How to Get an Insurance License in New Hampshire

If you’re thinking about becoming an insurance agent in New Hampshire, the first step you’ll need to take in order to kickstart your career is to obtain a New Hampshire insurance license.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of how to become an insurance agent in New Hampshire, as well as what to do once you get licensed.

New Hampshire Insurance License

In order to get your New Hampshire insurance license, you’ll need to complete the following four steps:

1. Figure Out Which Insurance License You’ll Need
2. Complete a Pre-Licensing Education Course
3. Pass the Relevant New Hampshire Insurance License Exam(s)
4. Submit Your Insurance License Application

Below we have explored each step in more detail.

Step 1: Decide Which Insurance Licenses You Need

The first step will be deciding what type of insurance policies you’ll want to sell — at least at the start of your career.

This is because the type of insurance policies you’re hoping to sell will dictate the type of license you’ll need. For example, you’d need a Property & Casualty (P&C) license to be able to sell auto, home, or business insurance.

Here’s a list of all the different types of insurance agent licenses that are available in the state of New Hampshire:

• Life
• Accident and Health
• Property and Casualty
• Variable Contracts
• Title
• Property
• Casualty
• Personal
• Credit
• Surplus

While there are a large number of different licenses to choose from, the vast majority of insurance agents will either obtain a Property and Casualty (P&C) or a Life and Health insurance license.

In fact, many agents actually opt to go for both of these licenses as it allows them to offer clients a much wider range of the most common insurance products.

However, if you already know you want to specialize in one particular type of policy, you’ll of course only have to focus on the specific license that’s relevant to this insurance type.

It’s worth noting at this point that if you’re looking to work as an insurance adjuster, you’ll need to obtain a separate license — which you can find more information about in our New Hampshire Adjuster License overview.

Step 2: Complete a New Hampshire Pre-Licensing Education Course

The next step you’ll want to take toward becoming a licensed insurance agent in New Hampshire is completing a pre-licensing education course.

It’s important to note that New Hampshire does not actually require prospective insurance agents to complete a pre-licensing course in order to obtain their license.

Having said that, completing a course is highly recommended as it can go a long way in helping you pass on your first attempt — which can save you both time and money in the long run.

Due to the sheer number of pre-licensing education courses available, it’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed when deciding which one is right for you. To avoid this, we typically recommend making a decision based on the following factors:

• The course’s flexibility (e.g., does it allow flexible learning, does it require completing within a short time-window, etc.)
• The course’s price: This one is obvious; our only tip here is to not go too low, as from our experience you tend to get what you pay for when it comes to these
• The course’s reputation: How reliable is each provider? The last thing you want is insufficient and/or incomplete resources before your exam

If you want more information before getting started, you can also have a look at our in-depth overview of the five best pre-license education courses in 2024.

Step 3: Pass the Relevant New Hampshire Insurance License Exam(s)

After completing your pre-licensing education course, you will need to take (and pass) the relevant New Hampshire insurance license exam.

We say “relevant” because this will depend on the line you wish to specialize in; for example, if you’re planning to become a life insurance agent, you will need to pass the Producer’s Life Insurance exam — which has 100 scored questions.

This exam, like all insurance agent licensing examinations in New Hampshire, is administered by Prometric.

It should be noted that you can take your insurance licensing examination at any Prometric test center in the United States, regardless of whether you are in New Hampshire or out of state.

You can also choose to sit for more than one exam at a time (e.g., if you want to apply for both a P&C and a life and health insurance license).

Even so, we recommend avoiding this route; this is because passing your exam is hard enough as is, and there is arguably little to gain and a lot to lose with the added risk of confusing separate line material.

For more information, you can have a look at our New Hampshire Insurance License Exam guide.

Step 4: Submit Your Insurance License Application

With your exams out of the way, you’ll be ready to actually apply for your license.

To do this, you will need to complete this NAIC Uniform Application form and submit it online through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) website.

Keep in mind that you will need to pay a $210 filing fee in order for your application to be processed.

Note: Any misdemeanors or felonies may affect the outcome of your licensing efforts. If you’re worried about this, you can contact the New Hampshire Department of Insurance by phone or email.

Step 5: Application Review

And that’s it! After satisfying all the other requirements and submitting a license application to the New Hampshire Insurance Department, all that’s left to do is wait.

If everything on your application has been filled out correctly, your license should be issued within three to five weeks — which is the amount of time it typically takes for a license application and background check to be reviewed.

It’s important to be aware that the issuance of your insurance license can take a bit longer than this if there are any items from your background check that need to be looked over. However, the state will likely get in touch with you to give some context if they run into any issues.

In any case, the state will send you an email regarding the status of your license once this review has been completed, so keep an eye out for that!

After Getting Your New Hampshire Insurance License

Once you have successfully completed all necessary exams and received your license from the state of New Hampshire, you will be recognized as an authorized insurance producer.

At this point, there are four main steps that we recommend new resident producers to take:

1. Obtain Any Relevant Securities Licenses: If you’re planning on selling advanced life insurance products, you’ll need to pass the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam and obtain the relevant securities licenses (e.g., Series 6, 7, and 63).
2. Choose a Means of Selling: You’ll have to decide whether you’d prefer working as a captive agent employed by one company, or running your own business as an independent agent.
3. Develop Your Marketing Approach: To succeed as an insurance agent, you’ll need to adopt a marketing approach that’s effective for you. Finding and sticking to a niche, as well organizing all client appointments for the start of your week, are two great ways to do this.
4. Keep Your License Valid: In New Hampshire, you will be required to renew your insurance producer license every two years by completing at least 24 hours of continuing education (with at least three of those hours being focused on ethics training).

New Hampshire Insurance Department Contact Information

Mailing Address:
21 South Fruit Street, Suite 14
Concord, New Hampshire 03301

Phone: (603) 271-2261

Fax: (603) 271-1406

Email: requests@ins.nh.gov

Website: https://www.nh.gov/insurance

License Search: New Hampshire Insurance License Search and Lookup