Accident and Health exam. Domain percentages are calculated by normalizing the official scored-item counts across the full two-exam path, so a domain's weight reflects its share of the 182 scored questions, not a flat guess.

Ethics carries real weight on this exam: the January 15, 2025 content outline places 24 of the 182 scored questions in Insurance Ethics content, split between the Life-side ethics domain and the Accident and Health-side ethics domain. That's a meaningful chunk of your scored total riding on ethics rules alone, so it shouldn't be treated as an afterthought. For a full breakdown of how each domain is weighted and tested, see DE-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 17 Content Areas.

Eligibility and Application Requirements

Delaware keeps its resident eligibility path relatively lean. There is no mandated prelicensing course. To become a licensed resident producer, a candidate must:

• Pass both the general and state portions of the applicable major-line exam(s)
• Submit a Delaware State Police criminal background report
• Pay the $125 producer application fee

Because there's no required course sitting between you and exam day, most of the actual preparation burden falls on independent study. That makes it especially important to understand exactly what's tested before you schedule anything - see DE-LH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify for the full eligibility checklist.

Fees and Scheduling Mechanics

DE-LH fees have two distinct layers: the Pearson VUE exam fee and the state application fee. Scheduling both major-line exams - Life and Accident and Health - on the same test day costs a single $90 fee rather than paying separately for each. On top of that, the producer application itself carries a $125 fee once you've passed.

For a full walkthrough of every fee a candidate is likely to pay from registration through licensing, read DE-LH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. If you're still mapping out testing windows and how far in advance to book, DE-LH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling covers scheduling logistics in more depth.

Retake Rules for General and State Portions

Each major-line exam is split into a general knowledge portion and a Delaware state-specific portion, and Delaware scores them separately. If a candidate fails one portion but passes the other, only the failed portion needs to be retaken - but the passing portion doesn't stay valid indefinitely. The candidate must pass the remaining portion within one year of the first passing result, or the clock resets.

This structure also means your study plan should treat the general and state-specific content as separately masterable blocks rather than one undifferentiated pile of material - a distinction covered further in DE-LH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

Renewal and Continuing Education

Once licensed, Delaware resident producers renew biennially, with all renewals due by the last day of February in even-numbered years. Renewal requires 24 continuing education credits, including at least 3 ethics credits. Health producers who sell long-term care products have an additional requirement: at least 3 Delaware long-term-care specific CE hours within the same biennium.

Who Hires DE-LH Licensed Producers

A DE-LH license opens the door to selling life insurance products (term, whole, universal, and related riders) and accident and health products (individual and group health plans, disability, long-term care, and supplemental coverage) within Delaware. Typical employers and business models include:

• Captive and independent life insurance agencies writing term, whole, and universal life policies
• Health insurance brokerages placing individual, small-group, and supplemental coverage
• Multi-line insurance agencies that want producers who can cross-sell life and health products under one license
• Financial services firms that pair life insurance sales with retirement and annuity planning conversations

Because Delaware's licensing structure treats life and health as related but distinct major lines, many working producers hold both - which is exactly why the same-day $90 exam scheduling option exists. For a look at how this license translates into real job opportunities, see DE-LH Jobs, and for context on compensation structures in the field, DE-LH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis walks through how producers are typically paid.

Building a Study Plan Around the Domains

Because DE-LH splits cleanly into two exams - each with a general and a state portion - the most efficient prep sequence follows that same split rather than a generic weekly template. Spend early weeks on the general knowledge domains common to most life and health exams nationally, then shift to Delaware-specific statutes and ethics closer to your test date, since that content is more perishable and benefits from being fresh.

If you're unsure how difficult this pacing is relative to other state licensing exams, How Hard Is the DE-LH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 breaks down the difficulty factors in more detail, and DE-LH Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows covers what's known about outcomes. When you're ready to test your recall under real conditions, run through timed questions on our DE-LH practice test platform before booking your Pearson VUE appointment.

For candidates who want a condensed, last-mile review resource, DE-LH Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts compiles the highest-yield facts across all 17 domains into a single reference. And if you're still deciding whether pursuing this license fits your career goals, Is the DE-LH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 weighs the time and cost against the opportunities it opens.

Frequently Asked Questions