What the Georgia P&C License Covers
A Georgia Property and Casualty license carries two lines of authority: Property — "insurance coverage for the direct or consequential loss or damage to property of every kind" — and Casualty — "insurance coverage against legal liability, including that for death, injury or disability or damage to real or personal property," which in Georgia "also includes surety." Both definitions are in Rule 120-2-3-.06(1).
Georgia will not split them. OCI's resident licensing page states it directly: "You must select both Property and Casualty when applying. We do not license just Property or just Casualty." So while Rule 120-2-3-.06 lists Property and Casualty as separate kinds of license, and while Pearson VUE offers separate exams for each, the permanent resident license comes as a pair. (Temporary licenses are the exception — OCI issues those in Property or Casualty individually.)
Two routes, one license. Satisfy the examination requirement either with the combined 12-GA-06 (125 scored questions, 2½ hours) or by passing 12-GA-03 (Property) and 12-GA-04 (Casualty) as separate 80-question sittings. Pre-licensing is 16 hours either way — 8 Property plus 8 Casualty. The application is $120 either way. The only real differences are the exam fee ($67 versus $134) and how much material you carry into one room.
What this license already includes. Full P&C authority covers personal-lines risks, so a producer holding it has no reason to also hold the narrower Personal Lines license. Going the other direction is not so easy: Personal Lines does not credit toward P&C, so a Personal Lines producer upgrading later takes the full 16 hours and the full exam.
Exam Options & Format
12-GA-06, Property & Casualty Agent: 125 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest items (135 presented), 2 hours 30 minutes, $67, and a flat 70% to pass — 88 of 125. Georgia scores raw, not scaled, and the result prints before you leave.
The scored breakdown from the content outline: Property: types of policies 22 · insurance terms and related concepts 15 · policy provisions and contract law 13. Casualty: types of policies, bonds and related terms 23 · insurance terms and related concepts 15 · policy provisions 12. Georgia: laws pertinent to all insurance lines 18 · rules for property and casualty 3–4 · rules for property only 0–1 · rules for casualty only 3–4.
That comes to roughly 22 Georgia-law questions out of 125 — noticeably lighter than the 30 you would face on each of the split exams, or 60 across both. Georgia compresses the state chapter when you sit the lines together. On the other hand, 135 questions in 150 minutes is about 67 seconds each, against 90 seconds on the single-line exams, and 100 of the 125 scored questions are product and contract material. The combined exam is a breadth test; the split exams are depth tests.
Retakes: rebook the next day if you like, but wait 14 days after the first and second failures and 60 days after the third and beyond. No cap on attempts, $67 each. A candidate who took pre-licensing through an independent provider and fails three times must retake the course from a different provider first (Rule 120-2-3-.09(3)). All Georgia testing is in person — the Property guide covers centers and scheduling, the Life & Health guide covers exam-day rules.
Most Tested Topics on the Georgia P&C Exam
The 22 Georgia questions on the combined exam concentrate on the regulator, the insolvency backstop, and the notice rules that govern commercial business. From the TESTivity Georgia regulations curriculum, verified against the code:
| Concept | The Georgia rule |
|---|---|
| The regulator | The Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire — the same office regulates insurance and fire safety, and the Commissioner serves as State Fire Marshal (O.C.G.A. § 33-2-1; § 25-2-4) |
| How the Commissioner takes office | Elected statewide to a four-year term — not appointed by the Governor |
| Where the law lives | Title 33 of the O.C.G.A., with regulations in Chapter 120-2 of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia |
| P&C guaranty fund | The Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool, O.C.G.A. Ch. 33-36 — property and casualty only. It does not cover life, annuities, health (except auto-related), title, surety, fidelity or credit insurance |
| Pool per-claim cap | The lesser of policy limits or $300,000 — § 33-36-3(4)(D),(E). Workers' compensation third-party claims are expressly excluded from the cap |
| Pool exclusions | Claims under $50; unearned premium above $20,000; first-party claims where the insured's net worth exceeds $10 million, third-party where it exceeds $25 million |
| Pool claim deadline | The earlier of 18 months after the liquidation order or the court's bar date — § 33-36-11 |
| Using the pool to sell | Prohibited — § 33-36-19 restricts advertising the pool's protection |
| Commercial notice | 45 days for commercial cancellation, nonrenewal, or a premium increase exceeding 15% — O.C.G.A. § 33-24-47. 75 days for workers' compensation |
| Personal vs commercial | § 33-24-47 expressly does not apply to personal auto or personal property and casualty policies — those run on §§ 33-24-44, -45 and -46 |
| Unfair claims settlement | A separate article, §§ 33-6-30 to 33-6-37, actionable only where conduct is "flagrant and in conscious disregard" or frequent enough to show a general business practice; no private cause of action (§ 33-6-37) |
| Unlicensed activity | Willful violation of § 33-23-4 is a misdemeanor; monetary penalties run up to $2,000 per act, or $5,000 where the person knew or should have known — § 33-2-24(g)(2) |
| Record retention | 5 years after the transaction or the contract term, whichever is greater — § 33-23-34(b) |
| Countersignature | Not required — § 33-23-32 is captioned "Resident agent countersigning not required" |
The regulator questions are free points, and Georgia gives you an unusual hook. Most states put insurance regulation in a department that does nothing else. Georgia's Commissioner is elected, serves a four-year term, and simultaneously runs the state's fire-safety and inspections function as State Fire Marshal — the "Safety Fire" in the office's name is not decoration. An exam item that has Georgia's commissioner appointed by the Governor is a distractor, every time.
The Insolvency Pool is where candidates lose points, because its exclusions are the answer more often than its cap. Yes, covered claims cap at the lesser of policy limits or $300,000. But the tested facts are usually the carve-outs: the pool is property and casualty only — a failed life insurer is the Life and Health Guaranty Association's problem, not the pool's — and workers' compensation claims are not subject to the $300,000 cap at all. Add the $50 floor, the $20,000 unearned-premium ceiling, and the net-worth exclusions at $10 million and $25 million, and you have most of what § 33-36-3 is ever asked about.
And keep the commercial clock separate from the personal one. Commercial risks get 45 days under § 33-24-47 — for cancellation, nonrenewal, and premium increases over 15% — with 75 days for workers' compensation. Personal lines get 30 days, or 10 for nonpayment, under § 33-24-44. Two sets of numbers, two statutes, and a question that names "a commercial general liability policy" is telling you which one to use. (One citation warning worth carrying: §§ 33-24-45.1 and 33-24-46.1 do not exist, despite appearing in some study material. The commercial provision is § 33-24-47.)
Bringing an Existing License into Georgia — and Georgia's Nonresident Rules
Georgia has one of the more generous transfer routes in the country, and it is on a short clock. If you were licensed as a resident of another state and you move to Georgia, you can convert without a course, without an exam, and without fingerprints — but only if you file in time.
The 90-day transfer route. OCI publishes the sequence: "request a letter of clearance from your current state; check and confirm your license is Inactive in your current state; within 90 days of that date, apply via Sircon for your Georgia license. This must be done within that time period to be exempted from pre-licensing courses, exams and fingerprinting." A second OCI page states it from the other direction — "you must attach original clearance letter from your prior home state, and you must apply for licensure within 90 days of the date of the move to Georgia."
Read the clock carefully, because it does not start when you decide to apply. It runs from the date your prior resident license went inactive, or the date of the move — not from the day you sit down at Sircon. Miss it and Georgia treats you as a brand-new applicant: 16 hours of pre-licensing, the exam, fingerprints, all of it. Order the clearance letter before you move, not after you've unpacked.
Don't confuse it with the 30-day duty. O.C.G.A. § 33-23-16(c) imposes a separate obligation: "a nonresident agent who moves from one state to another state or a resident agent who moves from this state to another state shall file a change of address and provide certification from the new resident home state within 30 days of the change in legal residence." That is a notification duty about your address and home-state status. The 90 days is your window to apply. They are different rules with different consequences, and a licensee moving in can owe both.
Rule 120-2-3-.09 backs it up on the exam side, independently waiving the examination for a person previously licensed in another state who applies within 90 days of that license's cancellation while in good standing.
Nonresident licensing — staying put and writing Georgia business. O.C.G.A. § 33-23-16 makes this conditional rather than automatic. You must be "currently licensed as a resident and in good standing in such person's home state," and Georgia extends the courtesy only where "the person's home state awards nonresident agent licenses to residents of this state on the same basis." It is reciprocity in the literal sense: if your state won't license Georgians on equal terms, Georgia need not license you.
No Georgia exam for a standard reciprocal nonresident. There is one exception written into the statute — "applicants whose home state does not require a license to transact business may be licensed in this state, provided that the applicant takes the examination issued by the Commissioner." If your home state doesn't license the activity at all, there is nothing for Georgia to reciprocate with, and you test.
Nonresidents apply through NIPR, not Sircon — the reverse of the resident rule, and worth stating plainly because Georgia is unusual on both ends. NIPR's Georgia page is explicit that "resident license transactions are not available through NIPR," while nonresident transactions are exactly what it handles. Nonresidents also file a notarized Citizenship Affidavit and a secure and verifiable identity document, and must be at least 18.
CE reciprocity. Rule 120-2-3-.19(6) provides that nonresident licensees "who are required to meet continuing education in their state of residence will be considered in compliance with the continuing education requirements under this chapter, provided the non-resident licensee's home state reciprocates with Georgia licensees in the same manner." Note the condition — this is not a blanket exemption, and it fails if your home state does not return the favor.
One thing reciprocity never covers: the appointment. However you arrive, you cannot write business until an insurer obtains an agent's certificate of authority for you under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-26. The carrier files it and pays the $10 fee; it takes effect immediately on submission — except for a first-time applicant, where it cannot become effective until the license itself is granted. If the appointment ends, the insurer must notify the Commissioner within 30 days of the effective termination date.
Renewing a Georgia License — Dates, Money, and What Happens If You're Late
The date. O.C.G.A. § 33-23-18(a) is short and absolute: Georgia agent licenses "shall be issued on a biennial basis and shall expire on the last day of the licensee's birth month." Two years, ending on a date you already know. Your very first term is short — it runs from issuance to the end of your birth month in the appropriate year — which surprises producers licensed a month or two before their birthday.
The window. You may renew starting 60 days before expiration. There is no advantage to waiting, and one clear disadvantage: continuing education has to be completed and posted before the renewal will go through, and CE credits do not always appear in Sircon the same day you finish a course.
The money. $100 to renew an agent license without Variable Products, $200 with it, plus a $5 processing fee on every renewal. (For comparison: adjuster and counselor renewals are $100, limited subagent $100, surplus lines broker $600.) Other OCI fees worth knowing: a Letter of Certification is $10 plus $5 processing, and moving to non-active status costs $25 plus $5 processing.
The CE that has to be done first. 24 hours per cycle including 3 hours of ethics if you have been licensed under 20 years; 20 hours (still 3 ethics) at 20 years or more — Georgia began applying that automatic four-hour reduction in 2026. Rule 120-2-3-.16(3)(b) ties the deadline to the same date as the license: credits are due on or before the last day of your birth month. Reductions and exemptions are claimed on Form GID-101E-AL, and transcripts live in Sircon's Compliance Express.
Carryover, and its catch. Excess credits carry forward exactly one period, capped at 50% of the biennial requirement. Carried-forward ethics hours count toward the next cycle's total but "may not be used for Ethics course requirements" — so front-loading ethics does not buy you out of the next cycle's three hours. Plan the ethics hours fresh, every cycle.
One course rule that gets misread. Rule 120-2-3-.12(11) provides that courses "will not be approved for more than 24 hours for class attendance courses or 12 hours for any self-study or online course." That is a ceiling on how many credits a single course may carry — not a cap on how much of your requirement may be online. Nothing in Georgia's rules stops you from meeting all 24 hours through self-study; you simply need more than one course.
Missing the date — the 15-day grace period. Rule 120-2-3-.16(1)(a): "licensee may file a late renewal with appropriate late fee within 15 days of the last day of the licensee's birth month." Fifteen days, plus a late fee. OCI does not publish that late-fee amount, in the rule or on its fee pages — expect it to be quoted at checkout. Fail to file within the fifteen days and subsection (1)(b) applies: "failure to file the required license renewal form along with the appropriate fee shall result in the expiration of the license."
After expiration — reinstatement, in three escalating tiers. First, the money: the reinstatement penalty is $150 (Rule 120-2-3-.16(2)(a)), and it is in addition to the renewal fee and the late fee. Second, at six months: "if late renewal reinstatement is received 6 or more months after the expiration date, the licensee is required to submit electronic fingerprints" — a fresh IdentoGO appointment under code 2TGJ6B, with the delay that implies. Third, at one year: "if an individual fails to file for late renewal reinstatement prior to one (1) year from the license expiration date, the licensee will be required to reapply for the license." Reapply means exactly that — a new application, and with it the pre-licensing and examination requirements you satisfied the first time.
Any outstanding CE still has to be made up. An inactivation for CE non-compliance is cured the same way as one for non-payment: complete the missing hours, pay the fees, and file within the twelve-month window. Georgia publishes no separate monetary penalty for CE non-compliance — the consequence is the inactivation itself, and the reinstatement costs above.
Non-active status is the planned alternative to letting a license lapse. Request it for $25 plus $5 processing, and file the biennial renewal on time; a non-active licensee is exempt from CE while in that status. It is the right move for a producer stepping away for a season — far cheaper than reinstating, and infinitely cheaper than reapplying.
Appointments renew on their own track. Your license and your carrier appointments are separate records: an appointment ends when the insurer terminates it, and the insurer must notify the Commissioner within 30 days. Losing every appointment does not expire your license, and renewing your license does not restore an appointment.
What It Costs
Getting licensed: $67 for the combined 12-GA-06 (or $134 split across 12-GA-03 and 12-GA-04) and $120 to OCI through Sircon — $100 license + $15 application fee + $5 processing. $187 fixed on the combined route, $254 split. Add 16 hours of pre-licensing — TESTivity recommends Achievable, an OCI-approved provider (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.
Keeping it: $100 every two years ($200 with Variable Products) plus $5 processing, plus your CE hours. Late costs stack fast — a late fee inside 15 days, then a $150 reinstatement penalty on top of the renewal fee, then new fingerprints past six months.
Adding to it: a surplus lines broker credential is a separate exam, a $50,000 bond, and a $600 license fee. Each carrier appointment costs the insurer $10.
Eligibility Requirements
O.C.G.A. § 33-23-5(a): at least 18 years of age; "a resident of this state who shall reside and be present within this state for at least six months of every year"; and "of good character." The residency test counts days present, not just an address on file.
Pre-licensing is 16 hours under Rule 120-2-3-.07(3) — 8 Property, 8 Casualty — with certificates valid 12 months. CPCU, CIC, CISR and CRM holders are exempt from the courses under Rule 120-2-3-.07(5), and CPCU also waives the examination under Rule 120-2-3-.09. The Accident & Sickness guide sorts out which credentials appear on which list.
First-time applicants file a notarized Citizenship Affidavit (GID-276-EN) and submit fingerprints — the Casualty guide walks that process, and the Life guide walks the Sircon application. Producers transferring an out-of-state resident license within 90 days skip all three.
Continuing Education at a Glance
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, an automatic 4-hour reduction effective in 2026. Credits are due on or before the last day of your birth month and file through Sircon's Compliance Express.
24 hours every two years, 3 of them ethics, for licensees with fewer than 20 years of service; 20 hours (3 ethics) once you pass 20 years. Due on or before the last day of your birth month, filed through Sircon's Compliance Express, governed by Rules 120-2-3-.15, -.16 and -.19.
Reductions. Holders of CPCU, CLU, FLMI, CIC, CEBS, ChFC, AAI, CFP, CRM or CISR — or a BBA in risk management and insurance from an accredited college — complete 12 hours including 3 ethics, claimed on Form GID-101E-AL. O.C.G.A. § 33-23-18 separately exempts individuals licensed 10 or more consecutive years who perform no underwriting functions and receive only commissions. Non-active licensees are exempt while they keep filing biennial renewals.
The renewal section above covers the mechanics in full — the 60-day window, carryover limits, the 15-day grace period, and the reinstatement tiers at six and twelve months.
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