What This License Is
The combined path gives you two lines of authority in one sitting — Property at MCL 500.1206(1)(c) and Casualty at (1)(d) — covering the whole property-casualty market: homeowners and personal auto, commercial property, general and products liability, business owners policies, commercial auto, umbrella and inland marine.
The fee arithmetic favours it, as it does on the life side. Exam 16-81 costs $41, the same as either single-line paper, and Michigan's application fee is $10 plus NIPR's $5 per application, not per line. The premium you pay for the second line is entirely in coursework: 40 hours instead of 20.
Two structural points shape the choice. Surplus lines requires an active property AND casualty licence plus a separate examination, so this is the route that opens that door — the Casualty guide owns it. And a completed 40-hour P&C program satisfies the Personal Lines pre-licensing requirement under MCL 500.1204a(1)(b)(vii), so this coursework also carries you into a third line for the price of its exam.
One Michigan naming quirk that a national course will not mention: these exams are titled Producer/Solicitor, because Michigan still licenses solicitors as a distinct class. It matters financially — MCL 500.240(1)(e) charges a solicitor $10 each year, while a producer licence is perpetual and free to keep.
Exam Options & Format
Property & Casualty Producer/Solicitor, exam code 16-81 — 150 scored questions in 2 hours 30 minutes through PSI, plus 1 to 10 unscored experimental items that consume time but not marks. The cut score is 74%, specific to this examination; Michigan publishes a separate standard for each of its twenty insurance exams, each as a true percentage of scored items.
In person only. DIFS discontinued remote proctored examinations on 6/10/2025. The Property guide lists the seven Michigan test centers.
Apply first. Michigan's published sequence is NIPR application, then pre-licensing, then exam — and the application expires 180 days after it reaches DIFS. The Life guide walks it; the Personal Lines guide owns results and retakes.
Expect a heavy no-fault component. The Administrative Code specifies what the mandatory six-hour Michigan-law block must cover for a property and casualty program, and R 500.3(2)(b)(iv) names Chapter 31 of the code, MCL 500.3101 to 500.3179 by section range — the entire no-fault act. DIFS also rewrote exam items effective 2 July 2020 for the 2019 reform. The Casualty guide covers that material in depth.
Most Tested Topics on the Michigan Property & Casualty Exam
The state half of this exam concentrates on the machinery Michigan puts around property-casualty business: the guaranty association in MCL Chapter 79, the regulator, and the rate-filing and appointment rules. Every row is verified against the section cited:
| Concept | The Michigan rule |
|---|---|
| Where the guaranty limits live | Inside the definition of "covered claims" at MCL 500.7925 — not in the obligations section. Four separate limits sit there, and three of them are indexed |
| Guaranty per-claim cap | Statutory $5,000,000, excluding workers' compensation claims and PIP benefits under MCL 500.3107 (MCL 500.7925(6)). The DIFS-certified figure for 1 January to 31 December 2026 is $7,980,000 (Bulletin 2026-04-INS) — it is re-certified annually |
| Insured net-worth exclusion | Statutory $25,000,000; certified at $39,920,000 for 1 January to 31 December 2026 (MCL 500.7925(4); Bulletin 2026-04-INS) |
| Unearned premium refund cap | Statutory first $500 per person per insolvent insurer; certified $2,063 for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 (MCL 500.7925(2)(a); Bulletin 2026-13-INS) |
| Minimum refund | No refund below $50 (MCL 500.7925(2)(a)) |
| Per-claim deductible | Michigan has none — a real deviation from the NAIC model's $100 retention |
| Which claims qualify | Incurred before, at the time of, or within 30 days after the receiver was appointed (MCL 500.7925(1)(d)), on all kinds of insurance except life and disability (1)(e) |
| What the association will not pay | Obligations arising out of MCL 500.2001 to 500.2050 — so no unfair-trade-practice or bad-faith exposure passes to it (7925(2)(c)); recoveries by other insurers, pools, HMOs or health care corporations (7925(3)); anything above the policy's own limit (7925(5)); and pre-receivership adjustment fees, attorney fees, court costs, interest or bond premiums (7925(7)) |
| Other insurance comes first | A claimant must first exhaust all coverage under any other policy or self-insured retention, and what is recoverable there is a credit against the covered claim — reducing the insured's liability by the same amount (MCL 500.7931(3)) |
| How long coverage continues | Until expiry, replacement or association cancellation, but in no event more than 30 days after the receiver's appointment (MCL 500.7931(4)); the association may cancel on 10 days' notice notwithstanding any contrary statute or policy term (7931(5)) |
| Assessment categories | Five: workers' compensation; automobile; title; fire and allied lines (including farmowner's, homeowner's multiple peril, inland marine, earthquake and credit); and all other except life and disability (MCL 500.7941(1)) |
| Assessment cap | 1% of a member insurer's net direct premiums written in Michigan in the previous calendar year (MCL 500.7941(3)) — half the NAIC model's 2% |
| The regulator | The Department of Insurance and Financial Services, created by Executive Order 2013-1 (codified at MCL 550.991), headed by the Director. Older code sections still say "commissioner"; the functions transferred |
| What DIFS supervises | Far more than insurers — banks, credit unions and HMOs sit under the same department, which is why it is "Insurance and Financial Services" |
| Home insurance rate filings | File and use — an insurer may use home rates as soon as they are filed (MCL 500.2106(3)) |
| Automobile rate filings | A manual or plan must remain on file for 90 days before taking effect, and the director may not extend that period; earlier effectiveness only on written application (MCL 500.2108(6)) |
| Which chapters do not apply | Chapters 24 and 26 do not apply to automobile or home insurance (MCL 500.2106(1)) — so the commercial rating chapters are the wrong place to look for personal-lines rules |
| Appointment | A producer may not act as an insurer's agent or bind coverage for it without an appointment; the insurer files notice within 15 days of the agency contract or the first submitted application, at $5 per producer per year, paid by the insurer (MCL 500.1208a; 500.240(1)(c)) |
| Change of name or address | Notify the department within 30 days (MCL 500.1206(5)) |
The guaranty rows reward attention to where the numbers sit and which number is the rule. Michigan put every limit inside the definition of covered claims at MCL 500.7925 rather than in the obligations section — the same structural trick several states use, and the reason citation questions here are worth easy marks. Then the harder point: three of those four limits are indexed, so the statute's $5,000,000 and $25,000,000 are the bases and DIFS certifies the operative figures by bulletin each year. Learn the base and the mechanism; treat any specific dollar figure, including the ones in this table, as a certification with an expiry date.
Two Michigan deviations from the NAIC model are clean discriminators. The assessment cap is 1%, not the model's 2%. And Michigan has no per-claim deductible at all, where the model carries $100. A candidate answering from national material will get both wrong, and both are the sort of fact an item writer likes precisely because they are single numbers with a clear source.
The other-insurance rule at MCL 500.7931(3) is worth reading twice, because it works differently from ordinary other-insurance clauses. The claimant must exhaust other coverage first, and what is recoverable elsewhere becomes a credit against the covered claim — and the same reduction flows through to the insured's own liability. The association is a last resort by design, not a co-payer.
Coming to Michigan With a License — The 90-Day Window
If you are already licensed elsewhere and moving to Michigan, MCL 500.1206b is the most valuable section in the insurance code — and, as with most such provisions, the candidate bulletin never mentions it.
The rule, in two subsections. MCL 500.1206b(1): an individual applying for a Michigan producer licence who was previously licensed for the same qualifications in another state is not required to complete any prelicensing education or examination. The exemption is available if the person is currently licensed in that state, or if the application is received within 90 days of the cancellation of the previous licence — with either a certification of good standing from the prior state or NAIC producer-database records showing good standing for the qualification requested. And 1206b(2): a producer licensed elsewhere who moves to Michigan shall apply within 90 days after establishing legal residence, and pre-licensing and examination are not required for any qualification previously held.
Read what that saves. Without it, a relocating property-and-casualty producer buys 40 hours of coursework and sits a 150-question exam. With it, they file a $15 application. The clock runs from the date you establish legal residence, not from the date you notice the rule.
DIFS operates it in three tiers, and the middle one is where most people actually sit:
| Time since your prior home-state licence lapsed | Pre-licensing | Examination |
|---|---|---|
| Still licensed, or within 90 days | Not required | Not required — just file through NIPR |
| 90 days to 12 months | Not required | Required — you sit the Michigan exam |
| More than 12 months | Required | Required |
The middle tier is DIFS applying a different statute once the 90-day exam exemption has run out: MCL 500.1204(2)(b) waives the program of study for anyone who has been a licensed insurance producer within the preceding 12 months. The two provisions interlock, and the statute alone does not spell the combination out — which is why a relocating producer who is four months past their old licence should expect to test, but not to sit through 40 hours first.
Non-resident licensing is a different route. MCL 500.1206a(1) entitles a non-resident to a Michigan licence if they are currently licensed and in good standing as a resident of their home state, have submitted the request and paid the MCL 500.240 fees, have filed their home-state application or a completed uniform application, and — the reciprocity condition — their home state awards non-resident licences to Michigan residents on the same basis. A non-resident licence depends on the home-state licence staying active: let that lapse and the Michigan one cannot be maintained.
Continuing education crosses state lines cleanly here. DIFS states it plainly: "Michigan is reciprocal with all other states. By meeting your home state CE requirements, you will automatically comply with Michigan's requirements," and non-residents need not submit proof of compliance. The statutory hook is MCL 500.1204c(10), which authorises reciprocal CE agreements.
With one qualification: long-term care training. DIFS applies MCL 500.1204f to "all producers, whether resident or non-resident" — so the one-time 8-hour course and the 4 hours per compliance period reach you here whatever your home state requires. MCL 500.1204f(8) softens it considerably, since training completed in any state satisfies Michigan; the point is that this is a product credential travelling on its own terms, not something general CE reciprocity carries for you.
Temporary licences are not what candidates expect. MCL 500.1211b(1) lets the commissioner issue one for not more than 180 days without an examination, but only where it is "necessary for the servicing of an insurance business" — for the surviving spouse or personal representative of a producer who has died or become disabled, for a member or employee of a business entity on the death or disability of its designated individual, for the designee of a producer entering active military service, or in any other circumstance where the commissioner considers the public interest will best be served. The commissioner may limit the authority, may require a sponsor who assumes responsibility for the licensee's acts, and may revoke it; and it ends when the business is disposed of. It is a business-continuity instrument, not a permit to sell while you study.
Renewal in Michigan — There Isn't One, and What That Actually Means
Michigan resident producer licences do not expire. MCL 500.1206(2): a licence "shall remain in effect unless revoked or suspended as long as education requirements for resident individual producers are met by the due date." DIFS says the same operationally, and adds the detail that surprises people moving from other states: producers "do not receive an invoice for license renewal annually." There is no renewal date, no renewal application and no renewal fee.
What replaces renewal is the CE review. That is a two-year cycle under MCL 500.1204c(1), and it is the only thing standing between you and cancellation — which is why continuing education carries more weight here than in states where it is one box on a renewal form.
How your review date is set. DIFS: "Your CE review date is determined by the month and year of your birth," and the first one "must allow you at least 12 months to complete 24 CE credits after your license is first approved." Two rules follow from DIFS's own worked examples and are worth stating because DIFS does not state them: the review date falls on the first day of your birth month, and the review year matches the parity of your birth year — odd birth year, odd review year. The at-least-12-months rule can push a first cycle out by a further two years: DIFS's own example has a licence approved 16 July 2025 for someone born in January landing on a first review date of 1 January 2028, not 2026.
Where to find it: printed in the lower left-hand corner of your licence document, and visible on DIFS's online Insurance Agent Locator. And a question DIFS answers directly — changing your name or Social Security number does not move your review period.
The requirement. 24 hours per period, at least 3 in ethics, one requirement no matter how many lines you hold. Classroom, home study and online are equal, and instructing counts alongside attending.
Carryover, with two exceptions. Up to 12 hours of surplus credit carry into the next period (MCL 500.1204c(13)(a)) — but ethics hours may not be carried (13)(b) and duplicate completions of the same course may not (13)(c). DIFS words the ethics rule slightly differently, treating surplus ethics hours as carrying over into general credit; either way you cannot bank ethics to satisfy a future cycle's three-hour minimum. Duplicates appear on your record with zero credit.
Two newer credit provisions, both live now and too recent for competing material. For review dates after 31 December 2025, MCL 500.1204c(14) credits up to 4 of the 24 hours for active participation in a professional insurance association — local, regional, state or national — that offers a DIFS-approved course, where you or your agency are dues-paying members in good standing. Those hours cannot satisfy the ethics minimum. And MCL 500.1204c(15) gives the Director a broad discretionary power to credit "any activity … as an hour" toward the 24.
If you miss the review date, the consequences are automatic and staged. MCL 500.1204c(11), and note that every step is 'shall', not 'may':
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Review date passes short | A 90-day grace period begins automatically |
| During the grace period | You may not solicit or sell new policies, bind coverage, or otherwise act as a producer. You may continue to service policies previously sold and receive commissions on them |
| CE reported inside 90 days | The licence becomes active again when the credits reach DIFS — no new application required |
| Still short at day 91 | The director shall cancel the licence |
| Days 91 to 12 months | DIFS reinstates on CE completion plus a $15 application through NIPR |
| After 12 months | Back to MCL 500.1204 — pre-licensing and examination again |
One conflict to know about. The statute at MCL 500.1204c(11) says that after cancellation the producer "may reapply for a license … under section 1204" — which on its face means re-examination. DIFS instead operates a 12-month reinstatement window from the CE review date requiring only the completed CE and a $15 application. DIFS's page is what a licensee actually encounters, so treat it as the operational rule, but do not rely on it past twelve months: on that both sources agree.
A separate reinstatement path exists for lapses that are not about CE. MCL 500.1206(3) lets a producer whose licence lapsed for a reason other than failing MCL 500.1204c reinstate the same licence without passing a written examination, provided they do so within 12 months of the lapse. Note the exclusion carefully — the no-exam route is expressly unavailable for CE lapses.
Fees for reinstatement: $10 state plus NIPR's transaction fee — $15 resident, $16.18 non-resident, and a non-resident must be active in their home state and may hold only the qualifications held there. The reinstatement application, like an initial one, is valid 180 days. There is no late fee and no penalty fee in either the statute or DIFS's pages: the cost of a CE lapse is lost authority and, past twelve months, the whole process again.
Waivers and extensions. MCL 500.1204c(9) requires the director to waive CE for producers licensed only for travel or baggage insurance whose employment is for a purpose other than selling those policies, for producers licensed only for limited line credit insurance, for those unable to comply because of military service, and where enforcement "would cause a severe hardship." DIFS runs a written waiver-or-extension process for disability and illness, asking for the situation, your functions, the impact on your ability to work as a producer, why classroom, online and self-study were all impossible, and the specific length sought.
What It Costs
$15 to apply through NIPR — $10 to the state under MCL 500.240(1)(d) plus NIPR's $5 — and $41 for the combined exam: about $56 on a first-time pass, unchanged by taking two lines rather than one.
Ignore any source quoting a $10 examination fee. MCL 500.240(1)(h) does say $10 — and MCL 500.240(4) makes that fee applicable only if the examinations are administered by the director. Michigan contracted the programme to PSI under MCL 500.1204(4), so the statutory fee is dormant by its own terms and $41 payable to PSI is what you pay.
The 40 hours of pre-licensing are the substantial private cost. AAI, ARM, CIC or CPCU, or an insurance-concentration degree, waives the coursework for both of these lines at once — the Life & Health guide owns the waiver rules and the requirement to obtain the waiver before scheduling.
Afterwards: nothing recurring for a resident producer licence. The exceptions worth knowing are the surplus lines licence at $100 a year and the solicitor licence at $10 a year, and the appointment fee of $5 per producer per year — which is paid by the insurer, not by you.
Eligibility Requirements
MCL 500.1205(1) — five conditions and no more: be at least 18; have committed no act listed in MCL 500.1239(1); complete the 40 hours of pre-licensing or hold approved waivers; pay the fees; and pass exam 16-81. No fingerprints and no criminal-record check.
File the NIPR application before the exam and mind the 180-day window. The Health guide walks the background questions and the mandatory felony bars at MCL 500.1239(1)(d) and (e).
Being licensed is not the same as being appointed. MCL 500.1208a bars a producer from acting as an insurer's agent or binding coverage for it without an appointment, filed by the insurer within 15 days of the agency contract or your first submitted application. A producer not acting as any insurer's agent needs no appointment at all.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: 24 hours every two years including 3 hours of ethics, and in Michigan this is not a step toward a renewal — it is what keeps a perpetual license in effect. Miss the review date and a 90-day grace period runs during which you may service existing policies but may not write new business.
24 hours every two years including 3 hours of ethics (MCL 500.1204c(2)), covering every major line you hold as a single requirement. In Michigan this is not paperwork attached to a renewal — a licence with no expiry date stays in effect precisely because the credits are met by the review date.
Property-casualty producers carry no line-specific training mandate: Michigan imposes no flood-training requirement of its own, and there is no separate no-fault credential — the no-fault chapter is built into the mandatory six-hour Michigan-law block of pre-licensing instead. If you also hold life or health lines, the annuity and long-term care trainings apply; see the Life & Health guide.
The renewal section above owns the mechanics — how your review date is calculated, carryover and its two exceptions, the newer association-participation credit, the 90-day grace period, cancellation, and the two reinstatement paths.
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