- What Is the ORLH Certification?
- Who Administers and Regulates the Exam
- Exam Format, Timing, and Fees
- The 14 ORLH Exam Domains
- Prelicensing Education Requirements
- Registration, Fingerprinting, and Testing Options
- Building a Domain-Weighted Study Plan
- Who Pursues the ORLH Certification
- Keeping Your License: Renewal and Continuing Education
- Frequently Asked Questions
- ORLH is Oregon's Series 12-03 Life and Health (Includes Law) exam, administered by PSI for the Division of Financial Regulation.
- The exam costs $55, has 150 scored questions, runs 160 minutes, and requires a 70% score to pass.
- Group Health Insurance is the heaviest-weighted domain at 14%, followed by Life Insurance Policies at 13%.
- Residents need 20 hours of Life prelicensing education and 20 hours of Health, with certificates valid for one year.
What Is the ORLH Certification?
The ORLH certification refers to the Oregon Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam, the state licensing test that authorizes an individual to sell, solicit, or negotiate life insurance, health insurance, annuities, and related products in Oregon. It is not a designation earned through a private credentialing body - it is the statutory examination required by the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation before the state will issue a resident producer license covering both life and health lines.
Because the exam bundles two license lines into a single test, candidates sometimes underestimate how broad the content really is. If you're still getting oriented, What Is ORLH Certification? and ORLH Meaning walk through the terminology in more depth. This article focuses on the mechanics: how the exam is structured, what it costs, what you need before you can sit for it, and how the content is distributed across all 14 domains.
Who Administers and Regulates the Exam
Two entities sit behind the ORLH exam. The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) sets the licensing rules, education requirements, and content standards. PSI is the testing vendor that actually builds, schedules, and delivers the exam under the code Series 12-03, Life and Health (Includes Law). This split matters for candidates: PSI handles your registration, scheduling, and score reporting, while DFR handles your license application, fingerprinting clearance, and renewal cycle.
Understanding this division helps you know where to look when something goes wrong - a scheduling issue is a PSI matter, while a license status question goes to DFR. For a full breakdown of who qualifies to sit for the exam in the first place, see ORLH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Exam Format, Timing, and Fees
The ORLH exam is a combined life-and-health test, meaning you do not sit for separate life and health exams - one session covers both lines plus applicable law.
- Total cost: $55 for the combined exam
- Question count: 150 scored multiple-choice questions
- Time limit: 160 minutes
- Passing score: 70%
- Delivery: available at PSI test centers or via remote proctoring
Because 70% of 150 questions is a firm, fixed bar rather than a scaled or curved score, candidates benefit from knowing exactly how many questions they can miss and still pass. That math, along with scoring mechanics, is covered in ORLH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass. If you want the full cost picture - including prelicensing course fees, fingerprinting, and license application costs beyond the $55 exam fee itself - check ORLH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Key Takeaway
160 minutes for 150 questions gives you roughly one minute per question - enough time to read carefully, but not enough to second-guess every answer. Pace yourself by domain weight, not by question number.
The 14 ORLH Exam Domains
The ORLH exam draws from 14 content domains, each assigned a percentage weight that reflects how many scored questions you'll see from that area. Knowing these weights is the single most useful piece of information for allocating study time.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| 1. Insurance Regulation | 4% |
| 2. Federal Laws and Regulations | 2% |
| 3. General Insurance | 4% |
| 4. Life Insurance Basics | 7% |
| 5. Life Insurance Policies | 13% |
| 6. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders | 7% |
| 7. Annuities | 11% |
| 8. Health Insurance Basics | 6% |
| 9. Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions | 5% |
| 10. Disability Income and Related Insurance | 3% |
| 11. Medical Plans | 8% |
| 12. Group Health Insurance | 14% |
| 13. Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals | 12% |
| 14. Federal Tax Considerations for Life and Health Insurance | 4% |
Four domains - Group Health Insurance (14%), Life Insurance Policies (13%), Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals (12%), and Annuities (11%) - together account for half the exam. A detailed walkthrough of each domain's subtopics is available in ORLH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 14 Content Areas.
Domain 12: Group Health Insurance (14%)
The single largest domain. Candidates must be comfortable with how group contracts differ from individual policies, employer eligibility rules, and coordination-of-benefits concepts.
- Group underwriting and eligibility standards
- Employer-sponsored plan mechanics
- Continuation and conversion provisions
Domain 5: Life Insurance Policies (13%)
Covers the structural differences between term, whole, universal, and variable life products.
- Policy types and their cash-value behavior
- Underwriting classifications
- Ownership, beneficiary, and settlement basics
Domain 13: Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals (12%)
Focused on plans designed for specific populations, including Medicare and long-term care concepts.
- Eligibility criteria for specialized coverage
- Plan features unique to qualified-individual products
- Coordination with other coverage
Domain 7: Annuities (11%)
Tests understanding of annuity structures, payout options, and how they differ from life insurance.
- Fixed, variable, and indexed annuity distinctions
- Accumulation vs. annuitization phases
- Surrender charges and payout options
The remaining domains - Insurance Regulation, Federal Laws and Regulations, General Insurance, Life Insurance Basics, Policy Provisions/Options/Riders, Health Insurance Basics, Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions, Disability Income and Related Insurance, Medical Plans, and Federal Tax Considerations - each carry smaller weights, but together they still represent roughly half of the scored questions, so none can be skipped entirely.
Prelicensing Education Requirements
Before you can sit for the ORLH exam as a resident applicant, Oregon requires completion of approved prelicensing education:
- 20 hours of approved Life prelicensing education
- 20 hours of approved Health prelicensing education
Your completion certificate is valid for one year, so timing your coursework close to your intended exam date matters - finish too early and the certificate may expire before you test. Candidates who already hold a CLU designation may qualify for an education waiver, which can shorten the path to exam eligibility. For a complete eligibility checklist, including age, background, and application steps, review ORLH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Registration, Fingerprinting, and Testing Options
Once prelicensing education is complete, candidates register with PSI to schedule the Series 12-03 exam. Oregon offers flexibility in how you test:
- Test-center delivery at a proctored PSI location
- Remote-proctored delivery from an approved location, such as home or office
Initial resident applicants must also complete fingerprinting as part of the background check process required for licensure. This step runs alongside - not instead of - your exam scheduling, so it's worth starting early to avoid delays in receiving your license after you pass. Scheduling windows and how far in advance you should register are covered in ORLH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.
Building a Domain-Weighted Study Plan
Rather than studying the 14 domains in numerical order, allocate time according to their weight on the exam. Group Health Insurance, Life Insurance Policies, Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals, and Annuities deserve the most repetition since they make up half the scored questions.
Foundations
- Insurance Regulation, Federal Laws and Regulations, General Insurance
- Life Insurance Basics and Health Insurance Basics
Life Insurance Depth
- Life Insurance Policies (heaviest life domain)
- Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders
- Federal Tax Considerations for Life and Health Insurance
Annuities and Individual Health
- Annuities
- Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions
- Disability Income and Related Insurance
Group and Specialized Health, Then Review
- Group Health Insurance (largest single domain)
- Medical Plans
- Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals
- Full-length timed practice on the practice test platform
This sequence front-loads the smaller, foundational domains so terminology is familiar before you tackle the heavier life and health domains later. A more detailed week-by-week study framework, including how to interleave practice questions with content review, is available in ORLH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.
Who Pursues the ORLH Certification
Candidates for the ORLH exam are typically aspiring or transitioning insurance producers who want to sell life insurance, health insurance, and annuity products in Oregon. This includes people entering the field through a captive insurance agency, independent agents building a multi-carrier practice, and financial professionals adding insurance products to a broader advisory practice. Because the exam combines life and health into one license track, it appeals to producers who want to offer a full range of protection products - term and permanent life, annuities, individual and group health plans, and specialized coverage for qualified individuals - without sitting for two separate exams.
If you're weighing whether this career path fits your goals, Is the ORLH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and ORLH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis dig into the career and compensation side, while a look at current openings in ORLH Jobs can help you understand what employers expect from newly licensed producers.
Keeping Your License: Renewal and Continuing Education
Passing the exam is the beginning of your obligations, not the end. Oregon producer licenses renew every two years, and renewal requires 24 hours of continuing education, broken down as:
- 3 hours of ethics coursework
- 3 hours of Oregon law coursework
- Remaining hours from approved general CE topics
Building a habit of tracking CE hours well before your renewal deadline avoids last-minute scrambles, and many producers use the same study discipline from their initial exam prep to stay current on regulatory changes.
For candidates deciding how much runway to build into their prep, comparing your target exam date against Oregon's testing calendar is worthwhile - see ORLH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling for scheduling logistics, and use a full-length ORLH practice test to gauge readiness before committing to a date.
Frequently Asked Questions
On this site, ORLH refers specifically to the Oregon Life & Health Insurance Producer Exam, administered by PSI as Series 12-03 for the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. For more on the terminology itself, see What Does ORLH Stand For?
The combined exam has 150 scored multiple-choice questions and a 160-minute time limit. You need a 70% score to pass.
The combined Life and Health exam costs $55. This is separate from prelicensing course fees and any fingerprinting or license application costs - see ORLH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown for the full picture.
Group Health Insurance carries the highest weight at 14%, followed by Life Insurance Policies at 13%, Specialized Health Insurance for Qualified Individuals at 12%, and Annuities at 11%. Together these four domains make up half the exam.
CLU holders may qualify for an education waiver rather than completing the full 20 hours of Life and 20 hours of Health prelicensing coursework. Confirm current waiver criteria with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation before skipping coursework.
Producer licenses renew every two years, requiring 24 hours of continuing education that includes 3 ethics hours and 3 Oregon law hours.