DE-LH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify

What Is the DE-LH Exam and Who Regulates It

The Delaware Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam (DE-LH) is the state licensing test administered on behalf of the Delaware Department of Insurance, with Pearson VUE handling scheduling and delivery at its testing centers. Unlike some states that combine everything into one sitting, Delaware separates the process into a Life exam and an Accident and Health exam. Candidates who want authority to sell both lines must pass both exams, though they can be scheduled back-to-back on the same day.

If you're still getting oriented to what this credential actually covers, the What Is DE-LH? overview and the DE-LH Meaning explainer are good starting points before you dig into the requirements below.

Eligibility Requirements to Sit for the Exam

Delaware's eligibility bar for the DE-LH exams is lower than many candidates expect. There is no mandated prelicensing education course, no college degree requirement, and no sponsorship prerequisite baked into the state's exam-eligibility rules. In practice, this means the real "requirement" is passing the exam itself and completing the paperwork that follows.

• No specific prelicensing education program is required by Delaware before testing.
• Candidates choose whether to pursue the Life exam, the Accident and Health exam, or both.
• Testing happens exclusively through Pearson VUE testing centers.
• Exams are available in Spanish for candidates who prefer that language.

This open-door structure is exactly why so many candidates underestimate the content load. Because nothing forces you through a structured course first, the burden of mastering all 17 domains falls entirely on your own study plan. For a full breakdown of how demanding that actually is, see How Hard Is the DE-LH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Prerequisites: Education, Background Check, and Fees

While there's no coursework prerequisite, Delaware does require several administrative steps before a resident applicant can hold an active producer license:

• Pass the required exams. Life only, Accident and Health only, or both, depending on the lines you intend to sell.
• Submit a Delaware State Police criminal background report. This is a resident-applicant requirement tied to licensure, not the exam itself.
• Pay the $125 producer application fee. This is separate from exam registration fees and covers the license application processed through the Delaware Department of Insurance.

On exam-day costs specifically, Delaware's fee structure rewards candidates who plan ahead: scheduling both the Life exam and the Accident and Health exam on the same day costs a single $90 fee, rather than paying separately for two appointments. If you only need one line, plan your registration around that line alone; if you need both, same-day scheduling is the more economical route.

Exam Structure: Life vs. Accident and Health

Understanding the exam's architecture matters as much as knowing the content. According to the current Delaware handbook, the two exams together include 221 multiple-choice items - 182 scored and 39 pretest (unscored) questions - with each exam allotted 2 hours 15 minutes, for a combined 4 hours 30 minutes if you sit for both on the same day. It's worth noting that Delaware's separate content-outline PDF lists only five general pretest questions per exam, which conflicts with the handbook's pretest total; candidates should treat the scored-question counts as the more reliable planning figure and not stress over reconciling the two documents.

Each major-line exam - Life and Accident and Health - is itself divided into two parts:

• A general portion covering national-level insurance concepts common across states.
• A state portion covering Delaware-specific statutes, regulations, and bulletins.

This split matters directly for how you study and how you handle a retake, which we cover in the next section. For the mechanics of what score you actually need on each portion, see DE-LH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

The 17 DE-LH Domains You'll Be Tested On

Delaware organizes content across 17 domains split between the Life exam and the Accident and Health exam. Each domain represents a chunk of the general or state portion, and the January 15, 2025 content outline assigns specific scored-question weight to each - most notably, Insurance Ethics accounts for 24 of the 182 scored questions across the full two-exam path, making it one of the highest-leverage domains to master regardless of which line you're licensing in.

Because domain weight is normalized from the official scored-item counts across the full two-exam path, some domains carry noticeably more test-day weight than others. For a question-by-question breakdown of every domain and how to allocate study hours accordingly, read DE-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 17 Content Areas.

Scheduling, Retakes, and the One-Year Rule

Delaware's retake policy is more forgiving than a full re-exam requirement, but it comes with a strict deadline. Because each major-line exam is split into a general portion and a state portion, a candidate who passes one portion but fails the other only needs to retake the failed portion - not the entire exam. However, the candidate must pass the remaining portion within one year of the first passing result, or the passing score expires and both portions must be retaken.

This structure rewards candidates who treat the general and state portions as two distinct study targets rather than one blended review. Confirm current test-center availability and appointment windows through DE-LH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling before you lock in a retake date.

Licensing After You Pass: Renewal and CE

Passing the exam and completing the application steps gets you licensed, but Delaware resident licenses aren't permanent without upkeep. Licenses renew biennially by the last day of February in even-numbered years, and renewal requires 24 continuing education credits, including 3 ethics credits, within that two-year cycle.

• Health producers who sell long-term care products have an added requirement: at least 3 Delaware long-term-care CE hours within the biennium.
• The 3 ethics credits are part of the 24-credit total, not additional to it.
• Renewal timing is tied to the calendar (even years, end of February) rather than your individual license anniversary.

Building a Domain-Smart Study Plan

Because Delaware doesn't require a formal prelicensing course, most candidates build their own study sequence. A practical approach is to front-load the domains with the highest scored-question weight - Insurance Ethics being the clearest example, since it alone represents 24 of 182 scored questions - and treat the state-specific domains (5-8 for Life, 14-17 for Accident and Health) as a distinct study block from the general-knowledge domains.

This structure isn't a generic template - it maps directly onto how the general/state portions and the two-exam split are actually tested. For a more detailed week-by-week plan with practice-question targets, see DE-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, and pressure-test your readiness on our practice test platform before booking your Pearson VUE appointment.

Who Hires DE-LH Licensed Producers

Once licensed, Delaware producers with Life and Accident and Health authority typically work with carriers, agencies, and brokerages selling individual and group life policies, annuities, disability coverage, and health-related products across the state. Some producers specialize in long-term care sales, which is why Delaware attaches the extra 3-hour LTC continuing education requirement to that segment of the license. Because Delaware doesn't lock candidates into a single carrier-sponsored training path, many producers use the license as a portable credential across multiple employers.

If you're evaluating whether this career path fits your goals, the DE-LH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and Is the DE-LH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 articles dig into earning potential and career trajectory, while DE-LH Jobs surveys the kinds of roles that actively recruit licensed producers.

Frequently Asked Questions