What This License Is
The Michigan Property line of authority is listed at MCL 500.1206(1)(c). It covers insurance against loss of or damage to real and personal property — homeowners, dwelling fire, commercial property, business owners policies and inland marine. Liability is the separate Casualty line at (1)(d).
Michigan still licenses solicitors as a distinct class, which is why this exam is titled Property Producer/Solicitor. Most states abolished the category decades ago, so a national course will not mention it — and there is a practical difference worth knowing: a producer license is perpetual, while MCL 500.240(1)(e) charges a solicitor $10 each year.
Property Producer/Solicitor (16-67) is 100 questions in 2 hours on 20 hours of pre-licensing; the combined Property & Casualty Producer/Solicitor (16-81) is 150 questions in 2.5 hours on 40 hours. Both cost $41, and their cut scores are close — 75% for property alone, 74% for the combined paper.
Two routes to weigh before committing. Personal Lines is its own line in Michigan with its own 100-question exam, and for an agency writing homeowners and personal auto it is usually the better target. And surplus lines requires an active property and casualty license plus a separate examination, so property alone will not get you there — the Casualty guide owns that path.
Exam Options & Format
Property Producer/Solicitor, exam code 16-67 — 100 scored questions in 2 hours through PSI, plus 1 to 10 unscored experimental items that use time but not marks. The cut score is 75%, a figure specific to this examination: Michigan publishes a separate standard for each of its twenty insurance exams and expresses every one as a true percentage of scored items.
In person only. DIFS discontinued remote proctored examinations on 6/10/2025, citing security risks in uncontrolled environments; already-scheduled remote sittings ran to 6/30/2025 and stopped.
Remember Michigan's order of operations: the NIPR application comes first, and it expires 180 days after it reaches DIFS. Your pre-licensing certificate is separately valid 12 months — but you keep it rather than bringing it, because the provider reports your completion to DIFS electronically. The Life guide walks the application.
Book at test-takers.psiexams.com/midifs or on (855) 579-4639; the $41 stays valid a year from payment, and extended time at time-and-a-half costs $50 more and must be arranged by phone.
Most Tested Topics on the Michigan Property Exam
Michigan's property content sits in MCL 500.2833 — the nineteen provisions every fire policy must contain — plus the home-insurance underwriting rules of the Essential Insurance Act and two Michigan mechanisms with no national analogue. Every row is verified against the section cited:
| Concept | The Michigan rule |
|---|---|
| Standard fire policy form | Repealed. MCL 500.2832 was struck by 1990 PA 305 effective 1 January 1992 — but MCL 500.2833(2) requires every fire policy issued in Michigan to contain "at a minimum, the coverage provided in the standard fire policy under former section 2832." The form is gone; the coverage floor survives |
| Cancellation provision required inside a fire policy | The insurer may cancel only on not less than 10 days' written notice, and the minimum earned premium must be not less than pro rata or $25, whichever is greater (MCL 500.2833(1)(i)) |
| Mortgagee's rights | 10 days' notice of cancellation to the mortgagee, and 60 days for the mortgagee to render proof of loss (MCL 500.2833(1)(j)) |
| Appraisal procedure | 20 days to name appraisers, then 15 days for the appraisers to agree on an umpire; failing that, a circuit judge appoints one (MCL 500.2833(1)(m)) |
| When the loss must be paid | Within 30 days after receipt of proof of the amount of loss (MCL 500.2833(1)(p)) |
| Suit limitation, fire policy | 1 year from the loss, or the policy period if longer — and it is tolled from notice of loss until the insurer formally denies the claim (MCL 500.2833(1)(q)) |
| When coverage attaches | 12:01 a.m. standard time at the location of the property (MCL 500.2833(1)(s)) |
| Property removed to preserve it | Covered pro rata for 5 days at each proper place to which it is removed (MCL 500.2833(1)(b)) |
| Fire-loss escrow to the municipality | The insurer withholds 25% of the actual cash value, or 25% of the final settlement, whichever is less, and forwards it to the city, village or township treasurer, held in escrow and released as the structure is secured, repaired or demolished; unused proceeds go back to the insured. Two conditions narrow it sharply: it applies only where the final settlement exceeds 49% of the insurance, and only in municipalities that have elected onto the department's list. Two parallel sections run it — MCL 500.2845, capped at $12,000 as annually adjusted, and MCL 500.2227 for larger counties and municipalities across a wider list of perils, whose maximum is $25,090 for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 (DIFS Bulletin 2026-16-INS) |
| Home insurance rate regulation | File and use — "an insurer may use rates for home insurance as soon as those rates are filed" (MCL 500.2106(3)). Note that Chapters 24 and 26 do not apply to home or automobile insurance at all (MCL 500.2106(1)) |
| Nonrenewing on claim history | Only on 3 paid claims in the immediately preceding 3 years totalling a threshold amount — with two different thresholds, one excluding weather-related claims and a higher one including them. Liability claims are excluded entirely (MCL 500.2117(2)(e)(i)). Statutory figures are $3,000 and $4,000, indexed every sixth year under 2117(5); DIFS Bulletin 2024-02-INS certifies $5,000 and $6,600 from 1 January 2024 |
| Long-tenure insureds | An insurer may set a higher claim-history threshold for insureds of 5 to 10 years' standing (MCL 500.2117(2)(e)(ii)) |
| Repair-cost policies | The premium may not exceed 105% of the premium the insurer would charge for coverage at 80% of replacement cost (MCL 500.2117(4)) |
| Vacancy as an underwriting ground | Requires vacancy of more than 60 days plus evidence of an intent to vacate (MCL 500.2117(2)(g)) |
| Michigan's FAIR plan | The Michigan Basic Property Insurance Association (MBPIA), MCL 500.2901 et seq. Its optional water-damage endorsement covers up to $5,000 for damage from rain, ice, snow or sleet — and expressly not flood, sewer backup or groundwater seepage |
The trap that catches the most candidates is the standard fire policy. Ask whether Michigan has one and the honest answer is two sentences long: the form was repealed in 1992, and MCL 500.2833(2) then requires every fire policy to provide at least the coverage that form gave. A candidate who stops at the repealer answers "Michigan has no standard fire policy" and misses everything that follows — which is most of this exam's Michigan content, because those nineteen mandatory provisions are where the testable numbers live.
The claim-history thresholds repay careful reading for a structural reason: Michigan writes two dollar figures into the statute, one that ignores weather-related claims and a higher one that counts them, and then indexes both. Most states leave weather claims to a bulletin or to nothing at all. Learn the shape — three claims, three years, two thresholds, weather treated separately, liability claims excluded — because the shape is what an item tests even when the certified figures have moved.
And the fire-loss escrow is the row nobody sees coming. A quarter of a fire settlement on real property does not go straight to the insured; it goes to the local treasurer and comes back as the building is secured, repaired or demolished. Read the conditions as carefully as the percentage — it bites only where the settlement exceeds 49% of the insurance, only in municipalities that have elected onto the department's list, and the two parallel sections that run it carry different maximums and cover different perils.
Where You Test in Michigan — Every Site and the Scheduling Rules
PSI runs seven Michigan test centers, and you may sit at whichever suits you regardless of where you live. The bulletin prints all seven with addresses and turn-by-turn driving directions:
| Center | Address |
|---|---|
| Dearborn | 3200 Greenfield Road, Suite 253, Dearborn, MI 48120 |
| Holt–Lansing | 4202 Charlar Drive, Suite 1, Holt, MI 48842 |
| Southfield Crossroads (marked "Temporary Exam Site") | Crossroads Building, 16250 Northland Drive, Suite 361, Southfield, MI 48075 |
| Southfield–Lahser Road | 26400 Lahser Road, Suite 150, Southfield, MI 48033 |
| Grand Rapids | 4595 Broadmoor Ave SE, Suite 201, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 |
| Gaylord | 440 W. Main St., Suite D, Gaylord, MI 49735 |
| Marquette | Mid Towne Office Complex, 1229 W. Washington, Marquette, MI 49855 |
Two Southfield sites, and one of them is temporary. The current bulletin flags Southfield Crossroads as a Temporary Exam Site, so confirm it still exists when you book rather than trusting a guide — including this one — that was written months earlier. The two Southfield addresses are about six miles apart and easy to confuse; check the street name on your confirmation, not the city.
Geography matters more here than in most states. Michigan's centers cluster in the southeast — Dearborn and the two Southfields — with Lansing, Grand Rapids, Gaylord and Marquette covering the rest of a very long state. If you are in the Upper Peninsula, Marquette is the only in-state option, and PSI's own note applies: it has centers across the United States and you may take this examination at any of them, so a candidate near a border may find an out-of-state site closer than an in-state one. Enter your ZIP code after paying and PSI lists the nearest sites.
Booking. Online at test-takers.psiexams.com/midifs, or by phone on (855) 579-4639. The $41 fee is valid one year from the date of payment and is non-refundable and non-transferable.
Changing your date — and the method matters. You may cancel and reschedule without losing the fee only if PSI receives the notice 2 days before the scheduled date; the bulletin's own worked example is that a Monday appointment must be cancelled by the previous Saturday. Then the part that catches people: "A voicemail or email message is not an acceptable form of cancellation." Use the website, or speak to a live representative.
Four ways to forfeit the $41, all published: not cancelling two days out; not appearing; not being checked in by your scheduled start time; and not presenting proper identification at check-in. Plan to arrive 30 minutes early — that is the bulletin's instruction, and the check-in cutoff is your appointment time, not some grace period after it.
Retaking after a failure needs no waiting period beyond same-day processing: you cannot rebook on the day you tested, but a candidate who fails on Wednesday can call Thursday and sit again as early as Friday if there is a seat. The Personal Lines guide owns results and retake strategy.
On the day, PSI provides scratch paper and a pencil and requires both back at check-out, and ear plugs are available on request. Accommodations under the ADA are available at every center but must be arranged by telephone with a PSI registrar, as must extended time. The Life & Health guide covers check-in, identification and the security rules in full — including the detail worth checking before you travel, which is that Michigan accepts exactly one primary photo ID and offers no secondary-document fallback.
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 Property exam. About $56 on a first-time pass, with no fingerprint fee and no renewal fee afterwards.
The 20-hour pre-licensing course is the real expense. AAI, ARM, CIC or CPCU, or an associate's, bachelor's or master's degree with an insurance concentration, can waive the coursework — the Life & Health guide owns the waiver rules and the ordering trap that comes with them.
If you later add Casualty, budget a second 20-hour course and a second $41 exam; there is no discount for holding one already. And if surplus lines is the goal, note the arithmetic: an active P&C license, a separate surplus lines examination, $110 to get licensed (a one-time $10 application plus the $100 annual fee under MCL 500.240(1)(i)), and $100 every year after that.
Eligibility Requirements
MCL 500.1205(1)'s five conditions: be at least 18; have committed no act listed in MCL 500.1239(1); complete the 20 hours of approved Property pre-licensing or hold a waiver; pay the fees; and pass exam 16-67. No fingerprints, and no sixth condition.
File the NIPR application before the exam and mind the 180-day window it opens. The Life guide walks the sequence; the Health guide walks the background questions, including the felony bars at MCL 500.1239(1)(d) and (e).
Moving to Michigan with a property license already in hand? MCL 500.1206b waives both the coursework and the exam if you apply within 90 days of establishing legal residence. The Property & Casualty guide covers that route and DIFS's three-tier practice around it.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: 24 hours every two years including 3 hours of ethics, keyed to a review date on the first day of your birth month. Michigan imposes no flood-training requirement of its own — federal NFIP producer training exists under federal law for agents who sell NFIP policies, but no Michigan statute or rule restates it.
A Michigan resident producer license is perpetual under MCL 500.1206(2) — no expiry, no renewal application, no renewal fee. It stays in effect so long as 24 hours of continuing education including 3 hours of ethics are met by each two-year review date (MCL 500.1204c(2)), and that date falls on the first day of your birth month.
There is no Michigan flood-training requirement. Federal NFIP producer-training obligations exist under federal law for agents who sell NFIP policies, but no Michigan statute, rule or DIFS page imposes or restates one — so do not treat it as a state credential the way several other states do.
One newer provision is worth knowing because it is too recent to appear in competitors' material: for review dates after 31 December 2025, MCL 500.1204c(14) allows up to 4 of the 24 hours to be credited for active participation in a DIFS-approved professional insurance association, provided you or your agency are dues-paying members in good standing. Those hours cannot satisfy the 3-hour ethics minimum.
The Property & Casualty guide owns renewal in full — carryover, the 90-day grace period, cancellation and reinstatement.
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