What This License Is
An Illinois Personal Lines license lets you sell property and casualty coverage to individuals and families — homeowners, renters, personal auto, and similar non-commercial risks in Illinois. It is issued by the Illinois Department of Insurance.
Licensing runs through the same process as every Illinois producer line — the difference is the focused Personal Lines exam. Note that Illinois requires 20 hours of pre-licensing education for this line before you can sit for the exam.
TESTivity recommends [Achievable](https://app.achievable.me/study/insurance-personal-lines/purchase#a_aid=getthelicense) to satisfy your Illinois pre-licensing requirement. Achievable is an approved provider, its insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, and completing the Achievable course earns you the certificate of completion Illinois requires.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in Illinois 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 Personal Lines Producer (Pearson VUE, paired General + State exams): 117 total (112 scored: 75 general + 37 Illinois; 5 pretest) questions, 2 hr 15 min (general 1:30 + state 0:45), $92 per attempt. Passing standard: 70.
Illinois does not offer a combined exam for these lines — each line of authority is its own exam, so producers who want both simply take both exams.
How Illinois Licenses Property & Casualty Producers
Illinois licenses by individual line of authority and treats Property and Casualty as two distinct lines. Each has its own pre-licensing course and a two-part exam — a General (product knowledge) portion and an Illinois State (statutes and regulations) portion.
A producer who wants full Property & Casualty authority sits four exams: Property General, Property State, Casualty General, and Casualty State. The General and State exams for a line must be passed within 90 days of each other.
One quirk to remember: the limited Motor Vehicle line cannot be held at the same time as a full Property + Casualty license — they are mutually exclusive on the Producer Database.
Eligibility and Pre-Licensing Education
You must be at least 18, have an SSN or FEIN, and provide proof of Illinois residency.
Illinois requires 20 hours of pre-licensing per line (7.5 hours classroom or live webinar, 12.5 self-study). A combined Property & Casualty course is 40 hours with 15 hours in the live/classroom format. The completion certificate is valid for 12 months.
Holders of the CPCU or ARM designation are exempt from P&C pre-licensing education.
Illinois Auto Statutes (Casualty State)
Auto is the heaviest single topic on the Casualty State exam. Illinois mandatory minimums are 25/50/20 — $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, and $20,000 property damage (625 ILCS 5/7-601).
Illinois also mandates uninsured-motorist bodily injury at 25/50, and that coverage cannot be waived (215 ILCS 5/143a); underinsured-motorist coverage is addressed in 5/143a-2. Know the difference between the two and when each responds.
Round it out with the Illinois Automobile Insurance Plan (assigned risk, 625 ILCS 5/7-501), the age-55+ defensive-driving discount (5/143.29), anti-theft and equipment provisions, and the financial-responsibility surcharge — the outline lists these as discrete, testable items.
Illinois Property Statutes (Property State)
Two Illinois-specific programs dominate the Property State exam. The Illinois FAIR Plan (215 ILCS 5/522–525) provides basic property coverage to applicants the standard market declines — know its purpose, definitions, and industry-placement mechanics.
The Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund (215 ILCS 5/801.1 and following) reflects the state's coal-mining history: in designated counties, mine-subsidence coverage must be offered with property policies. This is a signature Illinois topic you will not see in most other states.
Also testable: a property risk cannot be rejected solely on the basis of location (5/155.22), plus the renewal, nonrenewal, cancellation, and certificate-of-insurance rules in 5/143.10–143.27.
Rules Common to Property & Casualty
A small shared block (about 5 questions) covers material common to both P&C lines: renewal/nonrenewal/cancellation and certificates of insurance, premium financing, the Insurance Claims Fraud Prevention Act (5/155.23), the use of credit information (215 ILCS 157/15, 157/20), and hate-crime provisions.
Policyholder backstop on the P&C side is the Illinois Insurance Guaranty Fund (215 ILCS 5/532, 5/533, 5/537) — distinct from the Life & Health guaranty association.
Regulatory Material Common to Every Line
About 22 of the State-exam questions come from all-lines material: the Director of Insurance, licensing and registration, fiduciary responsibilities (Reg. 3113), and marketing practices — rebating, misrepresentation, defamation, and unfair trade and claims practices (Reg. 919).
Because this block is shared across every Illinois line, the time you spend on it for Property carries straight over to Casualty — and to Life and Health if you add them later.
Costs and How to Apply
Each Pearson VUE exam is $92. When you order a General exam and its matching State exam for the same line on the same order, you receive a $92 discount, so the pair costs $92 total. The fee already includes the state's $50 administrative fee and is non-refundable.
After you pass, you must wait 5 days before applying. Apply online at NIPR (nipr.com). The Illinois resident producer application fee is $215 — among the highest in the country — plus the NIPR transaction fee.
Illinois requires a fingerprint-based background check through an IDFPR-licensed live-scan vendor. Get fingerprinted at least a day before you apply so results are on file when NIPR transmits your application. Vendor fees vary (commonly about $30–$60).
Names must match exactly across your pre-licensing certificate, exam registration, fingerprint record, and NIPR application — a mismatch will delay or reject the application.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Includes 3 hours of ethics. The 24-hour total does not increase if you hold multiple lines (for example, both L&H and P&C). Renew by the last day of your birth month every 2 years; Illinois provides no grace period for late renewal.
Illinois requires 24 hours of CE every 2 years, including 3 hours of ethics. Holding more than one line of authority does not increase the total — it stays 24 hours.
Renewal is tied to your birth month: licenses renew every 2 years by the last day of your birth month, and you may renew up to 90 days early. Illinois allows no grace period for late renewal, so a missed deadline means the license lapses.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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