United States
Hong KongWhat a General Lines life, accident and health license lets you sell
Life, accident and health insurance, HMO coverage, and fixed and variable annuity contracts. Chapter 4054 of the Insurance Code also lets a holder write the limited, funeral prearrangement and small-face-amount lines without an additional license. Variable products need a separate securities registration on top.
The license name is a mouthful and it is also a fairly precise description. General Lines means broad rather than limited. Life, Accident and Health names the three families of coverage. Agent means you act for an insurer.
Chapter 4054 of the Insurance Code is where the scope actually lives, and it is written backward from how you would expect. Rather than listing what you may sell, it lists the roles for which you are required to hold this license.
The roles that require this license
- An agent who represents a health maintenance organization
- An agent who writes life, accident and health insurance for a life insurance company
- An agent who writes only accident and health insurance
- An agent who writes fixed or variable annuity contracts or variable life contracts
- An industrial life agent for an insurer writing weekly premium life on a debit basis
- An agent writing for a stipulated premium company, above the small-face-amount threshold
- An agent writing life, accident and health for a fraternal benefit society
- Any other kind of insurance the commissioner requires for consumer protection
Reading that list as a menu is the right instinct. If a role is on it, this license covers it. Notice how wide the second and fourth entries are: the whole of individual and group life, the whole of accident and health, and every annuity a life carrier sells.
The lines you get thrown in
Section 4054.053 is the quiet bonus. A holder of a general life, accident and health license may write the kinds of contracts covered by the limited license subchapter, the funeral prearrangement subchapter and the small-face-amount subchapter, plus chapter 4055, without obtaining an additional license.
| Line | Covered by this license? | Extra license needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Individual and group life | Yes | No |
| Accident and health, individual and group | Yes | No |
| HMO coverage | Yes | No |
| Fixed annuities | Yes | No |
| Variable annuities and variable life | Yes, on the insurance side | Yes, a securities registration |
| Funeral prearrangement life insurance | Yes, without an additional license | No |
| Limited life, accident and health lines | Yes, without an additional license | No |
| Property and casualty | No | Yes, a different license and exam |
The bottom row is the boundary. Auto, home, commercial property, liability: none of it is yours under this license. That is the General Lines property and casualty license, a separate examination with its own first-time pass rate of 58.3% in fiscal year 2025.
The variable row needs its own paragraph
Chapter 4054 says plainly that an agent writing variable annuity or variable life contracts must hold this license. It does not say that this license is sufficient, and it is not. Variable products are securities as well as insurance contracts, and the Insurance Code acknowledges as much elsewhere by defining a registered contract as one subject to prospectus delivery under federal securities law.
So the insurance license is necessary and not enough. Selling variable products needs a securities license sets out what we can and cannot tell you about the second half.
The license is not permission to start selling
Section 4001.201 says a person who obtains a license may not engage in business as an agent unless appointed by an insurer authorized to do business in Texas. The license makes you eligible. The appointment makes you active, and it is the insurer's filing, not yours.
There is a second condition people miss. Section 4001.104 says TDI may not issue an agent license unless it determines the applicant intends in good faith to actively engage in soliciting or writing insurance for the general public. Not being actively engaged is its own ground for discipline later. The license is for selling to the public, not for arranging your own family's coverage at a commission.
What the scope means for how you study
The examination mirrors the license. Nine general sections cover life products, riders and provisions, applications and underwriting, retirement concepts, health products, health provisions, social insurance, other concepts and field underwriting. Four Texas sections cover the common statutes, life-only statutes, accident and health statutes, and HMO regulation. Every one of those maps onto something the license authorizes.
Which is the argument against studying selectively. The opinion here: people who intend to sell only Medicare supplements still get examined on variable universal life, and treating a section as irrelevant because your future job will not touch it is how a marginal candidate becomes a failing one. The paper does not know your business plan.
The concession: the exam is broader than most agents' actual practice, and that is a fair criticism of licensing exams generally rather than of this one. A working agent will spend years selling three products out of the thirteen sections. You still have to pass all thirteen.
Common questions
What can you sell with a Texas life and health license?
Life, accident and health insurance, HMO coverage, and fixed and variable annuity contracts. Chapter 4054 also lets you write the limited lines, funeral prearrangement and small-face-amount life products without obtaining an additional license.
Does it cover property and casualty?
No. Auto, home, commercial property and liability sit under the General Lines property and casualty license, which is a separate application, a separate fee and a separate examination with its own first-time pass rate of 58.3% in fiscal year 2025.
Can you sell annuities with this license?
Yes. Chapter 4054 requires this license for an agent writing fixed or variable annuity contracts. Fixed annuities need nothing further. Variable annuities are also securities and need a separate securities registration alongside the insurance license.
Can you sell as soon as the license arrives?
No. Section 4001.201 says a licensee may not engage in business as an agent without an appointment from an insurer authorized in Texas. The insurer files the appointment, so the license makes you eligible and the appointment makes you active.
Does it cover group as well as individual coverage?
Yes. The chapter's description of an agent writing life, accident and health insurance for a life insurance company is not limited to individual policies, and group life, group health and HMO coverage all appear on the examination's content outline.