The Maryland Property Producer License
Maryland sells property as a genuine standalone line. The Prometric bulletin's Types of Licenses table at p.2 lists all seven producer papers as separately bookable with distinct codes and distinct $62 fees, so a property-only applicant sits Property Producer, code 2031 (series 20-31) - not a combined paper with the casualty half ignored.
Entry is three steps and no coursework. Be 18 (Ins. Sec. 10-104), pass exam 2031, then apply through NIPR and pay $54. Pre-licensing education was repealed effective October 1, 2024 by Chapter 874/873 of 2024, and MIA Bulletin 24-19 states that applicants "will no longer be required to complete a program of study that has been established or approved by the Commissioner, nor meet minimum experience requirements prior to taking the examination." The exam requirement itself survives untouched; the MIA now simply tells candidates they "may find their own insurance exam preparation courses or they may order their own study materials."
Know where Maryland files its property law, because the numbering misleads. Title 19, Subtitle 2 is homeowner's insurance, not fire insurance - Sec. 19-201 defines "additional optional coverage" and "insurer" for that subtitle, and Sec. 19-202 carries the sewer-backup offer duty. The claim-handling rules sit in COMAR 31.15.07, whose chapter title is "Payment of Claims Under Property and Casualty and Title Insurance Policies" - property and title share a chapter, while life, health and annuity claims run on different numbers in 31.15.08.
Property authority does not reach casualty risks, and it does not by itself carry surplus lines: placement must go through a licensed surplus lines broker in addition to property and casualty authority (Ins. Sec. 3-306), and the diligent-effort and affidavit rules are covered in the [Casualty guide](/insurance/maryland/casualty-only/licensing-guide), which owns that module. If you want the whole property-casualty book in one sitting, the combined paper is code 2032, 120 scored plus 10 unscored in 2.5 hours - at the same $62.
One structural point worth carrying into every claims question: Sec. 27-303 and Sec. 27-304, the unfair claim settlement practice sections, both apply to "an insurer, nonprofit health service plan, or health maintenance organization." They are insurer duties, not producer duties. Sec. 27-501(a)(1), by contrast, names "an insurer or insurance producer" - so the underwriting prohibitions reach you personally in a way the claims sections do not.
Property Alone, Property With Casualty, or Either in Spanish
Property Producer (code 2031, series 20-31): 80 scored questions plus 10 unscored, 1 hour 45 minutes, $62. Property and Casualty Producer - Combo (code 2032, series 20-32): 120 scored plus 10 unscored, 2.5 hours, also $62. The fee does not move with the size of the paper - every Maryland producer exam in the bulletin's table costs the same $62 - so the choice is about the authority you want, not the price.
Spanish-language versions exist for every line, codes 2043 to 2053, at the same $62; the bulletin's own examples are 2047 Productor de Vida and 2049 Líneas Personales. Most competitor material omits this entirely.
On pace, the property paper is tighter than the combined one. 105 minutes across 90 items is about 70 seconds per question; the combined paper's 150 minutes across 130 items is about 69 seconds. The combination costs you nothing per question - it costs you syllabus.
Passing is 70%, and it is a raw percentage. The Maryland Insurance Exam FAQ states: "To achieve a passing score on the exam, you must receive a 70% or higher." There is no scaled-score language anywhere in the bulletin - the phrase "neither the number nor the percentage of questions answered correctly," which several other states' handbooks carry, does not appear. What is not published is which denominator the 70% runs against, the 80 scored items or all 90. Do not assume; the difference is a question and a half.
The unscored count is genuinely disputed between two Prometric documents. Every per-exam content outline says "(plus 10 unscored)" and the totals are internally consistent at 80 + 10 = 90, but the bulletin's Experimental Questions section at p.9 says candidates see 5. Both are printed here because both are official; you cannot identify them on screen either way, so answer everything.
The bulletin does not contain the content outlines. Page 12 says only that "You can access your outlines by going to the Prometric website," and the outlines live as separate per-exam PDFs. None of them carries a printed revision date - the date-looking string in their filenames is filename-only. Treat any percentage weighting you see quoted for this exam as unsourced unless you pulled it off the outline yourself.
If you fail, the wait is four days, and the retake is the full $62 again: "If you fail an exam, you can't take the same exam for four days." No attempt cap is published. Results reporting and retake strategy are covered in the [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/maryland/personal-lines/licensing-guide), which owns that module.
Most Tested Topics on the Maryland Property Exam
Maryland's property items cluster in four places: the one coverage the state makes an insurer offer, the clocks a property claim runs on, the rules that decide what an insurer may look at when it prices or refuses a homeowner's risk, and the residual market. All of the below are statute, regulation or a named MIA bulletin - not inference.
| Concept | What Maryland does | Where it's written |
|---|---|---|
| Sewer and drain backup offer, homeowner's policy | An insurer issuing, selling or delivering a homeowner's policy must offer in writing, at the time of application AND at each renewal, coverage for loss caused by water that backs up through sewers or drains and is not caused by the negligence of the insured. Telephone transactions: send the offer by first-class mail tracking method within 7 calendar days. Internet transactions: provide it before the application or renewal is submitted | Ins. Sec. 19-202(a), (b), (c); electronic delivery per Sec. 27-601.2, and Sec. 19-216 renewal notices may satisfy it |
| The four 15-working-day duties, property claims | An insurer has 15 working days to acknowledge a claim, unless it pays within that period - (10); to respond to an MIA inquiry, or within the longer period the MIA itself specifies, whichever is greater - (11); to affirm or deny coverage after receiving properly completed claim forms or other proofs of loss, unless Reg .04B applies or the policy sets its own limit - (12); and to reply appropriately to written communications from a claimant - (15). Providing claim forms, instructions and reasonable assistance satisfies the acknowledgment limb | COMAR 31.15.07.03B(10), (11), (12), (15); .03C |
| "Working day", left undefined | Both claims chapters have definitions regulations - 31.15.07.02 defines 12 terms and 31.15.08.02 defines 7 - and neither defines "day" or "working day." The only computation rule is a tolling rule: days between the insurer's request for additional information and the response are not counted | COMAR 31.15.07.02; 31.15.08.02; 31.15.07.07 |
| Rolling 45-day notice, first-party property investigation | Where the insurer has not completed investigating a first-party claim, it must send written notice of the actual reason more time is needed, and repeat that notice after each additional 45-day period until coverage and damages are affirmed or denied. The regulation says plain "days" here, not working days | COMAR 31.15.07.04B |
| Limitations warning to an unrepresented first-party claimant | On receiving a written claim from an unrepresented first-party claimant, the insurer must warn that claimant in writing that there may be an applicable statute of limitations that could bar their rights. Relief exists only where a reasonable basis supported by specific information shows the claimant fraudulently caused or contributed to the loss | COMAR 31.15.07.04C; relief at .04E |
| "Unreasonable delay", defined term | Failure to pay amounts properly due within 15 working days of a properly completed claim form or other proof of loss - but the definition bites only where there is no significant dispute as to coverage, liability, and amount of damages, and it expressly excludes personal injury protection claims | COMAR 31.15.07.02B(12) |
| Prima facie general business practice, property claims sampling | A random-sampling test rather than a portfolio percentage: 3 claims out of a random sampling of 50 where the insurer had fewer than 10,000 claims in a 12-month period, 6 out of 100 where it had 10,000 or more. Note the denominator asymmetry - foreign insurers are measured on claims of Maryland residents, domestic insurers on all their claims | COMAR 31.15.07.09B, rebuttable under .09C |
| Matching of undamaged property (siding claims) | Bulletin law, not statute. The MIA's stated position is that "the law does not require a replacement cost policy to ensure in every instance the replacement of all siding, including undamaged siding, in order to eliminate or minimize mismatching" - but insurers must consider major differences in color, texture, or dimensions or risk administrative action. Where the policy has no specific mismatch exclusion, follow the settlement options in Bulletin 97-1 | MIA Bulletin 18-23, resting on what is now Ins. Title 27, Subtitle 3 |
| Maryland's FAIR plan | The Maryland Joint Insurance Association (JIA), providing essential property insurance under the Maryland Property Insurance Availability Act. The JIA is a distinct body from Maryland Auto, and JIA policies are routed out of the definition of "personal insurance" used by the cancellation subtitle | Ins. Title 25, Subtitle 4; routing at Sec. 27-601(c)(2) |
| Rate regulation, property filings | Prior approval with a modified deemer: a filed rate may not be used until 30 working days after filing, extendable another 30, and is deemed approved unless the Commissioner disapproves it. Rates must not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory | Ins. Title 11, Subtitle 2; Sec. 11-206 |
| Antiarson application, property risks | COMAR Subtitle 31.08 opens with an Antiarson Application chapter, so Maryland does impose an antiarson application requirement on property risks; the chapter's contents were not retrieved for this build and are flagged for review | COMAR 31.08.01 |
Start with the units, because this is where a national course will cost you marks. Maryland writes property claim clocks in working days and life, health and annuity clocks in different numbers entirely - acknowledgment is 15 working days under COMAR 31.15.07 but 10 working days under 31.15.08, and the life-side pay-refuse-explain trichotomy is 30 plain days. So there is no single "Maryland acknowledges a claim in X days" answer, and the chapter that sets the property number never tells you what a working day is. Then add the two qualifications sitting on top of the 15: the defined term "unreasonable delay" applies only where coverage, liability and amount of damages are not significantly disputed, and it carves personal injury protection out altogether. A question that describes a genuinely disputed property loss is not describing a 15-working-day violation.
Then learn what Maryland has NOT written down, and resist filling it in. A mandated standard fire policy form was not located in Title 19 Subtitle 2 or in COMAR Subtitle 31.08 - Subtitle 2 is homeowner's insurance, and all ten chapters of 31.08 run from Antiarson Application through to online claim survey reporting without a standard fire policy chapter among them. The same search came back empty for valued policy law, for appraisal, coinsurance and replacement-cost mandates, and for fire-loss escrow. Treat each as an open question rather than as a Maryland rule in either direction, and if an exam item turns on one, reason from the policy language rather than from a remembered statute. What Maryland does have on this side of the book is COMAR 31.08.01, titled "Antiarson Application" - the chapter exists; its contents are not reproduced here.
On matching, Maryland's answer runs the opposite way to the intuition most courses build. There is no matching statute and no matching regulation. The rule is a bulletin, and its baseline is that full matching is not required in every instance - with a real duty attached to it anyway, because the insurer must consider major differences in color, texture or dimensions. Candidates who have been taught "replacement cost means it must match" get this backwards in both directions: they overstate the entitlement and then miss the duty that does exist.
And on credit history, the tested point is the asymmetry, not the ban. Homeowner's is closed completely - Sec. 27-501(e-2)(2) reaches rating and tiering and discounts and payment plans and placement with an affiliate, not merely refusal to write. Private passenger auto keeps a narrower rule under (e-2)(3): no refusal to underwrite, no cancellation, no nonrenewal and no credit-based increase at renewal, but credit remains usable in rating new business. A question that swaps the line is testing whether you learned one rule or two.
Two more that reward precision. The rolling 45-day notice is not a one-off letter and it is not a deadline to finish - it repeats after each further 45-day period, and each notice must give the actual reason more time is needed. And the statute-of-limitations warning at COMAR 31.15.07.04C is a written duty owed to an unrepresented first-party claimant on receipt of a written claim; the moment a lawyer appears, or the claimant is third-party, you are outside the regulation.
Booking a Maryland Property Exam, and Why There Is No Center List
Maryland does not publish a test-centre list, and this guide will not print one. The Prometric bulletin runs to 12 pages and has no test-centre section anywhere in its table of contents; prometric.com/exams/mia does not list Maryland addresses either. Centres are surfaced dynamically, at booking, inside the scheduling portal at https://myaccount.prometric.com/login/MDINS/MDINS. Any Maryland centre list you find on a third-party site is somebody's reconstruction of a live availability screen, and there is no published source to check it against.
So the practical order of operations is inverted, and it is worth planning around. You choose a seat before you know where it is. Open the MDINS portal, select Property Producer (code 2031, series 20-31), and let the portal show you what is bookable near you and on which dates - then plan the day around whatever it returns. The $62 is charged when you book. Do the seat search before you book time off work, not after.
There are two published scheduling channels. The MIA's own instruction is: "To schedule your examination, visit PROMETRIC at www.prometric.com/maryland/insurance or call 1-800-610-1174." The phone line is the fallback when the portal will not show you a workable date, and it is the number to call when something goes wrong with a booking.
The two Prometric sources disagree about the phone hours. The bulletin at p.4 says 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET; prometric.com/maryland/insurance says 8am to 6pm ET. Both are official and neither is dated in a way that settles it, so both are printed here. If you need the line, treat 5 p.m. as the edge you can rely on and the extra hour as a bonus if it is there.
You are not confined to Maryland. The bulletin at p.3 says: "You may take the exam at any Prometric test center in The United States or in a remotely proctored location." That is a genuinely useful sentence for anyone living near the District or the Delaware or Pennsylvania lines - a centre across the border sits the same Maryland Property paper, on the same code, at the same fee. The portal is where you find out whether the cross-border seat is sooner.
The money rule is a window, not a refund form: reschedule or cancel at least 24 hours before your appointment, or you forfeit the fee. That window is the protection Prometric publishes for your $62. A missed appointment costs "another full examination fee," and the bulletin treats failure to present the required ID as a missed appointment - so a booking you cannot document is a booking you have paid for twice. The bulletin does carry an Appeals Process section at p.10; its contents are not reproduced here, and it is about exam outcomes rather than fees.
Accommodations run on a 30-day clock and cost nothing extra. Prometric's published rule for ADA accommodations is 30 days' advance notice, at no additional charge (https://www.prometric.com/accommodations/). Because Maryland surfaces no centre list, the 30 days matter more here than they would elsewhere: you are requesting an arrangement at a location you cannot scout in advance, and you will not know which centre you are negotiating about until the seat is held. Start the request before you book, not after.
If none of that works, Maryland keeps the remote option open. The bulletin's own words are "at any Prometric test center in The United States or in a remotely proctored location," and prometric.com/exams/mia confirms "Remote Proctoring: Yes, remotely proctored exams are available" - the tech requirements, room rules and launch process are covered in the [Health guide](/insurance/maryland/health-only/licensing-guide), which owns that module.
Two things about exam day itself that change how you book. The bulletin tells candidates to arrive at least 30 minutes early, and it requires one non-expired, U.S. government-issued, photo- and signature-bearing ID whose name "must exactly match the name used to register for the exam and your appointment confirmation" - so register in the name your ID actually carries, at the moment you book, because fixing it later is the expensive path. The full check-in, ID and prohibited-items rules are in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/maryland/life-and-health/licensing-guide).
One last thing worth knowing before you create the account: you will be back. Prometric is also "the Maryland Insurance Administration's vendor for continuing education services," with Vertafore's Sircon as the CE transcript and course-lookup system and a separate CE line on 1-800-324-4592. The account you open to book exam 2031 belongs to the same vendor you will be dealing with for continuing education for as long as you hold the licence.
What It Costs
Two payments and nothing else that Maryland publishes: $62 to Prometric for exam 2031, then $54 to the MIA through NIPR once you have passed. No course fee since the October 1, 2024 repeal, and no fingerprint line on the MIA fee schedule, which itemises every other producer fee it charges.
The costs that bite are the avoidable ones. A fail costs the full $62 again after the four-day wait. So does an appointment cancelled inside 24 hours, and so does turning up without the required ID. Then it is $69 every two years to renew - $54 plus the $15 fraud prevention fee - with a $100 late/reinstatement fee if you go past expiry, for up to one year.
Eligibility Requirements
Be 18 (Ins. Sec. 10-104), pass exam 2031, and file the application with the $54 fee. There is no coursework prerequisite and no experience minimum - both were repealed effective October 1, 2024 - and no fingerprint step is published.
The order is fixed, and the portal enforces it. The bulletin at p.11 is explicit: "Once you have passed your license exam (if an exam is required), you must submit your license application along with any other required documents and your fee." NIPR corroborates the mechanics from the other side - it "verifies exams prior to allowing submission of an application," so a pre-exam filing is blocked rather than queued. Note that no deadline between passing and applying is published anywhere, and neither is any expiry on a passing score; do not rely on a remembered figure from another state.
Filing runs through NIPR, with a paper alternative by mail to the Maryland Insurance Administration, ATTN: Producer Licensing Unit, 200 St. Paul Place, Suite 2700, Baltimore, Maryland 21202. Sircon is Maryland's continuing education system, not its application portal - a distinction that catches people who have licensed in other states. The step-by-step application walkthrough lives in the [Life guide](/insurance/maryland/life-only/licensing-guide), which owns that module.
Background disclosure is by question, not by fingerprint. The bulletin's only background text is the instruction that "If you answer 'Yes' to a background question on the application, submit your written statement accompanied by corresponding court documents." Six primary sources - the bulletin, the MIA Producer FAQ, the MIA producer licensing page, the MIA fee schedule, NIPR's Maryland page and NAIC's Maryland paper-licensing page - are silent on fingerprinting, and the fee schedule itemises every other charge without one. That is the evidence; it is not the same as a source affirmatively saying none is required.
Adding casualty later is a paper, not a re-application from scratch: pass the appropriate exam and allow "2-3 business days to process the exam results." And if you are moving into Maryland with an existing licence, do not file through NIPR before reading the relocation rules - one of Maryland's two routes is paper-only, and filing online defeats the exam waiver. That is covered in the [Property & Casualty guide](/insurance/maryland/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide), which owns reciprocity.
Keeping the License
Important CE details: 24 hours per two-year cycle including 3 hours of ethics, on a cycle keyed to your birth month. Two numbers matter and they are not the same: Ins. Sec. 10-116(a)(2) requires completion not later than 15 days before expiration, and that is the testable statutory answer, while the MIA separately recommends finishing 30 days out to allow processing time. Carryover hours are not allowed, duplicate courses do not count within the same renewal period nor within 6 months, and providers have up to 10 days to report a completion. Prometric is also the MIA's continuing education vendor; transcripts and approved-course lookup run through Sircon.
24 hours every two years, 3 of them ethics, on a cycle keyed to your birth month - an individual licence expires on the last day of the month in which you were born (Ins. Sec. 10-115(d)), and Sec. 10-115(a)(2) terminates your appointments when it expires.
Two deadlines, and only one of them is the law. Ins. Sec. 10-116(a)(2) requires that a producer "complete the continuing education required under paragraph (1) of this subsection not later than 15 days before the expiration date of the insurance producer's license." The MIA's own Producer Continuing Education Credit Requirements index instructs, without hedging: "Complete CEs 30 days before the license expiration date." Both are real; the 15 days is the statutory answer an exam item wants, and the 30 days is the one that saves you from a provider's reporting lag - providers have up to 10 days to report a completion.
Carryover is not allowed. The MIA states it flatly - "Carry over hours are not allowed" - and duplicate courses do not count within the same renewal period, nor within 6 months. There is no banking a good year against a bad one.
Two gates sit on the property-casualty side of the CE index. Both follow what you sell rather than the licence itself - the MIA heads the block "Additional requirements for Producers who also sell:" - and both are counted differently from the way most states handle specialty training. Flood is "2 hours in course designated Flood as part of P/C hours," so it consumes part of the 24 rather than adding to it. Bail bonds is Maryland's own: "Effective October 1, 2017 each Insurance Producer who possesses a license to sell property and casualty insurance and who sells, solicits, or negotiates bail bonds shall receive four hours continuing education that directly relates to bail bonds," again "as part of P/C hours." The bail-bond gate's wording keys to a licence "to sell property and casualty insurance" - if you hold property only and touch bail bonds, confirm with the MIA before assuming the gate does or does not reach you.
You will meet Prometric twice. It is the MIA's continuing education vendor as well as its exam vendor, with a separate CE line on 1-800-324-4592, while transcripts and approved-course lookup run through Sircon. Check your own transcript there rather than waiting for a renewal screen to tell you something is missing.
The renewal machinery itself - the 90-day early window, the $69 fee, the $100 late fee, the one-year outer limit and what happens past it - is covered in the [Property & Casualty guide](/insurance/maryland/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide), which owns that module. One number is worth carrying anyway: a licence expired more than one year cannot be renewed, and the producer must pass the Maryland exam again and file an initial application. The stale MIA fee-schedule PDF adds pre-licensing education to that path; that clause was repealed on October 1, 2024.
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