What the Idaho Casualty Line Covers
Idaho Code § 41-1008 lists Casualty as its own qualification — "insurance coverage against legal liability, including that for death, injury or disability or damage to real or personal property." Property is a separate line, and Idaho will license either alone.
Two boundaries are worth fixing early. Surety is separate. Idaho maintains a distinct Surety line with its own 35-question, 45-minute exam (InsID-Sur0008) — and the useful wrinkle is that holding both Property and Casualty exempts you from the surety exam, while surety held alone requires it. Second, Idaho's Life line reaches further than you would expect: § 41-1008 defines Life to include "benefits in the event of death or dismemberment by accident and benefits for disability income," so some accident coverage sits on the life side rather than here.
There is no combined Property & Casualty exam. Idaho runs five producer exams and no combined product, so full P&C authority means two sittings at $65 each. The $80 application fee is per application rather than per line, so pass both before you file and the licence costs the same as one line.
If your business will be personal auto and homeowners rather than commercial liability, look at Personal Lines instead — one 97-question exam spanning both sides, covered in its own guide.
Exam Options & Format
ID Casualty Producer, series InsID-Cas0004: 70 scored questions — 50 General and 20 Idaho-specific — plus 13 unscored pretest items (5 General, 8 Idaho), 1 hour 45 minutes, $65. A Spanish version runs under SPID-Cas0004.
The Idaho block covers financial responsibility and the auto statutes, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, cancellation and nonrenewal, assigned risks, workers' compensation, the guaranty association, and comparative negligence.
The two portions are scored separately — "each examination is divided into two parts: the general section and the state section," and a candidate who passes one and fails the other "need[s] to retake the portion they did not pass." Casualty was Idaho's second-hardest producer exam on 2021 first-time data, with 49.28% passing the General portion and 53.18% the Idaho-specific portion — both below the 53.84% all-exam average.
Idaho publishes no passing score. The handbook, the content outlines, the DOI testing page and FAQ, DOI's own pass-rate reports and IDAPA are all silent; § 41-1006 delegates the standard to the Director and no rule sets one. Your report reads pass or fail.
Retake 24 hours after your last attempt at a fresh $65, with no published attempt limit. Results are valid 180 days — statutory, under § 41-1006.
Most Tested Topics on the Idaho Casualty Exam
Twenty scored questions on Idaho law, and they cluster around motor vehicles and workers' compensation. From the TESTivity Idaho regulations curriculum, verified against the code:
| Concept | The Idaho rule |
|---|---|
| Auto minimum limits | 25/50/15 — $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $15,000 property damage — Idaho Code § 49-117(20), pulled into owners' policies by § 49-1212(1)(b) |
| Fault system | At-fault (tort). Title 41 Chapter 25 contains no PIP or no-fault section anywhere in §§ 41-2501–41-2521 |
| Medical payments | Not mandated and not a required offer. § 41-2514 only regulates the coverage if written, forbidding a claim window shorter than 3 years from the injury |
| Uninsured / underinsured motorist | Must be included in motor vehicle liability policies at limits matching § 49-117 — but the named insured may reject in writing or by electronic record — § 41-2502. Disclosure statements explaining the options have been required since January 1, 2009 |
| Comparative negligence | Modified, barred at 50%. § 6-801 allows recovery only where the plaintiff's negligence "was not as great as" the defendant's — so 49% recovers, 50% does not |
| Special verdicts | § 6-802 is the mechanic, not the rule — it directs the jury to find separate special verdicts apportioning fault, and requires the judge to reduce damages proportionally |
| Assigned risks | No formally named Idaho automobile insurance plan exists. § 41-1441 and Idaho Code § 49-1225 direct the Director to approve plans for "equitable apportionment" of applicants "in good faith entitled to but… unable to procure" coverage — the Director approves plans rather than a statute creating an entity |
| Named-driver exclusion | § 41-2510 lets an insurer "exclude, cancel or refuse to renew coverage… as to designated individuals" — this is the exclusion statute, and it is not an assigned-risk provision |
| Claim payment on repairs | 20 days — payment is due "no later than twenty (20) days subsequent to receipt of an itemized bill or invoice covering repairs authorized by the insurer which have been satisfactorily completed" — § 41-1328 |
| Workers' comp — who must carry | Every employer, with no employee-count threshold. § 72-301 requires coverage by an authorized insurer, the state insurance fund, or approved self-insurance |
| Workers' comp — exceptions | Eleven excepted employments in § 72-212 — household domestic service, casual employment, outworkers, certain family members, sole proprietors and working partners, corporate officers owning at least 10% of voting stock and serving as directors, real estate agents paid solely by commission, volunteer ski patrollers, secondary-school athletic officials, and more |
| Workers' comp — public employers | "Every public employer shall insure its liability… with the state insurance fund" unless the fund declines the risk — § 72-301. That provision expires July 1, 2030 |
| TTD benefit | 67% of the average weekly wage, subject to a maximum of 90% and a minimum of 45% of the average state wage — §§ 72-408, 72-409. For 2026 the average state wage is $1,135.00, so the maximum weekly TTD is $1,021.50 |
| Workers' comp deadlines | Notice to the employer as soon as practicable but not later than 60 days; claim within 1 year of the accident — both in § 72-701. § 72-706 separately limits hearing applications |
| Guaranty association | The Idaho insurance guaranty association — § 41-3606 — covers workers' compensation claims without the $300,000 cap that applies to other claims |
Two auto numbers decide more Casualty questions than anything else, and both are places Idaho departs from its neighbours. The first is the $15,000 property damage minimum. Bodily injury at 25/50 is unremarkable; the PD figure is materially lower than the $25,000 several surrounding states use, and a question offering "25/50/25" for Idaho is testing exactly that. The second is the 50% bar. Idaho's statute never states a percentage — § 6-801 says recovery is allowed if the plaintiff's negligence "was not as great as" the defendant's. Work that phrase through and a plaintiff at 49% recovers, a plaintiff at exactly 50% recovers nothing. Learn the words, not a number, because the exam quotes the words.
On the workers' compensation side, the tested fact is an absence. Most states set a threshold — three employees, five employees — below which coverage is optional. Idaho sets none. § 72-301 obliges every employer to secure payment of compensation, and the exemptions come from the eleven excepted employments in § 72-212 rather than from a headcount. A question that asks "how many employees before Idaho requires workers' comp?" is a trick: the answer is one, subject to the exceptions. Add the state's unusual insurer of last resort — the Idaho State Insurance Fund, an "independent body corporate politic" under § 72-901 that public employers must generally use — and you have most of what this block asks about.
Idaho Fingerprinting — Through the Exam Vendor, Step by Step
Idaho does something almost no other state does: your fingerprints are captured by the exam vendor. Pearson VUE handles both the examination and the fingerprinting, and you book the capture the same way you book an exam — as a scheduled appointment under a service code. If you have been licensed elsewhere and are expecting a police agency, a live-scan storefront or an IdentoGO enrollment centre, adjust.
Who has to do it. The DOI's requirement is categorical for residents: "Idaho requires all applicants for a resident license to submit fingerprints." The statutory hook is Idaho Code § 41-1007(1)(b), which requires that the applicant "has submitted the applicant's fingerprints as may be required by the director." Nonresidents are not fingerprinted — the requirement runs to resident-licence applicants only. (A note on citations: § 41-1013 is sometimes given for this and is wrong; that section is renewal and continuing education.)
The two service codes. Book InsID-FPELC for electronic capture — a 30-minute appointment — or InsID-FPHC for the hard-card option. These are Pearson VUE booking codes and they are universal to Idaho insurance licensing, not per-applicant identifiers issued to you after applying. Whether a separate ORI is generated behind the scenes is not addressed by any published source.
Which option to choose: electronic, unless you cannot. Electronic capture is faster, and it is also the only one whose price everyone agrees on — see the fees section. The hard card exists mainly for candidates who cannot reach a capture site, and DOI Bulletin 23-06 created a temporary-licence pathway precisely because hard-card results take longer to return.
Sequencing — the part that actually costs people time. You may be printed before you file, but understand what that does and does not achieve. The DOI's own warning: "After fingerprints are submitted the applicant needs to immediately move to the next step of the application process," because "the Department can not see, track or verify anything about a person's fingerprints until their application submitted and the completed CHRI sent to the Department." In other words, prints without an application sit inert — the Department cannot even confirm they exist. The practical order for most candidates is exam → fingerprints → application, all inside the 180-day window, and with the application filed within days of the capture rather than weeks.
No state approval is needed first. Unlike most fingerprint regimes, nothing gates the booking: the handbook confirms "you do not require approval from the State of Idaho to take the examination," and the same is true of the print appointment. There is no eligibility file to wait for.
What to bring. Valid, unexpired government-issued photo identification in the same name you will use on the NIPR application. A mismatch between your ID, your exam registration and your application is the most common avoidable delay — if you have recently changed your name, fix it on the ID before you book anything.
Where the results go. Capture feeds the criminal history record information (CHRI) return to the Idaho Department of Insurance directly, alongside the CHRI Request & Release form. There is no report for you to collect or forward. Because the Department cannot track the return until your application exists, filing promptly is what starts the clock rather than what ends it.
What a record actually does. A criminal history is not automatically disqualifying. § 41-1007(1) requires only that the applicant has not "committed any act that is a ground for denial, suspension or revocation of the license as set forth in title 41," and § 41-1016 gives the Director discretion rather than a mandate. What causes real trouble is a gap between what you disclosed and what the CHRI returns — disclose fully, attach the documents, and let the Department weigh it. Once licensed, § 41-1021 obliges you to keep reporting administrative actions and criminal prosecutions.
How long the prints last. Unknown, and worth saying so: neither the DOI, the handbook, § 41-1007, nor IDAPA 18.01.02 publishes a retention or re-use window. If you let a licence lapse past the point where Idaho requires you to reapply as a new applicant, assume you will be printed again.
What It Costs
Casualty alone: $65 exam + $65 electronic fingerprinting + $80 application through NIPR — about $210, plus NIPR's unpublished vendor processing fee. No course to buy: "Idaho does not require pre-licensing education."
Casualty and Property together: one more $65 exam, no additional licence fee if both go on one application — about $275.
The fingerprint fee, precisely. Electronic capture is $65 — the DOI testing page, the Pearson VUE handbook and Pearson's own hard-card process document all say so. The hard card is genuinely disputed inside the DOI's own website: the testing page says $61.25, the hard-card instructions page says $65.25, and the handbook says $65. IDAPA 18.01.02 § 030.03 sets only a ceiling — fingerprinting "not to exceed eighty dollars ($80)" — so every figure is lawful and none is authoritative. Book electronic and you never have to resolve it.
Every Idaho licensing fee is non-refundable; the DOI's fee page states it in capitals. Renewal is $80 paper or $60 electronic every two years.
Eligibility Requirements
Idaho Code § 41-1007(1): be "at least eighteen (18) years of age," submit fingerprints, pay the fees, pass the examinations for the lines applied for, and have committed no act grounding denial, suspension or revocation under Title 41.
There is no pre-licensing requirement and no designation waiver — CPCU, CIC, CISR and CRM earn nothing in Idaho. The only examination exemption is prior licensure in another state under § 41-1012, covered in the Property & Casualty guide.
The Life guide walks the NIPR application; fingerprinting is covered above.
Keeping the License Active
Important CE details: IDAPA 18.06.04 § 012. Credits post through State Based Systems (SBS); providers have 30 days to upload them, so finish well before your birth month.
Two-year term ending the last day of your birth month; 24 hours per cycle including at least 3 hours of ethics (IDAPA 18.06.04 § 012.01). The DOI does not require the hours to match your lines, but § 012.02 requires every course to fall inside the two years before renewal — no carryover, and no credit for repeating a course within the same period.
Casualty producers who add a surplus lines broker licence become CE exempt in Idaho — one of the few real exemptions the state grants, alongside business entities, nonresidents, limited-lines-only producers, active-duty military and temporary licensees. There is no designation-based or long-service exemption.
The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal mechanics in full, including Idaho's statutory late-fee ladder and the point at which you must retest.
Quick Reference
Official Links
Don't study generic. Study Idaho.
You've got the roadmap. Now get the Idaho-specific Casualty question bank, mock exams, and video course built by instructors with 20+ years teaching this material.