Kansas Property Study Guide

The property-side Kansas questions cluster around three things: how a policy can be ended, where a rejected risk goes, and what it takes to write outside the admitted market. Two of the three have a Kansas answer that contradicts what a lot of study material says, which is precisely why they are worth the study time.

The thirty-day cancellation notice is in a regulation, not a statute

Most states put personal property cancellation in a statute. Kansas puts it in a regulation.

K.A.R. 40-3-15 requires every fire and casualty contract to provide that “the insured will be notified in writing at least 30 days in advance of the effective date of cancellation.” The regulation is adopted under K.S.A. 40-103, and it applies to fire and casualty contracts generally rather than to any single line.

It carves out three things: cancellation for nonpayment of premium, accident and health policies, and crop-hail. So the familiar 10-day nonpayment figure is not in the regulation at all — the Department’s consumer guidance gives 10 days for nonpayment and 30 days before expiry for property nonrenewal, but those reflect standard policy language rather than a Kansas rule.

The miscite to watch: K.S.A. 40-2,112 is not the cancellation statute. It governs adverse underwriting decisions — written reasons and refund of unearned premium — and it is pulled into cancellation answers constantly.

And keep the commercial numbers separate. K.S.A. 40-2,120 and 40-2,121 apply only to property or casualty coverage “used primarily for business or professional needs” — and they run 60 days, double the personal figure. A question that names a commercial policy is asking for sixty.

Kansas does have a FAIR Plan — and it is recent

A surprising amount of study material says otherwise, and there is a reason: the act is new. K.S.A. 40-2142 states that “this act shall be known and may be cited as the fair access to insurance requirements plan act, or the FAIR plan act,” and it was enacted in 2017. Before that Kansas ran a different apportionment scheme, which is why older material misses it — K.S.A. 40-2101 now opens with “except as provided in K.S.A. 40-2142.”

The plan trades under the name Kansas All-Industry Placement Facility, a not-for-profit association of Kansas insurers providing basic property coverage to applicants who cannot obtain it voluntarily. Eligibility opens after at least three insurance companies have declined the risk — the same three-declination trigger as the auto residual market. All policies are issued for a term of one year.

Credit scoring — permitted, but fenced

The Kansas Insurance Score Act, K.S.A. 40-5101 through 40-5114, applies “only to personal insurance and not to commercial insurance.” Personal insurance here means private passenger auto, homeowners, motorcycle, mobile homeowners, non-commercial dwelling fire, boat, personal watercraft, snowmobile and RV policies.

The prohibitions are at § 40-5104. An insurance score may not be calculated using “income, address, zip code, race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry or marital status.” An insurer may not “refuse to quote, deny, cancel or refuse to renew any policy of personal insurance solely on the basis of credit information,” nor base renewal rates solely on it, without considering some other independent underwriting factor. And it may not take an adverse action against a consumer solely because the consumer has no credit card account.

Surplus lines — a separate licence, a moving tax rate, and one hard date

Writing non-admitted business in Kansas takes an underlying property and casualty producer licence plus a separate excess and surplus lines licence (K.S.A. 40-246b), at $50 initial and $50 renewal. Nonresidents must also hold a surplus lines licence in their home state. A diligent effort to place the risk in the admitted market comes first.

The tax figure is where stale material shows. K.S.A. 40-246c(a)(2) sets 3% of gross premiums less return premiums, “commencing with the taxable year beginning January 1, 2024.” The 6% figure that still appears in subsection (a)(1) is superseded — if you see 6% in a study guide, the guide predates the change.

Then the deadline: the affidavit and tax are due on or before March 1 each year, alongside a SLIP+ transaction fee of 0.175% of gross premiums. The Department states there is no late renewal and no grace period on the surplus lines licence.

One last backstop worth carrying across from the casualty side: the Kansas Insurance Guaranty Association pays a maximum of $300,000 per covered claim under K.S.A. 40-2906 — but workers’ compensation claims are paid in full, with no cap at all.