Delaware Property Study Guide

Delaware’s Property exam carries the lightest state portion of any major line — 35 scored questions. That is a manageable target, and the material behind it concentrates in three places: how rates get approved, what the coast does to the market, and what happens when the standard market says no.

Rate regulation — the deemer system

Delaware sits between the two regimes most study material describes, and knowing which is which is the whole question. It is modified prior approval, operated as a “deemer” system (§§ 2503, 2504, 2506).

Rates must be filed at least 60 days before use. If the Commissioner does not act within 45 days, the filing is deemed approved at the 60-day mark — and the review period may be extended.

Credit information — permitted, but fenced

Delaware allows credit information in personal lines underwriting, with real limits (§ 8304). An insurer may not deny, cancel or nonrenew based solely on credit information, and may not use income, gender, race or ZIP code. A lack of credit history must be treated neutrally rather than adversely.

The word doing the work is solely. Delaware does not ban credit-based scoring outright the way California bans it for auto; it bans it as the only reason. Fact patterns are built on that distinction.

The coast — and a disclosure rule with teeth

Delaware’s catastrophe exposure is hurricane and coastal windstorm along the Atlantic shore and Delaware Bay, plus flood. For a small state, that is a concentrated risk profile, and Delaware responds with an unusually specific consumer-protection rule.

Section 4140 requires a plain-language hurricane and wind-and-hail deductible disclosure — and it is not enough to state a percentage. The disclosure must give the trigger and a worked dollar example, so the policyholder can see what the deductible actually means on their own dwelling.

The residual market — a placement facility, not a FAIR Plan by name

When the standard market will not write a property risk, Delaware’s answer is the Delaware Basic Property Protection Plan (§ 4103 et seq.) — an industry placement facility, essentially a joint underwriting association, making basic property coverage available to owners who cannot obtain it voluntarily.

Note the emphasis on basic. A residual-market policy is not a substitute for a full homeowners form, and the exam may test that limitation rather than the plan’s name.

Surplus lines — a licence on top of a licence

Placing business with a non-admitted carrier takes more than a producer licence in Delaware. You need an active Delaware Property & Casualty producer licence and a separate Surplus Lines Broker licence (§ 1902 et seq.), and the broker licence costs $275 — more than double the $125 producer fee.

And you may not go there first. Section 1904 requires a diligent effort to place the risk in the admitted market before the surplus lines market is available. The documentation of that effort is what a regulator asks to see.