- NHLAH is the New Hampshire Life, Accident & Health Insurance Producer Exam, run through PSI as Series 12-63.
- The exam costs $72, has 150 outline items, and allows 2 hours 30 minutes to finish.
- Life, Accident and Health Insurance Basics is the single largest domain at 17% of the exam.
- New Hampshire does not require a prelicensing course, but the exam itself is not optional.
What Is NHLAH, Exactly?
NHLAH stands for the New Hampshire Life, Accident & Health Insurance Producer Exam. It is the state licensing test that anyone who wants to sell life insurance, accident insurance, or health insurance products in New Hampshire must pass before they can legally hold a resident producer license in those lines. It is not a voluntary professional designation you add to a résumé for prestige - it is the mandatory gatekeeping exam the New Hampshire Insurance Department uses to confirm that a candidate understands insurance regulation, policy structure, and consumer protection rules before that person is allowed to sell coverage to real people.
Because several unrelated credentials share similar-sounding acronyms, it's worth being precise: on this site, every reference to NHLAH refers strictly to this state producer exam covering life, accident, and health lines in New Hampshire - nothing else. If you're comparing notes with someone studying a differently-named certification, the domain weights, fees, and rules won't line up, because they're describing a different exam entirely.
Who Administers the NHLAH Exam
The exam is overseen by the New Hampshire Insurance Department, which sets the licensing requirements, but the actual test delivery is contracted out to PSI, a third-party testing vendor. Within PSI's system, the exam is cataloged as Series 12-63. When you register for a testing appointment, you'll see this exam code referenced in scheduling confirmations and score reports.
One detail that trips up candidates who studied years ago or who read outdated forum posts: remote online proctoring for this exam ended on July 6, 2026. That means every candidate today must sit for the exam at a physical PSI test center - there is no at-home or webcam-proctored option anymore. If you're planning your test date, factor in travel time to an approved center rather than assuming you can test from your kitchen table.
Key Takeaway
Because remote testing is no longer available, book your PSI test-center appointment early, especially if you live in a rural part of the state where centers are limited.
Exam Format, Fees, and Registration
The NHLAH exam is computer-based and structured as follows:
- Cost: $72 per attempt
- Length: 150 outline items
- Time limit: 2 hours and 30 minutes
- Experimental questions: PSI may insert 5-10 additional unscored questions mixed in with the scored items, which is why the total item count you see on screen can run slightly higher than 150
New Hampshire does not require candidates to complete a prelicensing education course before sitting for the exam, unlike some states that mandate a set number of classroom or online hours. That flexibility puts more responsibility on the candidate to self-assess readiness rather than relying on a course provider's completion certificate as proof of preparation. For a full breakdown of exactly what a passing performance requires on test day, see the NHLAH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass guide.
Because there's no built-in coursework requirement, many candidates instead lean on structured self-study and practice test repetition to fill that gap. If you're weighing whether this exam is more straightforward or more demanding than it looks on paper, the How Hard Is the NHLAH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 article walks through what actually makes it challenging.
The 13 NHLAH Exam Domains
Unlike generic insurance trivia, the NHLAH exam is built from a fixed outline of 13 content domains, each carrying a specific percentage of the total exam. Understanding these weights is the single most useful thing you can do before you open a study guide, because it tells you exactly where to spend your limited study hours.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| 1. Insurance Regulation | 7% |
| 2. Federal Laws and Regulations | 2% |
| 3. General Insurance Concepts | 7% |
| 4. Life, Accident and Health Insurance Basics | 17% |
| 5. Types of Life Insurance Policies | 10% |
| 6. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders | 15% |
| 7. Annuities | 7% |
| 8. Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy Provisions | 9% |
| 9. Disability Income and Related Insurance | 6% |
| 10. Medical Plans | 10% |
| 11. Group Health Insurance | 2% |
| 12. Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals | 4% |
| 13. Federal Tax Considerations for Life and Health Insurance | 4% |
Notice that four domains - Life, Accident and Health Insurance Basics, Life Insurance Policy Provisions/Options/Riders, Types of Life Insurance Policies, and Medical Plans - together account for more than half the exam. Federal Laws and Regulations and Group Health Insurance, by contrast, each carry only 2%. That doesn't mean you skip them, but it does mean your study hours shouldn't be spread evenly across all 13 topics. For item-by-item breakdowns of what each domain actually tests, the NHLAH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas resource covers all thirteen in depth.
Where the Exam Concentrates Its Weight
Three domains deserve extra attention simply because of how much of the exam they represent combined.
Domain 4: Life, Accident and Health Insurance Basics (17%)
This is the largest single domain on the entire exam. It covers foundational concepts that other domains build on, so weak fundamentals here tend to cost points in multiple sections.
- Core insurance terminology and how risk is transferred to an insurer
- How life, accident, and health products differ structurally
- Underwriting basics and how insurable interest applies
Domain 6: Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders (15%)
This domain tests your ability to read a policy the way an underwriter or claims examiner would - knowing what a provision guarantees the policyholder and what a rider adds on top of a base contract.
- Standard, nonforfeiture, and settlement provisions
- Dividend options and how policy loans work
- Common riders and what circumstances trigger them
Domain 5: Types of Life Insurance Policies (10%) & Domain 10: Medical Plans (10%)
These two domains are tied for third-largest and cover very different territory - one is about how life policies are categorized and structured, the other about how medical coverage plans are organized and delivered.
- Term, whole, universal, and variable life distinctions
- How different medical plan structures manage cost-sharing and provider access
Together these four domains make up 52% of the exam. If your study time is limited, this is where accuracy on practice questions matters most before you move on to the smaller domains.
Who Hires NHLAH-Licensed Producers
A New Hampshire life, accident, and health producer license opens the door to selling through insurance carriers, independent agencies, and brokerages operating in the state. Typical hiring paths include:
- Captive agents working under a single carrier's contract to sell that company's life and health products
- Independent agencies that place business across multiple carriers based on client needs
- Group benefits brokers who help New Hampshire employers structure health, disability, and life benefit packages
- Financial services firms that pair a life/health license with investment or annuity sales
The license itself doesn't guarantee a job offer, but it is the non-negotiable credential every one of these employers screens for before extending a contract. If you're trying to figure out whether pursuing the license is financially worth the time investment, the Is the NHLAH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 article and the NHLAH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis both dig into that question in more detail. For a look at what specific roles actually ask for this license, see NHLAH Jobs.
Licensing, CE, and Life After the Exam
Passing the NHLAH exam is the academic hurdle, but it isn't the finish line for holding a license long-term. Once licensed, resident producers must complete 24 continuing education hours per biennium, and within that total, 3 to 10 hours must specifically be ethics-focused. These CE hours must be finished no later than 60 days before your renewal date - leaving it until the last week is a common and avoidable mistake.
It's also worth remembering that New Hampshire doesn't require a prelicensing course before the exam, so nothing about your path to the exam automatically teaches you the CE cycle rules. Building a simple calendar reminder around your renewal date, well before that 60-day cutoff, saves a lot of last-minute scrambling. If you want the full eligibility picture - including who qualifies to sit for the exam in the first place - the NHLAH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify guide lays it out step by step, and NHLAH Certification covers what the credential actually authorizes you to do once issued.
Building a Domain-Weighted Study Plan
Rather than studying all 13 domains in the order they appear on the outline, it makes more sense to sequence your prep by weight and by how much each domain depends on earlier concepts. A rough approach:
Foundations First
- Master Domain 4 (Life, Accident and Health Insurance Basics) since it underlies later domains
- Layer in Domain 3 (General Insurance Concepts) alongside it
Life Insurance Core
- Work through Domain 5 (Types of Life Insurance Policies)
- Move into Domain 6 (Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders) since it builds on Domain 5
Health, Disability, and Annuities
- Cover Domain 10 (Medical Plans), Domain 8 (Individual A&H Policy Provisions), and Domain 9 (Disability Income)
- Add Domain 7 (Annuities)
Regulatory and Tax Cleanup
- Finish smaller-weight domains: Insurance Regulation, Federal Laws, Group Health, Specialized Health Insurance, and Federal Tax Considerations
- Run full-length timed practice sessions to simulate the 2.5-hour window
This sequencing isn't a universal formula - it's simply an application of the domain weights from the outline, front-loading the heaviest and most foundational material first. For a more detailed week-by-week breakdown tailored to first-attempt candidates, see the NHLAH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. Running through full-length practice tests in the final week helps confirm your pacing matches the real 150-item, 2-hour-30-minute format, including the chance that a handful of unscored experimental items are mixed in.
Frequently Asked Questions
NHLAH refers to the New Hampshire Life, Accident & Health Insurance Producer Exam. For a closer look at the naming and how it's used across licensing materials, see NHLAH Meaning and What Does NHLAH Stand For?
It functions as a state licensing exam. Passing it is required before the New Hampshire Insurance Department will issue a resident life, accident, and health producer license. See What Is NHLAH Certification? for more on how that distinction plays out in practice.
No. New Hampshire does not mandate a prelicensing education course before you sit for the NHLAH exam, though many candidates still choose structured self-study to prepare.
No. Remote proctoring for this exam ended July 6, 2026. All candidates must now test in person at a PSI test center.
The exam has 150 outline items with a 2-hour-30-minute time limit, and PSI may add 5-10 additional unscored experimental questions. For a look at how the passing threshold applies against that scored total, see NHLAH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass, and for testing calendar logistics, check NHLAH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.