DC-LH Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

What the 2025 DISB Pass Rate Data Actually Shows

The District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) publishes candidate performance data for the licensing exams it regulates, and the exams themselves are administered through Pearson VUE test centers. The most recent published figures, covering 2025 and combining first-time and repeat candidates, show a 38% pass rate on the Life exam and a 50% pass rate on the Accident and Health exam.

Those two numbers alone tell you something important: this is not a rubber-stamp licensing test. Fewer than half of everyone who sits for the Life exam clears the bar on any given attempt, and the Health exam - while friendlier - still turns away roughly half of test-takers. If you're building your prep plan around the assumption that "most people pass," the data says otherwise.

Life vs. Accident and Health: Why the Numbers Differ

The 12-point gap between the Life pass rate (38%) and the Health pass rate (50%) is worth sitting with. Both exams share the same format - 155 scored questions, 20 pretest items, a two-hour window, and a scaled score of 70 to pass - so the difference isn't structural. It's content.

The Life exam draws from five general-knowledge domains covering policy types, riders and provisions, underwriting and application procedures, and retirement concepts, plus two DC-specific law domains. That's a lot of interlocking terminology: nonforfeiture options, settlement options, dividend options, and rider stacking all show up in ways that are easy to mix up under timed conditions. The Health exam, by contrast, spans five general-knowledge domains plus its own two DC-law domains, but candidates preparing for it often come in with more familiarity from group benefits work or prior exposure to Medicare and Medicaid structures in the Social Insurance domain.

For a full breakdown of every content area feeding those scores, see the DC-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas.

How the Two-Exam Format Shapes Your Odds

Since DC no longer offers a combined exam, candidates pursuing full life and health authority sit for two separate, independently scored tests - each costing $75, each capped at two hours, for four hours of total seat time. That split matters for pass-rate strategy in a few concrete ways:

• You can't average your way to a pass. A strong Health score doesn't offset a weak Life score, because they're scored and reported separately.
• Fatigue isn't shared across content. Because each exam is its own two-hour block, you can schedule them on different days if you want fresh focus for each domain set.
• Retesting is isolated to the failed exam. If you pass Health but fail Life, you only need to retake Life - you don't lose your passing Health result.

There's no mandated 40-hour prelicensing minimum in DC, but you must show proof of a prelicensing course of study before you're permitted to sit for either exam. That proof requirement is a gate, not a depth guarantee - plenty of candidates complete the minimum coursework and still walk into a room with material they haven't truly mastered. No reference materials are allowed at the Pearson VUE test center, so recall has to be automatic, not lookup-assisted.

Domain Weighting and Where Points Are Won or Lost

Domain percentages for the DC-LH exams normalize the official scored-item counts across the full two-exam path, which means every content area has a defined, non-trivial share of the 155 scored questions. Here's how the general-knowledge and DC-specific content breaks down:

A candidate who under-prepares even one of these areas risks a domino effect - because the exam draws from all of them in roughly proportional fashion, no single "cram session" domain can carry the whole score. For a domain-by-domain study sequence, the DC-LH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt maps prep time against exact content weight.

The DC-Law Domains That Trip Up Out-of-State Candidates

Perhaps the single most underestimated factor behind the 38% Life pass rate is District-specific law content. The exam outline effective September 2, 2025 assigns 40 of the 155 scored questions to the two common District-law domains - the ones covering rules shared across life, accident and health, property, and casualty insurance, plus the domain pertinent to life insurance only (and, on the Health side, the domain pertinent to accident and health insurance only).

Forty scored questions out of 155 is a meaningful chunk of the exam, and it's the section candidates coming from out-of-state licensing backgrounds are most likely to skip or skim. General insurance concepts transfer across states reasonably well; DC-specific producer licensing rules, appointment procedures, and unfair trade practice definitions do not.

If you want a granular look at exactly what falls inside each DC-specific domain, that content is broken out fully in the DC-LH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 13 Content Areas, and the scoring mechanics behind the 70 cutoff are explained in the DC-LH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

What Happens If You Don't Pass

Given that roughly six in ten Life candidates and half of Health candidates don't clear the bar on a given sitting, understanding the retake process is practical, not pessimistic. Retakes require a 24-hour scheduling wait before you can book another Pearson VUE appointment, and each attempt carries its own $75 fee - there's no bundled discount for a second try.

Passing scores, once earned, remain valid for 12 months, which matters if you pass one exam but need more time before attempting the other, or if there's a gap between finishing testing and submitting your license application. Resident applicants also need to factor in fingerprinting and a background check as part of the broader licensing process - these run in parallel with, not instead of, the exam requirement.

A close reading of the fee structure, retake costs, and what's included versus what's an add-on is available in the DC-LH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Who Actually Sits for the DC-LH Exams

The candidate pool for these exams is broader than "new insurance agent." It includes career-changers entering financial services, existing property and casualty producers adding life and health lines, and staff at agencies who need dual authority to sell full product suites. Because DC requires both exams separately rather than a single combined test, some candidates hold active Health authority while still working toward passing Life, or vice versa - which is part of why the two pass rates are tracked and reported independently.

Once licensed, producers must maintain their credential biennially, renewing on the last day of their birth month and completing 24 CE credits - 21 general and 3 ethics - each cycle. That renewal cadence is worth knowing before you even sit for the initial exam, since it frames licensing as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time hurdle. Career and hiring context specific to license holders is covered in DC-LH Jobs and DC-LH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis.

For anyone still weighing whether the licensing path is worth the time and testing fees given these pass rates, Is the DC-LH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 walks through that decision in more depth.

A Domain-Ordered Study Timeline

Generic study techniques only help if they're pointed at the right targets. Given that DC-law content accounts for 40 of 155 scored Life questions and each exam runs on a strict two-hour clock with no reference materials, sequencing matters more than sheer hours logged.

Practicing under real time pressure matters because there's no material to consult mid-exam - recall speed is part of what's being tested. You can run realistic timed sessions on the main practice test platform to build that pacing before test day, and the DC-LH Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts is useful for last-pass review the night before.

Frequently Asked Questions