Georgia Doesn't License Casualty by Itself — Here's What That Means
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 120-2-3-.06(1)(d) defines Casualty as "insurance coverage against legal liability, including that for death, injury or disability or damage to real or personal property" and adds that it "also includes surety" — a detail worth noting, because in Georgia surety and fidelity bonds ride on the Casualty side rather than in a separate line. Pearson VUE prints a separate Casualty exam, 12-GA-04. Neither fact means Georgia issues a Casualty-only license.
OCI settles that question in print, on its resident licensing page: "You must select both Property and Casualty when applying. We do not license just Property or just Casualty." The 16-hour education requirement is described the same way — "the individual Property course or the individual Casualty course which consist of 8.0 hours each." Halves exist; the half-license does not.
What 12-GA-04 gives you is a route. Georgia's examination requirement can be met either by the combined Property & Casualty exam (12-GA-06) or by passing 12-GA-04 (Casualty) and 12-GA-03 (Property) separately. Same license, same $120, same 16 hours of coursework. Splitting costs an extra $67 and buys you a smaller room to carry into — and an independent result, since a failure on one half doesn't touch the other half's pass or its 12-month clock.
The one place Casualty genuinely stands alone is the temporary license. OCI lists Life, Accident and Sickness, Property, Casualty and Personal Lines as eligible temporary lines under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-13 — six months, renewable in three-month increments to a fifteen-month maximum, for insurer-sponsored training or for winding up a deceased or disabled agent's business. Rule 120-2-3-.40 limits an applicant to one fifteen-month temporary license in the same lines of authority, and the fee is $80.
A note on what's coming: a new version of Rule 120-2-3-.09 took effect August 18, 2026, adding a path where an applicant who scores 60% and has a currently licensed agent sponsor may be granted a temporary license on an insurer's written request. It is permissive, it produces a temporary license, and it does not move the passing grade — that is still 70%.
Exam Options & Format
12-GA-04, Casualty Agent: 80 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest items, 2 hours, $67, flat 70% to pass. Georgia scores raw, not scaled — 56 of 80 — and prints the result before you leave.
Scored breakdown from the content outline: Types of policies, bonds and related terms 23 · Insurance terms and related concepts 15 · Policy provisions 12 · Georgia laws pertinent to all insurance lines 22 · Georgia rules for property and casualty 3–4 · Georgia rules for casualty only 4–5. Casualty is the most policy-heavy of Georgia's single exams at 23 questions on types of policies and bonds — and it still carries about 30 questions of Georgia law.
Every attempt is in person. Georgia Insurance is not on Pearson VUE's OnVUE remote-proctoring list, and walk-ins are not accepted. Retakes: 14 days after the first and second failures, 60 days after the third and beyond, no cap, $67 each. The Property guide covers test centers, the 48-hour reschedule rule, and what to bring.
Most Tested Topics on the Georgia Casualty Exam
Casualty is where Georgia law is most distinctive rather than merely different — the UM structure and the fault bar are genuinely Georgia's own. From the TESTivity Georgia regulations curriculum, verified against the code:
| Concept | The Georgia rule |
|---|---|
| Auto minimum limits | 25/50/25 — $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage — O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11(a)(1)(A); the owner's duty to carry it is § 33-34-4 |
| Fault system | Tort/at-fault, no mandatory PIP. Georgia repealed no-fault effective October 1, 1991; medical payments coverage is optional |
| Uninsured motorist, default | Add-on (excess): UM "shall be available as additional insurance coverage in excess of any available bodily injury liability… coverages" — § 33-7-11(b)(1)(D)(ii)(I) |
| Uninsured motorist, elective | Reduced / difference-in-limits, which the insured must "affirmatively choose" in writing — § 33-7-11(b)(1)(D)(ii)(II). Georgia is one of very few states offering both forms |
| Rejecting UM | Must be in writing — the requirement "shall not be applicable where any insured named in the policy shall reject the coverage in writing" — § 33-7-11(a)(3) |
| Comparative negligence | Modified, 50% bar: "the plaintiff shall not be entitled to receive any damages if the plaintiff is 50 percent or more responsible" — § 51-12-33(g). Not 51% |
| Assigned risk | The Georgia Automobile Insurance Plan — O.C.G.A. § 40-9-100 (Title 40, not 33) and Rule Ch. 120-2-14. Participation is mandatory for auto insurers; appeals go to the Commissioner, then superior court within 10 days |
| Workers' comp threshold | Mandatory at 3 or more employees, counting regular and part-time — § 34-9-2 |
| WC wage replacement | 66⅔% of average weekly wage, capped at $800/week for injuries on or after July 1, 2023, minimum $50; 7-day waiting period, retroactive at 21 consecutive days; 400 weeks for non-catastrophic injuries — § 34-9-261 |
| WC panel of physicians | The employer posts at least six physicians, at least one an orthopedic surgeon, no more than two industrial clinics; the employee may make one change within the panel without board approval — § 34-9-201. The alternative is a certified WC/MCO |
| WC deadlines | Report the injury to the employer within 30 days; file the claim within 1 year of injury — §§ 34-9-80, 34-9-82 |
| Bad faith | Refusal to pay within 60 days of demand exposes the insurer to 50% of the loss or $5,000, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees — § 33-4-6 |
The UM question is Georgia's signature. Most states give you one UM structure. Georgia gives you two and makes the broader one the default: unless the insured affirmatively chooses otherwise in writing, uninsured motorist coverage stacks on top of the at-fault driver's liability limits rather than merely filling the gap up to the UM limit. The elective "reduced" form treats the other vehicle as uninsured only for the difference between its coverage and yours. Exam items pair this with a fact pattern and a dollar figure, and the whole question turns on which form was selected — and on the fact that both rejection and the reduced election have to be in writing.
The 50% bar is the other one, and it is a comparison trap. Georgia bars recovery at 50% or more; most of its neighbors use a 51% bar, where a plaintiff at exactly 50% still recovers. A question that hands you a plaintiff at precisely 50% fault is checking whether you know Georgia is the stricter one. Anchor it as "in Georgia, a tie loses."
Two citation errors circulate widely and are worth correcting in your own notes: the Georgia Automobile Insurance Plan lives in Title 40 at § 40-9-100, not at § 33-34-8 (which is actually the Commissioner's rulemaking authority over first-party property damage claim settlement), and the workers' comp "conformed panel" option no longer exists — the 2015 amendment deleted it, leaving the posted panel of six and the certified WC/MCO.
Georgia Fingerprinting — Step by Step, in the Right Order
Georgia runs fingerprinting backwards from most states, and getting the order wrong is the single most common way a Georgia application stalls. Everywhere else, you print first and apply second. Here, OCI states it plainly: "a registration for an appointment will not be approved until after you have applied for your license." File the Sircon application first. Then fingerprint.
Step 1 — Submit the license application at sircon.com/georgia. This is the trigger. Until OCI has your application on file, an IdentoGO registration under the insurance service code will not be approved, and you will have spent an afternoon at an enrollment center for nothing.
Step 2 — Register at ga.state.identogo.com/ata under service code 2TGJ6B. Georgia uses IdentoGO, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's approved vendor, and the code is a shared, published code for insurance licensing — OCI prints it publicly on its licensing page. You are not waiting on a per-applicant code the way you would be in some states; 2TGJ6B is the code for everyone applying for an insurance license. Save the confirmation number.
Step 3 — Book the capture appointment. IdentoGO enrollment centers are spread across the state, including several in metro Atlanta, and the registration flow shows locations and open times. Bring valid, unexpired government-issued photo identification in the same name you used on the application — a name mismatch between the affidavit, the application and the ID is the second most common source of delay after the ordering problem above.
Step 4 — Pay at the appointment. The fee is collected by IdentoGO when you register or when you arrive. Georgia does not publish the amount — it is not on OCI's licensing pages, not in the Pearson VUE handbook, and not extractable from IdentoGO's Georgia scheduling site, and the GBI's general fingerprint fee schedule does not break out insurance licensing. Treat any specific dollar figure you see quoted on a third-party site as unverified; you will see the real number in the IdentoGO registration flow.
Step 5 — Let the results route themselves. The prints go to the GBI and the FBI, and the results return to OCI directly — there is no report for you to forward. This step is usually what determines whether you land inside OCI's stated 14 business day average turnaround, so book the appointment the same week you file, not the same month.
Who is exempt. Currently active licensees do not re-fingerprint, and neither does anyone reinstating within six months of inactivation. Past six months, prints are required again — Rule 120-2-3-.16(2)(b) provides that "if late renewal reinstatement is received 6 or more months after the expiration date, the licensee is required to submit electronic fingerprints." Producers moving to Georgia from another state get the broadest exemption of all: apply within 90 days with a letter of clearance and you skip pre-licensing, the exam and fingerprinting — the Property & Casualty guide covers that route.
What a record actually does. A criminal history is not an automatic bar. O.C.G.A. § 33-23-5(a)(3) requires that an applicant be "of good character," and § 33-23-21 lists 22 grounds on which the Commissioner may refuse a license, with conviction data handled under § 33-23-5.1 and Rule 120-2-3-.11. What reliably sinks an application is the gap between what you disclosed and what the FBI returns. Answer the background questions completely, attach the court records and a plain explanation, and let OCI weigh it.
What It Costs
Exam: $67 per attempt — $134 if you split 12-GA-04 and 12-GA-03, $67 for the combined 12-GA-06. Application: $120 to OCI through Sircon ($100 license + $15 application fee + $5 processing), unchanged by the number of lines.
Fixed total: $254 split, $187 combined, on first-time passes. Add 16 hours of pre-licensing — TESTivity recommends Achievable, an OCI-approved provider that issues the certificate Georgia requires (disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission on enrollments through this page) — and the IdentoGO fingerprint fee, which Georgia does not publish in advance.
Recurring: $100 biennial renewal without Variable Products, plus $5 processing, plus CE. Each carrier appointment costs the insurer $10 under § 33-8-1(1)(K) — not you.
Eligibility Requirements
O.C.G.A. § 33-23-5(a) requires that you be at least 18, be "a resident of this state who shall reside and be present within this state for at least six months of every year," and be "of good character."
Pre-licensing is 16 hours for the P&C license under Rule 120-2-3-.07(3) — 8 hours Casualty plus 8 hours Property — with the certificate valid 12 months. CPCU, CIC, CISR and CRM holders are exempt from the courses; CPCU also waives the exam. The Accident & Sickness guide sorts out which credentials appear on which list.
Every first-time applicant uploads a notarized Citizenship Affidavit (GID-276-EN) with a copy of acceptable ID, then fingerprints as described above.
Keeping the License Active
Important CE details: 24 hours per two-year cycle including 3 hours of ethics under 20 years of licensure; 20 hours (3 ethics) at 20+ years. Georgia's CE obligation attaches to the licensee, so adding lines never multiplies the hours.
Biennial term ending the last day of your birth month; 24 hours of CE per cycle with 3 ethics, dropping to 20 hours (3 ethics) at 20 years of licensure. Credits post through Sircon's Compliance Express.
Casualty producers who add a surplus lines broker credential pick up no extra CE hours, but do pick up a separate quarterly obligation: the broker files an affidavit and remits a 4% premium tax on the 15th of April, July, October and January under O.C.G.A. § 33-5-31. The Property guide covers the surplus-lines path.
The Property & Casualty guide has the full renewal mechanics — the 60-day early window, the 15-day late-renewal grace period, the $150 reinstatement penalty, and the six-month mark where fingerprints come back.
Quick Reference
Official Links
Don't study generic. Study Georgia.
You've got the roadmap. Now get the Georgia-specific Casualty question bank, mock exams, and video course built by instructors with 20+ years teaching this material.