Think of the license as the state's promise to the public that you know the rules and can be trusted. Each step tests one of those two things.

1. Prelicensing education (Ins. Code §1749, as amended by AB 943, effective January 1, 2026): a life agent applicant must complete 12 hours of study on ethics and the California Insurance Code, including 1 hour on insurance fraud. If you apply for several license types (for example life plus accident and health), one 12-hour course covers all of them. The certificate of completion expires 3 years after the course, whether or not you get licensed. 2. Exam: you must pass the qualifying exam within the 12 months before the license is issued (§1676). California offers the life agent exam in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog (§1677). 3. Application and background check: the Insurance Commissioner may deny an application if, for example, the applicant is not properly qualified, is not of good business reputation, lacks integrity, made a misstatement on the application, previously acted fraudulently or dishonestly, or has shown incompetency or untrustworthiness (§1668). The Commissioner may deny without a hearing for a felony conviction, or for a license denied, suspended or revoked for cause within the past 5 years (§1669).

No exam is required for some applicants (§1675), such as a person licensed as a life agent during the current or immediately preceding license year, a travel insurance agent applicant, or a nonresident licensee who moves to California and applies within 90 days of cancelling the old resident license.