What the California Casualty Broker-Agent License Covers
The Casualty Broker-Agent licence covers liability: personal and commercial auto, general liability, workers' compensation, professional liability, umbrella and excess. It is issued separately from the Property Broker-Agent licence — California is one of the states that genuinely splits the two, so "getting your P&C" here means obtaining two licences and paying two filing fees, even if you satisfied both with a single combined examination.
California is an unusually consequential state to write casualty in. It runs pure comparative fault, which changes how liability claims settle. Its workers' compensation mandate begins at a single employee. Its auto financial-responsibility minimums moved for the first time in decades on 1 January 2025. And its rates — like all property and casualty rates — sit under Proposition 103's prior-approval regime.
For the 12-hour Code & Ethics course California still requires before your license is issued, TESTivity recommends Achievable. The Achievable insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, so the two are designed to work together.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in California and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will absolutely help you pass the exam — but treat them as a supplement to your Achievable course, not a substitute for it.
Disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page.
Exam Options & Format
The Casualty examination is 75 questions in 98 minutes, passing at 60% — the same shape as the Property exam, and the same unusual 98-minute allowance. One to ten unscored experimental items may be added and count against the clock.
As with Property, CDI's Examination Times and Number of Questions web table still shows "1.5 hours" for this exam while the March 2026 bulletin says 98 minutes. Work to the bulletin.
The Property and Casualty combined exam (150 questions, 195 minutes) satisfies both lines in one sitting and is the usual route for anyone building a full P&C book. Personal Lines (90 questions, 135 minutes) is the narrower alternative for producers writing only personal residential and auto — a distinct California line rather than a subset of casualty authority.
There is no waiting period between retakes; §1682 caps you at ten examinations of the same type in any twelve-month period.
Most Tested Topics on the California Casualty Exam
Casualty questions split between auto liability and workers' compensation, and California is an outlier in both. These are verified against the Vehicle Code, the Insurance Code and the Labor Code:
| Concept | The California rule |
|---|---|
| Fault system | Fault-based (tort). California is not a no-fault state and has no PIP |
| Negligence doctrine | Pure comparative fault, established in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) — a claimant 99% at fault still recovers 1% |
| Auto liability minimums | 30/60/15 for policies issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025 (Veh. Code §16056; SB 1107) |
| Uninsured motorist | Must be offered; the insured may reject or waive it in writing — not mandatory once rejected (§11580.2) |
| Underinsured motorist | Same structure — offered, rejectable in writing, under §11580.2 |
| Residual auto market | The California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan (CAARP), which also runs the Low Cost Automobile programme for income-eligible drivers |
| Workers' comp mandate | Every employer must secure payment of compensation — required from the first employee (Lab. Code §3700) |
| Temporary total disability rate | Two-thirds (66⅔%) of average weekly earnings, subject to statutory minimum and maximum (§4653) |
| TTD duration | Capped at 104 compensable weeks within 5 years of injury for most post-2008 injuries; certain severe conditions extend to 240 weeks (§4656) |
| Workers' comp claim deadline | 1 year from the date of injury, or from the last date benefits were furnished (§5405) |
| Compliance options | Insure with a licensed carrier, qualify as an approved self-insurer, or buy from the State Compensation Insurance Fund |
The auto minimums are the fact most likely to be stale in whatever material you studied. California sat at 15/30/5 for decades — among the lowest in the country — and SB 1107 moved it to 30/60/15 for policies issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025. Anything published before 2024 will teach you the old numbers. If a question dates the policy, use the date; if it does not, 30/60/15 is the current answer.
The workers' compensation numbers reward precise memorisation because they are a chain: one employee triggers the mandate, 66⅔% is the wage replacement, 104 weeks in 5 years is the ordinary TTD cap with 240 for the severe cases, and 1 year is the filing deadline. And do not let "comparative fault" become "modified comparative fault" in your head — California is the pure version, which is precisely why Li v. Yellow Cab is worth remembering by name.
Fingerprinting and the Background Check — Both Paths
Every unlicensed California applicant is fingerprinted, with results going to the California Department of Justice and the FBI. What varies — and what nearly every competing guide gets wrong — is when you do it. California runs two opposite sequences depending on where you live.
If you are a California resident: apply first, fingerprint second. CDI's own instruction form, LIC 442-39A, states that "license applicants are not to submit fingerprint impressions until after their license applications are submitted to the Department." NIPR says the same. Go to a live-scan site before filing and there is nothing on CDI's side to attach the result to — candidates who do this routinely end up paying the fee twice.
If you are a nonresident: fingerprint first, apply second. CDI's nonresident page reverses the instruction exactly: "you must submit fingerprint impressions before applying to the California Department of Insurance," and "your application will not be processed until fingerprint results are received."
The resident process, step by step. California's designated live-scan vendor has been Capital Live Scan since 14 February 2025. Register and pay at applicantservices.com/CADOI, then schedule the capture. You will be issued a seven-character Payment ID with a QR code — bring it, along with a government-issued photo ID, to the appointment. The total is $74: $17 FBI processing, $32 California DOJ processing, and a $25 rolling fee. Note there is no universal public service code to look up; your identifiers come out of the Capital Live Scan registration, so do not copy a code from a forum post.
The nonresident process, step by step. Live scan is a California-only technology, so out-of-state applicants use a physical card. Complete form BCIA 8016, have your prints rolled by any FBI-authorised vendor local to you, and mail the completed card together with payment to Accurate Biometrics, 6080 Center Drive, Suite 600, Los Angeles, CA 90045. The fee is $75 — $17 FBI, $32 DOJ, and a $26 rolling fee — raised from $59 effective 1 May 2024.
Some nonresidents are exempt. CDI maintains a list of states whose active resident licensees do not need to submit California fingerprints at all, plus a further group whose exemption is conditioned on a specific implementation date. Because those dates vary state by state, check CDI's nonresident fingerprint page against your own resident state rather than relying on a list copied elsewhere — including this one.
Timing matters twice over. Allow at least two weeks for prints to process; your application sits until the results land. And note the shelf life: where a licence is not issued within 12 months, new fingerprints are required. Combined with the twelve-month expiry on your exam score, that makes drift the real enemy — the fastest way to pay for everything twice is to let the file go quiet for a year.
A criminal record is not automatically disqualifying, but an undisclosed one is treated far more harshly than a disclosed one, because misrepresentation on the application is an independent ground for denial. Answer the background questions fully and upload the supporting documents with the application rather than waiting to be asked.
What It Costs
About $360 on a first-time pass: roughly $98 for the exam ($55 CDI + $43 PSI, or $55 at CDI's Los Angeles site), $188 for the licence filing, and $74 for fingerprints. Nonresidents pay $75 for prints instead.
Add the 12-hour Ethics and Code course, priced by the provider. And remember that Property and Casualty are separate licences here — a full P&C book is $188 twice, plus a $10,000 broker bond or a $32 appointment filing if you are acting as a broker or agent respectively. Filing fees are non-refundable under §1751.5 whether or not the application is acted upon.
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum age 18. California residency is not required to hold a California licence, but you may designate only one state as your resident state (§1638), and that designation decides which of the two fingerprint sequences above applies to you — so settle it before you start.
The 12-hour Ethics and California Insurance Code course must be completed before the licence issues. It is not a prerequisite to sitting the exam.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Product training counts toward the 24 rather than sitting on top of it. There is no partial credit for a partly completed course, and CDI recommends finishing all hours at least 60 days before expiration.
The licence runs a two-year term from the issue date, expiring the last day of that calendar month two years on — California is not a birthday-renewal state. Each term takes 24 hours including 3 hours of ethics, one hour of which must cover insurance fraud, and the requirement does not multiply across the licences you hold.
The Casualty-specific addition is workers' compensation: California requires an initial 4-hour workers' compensation course of producers writing that line. It counts toward the 24.
The P&C guide covers the renewal transaction itself, the one-year late-renewal window with its 50% penalty, and the carryover rules for excess hours.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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