What the Florida 20-44 License Covers
The 20-44 Personal Lines license authorizes property and casualty business written on personal risks — homeowners, dwelling fire, personal auto, inland marine on personal property, umbrella. It is issued by the Department of Financial Services under Florida's elected CFO, and it is deliberately narrower than the 2-20 General Lines license, which adds commercial property and casualty, surety, marine and miscellaneous lines.
Get the class code right, because Florida's numbering is unusual and widely mistyped. Resident personal lines is 20-44. The nonresident equivalent is 90-44, and the temporary version is T20-44. You will see "2-44" on third-party pages and even in older study material; it is not a Florida class code, and searching DFS for it returns nothing.
Why choose it over the 2-20. The prelicensing gap is the whole argument: 60 hours for a 20-44 against 200 hours for a 2-20. Same $44 exam fee, same $55 application, same fingerprints. If your book will be homeowners and auto, the 20-44 gets you licensed months earlier. And the 20-44 is itself a stepping stone — holding it for one of the last four years reduces the 2-20 course from 200 hours to 40.
Note the incompatibilities DFS lists on the 20-44 sheet: it cannot be held alongside a 0-55, 0-93, 4-42 or T02-20. And under F.A.C. 69B-227.260 the 60-hour course must specifically cover property, casualty and inland marine — a generic P&C course is not automatically the right course.
For that 60-hour requirement, 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 Florida 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 personal lines exam is InsFL-Pers55 through Pearson VUE (client code FLINS): 100 scored questions plus 8 unscored pretest items — 108 on screen — in 2 hours, at $44, passing at 70%. The pretest count is worth a second look: every other Florida producer exam seeds 10 or 15 unscored items, and personal lines is the one that seeds 8.
The broader alternative is the 2-20 General Lines exam (InsFL-PC06) — 160 scored plus 15 pretest questions in 3 hours, the longest producer paper Florida gives. Same fee. The real cost difference is upstream, in the 200 hours of coursework.
Test centers only — DFS discontinued OnVUE for Florida insurance candidates, and the Health guide covers the center network and scheduling windows. Book up to one calendar day ahead; cancel or move at least 48 hours out or forfeit the fee.
Because there are three ways to lose a passing score in Florida — the 12-month validity, the 5-attempt cap, and simply not applying — the results section below is worth reading before you book rather than after you fail.
Most Tested Topics on the Florida Personal Lines Exam
Personal lines in Florida means two bodies of law that behave nothing like the national baseline: a no-fault auto system, and cancellation and nonrenewal notice rules that differ by product and by how long the policy has been in force. Each row is verified against the statute:
| Concept | The Florida rule |
|---|---|
| Auto fault system | NO-FAULT — each driver's own insurer pays medicals and lost wages regardless of fault, with suit available only past the serious-injury threshold (F.S. § 627.736) |
| Minimum limits | $10,000 PIP and $10,000 property damage liability — no bodily injury liability is required on a basic Florida policy |
| What PIP pays | 80% of medical and 60% of lost wages, plus a $5,000 death benefit |
| Uninsured motorist | Must be offered at limits equal to the bodily injury liability limits; rejectable in writing, and a signed rejection is a conclusive presumption of an informed rejection (F.S. § 627.727(1)) |
| Underinsured motorist | Offered with UM and rejectable in writing |
| Negligence rule | Modified comparative with a 51% bar since HB 837, effective 24 March 2023 — a claimant more than 50% at fault recovers nothing (medical malpractice excepted) |
| Residual auto market | The Florida Automobile Joint Underwriting Association (FAJUA) |
| New-business window | 60 days for a new auto policy; 90 days for new residential property business |
| Cancellation for nonpayment | 10 days' notice, auto and homeowners alike |
| Cancellation for other causes, auto | 45 days' notice, with the reason stated |
| Homeowners cancellation / nonrenewal | 120 days' notice for most reasons; 20 days during the first 90 days of new business |
| Reason for cancellation | Must be stated proactively — not merely on request |
The auto numbers are the reliable marks, and the reliable error is assuming Florida requires bodily injury liability. It does not. A basic Florida policy is PIP $10,000 and PDL $10,000 — no BI at all — which is why the state's uninsured-motorist exposure is what it is and why the UM offer rule in § 627.727 is written as strictly as it is. Learn the pair 10/10 before anything else, then attach the PIP payout percentages: 80% medical, 60% wages, $5,000 death benefit.
The second cluster is the notice ladder, and the trick is that it is indexed on two axes at once — the product and the reason. Nonpayment is always 10 days. Auto for other permitted causes is 45. Homeowners is 120, dropping to 20 inside the first 90 days of new business. Candidates who memorise one number for "cancellation" get the other three wrong. And note the HB 837 date: 24 March 2023 moved Florida from a pure comparative state to a 51%-bar state, so any study material published earlier describes the old rule.
Fingerprinting in Florida — Vendor, Codes, Fees and Order
Florida requires a fingerprint-based state and federal criminal background check for every producer licence, and the statute is blunt about what happens without it. F.S. § 626.171 provides that the department "may not approve an application for licensure … if fingerprints have not been submitted," and that prints "must be taken by a law enforcement agency or other department-approved entity." Prints do not merely accompany your file; they gate its approval.
One vendor, one code. Florida uses IdentoGO by IDEMIA (formerly MorphoTrust) as its sole authorized vendor. You register under the Division's standing ORI/service code: `DFS-1-FL921060Z`, via the DFS-published registration link at fl.state.identogo.com. Two things follow from that code being published openly on DFS's own website: it is department-wide, not issued to you personally after you apply — which is how several other states work and is a common source of confusion — and you can register for the appointment as soon as you are ready, without waiting for DFS to send you anything.
Cost, and who you pay. $49.50 for LiveScan (electronic) plus local Florida county sales tax, or $50.75 for fingerprint cards by mail plus tax. This is paid directly to the vendor — it is not bundled into the $50 DFS filing fee, and any page that quotes a single all-in Florida application figure has almost certainly merged the two.
If you are out of state. Enter your ZIP on the IdentoGO Florida registration site to find the nearest LiveScan location; the network extends well beyond Florida. If nothing is reachable, DFS permits mail-in fingerprint cards, sent to Prints Inc., IdentoGO Florida Card Scan Operations, 100 Salem Ct., Tallahassee, FL 32301. Cards are slower — budget the postal time against your one-year score clock.
Where the prints go. IdentoGO transmits to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which returns results to DFS. Note the corollary DFS states plainly: it will not accept prints submitted outside the Division of Agent and Agency Services. Prints you gave for a real estate licence, a school volunteer role, or another Florida agency do not transfer. They must be taken under the Division's ORI code.
How long they last — two numbers, do not conflate them. If you do not currently hold a valid Florida insurance license, your prints are good for 12 months. If you do hold one in good standing and are adding another license, the prints on file are good for 48 months from the original processing and you do not resubmit. "Florida fingerprints are good for a year" is only half the rule.
The practical order. Pass the exam, file the application in MyProfile, then register with IdentoGO and get printed the same week — or register and print first if a convenient appointment appears, since the ORI code does not depend on your application existing. What you should not do is treat prints as the last step: they are the single most common reason a Florida file sits in deficiency while the one-year score clock runs.
Results, Retakes and the Clocks That Run Against You
Your result is immediate. Pearson VUE reports pass or fail on screen when you finish, and the result transmits to DFS electronically — there is nothing for you to mail, upload or forward.
What a failing report gives you. A fail returns a diagnostic breakdown by content area rather than a raw item list. Use it literally: Florida's content outlines (publication #121003, effective 1 January 2026) are organised into the same weighted sections your report is scored against, so a weak area on the report maps onto a specific block of the outline. That is a more efficient re-study plan than starting the 60-hour course over.
The passing standard is 70%, stated by the Candidate Handbook as a straight percentage. On the 100-scored-question personal lines paper that is a margin of 30 questions — worth knowing when you are deciding whether to agonise over an item or flag it and move on.
Three clocks run against a passing score, and they are independent.
Clock one — the one-year validity. A passing grade is valid for one year from the date earned. This is statutory, in F.S. § 626.291: "a passing grade on an examination is valid for a period of 1 year." DFS is equally direct that passing "does NOT guarantee licensure" — the application must be filed inside that year. Miss it and the score is void; you pay $44 and sit InsFL-Pers55 again.
Clock two — the attempt cap. Five attempts on the same examination type in any 12-month period. No waiting period between attempts is stated by DFS or the handbook, and the practical floor is Pearson VUE's one-calendar-day scheduling rule — but each retake needs a new reservation and a new $44, and none of it is refundable or transferable.
Clock three — your own momentum. The fingerprint step above and the prelicensing four-year window sit inside the same year. The candidates who lose a valid pass rarely fail; they finish the exam in March, get printed in September, and discover a background document is outstanding the following February.
After you pass. File through MyProfile, and remember that the license still is not usable until an appointing entity appoints you. The Life guide covers the application screen by screen; the P&C guide covers appointments and what keeps the license alive afterwards.
What It Costs
$44 per attempt to Pearson VUE for InsFL-Pers55, $55 to DFS at application ($50 filing plus the $5 license ID fee), and $49.50 to IdentoGO for LiveScan prints plus Florida county sales tax — about $149 on a first-attempt pass, before your 60-hour course. Cards by mail are $50.75. Everything here is nonrefundable.
The comparison that matters is against the 2-20: identical exam, application and fingerprint fees, and 200 hours of prelicensing instead of 60. That is where the money and the calendar actually go in Florida, and it is why the 20-44 exists.
No renewal fee — the license is perpetual. The $60 appointment fee ($42 + $12 state tax + $6 county tax) is filed and paid by the appointing entity, and F.S. § 626.381 bars it from charging late filing fees back to you.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be a natural person at least 18, a U.S. citizen or legal alien with work authorization, and a bona fide Florida resident for the resident 20-44; nonresidents file the 90-44. Fingerprints must be on file before approval (F.S. § 626.171), and the conduct grounds in F.S. §§ 626.611 and 626.621 apply.
Florida gives four routes past the 60-hour course on the 20-44 sheet, and two of them are experience rather than education: six months within the last four years of responsible insurance duties as a licensed representative in property and casualty, or the same six months as a substantially full-time employee in qualifying P&C roles. Both still require the exam. A degree with at least 9 credit hours of instruction in property, casualty and inland marine, or a CPCU, waives the examination itself under F.S. § 626.221(2)(k) and (h) — the Life guide maps the full waiver landscape.
A new Florida resident who held the equivalent personal lines license elsewhere for one continuous year and applies within 90 days of establishing residency has both prelicensing and the exam waived; past 90 days, the exam comes back. The P&C guide covers relocation and nonresident licensing in detail.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: A 20-44 licensee takes the general lines Law & Ethics Update coded 5-220 — the same update code as a 2-20 agent.
24 hours every two years — a 4-hour Law & Ethics Update plus 20 elective hours — due by the last day of your birth month, first after 24 months licensed and every two years after that. A 20-44 licensee takes the general lines update, course code 5-220, the same code a 2-20 agent takes; the life and health codes do not satisfy it.
Because Florida's update requirement is written as "specific to the license held," holding a 20-44 alongside a life or health license means two different update courses, not one that covers both. That is the practical cost of a mixed licence portfolio in Florida and it is worth planning your birth-month cycle around.
Non-compliance means a $250 fine and a DFS block on renewing, continuing or issuing appointments — which, given that a Florida license expires only after 48 months unappointed, is the mechanism that eventually ends it. Providers have 21 days to report completions. The P&C guide covers the appointment and renewal cycle these obligations attach to.
Quick Reference
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