Hawaii P&C Insurance Exam 2026

Holding Both Property and Casualty Lines in Hawaii

Hawaii does not issue a combined Property & Casualty licence. HRS § 431:9A-107 creates Property — "insurance coverage for the direct or consequential loss or damage to property of every kind" — and Casualty — "insurance coverage against legal liability" — as two distinct lines of authority, each with its own Pearson VUE exam at $75.

So full P&C capability means two exams and one licence carrying two lines. The Property guide and the Casualty guide each cover their own exam; this guide covers what happens after you hold them — reciprocity for producers arriving from elsewhere, and the renewal cycle that keeps the licence alive.

The alternative is Personal Lines, a single exam granting a narrower authority: property and casualty sold to individuals and families for primarily noncommercial purposes. One $75 exam instead of two — but no commercial capability, and it is Hawaii's longest exam at 116 scored questions. The Personal Lines guide covers that trade in full.

If surplus lines is in your plans, both lines are the prerequisite. The Division states that a Surplus Lines Broker credential requires "an active resident insurance producer license with property and casualty lines of authority" — both, not one.

No pre-licensing education is required for either line. Zero hours, per the current handbook — which is what makes Hawaii's two-exam structure reasonable rather than punitive.

Two Exams, Not One

Property — `InsHI_Prop03`: 83 scored questions (50 general + 33 Hawaii-specific) plus 10 pretest, as 75 minutes general + 45 minutes state. $75.

Casualty — `InsHI_Cas04`: 91 scored questions (50 general + 41 Hawaii-specific) plus 12 pretest, as 75 minutes general + 60 minutes state. $75. Note the longer state half — casualty carries the heaviest Hawaii-law weighting of any single line, at 45% of its scored questions.

Both pass at a scaled 70, with numeric scores reported only to failing candidates, and each exam's two sections are timed independently.

Sit them close together and file both applications at once. A single fingerprinting covers applications submitted simultaneously; separate filings months apart mean paying Fieldprint twice. The Casualty guide covers the fingerprint process and its 60-day rule.

The Property guide covers the test-center network and the island problem; the Accident & Health guide covers OnVUE and its retake penalties; the Personal Lines guide covers results and score reporting.

Most Tested Topics Across the Hawaii Property & Casualty Exams

Both exams share Hawaii's general insurance law, and the recurring subjects are the guaranty association, the regulator's structure, and the licensing and renewal rules themselves. Each row is verified:

The guaranty limits are the most-tested cluster, and Hawaii's shape is distinctive in two ways. First, the $300,000 per-claim cap is at the lower end nationally — several states run $500,000 — and it is always subject to the policy limit, whichever is lower. Second, workers' compensation claims are paid in full with no cap at all, which is the exception candidates most often miss. Pair those with the $10,000 unearned-premium ceiling and the $25 million net worth exclusion and you have most of what § 431:16-108 will be asked about.

The second cluster is structural and worth free marks. Hawaii's Insurance Commissioner is appointed, not elected, and sits inside the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs rather than heading a standalone department. The contrast the exam likes is with states that elect a commissioner or split licensing from market regulation across two agencies. Hawaii does neither — one division, one appointed Commissioner, HRS chapter 431 and HAR title 16.

Bringing a License to Hawaii — Reciprocity, the 90-Day Rules and What Doesn't Work

Hawaii's rules for producers arriving from elsewhere are straightforward, and they hinge on one number and one absence.

Situation one — you live elsewhere and want to write Hawaii business. Apply for a nonresident licence. HRS § 431:9A-108 provides that a nonresident "shall receive a nonresident producer license if" they are currently licensed and in good standing as a resident producer in their home state, submit the request with the § 431:7-101 fees, file the home-state application or a completed uniform application, and — the true reciprocity condition — "the applicant's home state awards nonresident producer licenses to residents of this State on the same basis." The Commissioner may verify status through the NAIC producer database. Nonresident producers pay $225 initial and $150 to renew.

Situation two — you were licensed elsewhere and want a Hawaii resident licence. HRS § 431:9A-109 exempts from examination a person "previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state" who is either currently licensed there, or whose application arrives within ninety days of the cancellation of the previous license, with the home state certifying good standing at cancellation (or the NAIC database confirming it).

Situation three — you are moving to Hawaii. The same section requires a producer relocating here to apply "within ninety days of establishing legal residence." File inside that window and the exam is waived for the lines you already held. For someone arriving with property and casualty authority, that is two exams and 174 scored questions avoided by a calendar entry.

And the clock runs from residency, not from your start date. Diary it the week you move.

A related rule that is easy to miss. If you are already a Hawaii licensee and your legal residence changes, you must file a change of address and provide certification from the new resident state within 30 days — and the statute is explicit that "no fee or license application shall be required" for that. Failing to do it draws a penalty under § 431:2-203. It is administratively free and expensive to forget.

Now the absence, and it is the thing most guides get wrong. Hawaii grants no designation-based exam waiver of any kind. Section 431:9A-109 — the exemption statute — names no professional designation at all. CLU, ChFC, CPCU, CIC, LUTCF, FLMI, AAI and ARM appear nowhere in it. Many states waive an exam for CPCU or CLU; Hawaii does not.

And notice why a second common assumption also fails here. In most states a designation can at least waive the pre-licensing coursework. In Hawaii there is no pre-licensing coursework to waive — the state requires zero hours — so a designation has nothing to act on from either direction. The only route around a Hawaii exam is prior licensure in another state.

Limited lines travel with you. Under § 431:9A-108(d), a limited-lines licensee in their home state "shall receive a nonresident limited lines producer license ... granting the same scope of authority as granted under the license issued by the producer's home state."

Temporary licences — 180 days without examination, for the surviving spouse or personal representative of a producer who dies or is disabled, for a business entity's designee in the same circumstances, for the designee of a producer entering the armed forces, or at the Commissioner's discretion in the public interest. The Life & Health guide covers them in detail.

Renewal in Hawaii — The Birth-Month Rule the Statute Never Mentions

Hawaii producer licences expire on the last day of the licensee's birth month, on a two-year cycle. That is the rule, and the reason so few sources state it is that it is not in the statute.

HRS § 431:9A-107 deliberately sets no date. It says only that "an insurance producer license shall remain in effect so long as the fee set forth in section 431:7-101 is paid and the educational requirements for resident individual producers are timely met." No expiration date, no renewal month — the statute delegates entirely.

The rule lives in the administrative rules. HAR § 16-171-302 provides that "the day for renewal or extension of a license issued to a natural person ... shall be the last day of the licensee's birth month." That is the operative sentence, and it sits in chapter 16-171, the Miscellaneous Insurance Rules.

How an arbitrary issue date becomes a birth-month date. HAR § 16-171-301 sets the licence term at "not less than one year and not more than three years" — the mechanism that stretches or shortens your initial term so it lands on the birth-month anchor. After that, § 16-171-305 charges a "two-year service fee", which is where the biennial cycle comes from. So your first term is an odd length by design; every one after it is two years.

Business entities work differently, for contrast: § 16-171-304 sets their renewal day as the last day of April for a nonresident licensee and the last day of July for a resident one. Only natural persons use the birth-month rule.

The renewal window opens 90 days before expiration. The fee is $100 for a resident producer, $150 for a nonresident — charged once, regardless of how many lines the licence carries.

Now the deadline that actually governs, because it is not the renewal date. Commissioner's Memorandum 2022-3LIC requires that producers "shall complete CE requirements no later than 15 days before the renewal due date" — because an approved course provider "shall electronically submit the certificate of completion ... within 15 days of course completion." Finish your hours in your birth month itself and the credit may post after your licence has already lapsed. HAR § 16-171-307 ties the two together: "the continuing education compliance period for a resident licensee shall coincide with their license renewal date."

Miss it and the licence goes inactive automatically — there is no grace period. Note a terminology wrinkle worth knowing: the statute describes the status as inactive, while the Division's own CE pages say expired. They are describing the same thing.

Reinstatement, and the arithmetic that confirms it. HRS § 431:9A-107 allows reinstatement within twelve months on payment of the overdue fee plus a penalty equal to double the unpaid renewal amount — and without retaking the examination. Check the numbers: the $100 renewal plus $200 penalty is $300, exactly the Division's published "reapply within one year of nonrenewal" fee. Two independent sources agreeing is a good sign you have the rule right.

After twelve months, that route closes and you are back to first-time requirements — which in Hawaii means the exam for each line again, at $75 apiece, plus fingerprinting and the $150 application. There is at least no coursework to redo.

Two more things to keep current. Your appointments: under § 431:9A-114 a producer may not act as an insurer's agent without one, and the insurer must file it within 15 days of the agency contract or first application. And your address of record — a residence change requires filing within 30 days, at no fee, and a stale address is the classic reason a renewal notice never arrives.

What It Costs

$150 in exam fees for both lines — $75 each, because Hawaii has no combined sitting — plus $150 to the Insurance Division for the resident producer licence through NIPR. $300 in published fees on first-attempt passes, plus Fieldprint's fingerprint charge, which the Division does not publish.

The licence fee is charged once regardless of how many lines it carries, so the second line costs you a $75 exam and study time, nothing more. File both applications simultaneously and one fingerprinting covers both.

No course cost, because Hawaii requires zero pre-licensing hours for any line.

Recurring: $100 to renew every two years as a resident ($150 nonresident) — again, once, not per line. $300 to reapply within a year of nonrenewal, which is the $100 renewal plus a penalty of double it. After twelve months that door closes and you pay for exams again.

Compared with Personal Lines: that route is a single $75 exam and the same $150 licence — cheaper by $75 up front, but the authority is limited to noncommercial personal risks and cannot be widened without sitting the exams you skipped.

Eligibility Requirements

You must be at least 18, pass the exam for each line you request, complete fingerprinting through Fieldprint under code HI-DCCA-INS, and file through NIPR within 60 days of being fingerprinted with the $150 fee. The Casualty guide walks the fingerprint process; the Life guide walks the application.

No professional designation waives a Hawaii exam, as the reciprocity section above sets out. The only statutory exemption is prior licensure for the same lines in another state — current, or cancelled within 90 days with the home state certifying good standing.

Each passing score is valid two years, measured backward from license issuance under HRS § 431:9A-106. Sitting the two exams months apart means the earlier score is the one closest to expiring — worth watching if your application stalls in review.

And remember the appointment requirement: HRS § 431:9A-114 provides that "an insurance producer shall not act as an agent of an insurer unless the producer becomes an appointed agent of that insurer." The insurer files within 15 days; the Commissioner has 30 days to verify eligibility.

Continuing Education for a Hawaii P&C Producer

24 credit hours every two years, and the split depends on which classes you hold:

Note what that table shows: holding both classes does not increase the total. It stays at 24 and simply re-splits — which makes a multi-class Hawaii licence unusually economical to maintain.

The ethics requirement is 3 hours in every configuration, and its scope is defined by statute rather than left open: fiduciary responsibility, commingling of funds, payment and acceptance of commissions, unfair claims practices, policy replacement considerations, and conflicts of interest.

Carryover is prohibited. "No credit hours earned during a single renewal cycle may be carried over and counted towards satisfaction of the credit hour requirements for a following renewal cycle for the same license." There is no advantage to over-earning in Hawaii.

Adding a line mid-cycle does not extend the cycle. The Division is explicit: a producer who adds a line must complete all required hours "including CE for the newly added line(s) of authority" before the existing renewal date. Add casualty four months before your renewal and the full re-split requirement is still due then.

Exemptions are narrow: nonresidents who satisfy their home state's CE where that state reciprocates; active-duty military, who receive an extension equal to the number of days served; and a discretionary waiver from the Commissioner for written good cause.

The renewal section above covers what happens when the deadline passes — automatic inactivation, a twelve-month reinstatement window at $300, and first-time requirements after that.

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