The Maine Casualty Producer License
Maine's definition of Casualty is the shortest of the six full-line definitions and the broadest in effect. 24-A M.R.S. §1420-F(1)(D): "Casualty, which is insurance coverage against legal liability." Six words, and they carry auto liability, general liability, professional liability, umbrella, workers' compensation and every third-party cover a commercial producer will ever place.
It is the natural pair to Property at (C) - first-party damage on one side, third-party liability on the other - and most producers end up holding both, whether bought as two single-line papers or as the combined Property and Casualty paper. Maine also issues Personal lines at (F) as a narrower authority covering property and casualty sold to individuals and families.
Nothing is required before you book: no pre-licensing course, no fingerprints. The order is exam first, then application, under 24-A M.R.S. §1410(1).
This guide owns the surplus lines walkthrough for Maine. Surplus lines is not a line of authority in the §1420-F sense - it is a separate authority added on top of a producer licence under §1415 - and it is the route by which a casualty producer places the risks the admitted market will not take.
Casualty Alone, or Property and Casualty Together
The standalone Casualty paper carries 88 scored questions: a 50-item General Knowledge part and a 38-item Maine Laws and Rules part, which the content outline splits into 28 items common to property and casualty and 10 pertinent to casualty. The combined Property and Casualty paper carries 140 scored questions - 50 Property general, 50 Casualty general and a 40-item Maine section, with 7 pretest items on that state part.
The arithmetic of choosing is the same shape as on the life side and lands the same way. Two single-line papers ask 88 + roughly 80 scored questions across two appointments, and you sit the 28 common Maine items twice. The combined paper asks 140 in one appointment and asks the common items once. If you intend to hold both lines, the combined paper is fewer questions and one fewer trip to Bangor or Westbrook.
Both are two-part papers under 24-A M.R.S. §1410(6), passable a part at a time. On the casualty side that matters because the two halves barely resemble each other: general liability concepts and coverage forms on one side, Maine's auto minimums and workers' compensation rules on the other.
Passing is a scaled 70, which is a reporting scale rather than a proportion of the paper. The handbook is unusually direct about it: the reported number is "neither the number of questions you answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly."
The counts above are from content outlines #122006 (2 February 2026), the only Pearson VUE document that publishes them. Times are a different matter: the handbook says the allowance for each exam is "detailed on the back cover of this handbook," and that back cover cannot be read out of the published PDF. No time limit is stated on this page for that reason.
Most Tested Topics on the Maine Casualty Exam
Maine's auto statute is the most heavily tested body of law on this paper, and it is also the one most likely to contradict what you already know, because two of its coverages are compulsory here rather than optional. From the TESTivity Maine regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Concept | The Maine rule |
|---|---|
| Auto minimum limits, Maine | 50/100/25 - "For damage to property, $25,000; For injury to or death of any one person, $50,000; For one accident resulting in injury to or death of more than one person, $100,000" (29-A M.R.S. §1605(1)). The Bureau's own Insurance Required by Law page adds that "a Combined Single Limit of $125,000 will also satisfy the minimum limit requirement" - note that figure is the Bureau's, not §1605(1)'s, which sets only the five split amounts |
| Medical payments, compulsory | Maine does not offer it, Maine requires it. A motor vehicle liability policy "must provide coverage in an amount equal to or greater than $2,000 per person for medical costs incurred as a result of injuries sustained in an accident involving the insured vehicle by the driver and passengers in that vehicle," limited to costs incurred within one year of the injury (29-A M.R.S. §1605-A) |
| Towing and storage, compulsory | $500 per accident for reasonable towing and storage - and only where "the vehicle is towed at the request of a law enforcement officer" (29-A M.R.S. §1605-B). Both this and med pay exclude policies covering more than 4 vehicles and commercial risks such as garages, dealerships, repair shops and public parking |
| Uninsured and underinsured motorist | One statute, both coverages. Coverage must be provided at "the amount of coverage for liability for bodily injury or death in the policy offered or sold," and may never fall below the 50/100 statutory minimum. The insured may buy down to that minimum only by expressly rejecting the matching amount on a written rejection form signed by the insured (24-A M.R.S. §2902) |
| Medical payments, no coordination and no subrogation | A casualty insurer may not subrogate against its own insured for medical services paid under med pay absent written approval and Superintendent authorisation, and may not coordinate benefits against med pay or make it secondary to health insurance. The insured may claim under both med pay and health cover, with no duplicate recovery for the same expense; the insurer may still pursue the responsible third party directly (24-A M.R.S. §2910-A) |
| Liability absolute on loss | Maine does not make the claimant wait for a judgment against the insured. Liability "shall become absolute whenever such loss or damage ... occurs" (24-A M.R.S. §2903), and §2904 gives a judgment creditor a direct route to the insurance |
| Proof of financial responsibility, duration | At least 3 years. "After a conviction or adjudication of a person for a violation of a motor vehicle law and reinstatement of that person's license and registration, the person shall maintain proof of financial responsibility for at least 3 years" (29-A M.R.S. §1603(3)); the Secretary of State may waive the demand after 3 years (§1603(5), §1602(5)) |
| Certified policy, cancellation notice | A policy certified as proof of financial responsibility "may not be canceled until at least 10 days after notice of cancellation has been filed" with the Secretary of State (29-A M.R.S. §1606(5)); and the form must have been on file with the Superintendent 30 days or approved in writing before it can be certified (§1606(1)) |
| Workers' compensation, who must carry it | Everyone with an employee. "Every private employer, including an independent contractor who hires and pays employees, is subject to this Act and shall secure the payment of compensation" - by policy or by approved self-insurance under §403, with the employer carrying "the burden of proof to establish an exempt status" (39-A M.R.S. §401) |
| Workers' compensation, the farm exemptions | The exceptions are bought with alternative cover, and the numbers are specific. Seasonal or casual agricultural and aquacultural labourers are exempt where the employer carries employer's liability of at least $25,000 with $5,000 medical; other agricultural and aquacultural labourers where the employer carries $100,000 multiplied by the number of full-time-equivalent workers plus $5,000 medical, and either employs 6 or fewer concurrently or employs more whose total weekly hours do not exceed 240 (39-A M.R.S. §401) |
| MEMIC | Maine created its own workers' compensation mutual by statute - the Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company, 24-A M.R.S. ch. 52, §§3701-3714 - and it is the backstop of the workers' compensation residual market - a creature of statute rather than a private carrier that happens to write here |
| Comparative negligence, the Maine bar | Modified comparative with a 50% bar, and an unusual mechanic: a claimant equally at fault recovers nothing, and below that the jury reduces the damages "to such extent as the jury thinks just and equitable" - stated as a dollar reduction rather than as a strict percentage (14 M.R.S. §156) |
Start with the two compulsory coverages, because they are the highest-value facts on this paper. Read the operative verb in §1605-A: a policy "must provide" medical payments. That is a mandate rather than a duty to offer - there is no rejection form, no signed waiver and no way to buy the policy without it, and that distinction is exactly what an item will test. And $500 of towing and storage is written into the financial responsibility minimums alongside liability and med pay, with a condition attached that is itself testable: the tow has to have been ordered by a law enforcement officer. A tow the driver arranged is outside it.
Then hold the med pay package together, because §1605-A and §2910-A are two halves of one policy choice. Maine compels the coverage and then protects it: the carrier may not subrogate against its own insured for what it paid, may not coordinate the benefit against health insurance, and may not make it secondary. So a Maine injured driver may recover the medical bill under med pay and claim under health insurance, subject only to no duplicate recovery for the identical expense. A question that has the med pay carrier stepping into the insured's shoes against the health plan is describing a different state.
Read the UM statute for its default, not its option. §2902 does not say the insurer must offer UM; it says a policy "may not be delivered or issued for delivery in this State ... unless coverage is provided." The default is UM at the policy's own bodily injury limits. The insured's only lever is an express written rejection of the matching amount, which buys the coverage down - never out, and never below 50/100. Note also that Maine folds underinsured motorists into the same section rather than legislating it separately, so a question hunting for "Maine's UIM statute" is looking at §2902.
Finally, the two workers' compensation numbers that come up. Coverage is required from the first employee - Maine has no small-employer threshold - and the exemptions that do exist are conditional on the employer buying something else instead, which is why the $25,000/$5,000 and $100,000-per-worker/$5,000 figures are worth learning as pairs. The 240-hour aggregate weekly limit for a larger agricultural workforce is the sort of number that only appears on a state exam.
Adding Surplus Lines Authority in Maine
Surplus lines is the route to the non-admitted market - the carriers Maine has not licensed, which is exactly why they will write the risks the admitted market declines. In Maine it is an authority added to an existing producer licence, not a line of authority in its own right. 24-A M.R.S. §1415 puts it outside the §1420-F(1) list: an individual producer "may receive any of the full license authorities pursuant to section 1420-F, subsection 1, paragraphs A to F and surplus lines authority."
What you must already hold. §2012(1): "Any person while licensed in this State as a resident producer who is determined by the superintendent to be competent and trustworthy with respect to the handling of surplus lines, and while maintaining an office at a designated location in this State, may be licensed as a producer with surplus lines authority." Three conditions, and the third one - a Maine office at a designated location - is the sort of requirement that quietly excludes a producer working entirely from a laptop in another state.
There is no surplus lines examination. NIPR's Maine line-of-authority list marks Surplus Lines, along with Variable Contracts, as "Exam Not Required," while Life, Health, Property, Casualty and Personal Lines all require one. So the gate is the Superintendent's competence and trustworthiness finding rather than a paper.
It costs more than the licence underneath it. $15 application plus a $150 authority fee - $165 in total, against $25 for the producer licence itself. The Bureau confirms the figure independently in its producer FAQ: "Surplus Lines: $165.00." And the surplus lines authority is priced identically for residents and nonresidents, where the producer licence is not - $25 resident against $55 nonresident.
And you must be bonded. §2020 requires a surety bond on which "aggregate liability on the bond is limited to payment of not less than $20,000," conditioned on "full accounting and due payment to the person entitled" of funds coming into your possession. The bond runs until released by the Superintendent or cancelled by the surety, and a surety must give 30 days' advance written notice to both you and the Superintendent - if you have not replaced the bond before cancellation takes effect, your authority terminates with it.
When you may actually export a risk. §2004 sets four conditions, and the fourth is the one that gets tested: coverage may be procured from a non-admitted insurer only where "the insurance is not available after diligent effort has been made to place the coverage with authorized insurers," the placement runs through a licensed producer with surplus lines authority, the coverage "is necessary for the adequate protection of a risk in the State," and it is of a kind an authorized insurer could write here.
Notice what §2004 does not say: a number. Maine writes the export test as a qualitative diligent effort and names no minimum count of declinations. That is worth holding against the other place Maine tests market unavailability - §2325-B, the mandatory market assistance program, which requires "proof of 2 declinations from authorized insurers." Two mechanisms for the same underlying problem, one qualitative and one numeric. §2006 separately lets the Superintendent designate open lines for export, coverages that may go to the non-admitted market without the diligent-effort search at all.
What the authority obliges you to keep. §2015 requires a record of coverages procured, and §2016 requires you to maintain in your office "a monthly report showing the amount of insurance placed for any person or organization, the location of each risk, the gross premium charged, the name of each insurer with which the insurance was placed, the date and term of each insurance contract issued during the preceding month." Related duties sit at §2008 (evidence of the insurance, and a penalty), §2009 (identification and notice on the contract and the application) and §2009-A (cancellation or nonrenewal of surplus lines coverage). Surplus lines premium tax is payable, but the subsection of §2016 that used to carry the rate was repealed in 2011, so no rate is quoted on this page - ask the Bureau.
One structural point worth carrying into the exam. A surplus lines placement is valid insurance in Maine (§2010) and the non-admitted insurer is liable for losses and unearned premiums (§2011) - but the policy is not protected by the Maine Insurance Guaranty Association if the carrier fails. The Property and Casualty guide sets out what the guaranty association does and does not cover.
What the Maine Casualty License Costs
$25 to the Bureau - $15 application plus a $10 licence fee - and the Pearson VUE examination fee. There is no pre-licensing course to buy and no fingerprint appointment to pay for, because Maine requires neither.
The examination fee is the one figure Maine does not publish. Handbook #122000 contains no dollar amount at all; the Bureau's fee schedule covers licence fees only. Pearson VUE quotes it at reservation on (800) 274-4959.
Surplus lines authority is the expensive add-on, and it is worth budgeting for separately if it is where you are heading: $165 ($15 application plus a $150 authority fee), plus a surety bond of not less than $20,000 in aggregate liability, whose premium is a further annual cost. That is more than six times what the producer licence underneath it cost.
Nothing recurring. An individual resident producer pays no renewal fee - the Bureau's renewal schedule prints "None" against the individual producer prefixes - and needs no carrier appointment to keep the licence. Where a carrier does appoint you, the $30 biennial appointment fee is the carrier's to pay.
Eligibility Requirements
The statutory test at 24-A M.R.S. §1420-E is age 18, no §1420-K conduct, fees paid, and the examinations passed. Nothing else attaches to the Casualty line itself.
Surplus lines authority is the exception, and it adds three things. Under §2012(1) you must already be licensed as a resident producer, the Superintendent must find you "competent and trustworthy with respect to the handling of surplus lines," and you must be "maintaining an office at a designated location in this State." Then §2020 requires a surety bond whose "aggregate liability ... is limited to payment of not less than $20,000." There is no surplus lines examination.
No coursework is required to sit the exam. Maine's statutory pre-licensing requirement was repealed in 2007. The rule that once implemented it has not been fully conformed - see the Life guide - but the Bureau asks resident applicants for nothing beyond a passing score and an application.
Who you may pay, and who may pay you. §1420-L is worth reading before you set up a commission-sharing arrangement, because Maine's version is not the flat national rule. An insurer or producer may not pay a commission to an unlicensed person for selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance, and an unlicensed person may not accept one - both sides of the transaction are barred. Renewal or deferred commissions may still be paid to someone who held a valid licence at the time of the original transaction. And subsection (4) permits insurers and producers to assign commissions to agencies or to non-licensed individuals, provided the payment does not violate the anti-rebating chapter. Read subsections (1), (2) and (4) together before assuming the flat rule you learned elsewhere applies here.
And what you must keep. §1447 requires records at your place of business - insurer names, policy numbers, expiration dates, premiums, insured names and addresses, binder dates - "kept available for inspection by the superintendent for a period of at least 3 years after completion of the respective transactions." Three years from the transaction, not from the policy period.
Keeping the Maine Casualty License
Important CE details: 24 hours per biennium including 3 ethics, due the last day of your birth month in the odd or even year matching your birth year. Surplus hours never carry forward, and a first biennium ending less than a year after licensure is waived entirely. Home study tops out at 16 of the 24 without a proctored closed-book examination.
24 credit hours every two years, at least 3 in ethics, due the last day of your birth month in the odd or even year matching your birth year. Casualty carries no product-specific training gate - Maine's two, long-term care and annuities, both attach to the life and health side, and holding surplus lines authority adds no hours either.
There is no grace period, and the money starts the next morning. The Bureau is blunt about it: "No, there is no grace period. The penalty is assessed the day after the due date on any credits still outstanding." The charge is $25 for each credit hour outstanding, capped at $250, so a producer two credits short pays $50 and a producer ten or more credits short pays the cap. Rule ch. 542 §8 sets the same figures as a civil penalty, and 24-A M.R.S. §1482 lets the Superintendent extend the deadline "for good cause shown."
Then the ladder, and it is longer than most people expect. For 60 days past your compliance date you remain licensed and may keep selling while you make the hours up. At 60 days out of compliance the licence becomes subject to suspension for 60 days under Rule ch. 542 §8 - §1484 supplies the statutory hook, routing through §1420-K(1)(B) - and during that suspension you may not sell, solicit or negotiate anything, though you may keep taking courses. A licensee still out of compliance when the suspension ends has the licence terminated.
The two exits from a dead licence are not the same, and the difference is an examination. A lapsed licence may be reinstated within 12 months without re-examination under §1420-F(3). A licence cancelled for CE non-compliance is treated by the Bureau as a fresh start: retake the licensing exam, file a new application, pay the ordinary fees. The one consolation is that the old outstanding credits and the old penalties do not follow you into the new licence.
One waiver exists, and it is for active duty. The Bureau will waive or defer continuing education for a licensee called to active military service, on a written request with duty papers, under authority Maine granted in 2004. It is a defined route with a named contact at the Bureau rather than a general hardship discretion - and it is separate from §1482's good-cause extension.
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