DE-LH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown

DE-LH Cost Overview

When people search for the "cost" of the Delaware Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam (DE-LH), they're usually mixing together three separate expenses: the Pearson VUE testing fee, the Delaware Department of Insurance producer application fee, and the ongoing cost of maintaining the license once it's issued. Understanding how these three pieces fit together - and which ones you can influence by how you schedule your testing appointment - is the difference between a predictable budget and an unpleasant surprise at checkout.

This breakdown sticks strictly to verified fee structures from the Delaware Department of Insurance and Pearson VUE. If you want the fuller picture of what's tested for that money, pair this with the DE-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 17 Content Areas, and if you're still deciding whether to pursue the license at all, the Is the DE-LH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 article weighs the investment against the outcome.

Pearson VUE Exam Fees

Delaware treats life insurance and accident and health insurance as two distinct major lines, each with its own exam. Pearson VUE administers both. According to the current handbook, scheduling both major-line exams for the same day carries a single $90 fee - meaning candidates who plan ahead and book both exams together avoid paying for two separate testing appointments.

Each exam runs 2 hours and 15 minutes, so sitting for both back-to-back means a 4 hour 30 minute testing day. That's a long stretch of concentration, which is exactly why domain-by-domain preparation matters more here than in a single-exam license. If you're unsure whether your stamina and study plan are ready for a session that long, the How Hard Is the DE-LH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 article walks through what that combined test day actually feels like.

• Life exam: general portion + Delaware-specific portion, 2 hours 15 minutes total
• Accident and Health exam: general portion + Delaware-specific portion, 2 hours 15 minutes total
• Combined same-day scheduling: one $90 fee covers both exams
• Both exams are offered in Spanish at Pearson VUE testing centers

One detail worth flagging for anyone reconciling official documents: the handbook lists 221 total multiple-choice items across both exams (182 scored, 39 pretest), while the separate content-outline PDF references only five general pretest questions per exam. The two official sources don't fully agree on the non-scored item count, so don't be alarmed if your actual test-day item count varies slightly from what you memorized - the scored 182-question total is the number that determines your pass/fail result.

Producer Application & Licensing Fees

Passing the exam is not the same as holding a license. After clearing both exam portions, resident applicants in Delaware must also:

• Submit a Delaware State Police criminal background report
• Pay the $125 producer application fee to the Delaware Department of Insurance

Notably, Delaware does not mandate a specific prelicensing education program before you sit for the exam. That's a meaningful cost saver compared to states that require a fixed number of pre-exam classroom or online course hours - in Delaware, your only "required" spend before test day is the exam fee itself, plus whatever self-study materials you choose. For a full rundown of every eligibility step in order, see DE-LH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Additional Costs to Budget For

Beyond the two fees above, a few line items are worth planning for even though they aren't fixed dollar amounts in the official handbook:

• Background check processing: The Delaware State Police criminal background report is a required submission alongside your application; treat this as a separate administrative step with its own processing time.
• Study materials: Because there's no mandatory course, candidates who want structured preparation typically invest in a study guide or practice-question platform rather than a licensed classroom program. Our DE-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt lays out a self-directed path that doesn't require paying for a formal course.
• Retake costs: If you fail a portion of either exam, you'll need to pay to retake that specific portion (see below) - budgeting a buffer for a possible retake fee is prudent, especially if you're combining both exams into one long test day.
• Time off work: Not a fee, but a real cost - the 4 hour 30 minute combined test day plus travel to a Pearson VUE center is worth planning around your work schedule.

You can review sample question formats and practice under realistic conditions before committing to a testing date at our DE-LH practice test platform, which helps you gauge readiness before you spend a cent on the actual exam fee.

What You're Actually Paying to Be Tested On

The $90 exam fee buys you a shot at 182 scored questions spread across 17 content domains - four general Life domains, four Delaware-specific Life domains, five general Accident and Health domains, and four Delaware-specific Accident and Health domains. Knowing where the scored weight sits helps you decide where your preparation dollars and hours matter most.

The January 15, 2025 content outline places 24 of the 182 scored questions in Insurance Ethics alone - a sizable concentration for a single domain across the two-exam path. That weighting alone makes ethics one of the highest-leverage domains to master relative to time invested. For a question-by-question walk through every domain's weight and scope, see the DE-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 17 Content Areas.

Retakes and the One-Year Rule

Each major-line exam is split into a general portion and a state-specific portion. If you fail one portion, you don't have to retake the whole exam - but you do have to pass the remaining portion within one year of your first attempt. This structure has direct cost implications:

• A single failed portion means paying to retest only that portion, not the entire exam
• Missing the one-year window to pass the remaining portion likely means starting the process (and its fees) over
• Candidates who schedule Life and Accident and Health on the same day should weigh whether that convenience is worth the risk of needing separate retake appointments if one portion doesn't go well

To understand exactly what score you need to clear each portion on the first attempt - and avoid this cost altogether - read DE-LH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass. It's also worth reviewing DE-LH Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows before you schedule, so your prep timeline matches the actual difficulty of the material rather than an assumption.

Renewal and Continuing Education Costs

Passing the exam and getting licensed is the first cost cycle. The second is renewal, which resident producers should plan into their multi-year budget rather than treating as a surprise.

• Resident licenses renew biennially, by the last day of February in even-numbered years
• Renewal requires 24 continuing education credits, including 3 ethics credits
• Health producers who sell long-term care insurance must complete at least 3 Delaware long-term-care CE hours within that same biennium

CE course costs vary by provider, but the requirement itself is fixed by regulation. If long-term care is part of your book of business, don't let those 3 dedicated hours slip - they're a distinct requirement layered on top of the general 24-hour and 3-ethics-hour minimums, not folded into them.

Full Cost Breakdown Table

Budgeting Study Time Around the Fees You Pay

Since Delaware doesn't require a paid prelicensing course, your main "cost efficiency" lever is minimizing retake fees by passing both exam portions on the first try. A domain-aware study sequence helps you get there without wasting the $90 you've already committed to the combined test date.

This sequencing avoids the costliest mistake candidates make with the combined same-day fee: cramming Delaware-specific rules the night before and running out of time on the general knowledge portions that make up the bulk of each exam. For a deeper methodology on pacing and review cycles, see the full DE-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, and confirm your target testing date against the current calendar in DE-LH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.

Frequently Asked Questions