- The Official LACP Fee Schedule at a Glance
- NAIFA Member vs. Nonmember: Doing the Math
- What a Retake Really Costs
- Rescheduling and Cancellation Charges
- Costs Hidden Inside Eligibility
- Preparation Spending: What Is Verified and What Is Not
- Renewal Every Three Years
- Three Realistic Budget Scenarios
- Putting the Price in Context
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Application plus exam costs USD 500 for NAIFA members and candidates outside the U.S., and USD 700 for nonmembers.
- A retest within the 366-day eligibility period costs USD 300, with a maximum of two attempts in any 12 months.
- Rescheduling or canceling costs USD 50 and requires at least four business days' notice.
- Renewal is USD 300 every three years, tied to your life insurance license and 500 annual practice hours.
The Official LACP Fee Schedule at a Glance
The Life and Annuity Certified Professional (LACP) credential is issued by the NAIFA Certification Commission, and its pricing is refreshingly simple compared with designations that charge per course. There is no mandatory curriculum bill. You pay one combined application-plus-examination fee, and the amount depends on your NAIFA membership status and where you live.
| Fee Item | Amount (USD) | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Application + exam (NAIFA member) | $500 | Current NAIFA membership |
| Application + exam (nonmember) | $700 | Not a NAIFA member |
| Application + exam (outside U.S.) | $500 | Candidate residing outside the United States |
| Re-examination | $300 | Within the 366-day eligibility period; one retest per period |
| Reschedule / cancel | $50 | At least four business days' notice |
| Recertification | $300 | Every three years |
Always confirm the current figures on the NAIFA LACP Program page before you pay, since fee schedules can change. For a broader orientation to the credential itself, see our explainer on what LACP certification is.
NAIFA Member vs. Nonmember: Doing the Math
The nonmember surcharge is $200. That sounds like a clear argument for joining NAIFA first, but the decision is not purely arithmetic. NAIFA membership dues are set by the association and are not part of the figures verified for this article, so you cannot assume membership is cheaper than the $200 premium without checking the current dues for your local association and level.
Candidates residing outside the United States pay $500, matching the member rate regardless of membership status. If you are in that group, there is no member/nonmember decision to make on fee grounds at all.
What a Retake Really Costs
The retest fee is $300, which is 60% of the member base fee and roughly 43% of the nonmember fee. The rules around it matter as much as the price:
- The retest must occur within the 366-day eligibility period attached to your original application.
- Only one retest is allowed per eligibility period.
- No more than two attempts in any 12-month period are permitted.
So a first-attempt failure followed by a failed retest costs you $800 total as a member ($500 + $300) or $1,000 as a nonmember ($700 + $300), and then you are locked out of further attempts until the 12-month window allows it. NAIFA does not publish a numeric passing score or a current pass rate that we could verify, so we cannot tell you how likely a retake is. Our pages on the LACP passing score and the LACP pass rate explain exactly what is and is not known.
Key Takeaway
Treat the first attempt as the only one you budget for. Spending an extra few weeks preparing is cheaper than a $300 retest, and a second failure can leave you waiting out the rest of the 12-month cap.
Rescheduling and Cancellation Charges
The proctored computer-based exam is administered by Meazure Learning. If your plans change, rescheduling or canceling costs $50 as long as you give at least four business days' notice. The fee schedule published for this program does not detail what happens with shorter notice, so do not assume you can move an appointment at the last minute for the same price. Check the notice terms on your Meazure appointment before committing to a date.
One practical wrinkle: NAIFA's pages are not perfectly consistent about delivery. The live program page describes test-center delivery, while the registration page also describes live online proctoring and still carries older Scantron branding and a muddled testing calendar. Follow the current Meazure scheduling notice for what is actually available to you. Our guide to LACP exam dates and scheduling walks through this in more detail.
Costs Hidden Inside Eligibility
The exam fee is only part of the financial picture, because you must qualify before you can sit for it. Eligibility requires:
- Life insurance licensure in your jurisdiction of practice.
- A NAIFA Code of Ethics attestation.
- Three years and 6,000 hours as an active life insurance agent.
- One of three add-ons: an accredited bachelor's degree or higher (or equivalent), an approved designation such as CLU, CFP, ChFC, FIC, FLMI, FSCP or LUTCF, or two additional years and 4,000 hours of experience, totaling five years and 10,000 hours.
Relevant felony convictions prevent eligibility. For most working agents, the licensing and experience requirements are already sunk costs, but if you are planning to earn an approved designation specifically to qualify, that is a much larger expense than the exam fee itself. In that case the designation's own costs belong in your LACP budget. Details are in our LACP requirements guide.
| Eligibility Route | Added Cost to You |
|---|---|
| Accredited bachelor's degree or higher | Usually already paid; no extra LACP-specific cost |
| Approved designation (CLU, CFP, ChFC, FIC, FLMI, FSCP, LUTCF) | Cost of that separate credential, set by its own issuer |
| Five total years / 10,000 hours of experience | No fee, but requires time in the field |
Preparation Spending: What Is Verified and What Is Not
NAIFA describes an optional self-paced prep course and a paid electronic study guide on its LACP exam preparation page. The contents and current prices of those paid products were not retrievable for this review, so we will not quote a number. The 2021 Candidate Handbook listed $50 for a separate official practice test, but that is a historical price, and the provider pages that would confirm current question counts and pricing were inaccessible. Verify both directly before budgeting.
Where an inexpensive resource helps most
The largest domain, Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Requirements at 35%, is also the one where agents with strong sales backgrounds often have the thinnest formal review. Product Knowledge (32%) leans on life insurance and annuity concepts most agents use daily, and Consultative Sales Process (33%) tests how you structure client conversations. A single well-organized review resource per domain is usually enough. Our complete guide to the three LACP domains maps each one to the NAIFA content outline.
Allocating review time against the weights
Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Requirements
- Start here because it carries the most weight at 35%
- Review the NAIFA Code of Ethics you already attested to
- Work through licensing and regulatory scenarios
Product Knowledge
- Cover life insurance and annuity product features at 32% weight
- Prioritize areas you rarely handle in your own book of business
Consultative Sales Process
- Review the client-engagement framework at 33% weight
- Then take full-length timed practice sets across all three domains
A fuller plan is laid out in our LACP study guide, and if you want a fast refresher, the LACP cheat sheet condenses the must-know facts. You can also drill questions on the LACP practice test site to find weak areas before you pay the exam fee.
Renewal Every Three Years
Earning the credential is not the last charge. LACP certification renews every three years for $300. The current process ties renewal to your active life insurance license, which documents ongoing continuing education, along with an attestation that you complete at least 500 practice hours per year involving life insurance and annuities.
- Submit renewal between 12 months and 30 days before expiration.
- An application left incomplete for 180 days after it is opened closes, so you would need to restart.
Three Realistic Budget Scenarios
These examples use only fees verified above and exclude optional paid prep products, whose current prices we could not confirm.
| Scenario | Calculation | Total (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| NAIFA member, passes first try | $500 | $500 |
| Nonmember, passes first try | $700 | $700 |
| Member, one reschedule, passes first try | $500 + $50 | $550 |
| Member, fails once, passes retest | $500 + $300 | $800 |
| Nonmember, fails once, passes retest | $700 + $300 | $1,000 |
Add $300 every three years for renewal in each case. The spread between the cheapest and most expensive outcomes is meaningful, which is why the single best cost-control move is preparing thoroughly before your first appointment. For a realistic read on how demanding the test is, see how hard the LACP exam is.
Putting the Price in Context
Is a few hundred dollars worth it? We cannot promise an earnings premium, and neither can the available data. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual pay of $62,280 for insurance sales agents as of May 2025, but that figure covers all insurance sales agents, includes commissions and bonuses, excludes self-employed workers, and does not show what an LACP holder earns relative to a non-holder. Treat it as occupational context, not a return projection.
The credential's value is more likely to show up in positioning, client trust, and employer or agency expectations. LACP is distinct from LUTCF, which requires coursework, and from CLU, which uses a four-course structure with course assessments and no cumulative program exam; those are separate credentials rather than substitutes. Our analyses of whether LACP is worth it, LACP earnings, and LACP jobs go deeper on the career side.
Key Takeaway
The all-in cost of a first-attempt pass is $500 or $700 plus whatever prep you choose, then $300 every three years. Because LACP has no required coursework fee, the biggest controllable expense is avoiding a failed attempt.
Frequently Asked Questions
The application plus examination fee is $500 for NAIFA members, $700 for nonmembers, and $500 for candidates residing outside the United States. Confirm current amounts on NAIFA's LACP Program page before paying.
No. NAIFA membership is not listed as an eligibility condition. Nonmembers can qualify and sit for the exam but pay the higher $700 fee instead of $500.
A re-examination costs $300 within the 366-day eligibility period. One retest is allowed per eligibility period, and no more than two attempts are permitted in any 12-month period.
Rescheduling or canceling costs $50 when you give at least four business days' notice. Check your Meazure Learning appointment terms for what applies to shorter notice.
LACP renews every three years for $300. Renewal relies on a current life insurance license and an attestation of at least 500 practice hours per year involving life insurance and annuities, submitted between 12 months and 30 days before expiration.
Before you commit to a date, you can check your readiness across all three domains with free questions on the LACP Exam Prep practice test, and review our full LACP certification cost resources as fees and policies evolve.