What the Connecticut Casualty Line Covers
Casualty is its own line of authority in Connecticut, one of the eight in CGS § 38a-702f, and it is not half of a combined P&C license. It carries its own exam (12-CT-20), its own 20-hour pre-licensing block, and its own place on your producer license — exactly parallel to, and independent of, the Property line.
The Connecticut-Specific content outline tells you what the state expects a casualty producer to know, and it is narrower and deeper than the general syllabus: auto insurance (required coverages, limits, rating, the uninsured and underinsured motorist law, and the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility law), the Connecticut Automobile Insurance Assigned Risk Plan, and Connecticut workers' compensation law including the Second Injury Fund.
It is issued by the Connecticut Insurance Department, headed by a Commissioner appointed by the Governor — a conventional single-regulator structure, with the law in Title 38a and regulations in the RCSA. Workers' compensation is the exception worth noting: that system is administered by the separate Connecticut Workers' Compensation Commission under Title 31, not by CID.
Getting both lines. Casualty then Property later means two $65 exams, two 20-hour courses and a $130 amendment. The combined 12-CT-04 sitting is $105 off a 40-hour dual course — cheaper on fees and on the amendment, at the cost of a much longer exam. The Property guide sets out that comparison in full.
For the 20-hour casualty course, 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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut Casualty exam is 12-CT-20 through Pearson VUE: 75 scored questions plus 5 unscored pretest items in 2 hours, at $65, passing at a raw 70%.
The scored 75 splits 50 General Knowledge + 25 Connecticut-Specific, and within the Connecticut half sits the same 18-question "Common to All Lines" block that appears on the Life and Property exams — the Commissioner's powers, definitions, licensing, producer duties, the guaranty association, marketing practices and the Connecticut Insurance Information and Privacy Protection Act. Only a handful of your scored questions are casualty-specific Connecticut law, but they are dense: auto, the assigned risk plan and workers' compensation between them.
As with Property, Pearson's outline states the Connecticut-Specific section's scoreable count without a pretest figure, where Life and Accident & Health each add 5. That is as published.
The alternatives: 12-CT-19 Property (75 scored + 5 pretest, 2 hours, $65) separately, or 12-CT-04 Property and Casualty covering both — 130 scored (100 General Knowledge + 30 Connecticut-Specific) plus 15 pretest in 2 hours 30 minutes at $105. Note that 12-CT-04's General Knowledge half is exactly Property (50) plus Casualty (50).
Test centers only since 1 August 2025 — the Property guide covers the network. Scores last one year, retakes cannot be booked for 24 hours, and the handbook states no cap on attempts.
Most Tested Topics on the Connecticut Casualty Exam
Two subjects dominate: Connecticut's auto regime, which is a fault system with an unusually protective uninsured-motorist rule, and its workers' compensation system, which computes benefits on a basis almost nobody else uses. Each row is verified:
| Concept | The Connecticut rule |
|---|---|
| Auto fault system | FAULT (tort). Connecticut repealed no-fault effective 1 January 1994 (P.A. 93-297) |
| Personal injury protection | None. There is no mandatory PIP — any guide describing Connecticut PIP is describing pre-1994 law |
| Minimum limits | 25/50/25 — $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident bodily injury, $25,000 property damage (CGS § 14-112(a)) |
| Uninsured motorist | MANDATORY, at limits equal to the bodily injury liability limits unless the named insured requests less in writing (CGS § 38a-336(a)) |
| The 2× offer | Insurers must offer UM/UIM at twice the bodily injury limits |
| Reducing UM | Only on a signed informed-consent form listing the options and the premium for each, with the statutory warning in 12-POINT TYPE |
| UIM conversion coverage | A separate product under § 38a-336a — and the statutory cap on total recovery from all policies does not apply to it |
| Negligence rule | Modified comparative, 51% bar — a claimant recovers only if their negligence was not greater than the defendants' combined negligence (CGS § 52-572h(b)) |
| Residual auto market | The Connecticut Automobile Insurance Assigned Risk Plan (CGS § 38a-329 et seq.) |
| Workers' comp threshold | One or more employees — no minimum count; coverage runs from the first day of employment (CGS § 31-284) |
| Domestic-worker exception | A person working in or about a private dwelling 26 or fewer hours per week is outside the definition of employee (§ 31-275(9)) |
| Temporary total disability | 75% of the employee's AFTER-TAX average weekly wage — net of federal and state tax and FICA (§ 31-307) |
| Claim deadlines | 1 year from the date of accident; 3 years from the first manifestation of an occupational disease (§ 31-294c) |
The uninsured-motorist cluster is where the marks are, and it has three parts most candidates learn only one of. UM is mandatory and defaults to the bodily injury limits — that much is common knowledge. The two Connecticut-specific pieces are the 2× offer (insurers must put double-limit coverage in front of the insured) and the 12-point-type informed consent required to reduce it. The third is conversion coverage under § 38a-336a, which escapes the statutory limitation on total recovery across policies. A question describing an insured stacking recovery beyond the usual cap is probably describing conversion coverage.
The workers' compensation wage basis is the other reliable point, and it looks like an error until you check it. Nearly every state pays temporary total disability at roughly 66⅔% of the GROSS average weekly wage. Connecticut pays 75% of the AFTER-TAX wage — the Commission publishes tables netting out federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Connecticut income tax by filing status. The two approaches land in a broadly similar place, which is exactly why a candidate who guesses "66⅔% of gross" and moves on gets it wrong. Learn the phrase after-tax as part of the number.
Also note the threshold: Connecticut requires coverage from the first employee, with no small-employer grace. The Commission's own materials put it in capitals — all employees, part-time or full-time, are covered from the first day of employment.
Surplus Lines from a Connecticut Casualty License
When a risk cannot be placed with an admitted insurer, it goes to the surplus lines market — and in Connecticut that requires a separate Surplus Lines Broker credential layered on the producer license you already hold. Casualty producers reach this question sooner than most, because the risks that fall out of the admitted market are disproportionately liability risks.
The prerequisite is the producer license itself. Under CGS § 38a-741 et seq., a Connecticut surplus lines broker must hold an active property and casualty producer license. You cannot come to surplus lines cold — the casualty line you are earning now is the foundation, and in practice brokers hold both property and casualty rather than one.
There is no separate pre-licensing requirement. CID's pre-licensing rules apply to producers and public adjusters; surplus lines brokers are expressly outside them, alongside casualty adjusters, certified insurance consultants and motor vehicle physical damage appraisers. What there is is an exam: 12-CT-07 Surplus Lines Broker, 1 hour, $60 — the shortest and cheapest exam in Connecticut's insurance program.
Diligent effort is the substantive obligation. Section 38a-741 conditions a surplus lines placement on a diligent effort to place the risk in the admitted market first. This is not a formality to be documented after the fact: it is the legal predicate for the placement being lawful at all, and it is what distinguishes a legitimate surplus lines transaction from an unlawful placement with an unauthorized insurer.
Understand what the insured gives up, because this is where the exam goes. A surplus lines insurer is not admitted, which means its policyholders have no guaranty association protection — the Connecticut Insurance Guaranty Association covers claims against insolvent admitted insurers only. That single consequence is the reason the diligent-effort requirement exists, and a question describing a producer reassuring a surplus lines buyer about the state guaranty fund is describing two violations at once: a coverage misstatement, and the § 38a-852 prohibition on using the guaranty association as a sales inducement.
Where it sits relative to the residual market. Surplus lines is not the same tool as the Connecticut Automobile Insurance Assigned Risk Plan or the Connecticut Property Insurance Placement Facility. Those are residual-market mechanisms inside the admitted system, with rates that require the Commissioner's prior approval. Surplus lines is placement outside the admitted system with non-admitted carriers whose rates and forms Connecticut does not approve. Knowing which mechanism answers which fact pattern — unable to get auto coverage, unable to get basic property coverage, or an unusual liability risk no admitted carrier will write — is worth more on the exam than any single number in this section.
What It Costs
$65 to Pearson VUE for 12-CT-20, and $190 to CID at application — the $140 initial license fee plus the separate $50 non-refundable application fee. About $255 on a first-attempt pass, before your 20-hour course. There is no fingerprint cost in Connecticut.
If surplus lines is in your plan, add the 12-CT-07 exam at $60 — one hour, and no additional pre-licensing hours.
Adding the Property line later: another $65 exam, another 20 hours, plus a $130 amendment fee. The combined 12-CT-04 route is $105 and 40 hours with no amendment. Recurring costs are $160 to renew biennially ($320 late) and $130 to reinstate.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be at least 18, complete the 20-hour casualty pre-licensing course, pass 12-CT-20, and file the uniform application through NIPR with the $140 + $50 fees. Connecticut requires no fingerprints, no separate background submission and no Letter of Clearance — the Accident & Health guide covers the background questions that carry that work instead.
A CPCU designation may waive the examination for property and casualty under CGS § 38a-702h(c), at the Commissioner's discretion. AAI, ARM, CIC and ten other designations waive the pre-licensing coursework only — the exam remains. The Life & Health guide sets both lists out side by side.
If you are arriving from another state, two 90-day windows govern: prior licensure for the same lines, applied for within 90 days of cancellation, waives education and exam; and a producer who moves to Connecticut must apply within 90 days of establishing residence for the same treatment. The P&C guide covers reciprocity, nonresident licensing and Connecticut's temporary licenses.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Surplus lines authority adds no separate Connecticut pre-licensing or CE requirement — it rides on the producer license you already maintain.
24 hours every two years, including 3 hours of Connecticut insurance law and regulations or ethics, due by the last day of your birth month. The hours attach to the license, not the line — adding Property or Personal Lines later leaves the number at 24, and a surplus lines credential adds nothing further.
The CE biennium is the two-year period ending on your license expiration date, so CE and renewal share one clock. Up to 24 excess hours carry forward into the next biennium, following the 13 January 2022 amendment to RCSA § 38a-782a-10 that reversed the old prohibition.
Connecticut offers no long-service, age-based or grandfathering exemption — CID says so expressly. The P&C guide covers renewal, the one-year late window and reinstatement.
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