The Nebraska Casualty Producer License
Casualty is series 13-23 - 100 scored questions in two hours for $43 - and it is also reachable inside the combined Property and Casualty paper, series 13-04, at 150 scored questions for $47.
The Nebraska casualty syllabus carries two bodies of law that behave differently from most states'. On the auto side, Nebraska compels uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage rather than merely requiring an offer, and provides no way to decline either. On the workers' compensation side, the system is administered by the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court - a specialised court, not a division of the Department of Insurance - which also sets the medical fee schedule.
This guide also owns surplus lines, which in Nebraska is a separate licence rather than an endorsement, requires no examination, and carries an ongoing collect-and-remit duty.
How the Nebraska Casualty Exam Is Built
| Scored | Unscored | Time | Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casualty, series 13-23 | 100 | 5 | 2 hours | $43 |
| Property & Casualty, series 13-04 | 150 | 5 | 2 hr 30 min | $47 |
About 69 seconds an item on the single-line paper counting every item, and about 58 on the combined one. Passing is 70%, printed as a raw count: "100 Items (70%) or 70 correct."
The bulletin publishes the scored item count and the cut score; the time limit appears only in the per-exam content outline, series 13-23, which is also where the unscored-item count is printed. The Property guide covers booking, test centres and exam-day rules; the Life guide covers PSI's three different figures for unscored items.
Most Tested Topics on the Nebraska Casualty Exam
Almost every high-value row below is a place where Nebraska requires something the national baseline treats as optional, or forbids something the baseline permits.
| Concept | The Nebraska rule | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Compulsory auto liability limits | 25/50/25 - and the operator is "not less than" each figure, making them floors rather than fixed amounts | 60-509 |
| Uninsured motorist coverage | MANDATORY at 25/50, and the section is drafted as an absolute delivery prohibition: no policy shall be delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed unless coverage is provided | 44-6408(1)(a) |
| Underinsured motorist coverage | ALSO mandatory, at the same limits - Nebraska compels both, where most states compel neither or only an offer | 44-6408(1)(b) |
| Can UM or UIM be rejected? | No. There is no waiver form and no rejection mechanism anywhere in the Act | 44-6401 to 44-6414 |
| The underinsured TRIGGER | Damages-based, not a limits comparison: it asks whether the other vehicle's insurance is less than, or has been reduced by payments to others to less than, the insured's damages | 44-6406 |
| How high an insurer must write on request | Higher limits on written request, but in no event must the insurer provide more than 100/300 | 44-6408(2) |
| Stacking | Prohibited - limits for two or more vehicles under the same or separate policies may not be added together, combined or stacked | 44-6410 |
| Multiple policies | Maximum recovery shall not exceed the highest limit of any one such policy | 44-6411(1) |
| Household exclusions | Void - a policy may not alter liability coverage solely because the injured claimant is the named insured or resides in the household | 60-310 |
| PIP and medical payments | Neither is mandatory. Nebraska's compulsory list is bodily injury liability, property damage liability, and UM/UIM | 60-509; 44-6408 |
| The non-insurance compliance route | $75,000 PER VEHICLE in cash or securities deposited with the State Treasurer, as one of four proof methods | 60-528; 60-549 |
| Workers' compensation waiting period | 7 calendar days, and compensation is computed from the first day of disability only if the disability continues for 6 weeks or longer | 48-119 |
| Workers' compensation rate and cap | 66 2/3% of wages at the time of injury; loss of earning power runs at the same rate but not beyond 300 weeks | 48-121(1), (2) |
| The four compliance routes | Commercial insurance; a self-insured motor carrier agreement; a risk management pool; or court-approved self-insurance. There is no state fund | 48-145 |
| Deadline to file a comp claim | 2 years from the accident or the death - and where payments have been made, 2 years from the last payment | 48-137 |
The UM and UIM rows carry more exam weight than anything else on this paper, and the reason is that the national answer is wrong here in three separate ways. National material teaches that UM must be offered and may be rejected in writing, that UIM is usually optional, and that stacking is a matter of policy language. Nebraska says otherwise on all three. 44-6408(1) is a prohibition on the insurer, not a duty to offer: "no policy ... shall be delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed with respect to any motor vehicle principally garaged in this state unless coverage is provided" for both uninsured and underinsured motorists at 25/50. The Act runs to fourteen sections and contains no waiver, no rejection form and no opt-out. 44-6410 then prohibits stacking by statute, "except as provided in section 44-6411," and 44-6411(1) caps recovery across multiple policies at "the highest limit of any one such policy."
Then note the ceiling that runs the other way, because it is easy to miss. 44-6408(2) lets the insured demand higher limits in writing - but "in no event shall the insurer be required to provide limits higher than one hundred thousand dollars per person and three hundred thousand dollars per accident." So Nebraska sets both a floor the insurer cannot go below and a ceiling above which it need not go. And 44-6408(3) relieves the insurer of any duty to re-offer optional coverage at renewal once the coverage has been purchased.
On the workers' compensation side, the numbers scatter across nine sections and the two that look like they belong together do not. The rate is 66 2/3% at 48-121(1). The waiting period is not there - it is at 48-119, seven calendar days, with the retroactive trigger in the same section: compensation is computed from the date disability began only "if such disability continues for six weeks or longer." The maximum is at 48-121.01, and it is a formula rather than a figure: 100% of the state average weekly wage, adjusted each 1 January - unless the Governor suspends the adjustment, after a public hearing, by 30 November. That gubernatorial override is unusual and worth remembering as a structural fact rather than as a number. The minimum weekly income benefit, also at 48-121.01, is $49.
The Nebraska Surplus Lines Path
Surplus lines is a separate licence in Nebraska, and the prerequisite is narrower than commonly stated. 44-5503 says the Department may issue a surplus lines licence "to any individual who currently holds an insurance producer license" - not, as guidance elsewhere sometimes claims, specifically a Property and Casualty licence. A corporate licence is also available, listing the officers or employees who hold producer licences and who may transact surplus lines business on the corporation's behalf; only those listed may transact it.
No examination is required. The bulletin lists Surplus Lines Licensee among exactly four lines carrying no exam, alongside Prepaid Legal, Credit, and Variable Life and Variable Annuity. The licence has its own application and renewal fee under 44-5504.
The placement conditions are at 44-5510(1), and there are four - the "unable to procure such insurance as he or she deems reasonably necessary" language is the chapeau that sets up all four rather than one of them. At (a) the insurance must be procured from a surplus lines licensee; at (b) it must not include the classes described in subdivisions (1) through (4) of 44-201, save a disability policy whose benefit limit exceeds anything an admitted insurer offers; at (c) - the one candidates forget - not later than thirty days after the effective date, the insured must provide, in writing, permission for the placement and an acknowledgment "that, in the event of the insolvency of such insurer, the policy will not be covered by the Nebraska Property and Liability Insurance Guaranty Association."
The diligent-effort proof is not a stack of declinations. Nebraska's mechanism is a sworn statement filed quarterly: under 44-5511(4) the quarterly report must include, except for placements on behalf of an exempt commercial purchaser, "a sworn statement by the licensee ... that, to the best of the licensee's knowledge and belief, the licensee could not reasonably procure such coverages from an admitted insurer." So the diligence is attested periodically and under oath rather than documented placement by placement.
The exempt commercial purchaser route removes the search entirely, on two conditions. Under 44-5510(2), no due diligence search is required where the licensee has disclosed to the purchaser that the insurance may be available from the admitted market "that may provide greater protection with more regulatory oversight," and the purchaser has subsequently requested in writing that the coverage be placed with the surplus lines insurer. The order matters - disclosure first, written request after.
The tax: 3%, and read which subdivision does which job. 44-5506(2)(a) imposes the duty and names the actor - "every surplus lines licensee ... shall collect and pay to the director" a sum based on total gross premiums charged, less any return premiums. 44-5506(2)(b) supplies the rate: "three percent of the premiums for insurance that covers properties, risks, or exposures located or to be performed in the United States." One subsection, two subdivisions, two different functions. A separate section, 44-5515, governs the tax where the placement runs through the exempt commercial purchaser route - do not cite 44-5506 for that path.
Filing dates are quarterly and they are calendar dates rather than intervals: on or before 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December, each covering the quarter that ended the preceding 31 December, 31 March, 30 June or 30 September.
And Nebraska charges no stamping fee. There is no stamping office and no stamping charge anywhere in the Surplus Lines Insurance Act. The only surplus lines charges are the 3% premium tax and the licence application and renewal fee. If a comparison chart shows Nebraska with a stamping fee, it is importing a neighbouring state's regime.
Nebraska Casualty License Fees
$43 for the examination and $50 for the licence. If you want both property and casualty authority, the combined paper at $47 beats two single papers at $86.
Surplus lines adds a second licence with its own application and renewal fee under 44-5504, plus an ongoing obligation rather than a cost: the 3% premium tax you collect from the insured and remit quarterly. There is no stamping fee in Nebraska.
One number worth knowing even though it is not a producer fee: the workers' compensation minimum weekly income benefit is $49, unchanged for decades, while the maximum is a formula - 100% of the state average weekly wage, adjusted each January. This guide publishes the formula rather than a current dollar figure, because the Workers' Compensation Court's own benefit tables could not be retrieved from a machine-readable source.
Nebraska Casualty License Eligibility
The four findings at 44-4053 apply: eighteen or older, no disqualifying act under 44-4059, fees paid, examinations passed. The Life guide covers the fourteen disciplinary grounds; the Health guide covers the self-disclosure regime that stands in for a background check.
A surplus lines licence layers on top rather than replacing anything - see the module above. The one eligibility point specific to it is that the underlying credential is an insurance producer licence generally, and that the surplus lines licence is expressly "revocable at any time" under 44-5503.
Two commission rules bind a casualty producer's business arrangements. Under 44-4060(1) and (2), no insurer or producer may pay a commission, service fee or brokerage to a person required to be licensed who is not, and no such person may accept one. Two carve-outs follow: (3) renewal or deferred commissions may be paid to someone who was properly licensed at the time of the sale, solicitation, or negotiation, and (4) commissions may be paid or assigned to an insurance agency or to persons who do not sell, solicit or negotiate insurance in this state - unless the payment would violate the anti-rebating section.
Records are kept for five years, and the second category is the one people forget. 44-5905(2)(b)(i)(A) requires financial records for five years or until the period has undergone a financial examination, whichever is later. (B) then requires market conduct records for five years, and defines them expansively: records relating to transactions with "insureds, certificate holders, claimants, insurance producers, other insurers, subrogees, and subrogors," plus trade practices, underwriting, rate and form practices, advertising and regulatory matters.
And note who the Director's examination power reaches. 44-5905(3) gives the Director and examiners power "to issue subpoenas, to administer oaths, and to examine under oath any person as to any matter pertinent to the examination," enforceable by court order and punishable as contempt. 44-5905(5) makes the findings "prima facie evidence in any legal or regulatory action," and 44-5905(2)(c) makes refusing access a ground for suspension, refusal or nonrenewal of a licence.
Nebraska Casualty Producer Continuing Education
Important CE details: Nebraska runs its own continuing education approval rather than contracting it out, and the economics are published. A course application costs $50 and the approval is valid for four years; provider applications are processed in about two to three days; and uploading a completion costs the provider $1.50 per person per credit hour, payable within ten days of the completion date. That last figure explains something producers notice and misread - a provider who is slow to upload is carrying a per-head cost for doing it, and a course priced suspiciously below the market may be one whose provider has an incentive to batch its reporting to the edge of the ten days.
The requirement is 44-3904: twenty-one general hours plus three ethics hours, twenty-four total, per twenty-four-month period. The Life and Health guide covers the arithmetic and the first-period exemption; the Property guide covers the flood gate that attaches to this line of authority.
What belongs here is the machinery - who approves a course, who reports it, and why the practical deadline is earlier than the one on your licence.
Reporting is the provider's job, and the Department refuses to take it from you. Credits must be uploaded to State Based Systems "within 10 days from the completion date," at $1.50 per person per credit hour, and the Department states plainly: "the Department will not accept any completion certificates from licensees." Keeping your own certificate proves nothing to Nebraska.
Two timing consequences follow, and together they are how a compliant producer misses a deadline. First, eligibility to renew "begins 24 hours after all CE has been uploaded into our database by the CE Provider" - so the clock runs from the provider's upload, not from your class, and the provider has ten days to make it. Second, the renewal window opens only ninety days before expiration, and a Nebraska licence expires on a birth-month date keyed to the parity of your age rather than on a predictable anniversary. A producer who finishes the hours in the last fortnight can find the credits unreported and the window closing at the same time.
There is no carry-forward. The Department states that credits may not be carried over to the next renewal period, and a course may not be repeated for credit within the same period. Nebraska publishes no extension mechanism to soften that, which is a difference from several neighbouring states.
A lapsed licence is reinstatable within twelve months "without the necessity of passing a written examination" under 44-4054; the resident reinstatement fee is $90. The Property and Casualty guide covers the renewal cycle in full.
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