The Mississippi Property Producer License
Property is line (c) in the statutory list at Miss. Code Ann. §83-17-63(1), and it stands on its own in Mississippi - you can hold Property without Casualty, which is not true everywhere. It sits on the 70% side of the state's split passing standard, along with Casualty, combined Property & Casualty and Personal Lines; Life, Accident & Health and combined Life/Accident & Health pass at 65%. The score is a raw percentage: 70% means 42 of the 60 scored questions, with no scaling and no conversion.
You owe 20 hours of approved pre-licensing education for this line under §83-17-251(2), which requires "twenty (20) hours of approved prelicensing education courses per line of authority." The House Bill 819 exemption enacted in 2024 reaches an applicant seeking "the life line of authority only" and does not touch property. If you intend to take Property and Casualty together the handbook is explicit that the requirement doubles: "Property and Casualty Producer: 40 hours classroom or self-study."
The substance of the exam's Mississippi Laws portion is dominated by a coastline. Mississippi has two residual property mechanisms with two different geographic definitions, and conflating them is the single most reliable way to lose points. The Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association writes wind and hail in a six-county "coast area" under Chapter 83-34. The Mississippi Residential Property Insurance Underwriting Association is the FAIR plan, writes fire and extended coverage statewide under Chapter 83-38, and defines its own "coastal areas" as only three counties - where it expressly excludes wind and hail, because MWUA covers those there.
Two chapters that older Mississippi material still teaches are gone. Chapter 83-35, the old Underwriting Association, was repealed by Laws 1987, ch. 459, §18, effective 31 December 1988 - by the same act that created MWUA. The Property Insurance Clarity Act at Chapter 83-79 repealed itself: §83-79-13 was a built-in repealer that took effect 1 July 2022. If a practice question cites either, the citation is stale.
Property Alone or Property and Casualty Together
The standalone Property Producer exam is 60 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest questions in 120 minutes. The combined Property and Casualty Producer exam is 90 scored plus 10 pretest in 150 minutes. As with every Mississippi producer exam, the question counts come only from content outline #122501 (December 2024) and the seat time only from candidate handbook #122500 (July 2025).
Both pass at 70%. On the standalone exam that is 42 of 60; on the combined exam it is 63 of 90. Note that the combined exam is 90 scored questions rather than the 120 you would face taking Property and Casualty separately, so the combined route asks fewer questions across more material - it samples both bodies rather than testing each exhaustively.
Unlike the three life and health exams, this exam is available through OnVUE. Pearson VUE's live Mississippi page suspends online testing only for the MS Life Producer, MS Accident & Health or Sickness Producer and MS Life, Accident & Health or Sickness Producer exams; Property, Casualty, Property & Casualty and Personal Lines are unaffected. The Casualty guide owns remote testing and covers the room rules, the technical check and the identification caveats in full - read it before you decide, because the retake rules differ sharply by channel.
That difference is worth stating here. At a test centre the handbook is explicit in both directions - a candidate "must wait one (1) day before scheduling a reexamination," and "Testing at a test center is unlimited." Through OnVUE candidates "are limited to 2 attempts per exam via OnVue" and those who fail the first "are required to wait 14 days before retesting". A candidate who expects to need more than two tries is materially better off in a chair at a centre.
The fee is $50 per attempt, and rescheduling or cancelling requires 48 hours' notice to Pearson VUE on (888) 293-4222 or the whole fee is forfeited. With proper notice you may transfer the fee to a new reservation or request a refund.
Most Tested Topics on the Mississippi Property Exam
Mississippi's property law is short on general regulation and long on geography, and the Mississippi Laws portion of this exam reflects that. The concepts below are the ones that differ from a national property course, together with the surplus lines material that a property producer is most likely to be examined on.
| Concept | Mississippi rule | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Valued policy law, what triggers it | TOTAL DESTRUCTION BY FIRE, and nothing else - the insurer may not deny that the building was worth the full value on which the insurance was calculated | §83-13-5 |
| Valued policy law, what it does NOT reach | Windstorm, hail, hurricane and tornado are nowhere in the section, so a total loss by wind on the Gulf Coast is settled on ordinary policy terms | §83-13-5 |
| Valued policy law, term and clauses | Maximum policy term of five (5) years; three-quarters-value clauses prohibited; builder's risk policies expressly exempt | §83-13-5 |
| Windstorm pool territory | The "coast area" means six counties: Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George | §83-34-1(f) |
| Windstorm pool, what it writes | Essential property insurance in the coast area, meaning coverage against windstorm and hail - the chapter does not use the defined term "windstorm and hail insurance" | Miss. Code Ann. ch. 83-34 |
| FAIR plan territory and perils | MRPIUA writes fire and extended coverage on residential property STATEWIDE; its own "coastal areas" definition of three counties - Hancock, Harrison and Jackson - is where it excludes wind and hail | §83-38-3(a), (i) |
| FAIR plan coverage ceiling | Coverage may not exceed ninety-five percent (95%) of the market value of the insured real and personal property, excluding the value of land | §83-38-3(a) |
| FAIR plan, its former name | MRPIUA was the Mississippi Rural Risk Insurance Association, "modified and expanded" and renamed by statute | §83-38-5 |
| Repealed property chapters | Chapter 83-35 repealed by Laws 1987, ch. 459, §18, effective 31 December 1988; the Property Insurance Clarity Act at Chapter 83-79 repealed by its own §83-79-13, effective 1 July 2022 | repeal notes |
| Rate filing and the deemer | Rates and forms are filed at least 30 days before the proposed effective date and are "deemed to be approved unless disapproved by the Commissioner of Insurance within thirty (30) days"; the Commissioner may extend review by up to 60 additional days | §83-2-7(1), (3) |
| Credit history in personal insurance | Permitted, but an insurer may not decline, cancel, non-renew or rate SOLELY on credit history or an insurance score without other independent factors, and specified inputs are prohibited outright | 19 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1, R. 31.06 |
| Premium checks, who they are payable to | All premium checks must be made payable to the insurance company writing the policy - printed in capitals in the rule itself | 19 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1, R. 11.01 |
| Surplus lines prerequisite | A producer licence with "a property, casualty and/or personal lines line of authority" plus a regular commission to represent an admitted fire and casualty insurer; no separate examination exists | §83-21-19 |
| Surplus lines penalty ceiling | A civil penalty "not to exceed Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($2,500.00) per violation" - two and a half times the producer ceiling at §83-17-71 | §83-21-19(7) |
The valued policy law row is the one to lock down, because on a Gulf Coast state the instinct runs the wrong way. §83-13-5 speaks throughout of a "fire insurance policy," property "insured against loss by fire," and property "totally destroyed by fire." A hurricane that takes a house to the slab does not invoke Mississippi's valued policy law. The consequence is practical as well as examinable: after a named storm, total wind losses in Mississippi are settled on the policy's own terms and on the adjuster's valuation, without the statutory presumption of full value that a fire total loss would carry.
The rate regulation row rewards precision. None of the three labels candidates memorise - file-and-use, prior approval, use-and-file - appears anywhere in §83-2-7. What the statute actually prescribes is a 30-day prior filing with a 30-day deemer: file at least thirty days before the proposed effective date; the filing is deemed approved unless the Commissioner disapproves within thirty days of filing; and the Commissioner may give written notice within those thirty days that up to sixty additional days are needed. It is not use-and-file, because rates may not be used before they are filed. If forced to pick a label, "file-and-use with a thirty-day deemer" is defensible; the day counts are the testable part. Note also that Chapter 83-2 exempts six lines from rate regulation - accident and health, ocean marine, reinsurance, aircraft liability and hull, title, and credit accident and health - and does not exempt workers' compensation.
The credit scoring row is a favourite because the rule does not do what candidates expect. 19 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1, Ch. 31 does not ban credit-based insurance scoring. Rule 31.06 bans using it as the sole basis for declining, cancelling, non-renewing, rating or tiering, and separately bans specified inputs outright - the type of credit card used, credit information the insurer knows to be disputed, sole reliance on a "no-hit" or "thin file" status, requesting credit history based on residence, sex, race, colour, creed, occupation, income, physical handicap or disability, refusing solely because the applicant has no credit card, and a set of negative factors including consumer-initiated inquiries that were not the applicant's own, insurance-related inquiries, medical collection accounts, and multiple mortgage or auto inquiries within a thirty-day window.
Testing Locations and Scheduling in Mississippi
Mississippi's testing footprint is wider than most candidates expect, and Pearson VUE's published information about it is thinner than most candidates expect. Both facts matter when you book.
The handbook publishes cities, not addresses. The back cover of candidate handbook #122500 lists Mississippi testing locations by city and prints no street addresses for any of them. The Mississippi cities listed are Choctaw, Decatur, Ellisville, Fulton, Greenwood, Gulfport, Jackson (three separate locations), Meridian, Mississippi State, Raymond, Ridgeland, Summit and Tupelo. The handbook additionally lists locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee, which are open to Mississippi candidates.
That is a deliberate choice on Pearson VUE's part, and it is the right one to follow. Addresses are exposed through the seat-availability finder at scheduling time, where they are current by construction. A hand-assembled address list goes stale silently - a testing centre moves across town, a college relocates its testing office, and a candidate arrives at a building that no longer administers exams. Use the finder at pearsonvue.com/us/en/ms/insurance.html, or call (888) 293-4222.
The geography is worth reading strategically. Several of the Mississippi sites sit on college and community-college campuses - Mississippi State, Raymond, Ellisville, Decatur, Fulton - which is why the list reaches into small towns. Campus sites often run narrower hours and fewer seats than a commercial centre, and they are the first to fill during academic testing periods. The three Jackson locations plus Ridgeland give the metro the deepest availability in the state; Gulfport covers the coast; Tupelo, Greenwood and Meridian anchor the north, delta and east.
Three channels to book. Online through the Pearson VUE Mississippi page, which is the only channel that shows live seat availability. By telephone on (888) 293-4222. Or, for the exams that offer it, through OnVUE remote proctoring - available for Property, Casualty, Property & Casualty and Personal Lines, and currently unavailable for the three life and health exams. Whichever channel you use, the fee is $50.
The 48-hour rule is the one that costs money. The handbook is unambiguous: "Candidates should call Pearson VUE at (888) 293-4222 at least forty-eight (48) hours before the examination to change or cancel a reservation." With that notice you may "either transfer the fee to a new reservation, or may request a refund." Without it you "will forfeit the examination fee" - the entire $50, with no partial credit and no exception published for weather, traffic or illness. On a coastal state during hurricane season, that is a rule worth building a margin around: if a named storm is forecast anywhere near your test date, move the appointment while you are still outside the window rather than waiting to see.
Retakes are not booked at the centre. The handbook states plainly that "[r]eservations for reexamination are not made at the test center," and that a candidate "must wait one (1) day before scheduling a reexamination." So a failed attempt means leaving, waiting a calendar day, and rebooking through the ordinary channels. And attempts there are not rationed: the sentence immediately following the OnVUE limits reads "Testing at a test center is unlimited."
One exam is not Pearson VUE's at all. Mississippi's Industrial Life examination is administered by the Home Service Life Council (Allied Funeral Associates Inc) on (662) 840-9911, not by Pearson VUE, and it does not appear in the handbook's fee table. If you are pursuing that limited line, none of the scheduling above applies to you.
Mississippi Property License Fees
| Item | Amount | Paid to | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-licensing course, Property | 20 hours, provider-priced | Approved education provider | §83-17-251(2) |
| Pre-licensing course, combined P&C | 40 hours, provider-priced | Approved education provider | §83-17-251(2); handbook #122500 |
| Property Producer examination | $50 per attempt | Pearson VUE | Handbook #122500 fee table |
| Resident producer licence | $100 per licence, not per line | Mississippi Insurance Department | §27-15-87(1) |
| Adding Casualty later | $25 to amend, plus a further $50 exam | Mississippi Insurance Department; Pearson VUE | §27-15-87(2) |
| Portal transaction fee | About $1 | NIPR or Sircon | NIPR and Sircon fee schedules |
| Surplus lines producer licence | $100 biennially; §83-21-19 imposes no bond | Mississippi Insurance Department | §83-21-19(2), (4) |
| Fingerprinting | Not required for producers | - | no producer authority in Title 83 |
| Business entity licence | $200, with $50 to amend - a different statute from the individual fee | Mississippi Insurance Department | §27-15-85(1), (2) |
One fee that appears in Mississippi surplus lines material and does not belong on this table: MID's surplus lines application PDF carries a $500 annual fee and a $15,000,000 minimum capital and surplus attestation. Those are conditions of an insurer's eligibility to write surplus lines in Mississippi, not of a producer's licence. A surplus lines producer pays $100 biennially.
The other figure to keep straight is the entity fee. A business entity producer licence is $200 under §27-15-85(1), with $50 to amend by adding or removing a line or to obtain a duplicate under §27-15-85(2). Those are different numbers in a different section from the individual's $100 and $25, and agency owners routinely quote the individual figures for the agency.
Mississippi Property License Eligibility
Eighteen years of age under §83-17-61; a truthful uniform application with the declaration that the statements are "true, correct and complete"; and 20 hours of approved pre-licensing education for the property line under §83-17-251(2), or 40 for a combined Property and Casualty application.
The designation exemption that reaches this line is §83-17-251(2)(e): a current and valid AAI, ARM, CIC or CPCU exempts the holder from the pre-licensing coursework "for the property and casualty lines of authority." Note the plural - the exemption is written to the lines, not to one of them. Note also, and this is the part that surprises designation holders every time, that it exempts you from the course and not from the exam. Mississippi's examination waivers live in §83-17-39(1)(a) through (g), and that list contains no professional designations of any kind. A CPCU in Mississippi skips forty hours of classroom and still sits the exam.
Two other pre-licensing exemptions can reach a property applicant. §83-17-251(2)(b) exempts an individual holding "a bachelor's degree with major coursework in insurance from an accredited institution of higher learning." §83-17-251(2)(a) exempts anyone already exempt from the written examination under §83-17-39(1) or §83-17-67 - the latter being the incoming-producer provision that the Property & Casualty guide covers in full.
No fingerprints, no record check, no bond, no residency period. Mississippi screens producers through the uniform application's background questions and the fourteen disciplinary grounds at §83-17-71; the Health guide owns that subject.
Controlled business applies to property producers exactly as it does to any other line: §83-17-1(h) makes a violation "deemed to be probable" where aggregate commissions on the producer's own interests, or those of family, relatives, employers, employees or business associates, exceed 35% over any 24-month period. Lenders covering their own insurable interest are excepted - which matters in a state where a good deal of dwelling property is written at closing.
Mississippi Property Producer Continuing Education
Important CE details: 12 hours for a licence term of eighteen months or less, or 24 hours including 3 of ethics for a longer term - §83-17-251(3) keys the requirement to term length, and the ethics component belongs only to the 24-hour band. Nothing carries forward; a repeated course counts once per period; the provider files through Sircon within 15 calendar days. Property producers should know that the flood training they hear about is a FEMA requirement conditioned on signing up for the NFIP Agent Leads Referral Program, not a Mississippi CE mandate, and that a surplus lines licence adds no separate CE requirement of its own.
§83-17-251(3) sets the requirement by term length: 12 hours where the licence has been in effect "for a term of eighteen (18) months or less," and 24 hours for a longer term, "of which three (3) hours shall have a course concentration in ethics." The ethics component attaches only to the 24-hour sentence, so a short first term carries no ethics requirement at all. MID renders the bands as 13-18 and 19-24 months, because a Mississippi first term cannot run shorter than thirteen.
The hour count does not multiply with lines of authority. A producer holding Property, Casualty and Personal Lines owes the same 24 hours as a producer holding Property alone. Adjusters are a separate licence type with their own requirement.
Flood training is federal and conditional. Property producers hear about a three-hour flood requirement constantly, and it is worth knowing exactly what it is: FEMA requires three hours of flood training, with documentation, if the agent has signed up for the NFIP Agent Leads Referral Program. MID carries the requirement through Bulletin 2007-2, but the authority is federal and the trigger is that programme enrolment. It is not a universal Mississippi CE mandate.
A surplus lines licence adds nothing to your CE. §83-21-19 requires no separate examination and imposes no separate continuing education; the surplus lines authority rides on the producer licence you already renew, on the same biennial birth-month cycle.
Mechanics. No carryover - surplus hours are lost at the compliance date. A repeated course earns credit only once within the same licence period. Providers file completions to MID through Sircon within 15 calendar days of the completion date; you file nothing. Renewal opens online 90 days before expiration.
Exemptions. §83-17-251(4) lists five: the §83-17-39(1)(b), (c), (e) and (g) exam-waiver categories; limited lines and limited line credit producers; non-residents who meet home-state CE where Mississippi has a reciprocal agreement with that state; non-active agents as defined in §83-17-1; and - the one most often missed - an individual who is 65 or older and has been continuously licensed for 25 years or more as of 17 April 2023, on a sworn affidavit on MID's form. That last exemption is grandfathered to a fixed date and does not open up for anyone reaching 25 years later.
The Property & Casualty guide owns renewal itself - the calendar, the birth-month arithmetic, the late-renewal tiers and what happens after twelve months - and works it in full.
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