The Minnesota Property Producer License
The property line of authority is issued by the Minnesota Department of Commerce - not a Department of Insurance, and the distinction is worth getting right on an exam that asks who regulates what. Minnesota sells the line on its own paper: Property Producer, 85 items administered, 75 of them scored, in 2 hours for $45. It is a genuinely separate instrument from the combined Property & Casualty paper, with its own content outline and its own clock, so a property-only applicant sits the 75-item paper rather than the 130-item combined one.
The order of operations is fixed, and the first step carries a penalty that no other step does. Minnesota requires 20 hours of Commerce-approved pre-licensing education per line of authority (Minn. Stat. 60K.36, subd. 4), and the Commerce Department states the consequence of getting ahead of it in terms: "If you take the examination before you have successfully completed all applicable prelicense education requirements, you will forfeit your examination fees, your results will not count - even if you pass." That is not a delay, it is a write-off of both the $45 and the sitting. The pre-licensing module - hours, formats, the designation exemptions, and the paper certificate you have to hand the proctor - lives in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/minnesota/life-and-health/licensing-guide).
Then education, exam, fingerprints, apply - in that sequence. Fingerprinting is required of all producer applicants and is taken electronically by PSI at the test centre after you sit for and pass the exam, at $63.75, with a mailed manual card and a $32.00 check to Commerce as the alternative. Commerce says you may submit the application as soon as you have passed the examination and submitted your fingerprints. The step-by-step fingerprint walkthrough is in the [Casualty guide](/insurance/minnesota/casualty-only/licensing-guide); the application walkthrough, through Sircon - the Commerce Department's named front door - or NIPR, is in the [Life guide](/insurance/minnesota/life-only/licensing-guide).
What the licence is actually about, on the Minnesota side, is chapter 65A. Minnesota mandates a standard fire insurance policy by statute, prints the claim clocks inside the statutory form, has a valued policy law with the burden of proof allocated to the insurer, and makes coinsurance something the insured asks for in writing rather than something the insurer imposes. Those four facts account for most of the property items a national prep course will teach you wrongly, and they are laid out in full in the most-tested section below.
And this guide owns the test-centre module for the Minnesota set. Minnesota's bulletin does something many states' do not - it prints street addresses for all nine PSI sites rather than city names alone. Those addresses, the two scheduling channels, the 2-day reschedule rule, the 15-minute arrival expectation and the same-day retake bar are all below.
Two Papers Confer the Property Line, at the Same $45
Property Producer: 85 items administered - 75 scored plus 10 pretest - in 2 hours, $45. The 75 scored items split 50 general product knowledge, terms and concepts and 25 Minnesota laws, rules and regulations, a 2:1 ratio the content outline states directly. Property & Casualty Producer (combined): 145 administered - 130 scored plus 15 pretest - in 3 hours, $45, made of 50 property, 50 casualty and 30 Minnesota items.
Both papers cost $45, which makes the arithmetic on the combined route blunt in one direction and misleading in the other. On exam fees alone, one $45 sitting for two lines beats two $45 sittings, and the combined paper's Minnesota block grows only from 25 to 30 items rather than doubling. But pre-licensing is priced per line of authority: 20 hours for property, and another 20 hours for casualty if you want both. The exam fee is the small number in that decision. Take the combined paper because you intend to write casualty business, not because it saves $45.
The pace is tighter on the standalone paper, not looser. 120 minutes across 85 administered items is about 85 seconds an item; 180 minutes across 145 is about 74 seconds. So the shorter paper gives you more time per question, and the combined paper is the endurance test - three hours and two syllabuses at a faster rhythm.
Know the shape of the 25 Minnesota items before you study for them. Every Minnesota producer line shares a common core - "Minnesota Laws, Rules, and Regulations Common to Life, Health, Property, and Casualty Insurance" at 20 items - with a 5-item line-specific tail on top. On this paper the tail is the property one. That means four fifths of your Minnesota block is licensing, trade practices, claims handling and regulator material shared with the life and health candidates sitting beside you, and one fifth is chapter 65A itself. Do not spend your whole state-law revision on the fire policy and neglect the common block; do not neglect the fire policy either, because five items is the margin most people fail by.
Passing is 70%, and it is a raw percentage of the scored items. The bulletin says "You will need 70% correct to pass the exam", and the words scaled and raw - along with the standard scaled-score disclaimer that a reported number is neither the count nor the percentage of correct answers - appear nowhere in its eleven pages. The Personal Lines outline corroborates it from another direction with a column headed "Minimum Passing Score - 70%". So 53 of 75 scored items is the arithmetic you are working to, and you cannot tell which 10 of the 85 do not count.
Minnesota assigns no series or code numbers to its exams. The bulletin's fee table and time table identify every paper by name only. If a study aid sells you a "Minnesota Series 20-xx" prep course, it has imported a numbering convention from a different state.
Results, retakes and the two clocks that get confused. Your score shows on screen at the end of the session and a report is emailed; fail and the emailed report carries a diagnostic breakdown by examination type. You cannot rebook the same day - "this is due to processing and reporting results" - and the bulletin's own worked example is that a candidate testing unsuccessfully on a Wednesday can call Thursday and retest as soon as Friday, space permitting. Passing scores are valid for three years from the date of the examination. That is a different clock from the 1 year in which an unused examination fee is forfeited if you never test. The bulletin states no cap on attempts anywhere in pages 1 to 11 - which is silence rather than a published guarantee of unlimited retries. Score reporting and retake strategy are covered in depth in the [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/minnesota/personal-lines/licensing-guide), which owns the results module.
Where the rest of the exam machinery lives. Check-in, the single-ID rule, the security screening and the prohibited-items list are in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/minnesota/life-and-health/licensing-guide), which owns exam day. The remote-proctored alternative - the 30-minute launch window, the no-breaks rule and the military-ID carve-out - is in the [Health guide](/insurance/minnesota/health-only/licensing-guide). Everything about the buildings themselves is below.
Most Tested Topics on the Minnesota Property Exam
Minnesota's property law is unusually concrete: a statutory fire policy form with numbers printed inside it, a valued policy law, an over-insurance ceiling with a forfeiture attached, and a coinsurance rule that runs the opposite way from the national teaching. Every row below is written to the statutory words rather than to a national outline.
| Concept | What Minnesota does | Where it's written |
|---|---|---|
| Standard fire policy, mandatory form | The printed form set out in the statute is the Minnesota standard fire insurance policy, and no policy or contract of fire insurance may be made, issued or delivered on property in this state unless it provides the specified coverage and conforms as to all provisions, stipulations and conditions with that form | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subds. 1, 3 |
| Package policy deviation, fire peril | A policy combining fire with other perils may be issued without incorporating the exact language of the standard form, provided it affords the insured all the rights and benefits of the Minnesota standard fire insurance policy with respect to the peril of fire. Substance controls, not wording - which is why a modern homeowner's form complies without reproducing the statutory words | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subd. 1 |
| Sworn proof of loss, standard fire policy | A statement in writing, signed and sworn to by the insured, within 60 days. Note both halves: the clock is 60 days and the document is sworn, not merely submitted | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subd. 3 |
| Appraisal and umpire clocks, fire loss | Each side selects a competent and disinterested appraiser and notifies the other within 20 days; an umpire is appointed on failing for 15 days to agree. Two different numbers for two different steps of one process | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subd. 3 |
| Payment and suit limitation, fire loss | Loss is payable 60 days after proof of loss is received by the company, and suit must be commenced within two years after inception of the loss. The suit clock runs from the inception of the loss, not from denial | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subd. 3 |
| Mortgage clause, contract for deed vendor | Where the policy is made payable to a mortgagee or contract for deed vendor, no act or default of any person other than that mortgagee or vendor renders the policy void as to them. The contract for deed vendor is a Minnesota conveyancing artifact written into the statutory form and absent from the national one | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subd. 3 |
| Concealment and fraud, before versus after loss | Asymmetric, in a single sentence. The policy is void if whether before a loss the insured has willfully, or after a loss the insured has willfully and with intent to defraud, concealed or misrepresented a material fact. Pre-loss needs only "willfully"; post-loss needs "willfully AND with intent to defraud" | Minn. Stat. 65A.01, subd. 3 |
| Valued policy law, total fire loss | On a total loss the insurer shall pay the whole amount mentioned in the policy on which it received a premium, and on a partial loss the full amount of it - absent intentional fraud by the insured and absent a risk-increasing change made without the insurer's consent, of which the burden of proof is expressly upon the INSURER | Minn. Stat. 65A.08, subd. 2(a) |
| Coinsurance, fire policy election | Opt-in. A policy may contain a coinsurance clause only if the insured requests it in writing, in exchange for a reduction in premium, binding both parties, with actual cash value at the time of loss governing the calculation | Minn. Stat. 65A.08, subd. 5 |
| Agreed amount, farm building policy | Farm building policies may include agreed-amount provisions in consideration of a reduction in the premium by the company - the same trade the coinsurance subdivision makes, in a different subdivision and for a different property class | Minn. Stat. 65A.08, subd. 3 |
| Over-insurance ceiling and the school-fund forfeiture | No company may knowingly issue a policy for an amount which, together with any existing insurance, exceeds the replacement cost of the buildings and covered improvements. A willful violation forfeits to the state double the premium collected, paid to the school fund - money that goes to the state, not restitution to the insured and not a penalty ceiling | Minn. Stat. 65A.09, subd. 1 |
| Maximum policy term, Minnesota property | No company shall knowingly issue any policy upon property in this state for a longer term than five years | Minn. Stat. 65A.08, subd. 6 |
| Residual market, the Minnesota FAIR Plan | Minnesota has one, it is called the Minnesota FAIR Plan, and it is the state's insurer of last resort for basic property coverage. Homeowner cancellation and nonrenewal notices must inform the insured of it | Minn. Stat. 65A.31 to 65A.42; 65A.29, subd. 4 |
| Flood non-coverage notice, 18-point type | An annual written notice headed "Important Information About Damage Caused by Flooding" in at least 18-point type, telling the insured the policy does not cover flood, that NFIP coverage exists, that not all communities participate, and that flood insurance may be available even outside a flood hazard area | Minn. Stat. 65A.302 |
| Dog breed as an underwriting basis, homeowner's | An insurer may not refuse to issue or renew, or cancel, based solely on the fact that the homeowner harbors or owns one dog of a specific breed or mixture of breeds (2023). Exceptions run to dogs classified dangerous or potentially dangerous under Minn. Stat. 347.50, sound underwriting tied to actual loss experience, a dog with a history of causing bodily injury, or an owner with a history of owning other animals that caused bodily injury | Minn. Stat. 65A.303, subds. 1, 2 |
Three of these will cost you items if you revise from a national course, and coinsurance is the worst of them. Everywhere else, coinsurance is taught as a condition the insurer builds into the form, and the worked example runs did the insured carry 80% of value, and if not, here is the penalty. Minn. Stat. 65A.08, subd. 5 inverts the actor: a fire policy may contain a coinsurance clause if the insured requests the same, in writing, and the consideration flowing back is a reduction in premium. Read a Minnesota fact pattern with that in mind and the question stops being was the insured underinsured and becomes did the insured ask for this clause in writing, and did the premium reflect it. The second trap is the valued policy law at 65A.08, subd. 2(a): on a total loss the insurer pays the whole amount mentioned in the policy, and the escape hatch - a change increasing the risk made without the insurer's consent - comes with the burden of proof expressly on the insurer. A national outline that teaches actual cash value as the default measure on a total fire loss has the wrong rule and the wrong burden. The third is the two-year suit limitation inside the statutory form, measured from inception of the loss. Time it from the date of the fire, not from the date the carrier said no.
Then learn the fire-policy numbers as a sequence rather than as a list, because that is how they are tested. Loss occurs. A sworn proof of loss is due within 60 days. If the parties disagree on amount, each names a competent and disinterested appraiser and notifies the other within 20 days, and if those two fail for 15 days to agree on an umpire, one is appointed. Payment is due 60 days after proof of loss is received. Suit must be commenced within two years after inception of the loss. Four numbers, and the two 60s do different jobs at opposite ends. Around that sequence sit two clauses whose wording is the whole question: the mortgage clause naming the contract for deed vendor, which protects that vendor from any act or default of any person other than the vendor, and the concealment clause's asymmetry, where pre-loss conduct voids the policy on willfully alone but post-loss conduct needs willfully and with intent to defraud. If a fact pattern gives you an insured who padded a claim after the fire, the question is testing the second, harder standard. Finally, keep the money character of 65A.09 straight: the over-insurance forfeiture is double the premium collected, paid to the state's school fund. It does not go to the insured, and it is not a cap on anything.
The rest of the property picture is owned elsewhere in this set, and deliberately so. Homeowner cancellation and nonrenewal - the 20/30/60-day clocks, the 59-day free-cancellation notice, the return of unearned premium as a condition precedent to cancellation taking effect, and the rule that an inquiry about a hypothetical claim is not a claim - all live in the [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/minnesota/personal-lines/licensing-guide), which owns the cancellation branch. The property-casualty guaranty association and the regulator's powers are in the [P&C guide](/insurance/minnesota/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide). What sits here is the fire policy family itself.
All Nine Minnesota Test Centers, and the Rules That Protect Your $45
Minnesota's PSI bulletin does something a lot of state handbooks do not: its Examination Site Location section prints street addresses, not just city names. Nine sites, statewide, and the Commerce Department's own scheduling page names the same nine cities independently. Here they are as PSI publishes them.
| City | Address as PSI prints it |
|---|---|
| Blaine | Anoka/Blaine Airport, Gate A, Cirrus Flight Passenger Terminal Bldg, 2155 Missouri Ave NE, Blaine, MN 55449 |
| Brainerd | 501 W. College Drive, Library Tutoring Center, #E408, Brainerd, MN 56401 |
| Duluth | 416 West Superior Street, Duluth, MN 55802 |
| Eagan | 1715 Yankee Doodle Rd, Ste 202, Eagan, MN 55121 |
| Mankato | 3030 Airport Rd |
| Rochester | 3155 Superior Dr NW |
| Saint Paul | 570 Asbury St. Suite 206 |
| Willmar | 2101 15th Avenue NW, Room A-146 |
| Woodbury | 6053 Hudson Road, Suite 210 |
PSI prints a full postal address for every site, ZIP code included, so use the address exactly as published and check it against your booking confirmation rather than trusting a mapping application's first guess. Use the address as PSI prints it, confirm the location against your booking confirmation, and if you are relying on a map application, check that it has resolved to the right street rather than a similarly named one.
Two of the nine are rooms inside campus buildings, and that changes how you plan the morning. Brainerd is Library Tutoring Center, #E408, and Willmar is Room A-146. A street address gets you to a campus, not to a testing room - on a college site you still have to find visitor parking, get into the right building, and walk to a numbered room that may be on an upper floor. Treat the posted address as the start of the last ten minutes of the journey rather than the end of it, and build that into the arrival rule below. Blaine is the third of these and the least obvious: it sits inside the Anoka/Blaine Airport, Gate A, Cirrus Flight Passenger Terminal Bldg, so a street address alone puts you on an airfield rather than at the testing room. The remaining six are commercial addresses, three carrying a suite number - Eagan Ste 202, Saint Paul Suite 206 in Hamline Park Plaza, Woodbury Suite 210 - which you should keep with the address rather than dropping it.
Two channels book the seat, and both take the same $45. Online at https://test-takers.psiexams.com/mnins, or by phone on (866) 395-1006. Register in the name that appears on the government photo ID you will bring, because the proctor matches the ID, the registration and - for a first-time producer applicant - the pre-licensing course completion certificate against each other. Booking is also where you choose the format: PSI asks you to "Select your test format: (Test Center) or (Remote Proctored)", so the decision between a room in Willmar and your own desk is made at the point of scheduling, not on the day.
The 2-day rule is the one that protects your money. The bulletin states it plainly: "You may cancel and reschedule an examination appointment without forfeiting your fee if your cancellation notice is received 2 days before the scheduled examination date." Read it as a received-by deadline, not a sent-by one, and note the word notice - the same paragraph family that governs cancellations is the reason to use the website or speak to a person rather than leaving a message and assuming it landed. Inside two days, the $45 is at risk. And it is worth pairing this with the bulletin's blunt sentence about fees generally: EXAMINATION FEES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE OR TRANSFERABLE. You cannot hand a booked seat to a colleague.
Arrive 15 minutes early, and understand what "late" costs. The bulletin's instruction is that "you should arrive 15 minutes before your appointment" - and the sentence that follows is the reason it is not a suggestion: "If you arrive late, you may not be admitted to the examination site and you will forfeit your examination registration fee." So a late arrival is not rebooked at no charge and it is not held for you; it can end the day and the $45 together. Fifteen minutes covers check-in, ID verification and the security procedures - it does not cover parking on a college campus in February, and it does not cover finding room E408. On the Brainerd and Willmar sites in particular, plan to be in the building fifteen minutes out, not in the car park.
One more clock lives on the fee rather than on the appointment. "Your examination fee will be forfeited if you do not test within 1 year of the date your examination fee is received by PSI." That is a separate thing from the three years a passing score stays valid, and from the 2-day reschedule window. Three clocks, three jobs: two days protects a booking, one year protects a payment, three years protects a result.
Retaking means coming back on a different day. Same-day rebooking is not possible - "this is due to processing and reporting results" - and PSI's own worked example in the bulletin is that a candidate who tests unsuccessfully on a Wednesday can call the next day, Thursday, and retest as soon as Friday, depending upon space availability. In practice that means the nine-site network is also your scheduling flexibility: if the Saint Paul room is full on Friday, Blaine, Eagan and Woodbury are all metro alternatives with their own calendars.
Winter is a real scheduling variable here, and PSI publishes a procedure for it. The bulletin carries a dedicated Emergency Examination Center Closing section. Its contents are not reproduced here, but know that the procedure exists and that the place to look on a morning when the interstate is closed is PSI's own channels - the portal and the (866) 395-1006 line - rather than assuming a site is open or that a closure automatically rebooks you.
These same nine buildings are where you get fingerprinted, after you pass. PSI takes prints electronically at the test centre after you sit for and pass the exam, at $63.75, and Commerce publishes a combined listing titled "PSI Test Center Locations and Walk-in Fingerprinting Hours" - so the centre list doubles as a fingerprinting-hours list. The full walkthrough, the mailed $32.00 alternative and the one-year life of the background-check authorization form are in the [Casualty guide](/insurance/minnesota/casualty-only/licensing-guide), which owns that module. Plan the trip as one visit rather than two if the site's walk-in hours allow it.
If none of the nine is convenient, Minnesota's other option is remote. PSI offers remote online proctoring for Minnesota insurance exams as a format you pick at booking, with its own launch window, system checks and room rules - and its own restrictions, including that no breaks are allowed and that a military ID is not accepted for remote testing. That module belongs to the [Health guide](/insurance/minnesota/health-only/licensing-guide).
And bring the paper. A first-time producer applicant must present a valid paper course-completion certificate for the 20 hours, matching the photo ID and the registration name, at the centre. It is the one document that turns up at the test centre from a module this guide does not own - the certificate rules are in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/minnesota/life-and-health/licensing-guide) - but it is the most common reason a candidate who did everything else right is turned away at the desk.
What It Costs
Four payments get a Minnesota property licence issued, and one of them is not a fixed number. $45 to PSI for the Property Producer paper. $63.75 to PSI for electronic fingerprinting at the test centre after you pass - or $32.00 by check to the Minnesota Department of Commerce if you take a manual card to a police station and mail it in. $50 for the property line of authority, plus the technology surcharge, currently $10. And the 20 hours of pre-licensing education, which is priced by whichever approved provider you choose and which no Minnesota source read for this guide quotes a figure for.
That comes to roughly $168.75 in fixed cost on a first-attempt pass through the electronic fingerprint route, or about $137.00 through the mailed one, before course tuition and before Sircon's or NIPR's own transaction fee at checkout. A retake is a full $45 again - examination fees are, in the bulletin's capitals, not refundable or transferable.
Two caveats on the licence fee itself. First, the counting convention differs between sources: Minn. Stat. 60K.55 reads as $50 per line, while NIPR describes $50 per application with an additional $50 per line of authority. For a single-line property applicant the two readings most likely produce the same $50, but read your checkout screen rather than this paragraph. Second, the technology surcharge is administered at $10 - the figure published as effective May 1, 2023 - against a statutory ceiling of up to $40 in 60K.55. The ceiling is the number in the statute; the $10 is the number you pay today.
Then keeping it costs $50 per line of authority plus the current technology surcharge at each renewal, with a penalty in the amount of twice the unpaid renewal fee if you are late. Renewal mechanics are in the [P&C guide](/insurance/minnesota/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
Eligibility Requirements
Twenty hours of Commerce-approved property pre-licensing education, first. Minn. Stat. 60K.36, subd. 4 requires "20 hours per major line of authority in which the producer seeks to be licensed", the Commerce Department publishes the same requirement, and the January 2026 PSI bulletin repeats it. A repeal check found nothing: this requirement is live. Providers are listed through Sircon, the provider must send electronic certification, and you must present a valid paper certificate at the test centre matching your photo ID and your registration name.
The exemptions from that coursework are real, they are named in the handbook, and one of the three lists is yours. "Property, Casualty, or Personal Lines P&C applicants" holding AAI, ARM, CIC or CPCU are exempt from the pre-licensing education requirement, as is someone with a two-year Minnesota vocational school degree in insurance or a four-year college degree in business with an insurance emphasis. Two warnings attach. First, no designation waives the Minnesota examination - the list is introduced solely as an exemption from the prelicense education requirement, so a CPCU still sits the 75-item Property Producer paper. Second, this roster appears in the PSI handbook and effectively nowhere else; the Commerce page gestures at exemptions without naming a single designation. The full exemption module is in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/minnesota/life-and-health/licensing-guide).
Then exam, fingerprints, application - and Minnesota fingerprints everyone. The bulletin is categorical: "ALL applicants for Producer and Adjuster licenses must provide a set of fingerprints." Commerce sequences it as education, exam, fingerprints, apply, and states that you may submit the application as soon as you have passed and submitted fingerprints. Note the form's own shelf life - the background check authorization form expires one year after it is signed. Apply through Sircon, the Commerce Department's named front door, or through NIPR, which also accepts Minnesota resident applications; the walkthrough is in the [Life guide](/insurance/minnesota/life-only/licensing-guide).
One official disagreement to know about, because it changes what you can file and when. Commerce publishes the sequence as exam-then-application. NIPR states that an applicant "is not required to pass the exam prior to submitting the license application" while an exam is required before the state approves it. Both are official and they are reconcilable - NIPR is describing what its transaction system accepts, Commerce is describing the workflow it runs - but treat Commerce's ordering as the operative guidance and NIPR's as an allowance.
Moving in from another state is the one route that skips both the coursework and the exam. The bulletin: "An applicant for licensing in this state who was previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state need not complete any education or examination if the application is received within ninety (90) days after the cancellation of his license." Commerce describes the same relief in its own words, measured from the resident licence going inactive. Same 90 days, marginally different trigger wording - and the Letter of Clearance form runs the other direction, terminating a Minnesota licence rather than starting one. Reciprocity in full is in the [P&C guide](/insurance/minnesota/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
A licence alone does not let you write business, and three post-licensing duties bite immediately. An individual may hold a producer licence before being appointed, but an appointment is required to transact in Minnesota (Minn. Stat. 60K.49). Premium money is governed by a rule most national courses state wrongly for this state: Minnesota's obligation under 60K.46, subd. 5 is prompt deposit into a business account, or forwarding straight to the insurer - the words fiduciary, trust and commingle do not appear in it. A producer with binding authority must forward the binder within five business days (60K.46, subd. 7), by mail unless the insured authorizes fax or electronic delivery. And 60K.54 carries three reporting deadlines, not the NAIC model's two - including a 10-day deadline on a conviction or guilty plea sitting inside the same subdivision as a 30-day rule.
If you need to operate before a licence issues, the route is narrow. Minn. Stat. 60K.42 provides a temporary licence of not more than 180 days, with no examination, in four enumerated circumstances - the surviving spouse or court-appointed personal representative of a deceased or disabled producer, a member or employee of a licensed business entity after the death or disability of its designated individual, the designee of a producer entering active military service, or where the commissioner considers the public interest best served. It is not a trainee licence, and it ends when the owner or personal representative disposes of the business. Ignore the Commerce Department's 2020 COVID-era temporary-licensing guidance for fees - its quoted technology surcharge is superseded by the current $10.
Keeping the License
Important CE details: 24 credit hours per licensing period, 3 of them ethics, and at least 12 of the 24 must not be sponsored by, offered by, or affiliated with an insurance company or its agents. No more than 8 credit hours count in a single day, and you may not repeat a course for credit inside the same period. The licensing period is the licence term itself, which ends on the last day of the producer's birth month on a term of at least 12 and no more than 24 months, so two years is the steady state rather than a fixed statutory cycle. Fall short and no licence may be renewed or continued in force beginning the day after the renewal was due, and you may not act as an insurance producer until the commissioner is satisfied or a waiver or extension has been obtained. Producers writing solely for chapter 67A township mutuals are exempt under Minn. Stat. 60K.56, subd. 3. Selling flood through the NFIP additionally takes FEMA-standard training under Minn. Stat. 60K.366; Minnesota states no hour figure of its own and defers to the federal standard at 70 Federal Register 52,117.
24 credit hours per licensing period, 3 of them ethics - and a third number that most national CE planners do not carry: at least 12 of the 24 must not be sponsored by, offered by, or affiliated with an insurance company or its agents. Half your hours have to come from outside the carrier channel. Ethics courses must additionally be tagged in the Ethics category in Sircon to count, so a course that covers ethical material but is not categorised that way will not fill the 3.
Two structural limits and one derived cycle length. No more than 8 credit hours count in a single day, so a weekend cannot absorb a whole period. You may not repeat a course for credit inside the same licensing period. And the period itself is the licence term: licences issued or renewed on or after 1 August 2010 expire on the last day of the producer's birth month, on a term of at least 12 and no more than 24 months. Neither the CE statute nor the Commerce CE page states a duration in months - both say only "each licensing period" - so the two-year figure is what you get by joining Minn. Stat. 60K.56 to 60K.55, and it describes the steady state rather than a fixed statutory cycle.
The penalty for falling short is not a fine. Minn. Stat. 60K.56: no licence may be renewed or continued in force beginning the day after the renewal was due, and the producer may not act as an insurance producer until the commissioner is satisfied that every requirement has been met or a waiver or extension has been obtained. It is a bar on practising, and it attaches the day after, not at some later enforcement step. Commerce also gates renewal on being CE compliant on or before the expiration date - check your Sircon transcript reads compliant rather than waiting for a renewal screen to tell you it does not.
One product gate attaches to this line specifically, and Minnesota does not put a number on it. Under Minn. Stat. 60K.366, an individual may not sell, solicit or negotiate flood insurance through the NFIP unless they are licensed as an insurance producer for property, casualty, or personal lines and meet the FEMA training standard at 70 Federal Register 52,117. The Commerce flood page states no Minnesota hour figure and does not say whether the training recurs - it defers to the federal standard. Do not carry a "one-time 3-hour NFIP course" figure into Minnesota from another state's rule; no Minnesota source read for this guide states one. Long-term care training, by contrast, is explicitly creditable toward the 24 and belongs to the life and health lines.
One exemption exists on the Minnesota side worth recognising: producers writing solely for chapter 67A township mutuals are exempt (60K.56, subd. 3) - a genuinely Minnesota category, and one a national outline has nothing to say about. Carryover is a different matter: no source read for this guide addresses it either way, so plan on finishing each period on its own hours rather than banking a surplus.
Renewal itself: $50 per line of authority plus the current technology surcharge, filed through Sircon, with an early window of no more than 90 days before expiration. Late costs a penalty in the amount of twice the unpaid renewal fee; you may reinstate within 12 months of the renewal fee due date without retesting, and beyond 12 months you reapply, "with potential retesting and fingerprinting." The full renewal module - including the fact that the Commerce Department's own renewal page never states when a licence expires, so the birth-month rule is discoverable only in statute - is in the [P&C guide](/insurance/minnesota/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
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