Insurance License Hub

The Washington Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products license

Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products

Sells cover under variable life insurance contracts and variable annuities in Washington, and the statute draws this line wider than anywhere else: it reaches any other life insurance or annuity product that reflects the investment experience of a separate account. There is no variable paper. The line is reached on the life examination plus a securities salesperson license, and the life line of authority has to be held alongside it.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

3

2 of them skip the state exam.

Exam

Varies

Priced per paper. The prices are below.

Either combination is $55. Each single paper is $38.

Every way to qualify

More than one route leads to this license, and which one you take changes what you study and whether you sit the exam. There is no pre-licensing course among them: this license is qualified for by sitting the examination, a license held in another state or moving here already licensed.

  1. Route 1 Pass the life paper, and hold the life line and a securities license

    State exam required

    The life line of authority underneath

    • a Washington resident insurance producer license carrying the life line of authority, obtained and maintained alongside this one

    and the securities license, which every producer on this line needs

    • a securities salesperson license issued by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions for a FINRA member broker-dealer

    WAC 284-17-015(1) is where this line is conditioned and RCW 48.17.170(1)(e) only enumerates it. A resident producer must obtain a securities salesperson license from the Department of Financial Institutions for a FINRA member broker-dealer, and obtain and maintain a producer license carrying both the life line and this one; 284-17-015(2) says the commissioner issues the line only on satisfactory evidence that both are done. The Office administers no variable paper. Its own portion pass report for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 names eleven examinations, WA Adjuster, WA Credit, WA Crop Adjuster, WA Disability Producer, WA Life Producer, WA Life and Disability Producer Combo, WA Personal Lines Producer, WA Property Producer, WA Property and Casualty Producer Combo, WA Surety and WA Surplus Lines Broker, and no variable one, which is what a line examined on another line's paper looks like from the vendor's side. The examination on this route is therefore the life paper. WAC 284-17-015(3) adds RCW 48.18A.060 on top. No pre-licensing course is required and none has been since 2023-07-23.

    Read at app.leg.wa.gov on 2026-08-19

  2. Route 2 Hold the same line in another state

    Exempt from the state exam

    License in another state

    • an insurance producer license carrying both the life line of authority and the Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products line of authority in the applicant's resident or home state, obtained and maintained there

    and the securities license, which every producer on this line needs

    • a securities salesperson license issued by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions for a FINRA member broker-dealer

    RCW 48.17.175(1). Somebody previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state completes neither prelicensing education nor an examination. The exemption holds while that other license is current, or if the application arrives within 90 days of its cancellation and the prior state certifies good standing at that point, or the NAIC producer database shows it for the line being asked for. WAC 284-17-015(1)(c) adds what RCW 48.17.175 does not: a nonresident is eligible to apply for the Washington line only while holding both the life line and the variable line in the home state, and 284-17-015(1)(a) puts the securities salesperson license on every producer selling these products here, resident or not.

    Read at app.leg.wa.gov on 2026-08-19

  3. Route 3 Move to Washington and apply within 90 days

    Exempt from the state exam

    Previous home state license

    • 90 days Licensed as an insurance producer in another state carrying the Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products line of authority there, and applying to become a Washington resident licensee within 90 days of establishing legal residence.

    and the securities license, which every producer on this line needs

    • a securities salesperson license issued by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions for a FINRA member broker-dealer

    RCW 48.17.175(2). Somebody licensed as a producer in another state who moves here has 90 days from establishing legal residence to apply as a resident licensee under 48.17.090, written as a duty rather than an option. No prelicensing education or examination is required for a line of authority previously held in the prior state except where the commissioner determines otherwise by rule. WAC 284-17-015(1)(a) still applies on this route: the securities salesperson license from the Department of Financial Institutions is a condition of selling variable products in Washington rather than a licensing formality that reciprocity reaches.

    Read at app.leg.wa.gov on 2026-08-19

No national seller sells a course for this license, and the reason is that Washington publishes no variable paper: the Office's portion pass report names eleven examinations and none of them is for this line. An applicant sits the WA Life Producer paper, for which five sellers do carry a product, and clears the securities side with the Department of Financial Institutions.