Delaware P&C Study Guide

Sitting both Delaware P&C exams means clearing four separately scored portions, 180 scored questions in all. The material that spans them is the state machinery: who regulates, what happens when a carrier fails, and the renewal calendar you will live under for the rest of your career. Delaware is unusual on all three.

An elected Commissioner

Most states have an insurance commissioner appointed by the governor. Delaware’s voters elect theirs to a four-year term (18 Del. C. § 301). The Department is otherwise conventional — a standalone agency, with the law in Title 18 of the Delaware Code and the regulations in Title 18 of the Delaware Administrative Code.

DIGA — generous in three specific ways

When a property-casualty carrier becomes insolvent, the Delaware Insurance Guaranty Association responds (§ 4201 et seq.). Delaware is more generous than the states most national material describes, and it is generous in three places at once:

• Covered claims up to $500,000 per claimant (§ 4208(a)(1)) — not the $300,000 several states use
• Workers’ compensation claims are paid in FULL — outside the cap entirely
• There is no per-claim deductible. Delaware subtracts nothing from a covered claim

Unearned premium refunds are capped at $10,000, and a net-worth recovery provision applies only to high-net-worth insureds rather than ordinary claimants.

And note the asymmetry that catches people: using a guaranty association as a sales inducement is prohibited for property and casualty under § 4419 — while the life and health act carves the equivalent section out. The blanket answer is wrong for one half of the market.

The renewal calendar — fixed, and alternating

Delaware does not renew on your birthday or on your licence anniversary. It renews on a fixed 28 February, shared by every licensee in the state — and the year alternates by residency:

• Resident licences renew by 28 February of EVEN-numbered years
• Nonresident licences renew by 28 February of ODD-numbered years

The renewal window opens around 1 December. The fee is $125. And there is a quiet gift for new licensees: anyone licensed in the 90 days before a deadline — 1 December to 28 February — is exempt from that period’s renewal fee.

Missing it — a fee problem, then an exam problem

Section 1707(g) escalates in two stages, and then reaches a cliff:

• First six months late — a penalty of DOUBLE the unpaid renewal fee
• Months seven to twelve — civil fines of $200 to $1,000
• Within 12 months of a lapse — you may reapply “without the necessity of passing a written examination”
• After 12 months — re-examination is required

Regulation 504 says the same from the other direction: a licensee suspended for twelve months or more must complete all § 1706 requirements including retaking the exams.

Continuing education gates all of it

24 credit hours per biennium including 3 hours of ethics for resident producers — a flat total that does not scale with the number of lines held. Resident adjusters, public adjusters and fraternal agents need 12, with the same 3 ethics hours.

The compliance date is that same last day of February of an even year. And § 1718 is blunt about what happens if you cannot prove it: failure to provide proof of meeting continuing education requirements “shall result in the automatic lapse of such licensee’s license.” Automatic — no notice, no hearing.

The penalties are steep and deliberately unequal: Regulation 504 provides up to a $2,000 fine and a one-year suspension for non-compliance, and up to $15,000 and permanent revocation for supplying false continuing education information.