The New Hampshire Personal Lines Producer License
Personal Lines is a limited property and casualty authority: property and casualty coverage sold to individuals and families for noncommercial purposes — homeowners, dwelling fire, renters, personal auto, personal umbrella, watercraft. It is its own line in New Hampshire with its own exam, series 12-86, which the PSI bulletin labels simply "Personal."
The trade-off against the full Property and Casualty paper is straightforward. Personal Lines is 100 items rather than 150, $59 rather than $72, and covers a narrower body of material — no commercial general liability, no commercial property, no workers' compensation, no surplus lines prerequisite. If you are joining a personal-lines agency and expect to stay there, it is the efficient credential. If there is any commercial work in your future, 12-64 costs $13 more today and saves you a second exam later.
One thing it does not do: Personal Lines does not include the full Property or Casualty lines, so it will not satisfy the "P & C license required" prerequisite the bulletin attaches to surplus lines. The Casualty guide covers that route.
Getting licensed is short — 18 years old, pass the exam, apply through NIPR, pay $210. No pre-licensing course, repealed July 11, 2008, and no fingerprints. 12-86 kept remote proctoring, so you can sit it from home. This guide owns what happens after you click Submit on the exam: your results, and what to do with a fail.
Personal Lines, or the Full P&C Paper
| Paper | Series | Items | Time | Fee | Remote | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | 12-86 | 100 | 2 hr | $59 | Yes | Noncommercial P&C only |
| Property and Casualty | 12-64 | 150 | 2 hr 30 min | $72 | Yes | Full P&C, both lines |
| Property | 12-84 | 100 | 2 hr | $59 | Yes | Property only, incl. commercial |
| Casualty | 12-85 | 100 | 2 hr | $59 | Yes | Casualty only, incl. commercial |
The honest comparison is not really about the exam — it is about what you can sell afterwards. 12-86 is a third fewer items and $13 cheaper, and it will let you write every homeowners and personal auto policy your agency places. What it will not let you write is the small commercial account that walks in the door: the contractor's general liability, the shop's business owners policy, the workers' compensation quote.
Because New Hampshire charges the $210 licence fee per licence rather than per line, upgrading later costs you an exam and a $50 amendment fee, not another $210. So the decision is genuinely reversible — it is just a second sitting.
PSI adds 5 to 10 unscored experimental questions. The outline publishes "100 Items - 2 Hours" without splitting scored from pretest. The tutorial runs up to 15 minutes and does not count against your two hours.
Most Tested Topics on the New Hampshire Personal Lines Exam
Personal Lines in New Hampshire lives or dies on the cancellation and nonrenewal statutes, and they are written as a matched pair that is not quite matched. Auto is RSA 417-A. Personal property is RSA 417-B. They share their notice periods and differ in their freeze periods, which is precisely the structure that produces wrong answers. From the TESTivity New Hampshire regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Concept | The New Hampshire rule |
|---|---|
| Cancellation freeze, personal auto | 60 days. "No insurer, after a policy has been in effect for 60 days, or if a policy is a renewal, effective immediately, shall cancel a policy except for" the enumerated grounds. Note the renewal clause: a renewal policy has no free window at all (RSA 417-A:4) |
| Cancellation freeze, homeowners and property | 90 days — thirty more than auto, same "or if a policy is a renewal, effective immediately" structure (RSA 417-B:3) |
| Permitted grounds after the freeze, auto | Only three: nonpayment of premium; the specific request of the insured; and the named insured not having been a New Hampshire resident when the policy was issued or renewed — with an exception where the insured vehicle was exclusively garaged in New Hampshire (RSA 417-A:4) |
| Permitted grounds after the freeze, homeowners | Six: nonpayment; conviction of a crime having as an element an act increasing an insured hazard; discovery of fraud or material misrepresentation by the named insured in pursuing a claim under the policy — not misrepresentation in the application; grossly negligent acts or omissions substantially increasing the hazard; physical changes making the property uninsurable; and the insured's own request (RSA 417-B:3) |
| Notice period, cancellation or nonrenewal | 45 days in both chapters, in identical words: "The effective date shall not be less than 45 days after the date the notice is mailed or physically or electronically delivered" (RSA 417-A:5, II; RSA 417-B:4) |
| Short notice for nonpayment | 10 days in both chapters. Auto adds a second 10-day trigger: where the policy is not a renewal and the cancellation notice goes out within 60 days of the effective date. Property's second trigger is within 90 days of inception (RSA 417-A:5, II(a); RSA 417-B:4) |
| Nonrenewal for a single claim | Prohibited. "The nonrenewal of a homeowner's insurance policy is prohibited if the nonrenewal is based solely on the insured having filed a single valid claim within any one previous or current policy term." A strong New Hampshire-specific item (RSA 417-B:3-a) |
| Coverage inquiries are not claims | The same section goes further than most states: a coverage inquiry that produces no claim payment is not a valid claim and cannot support nonrenewal at all. For a policy with no fixed expiration date, or issued for other than annual periods, each 12-month anniversary from issuance counts as a term — a structural test, not a reference to the non-standard market (RSA 417-B:3-a) |
| Must the reason be stated? | Yes — proactively. A cancellation or nonrenewal notice must state the specific reason or ground, and a private passenger auto insurer must separately record each cancellation and nonrenewal with its specific reason — excluding cancellations for nonpayment and nonrenewals at the insured's request (RSA 417-B; N.H. Admin. Code Ins 1403.03(c)) |
| Renewal-notice disclosure, auto | An insurer must disclose the discounts, credits and surcharges applied, either on the renewal notice or on the declarations page — a transparency requirement personal lines producers field questions about constantly (N.H. Admin. Code Ins 1404.03(b)) |
| What RSA 417-B does and does not reach | It reaches "personal, family, and household risks" — real property, personal property and legal liability. It does not reach automobile, which is RSA 417-A, and it does not reach workers' compensation. Commercial risks go to RSA 417-C entirely (RSA 417-B:1; RSA 417-C) |
| The personal auto package, if a policy issues | 25/50/25 liability, uninsured and hit-and-run coverage at the insured's elected liability limits (rejectable in writing), and at least $1,000 of medical payments coverage. New Hampshire does not compel the purchase of auto insurance, but it heavily specifies the policy once bought (RSA 264:20; RSA 264:15; RSA 264:16) |
The 60-versus-90 pair is the single most valuable thing on this page, and the reason is structural rather than substantive. The two statutes share their 45-day notice and their 10-day nonpayment notice word for word. When two rules agree on three numbers and differ on one, the differing number is what gets tested — and it is what gets transposed under time pressure. Anchor it with the logic rather than by rote: a car can be re-underwritten quickly, so the insurer's free window is shorter; a house takes longer to inspect and assess, so the window is longer. Auto 60, property 90.
The single-claim rule at RSA 417-B:3-a is the second-highest-yield item, partly because it is genuinely unusual and partly because candidates under-read it. The prohibition is not "an insurer may not nonrenew after one claim." It is that nonrenewal may not be based solely on the filing of one valid claim in a policy term. Two claims, or one claim plus an underwriting reason, is a different question. And the inquiry provision — a phone call asking whether something would be covered, where no claim is ever paid, cannot count against the insured at all — is the part that most often appears as the correct answer to a question candidates think is about claim counts.
One more worth banking because it is free: a renewal policy has no freeze window. Both statutes say the restriction applies "after a policy has been in effect for 60 [or 90] days, or if a policy is a renewal, effective immediately." An item describing a policy in its second term is describing a policy where the enumerated grounds already apply, regardless of how many days into the term it is.
Passing, Failing and Retaking the New Hampshire Exam
What you get when you finish. Your score is displayed on screen at the end of the examination, and a score report is emailed to you. If you fail, the emailed report carries a diagnostic breakdown by content area showing your strengths and weaknesses — which is the single most useful artefact in this whole process, because it tells you exactly where the 100 items went wrong. Duplicate score reports come from PSI at scorereport@psionline.com.
What New Hampshire does not tell you: the passing score. This is genuinely unusual and worth being clear about. The current PSI bulletin — revision 8/4/2026 — contains no cut score. Neither the word "percent" nor the number "70" appears anywhere in it. The New Hampshire content outlines print only the paper's length ("100 Items - 2 Hours") and say nothing about scoring. The Department's own pages are silent as well.
So the 70% you will find on prep-vendor sites and licensing blogs has no current source behind it. It traces to the Prometric bulletin New Hampshire stopped using when PSI took over on July 1, 2025 — a document still live on the web, still ranking in search, and stamped "Revised 01/18/2019." That same obsolete bulletin also gives exam fees that the current PSI bulletin contradicts, which is a decent illustration of how much of it to trust.
The practical consequence is small: study to know the material, not to a number. But do not let a distractor or a study group convince you that you know New Hampshire's threshold. Nobody publishing today does.
Retaking, and the good news. New Hampshire imposes no waiting period between attempts and publishes no limit on the number of attempts. PSI's own illustration in the bulletin is about as permissive as it gets: "A candidate who tests unsuccessfully on a Wednesday can call the next day, Thursday, and retest as soon as Friday, depending upon space availability." Availability is the only real constraint.
The bad news is the money. A failed candidate must start the registration over. RSA 402-J:5 puts it plainly: a person who "fails to appear for the examination as scheduled or fails to pass the examination, shall reapply for an examination and remit all required fees and forms before being rescheduled." There is no retake discount — it is another $59 — and PSI's fees are "not refundable or transferable." The same applies to a no-show: missing your appointment is treated the same as failing it.
The one clock that exists. Your examination fee is valid for one year from the date of payment. That is a fee-validity rule, not a score-validity rule. New Hampshire publishes no period for how long a passing score stays good — do not assume the two years that is common elsewhere, and do not confuse it with the one-year fee window.
After you pass. Original passing exam results must be on file before a licence issues; PSI transmits them, so there is no paper for you to carry. There is no published deadline between passing and applying. What does have a deadline is the application itself: once you file electronically, all required documentation must reach the Department within 30 days or the application is denied. The Life guide walks the NIPR filing step by step.
If you have to reschedule rather than retake, the window is 2 days before your appointment, and it must be done through the PSI website or by speaking to a representative — voicemail and email are expressly not accepted. Miss it and the fee is forfeited exactly as if you had failed.
What the New Hampshire License Costs
New Hampshire is one of the cheapest states in the country to get licensed in, and the reason is what it does not charge you for. There is no pre-licensing course to buy, because the requirement was repealed on July 11, 2008. There is no fingerprint fee, because New Hampshire fingerprints no resident producers at all. What is left is the exam and the license.
| Item | Cost | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
| Exam, this line | $59 per attempt | PSI |
| Pre-licensing education | $0 — not required | — |
| Fingerprints / background check | $0 — not required | — |
| Application and license fee | $210 | NH Insurance Department, via NIPR |
| NIPR transaction fee | A few dollars, shown at checkout | NIPR |
| Running total | about $269 |
The $210 is set by RSA 400-A:29, X(a) as an "application and license fee," and it is charged per licence rather than per line of authority — New Hampshire issues one producer licence and lists the lines on it. Adding a line later costs you an exam plus the $50 amendment fee under RSA 400-A:29, X(c) — not another $210.
The exam fee is not refundable and not transferable, and the bulletin puts that in capitals for a reason: if you fail, you re-register and pay again. There is no discount on a retake. The fee itself stays valid for one year from the date of payment, so a registration you never use does not evaporate immediately.
The fees you will meet later are worth knowing now. From RSA 400-A:29, X: biennial renewal $150, appointment $25 and termination of appointment $25, amendment to a licence $50 (a name or address change is excluded from that fee), additional fee for late renewal $150, and late completion of continuing education $50. Reinstatement is not in that fee schedule: NIPR publishes $300 for a New Hampshire reinstatement, while the Department's own FAQ describes the late charge as double the licence fee and RSA 402-J:7 states the penalty as double the unpaid renewal fee. Confirm the current figure with the Department before relying on it.
Personal Lines is the cheapest full route to writing homeowners and personal auto in New Hampshire. If you later add the full Property and Casualty lines, the cost is the $59 or $72 exam plus the $50 amendment fee under RSA 400-A:29, X(c) — not another $210, because the application and licence fee attaches to the licence rather than to each line on it.
Eligibility Requirements
RSA 402-J:6 sets a short list, and it is worth reading for what is absent as much as for what is there. The Commissioner issues the licence to an individual who:
- is at least 18 years of age;
- has not committed any act that is a ground for denial, suspension or revocation under RSA 402-J:12;
- has paid the fees set out in RSA 400-A:29; and
- has successfully passed the examinations for the lines of authority requested.
That is the whole test. There is no pre-licensing education, no fingerprint card, no criminal history record check, and no residency waiting period. New Hampshire is one of a small number of states that runs a producer licensing system with no biometric background check at all — nothing in RSA 402-J, nothing in RSA 400-A:29's fee schedule, and nothing in rule chapter Ins 1300 creates one.
What replaces it is self-disclosure. The Uniform Application carries background questions, and a "yes" answer obliges you to submit a written explanation and the court or regulatory documents behind it. Those documents must reach the Department within 30 days of the electronic application or the application is denied. A felony conviction remains an express ground to deny or revoke under RSA 402-J:12, I(f) — New Hampshire simply learns about it from you rather than from a records check.
One ground in that list is distinctly New Hampshire and worth naming: RSA 402-J:12, I(k) makes "improperly using notes or any other reference material to complete an examination for an insurance license" a statutory ground for denial or revocation in its own right. Most states handle exam misconduct as a vendor matter. New Hampshire wrote it into the licensing statute, and the administrative fine reaches $2,500 per violation.
Keeping the New Hampshire Personal Lines License
Important CE details: 24 hours per 24-month cycle. Ethics has a floor AND a ceiling: at least 3, at most 10. Deadline is 60 days before expiry, and expiry is the last day of your birth month. First-cycle producers are covered by their exam pass. No carryover, no long-service or designation exemption, $50 penalty for a late filing.
New Hampshire licences are biennial, and they expire on the last day of your birth month — not on the anniversary of issue, and not on a fixed statewide date. Your first term is therefore short or long rather than a clean two years: it runs to the second birth month after the licence is issued, which in practice is anywhere from about 13 to 25 months.
RSA 402-J:7 frames the licence as continuous rather than expiring: it "shall remain in effect unless revoked or suspended as long as the fee set forth in RSA 400-A:29 is paid and educational requirements for resident individual producers are met by the due date." Miss either and it stops.
The CE requirement — RSA 402-J:7-a and Ins 1302.03:
- 24 hours of Commissioner-approved instruction in the preceding 24 months.
- At least 3 and no more than 10 of those hours may be ethics. New Hampshire caps ethics as well as requiring it, which is unusual — most states set only a floor. You cannot fill the cycle with ethics courses.
- A credit hour means at least 50 minutes of instruction, and the same course cannot be counted twice in one renewal period.
- Everything must be completed and reported 60 days before your renewal date. Not by the expiration date — sixty days ahead of it.
- Passing the state producer licensing exam satisfies the ensuing renewal (Ins 1302.03(g)). A brand-new producer does not owe CE for the first cycle.
The 60-day lead is the single most expensive detail on this page, because it is not the deadline people assume. Your licence expires on the last day of your birth month; your CE was due two months before that. The renewal window itself opens 60 days before expiration and closes at midnight on the expiration date, so the CE deadline and the opening of the renewal window fall on roughly the same day. A producer who starts thinking about renewal when the window opens has already missed the CE deadline.
Fall short and Ins 1302.05 is blunt: no further licence issues until compliance is demonstrated. A $50 late-CE fee applies on top. Miss the renewal fee instead and RSA 402-J:7 charges a penalty of double the unpaid renewal fee. A lapsed licence can be reinstated within 24 months without re-examination; past two years you apply as a new licensee and sit the exam again.
New Hampshire allows no carryover of excess hours into the next cycle, and grants no exemption for long service or for professional designations — a producer with thirty years and a CLU owes the same 24 hours as everyone else. The only exemptions are nonresident reciprocity and the exam-passage credit above.
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