The New Hampshire Property & Casualty Producer License
The combined paper puts both the Property and the Casualty lines on your producer licence in one sitting. New Hampshire issues one producer licence under RSA 402-J and lists lines of authority on it, so 12-64 buys two entries on one licence rather than two licences — and because the $210 application and licence fee attaches to the licence rather than to each line, taking both lines at once costs nothing extra in fees.
The arithmetic. Property (12-84) and Casualty (12-85) are $59 each — $118 across two appointments. The combined paper is $72 in one. It is also the prerequisite path for surplus lines, which PSI's bulletin gates on a "P & C license" and which requires no exam of its own; the Casualty guide walks that route.
Remote proctoring is available for this paper. The July 6, 2026 withdrawal reached only the two Life papers (12-61 and 12-63). Every property and casualty series kept the option, so 12-64 can be sat from home or at any of the six centers the Property guide lists.
Eligibility is RSA 402-J:6 and it is short: 18 years old, no ground for denial under RSA 402-J:12, fees paid, exam passed. No pre-licensing education — repealed July 11, 2008 — and no fingerprints or criminal history record check, which New Hampshire requires of no resident producer.
This guide owns the two things a producer needs after the exam and for the rest of their career: bringing an existing licence into New Hampshire, and keeping the licence renewed.
The Combined Paper, or Two Singles
| Paper | Series | Items | Time | Fee | Remote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Property and Casualty | 12-64 | 150 | 2 hr 30 min | $72 | Yes |
| Property | 12-84 | 100 | 2 hr | $59 | Yes |
| Casualty | 12-85 | 100 | 2 hr | $59 | Yes |
| Personal | 12-86 | 100 | 2 hr | $59 | Yes |
| NH Property and Casualty Laws and Regulations | 12-81 | 40 | 1 hr | $59 | Not stated |
The combined paper is the default recommendation and the reason is not only the $46. It is that Personal Lines (12-86) will not satisfy the surplus lines prerequisite, and neither, arguably, will Casualty alone — PSI's bulletin words the requirement as a "P & C license." If there is any prospect of surplus lines work, or of a small commercial account walking through the door, 12-64 removes the question.
The pacing is worth a thought. 150 items in 2 hours 30 minutes is 50 more items for 30 more minutes than a single paper gives — a slightly tighter budget per item. A candidate who reads slowly may genuinely do better across two 100-item sittings even at $46 more, and there is no penalty for that route beyond the money and the second appointment.
PSI adds 5 to 10 unscored experimental questions. The content outline publishes "150 Items - 2.5 Hours" and does not separate scored from pretest items, so treat it as the length of the paper. The tutorial takes up to 15 minutes and does not count against your exam time.
Most Tested Topics on the New Hampshire Property & Casualty Exam
The state-law half of this paper is heavier on regulator and producer-conduct material than the single-line papers, because a combined licensee is expected to know the rules that govern the practice rather than only the product. New Hampshire has a number of provisions here that have no counterpart elsewhere. From the TESTivity New Hampshire regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Concept | The New Hampshire rule |
|---|---|
| P&C guaranty cap and floor | The lesser of the insolvent insurer's own policy obligation or $300,000 per covered claim, with workers' compensation claims paid in full. There is also a floor: a covered claim must be "in excess of $50" net of deductions and commissions, and claims cannot be cumulated by assignment to clear it (RSA 404-B:8, I; RSA 404-B:5, IV) |
| P&C guaranty exclusions and assessments | Insureds with a net worth over $25,000,000 are excluded for liquidations ordered on or after August 23, 2003; member assessments are capped at 2 percent of net direct written premiums (RSA 404-B:5; RSA 404-B:8, I(c)) |
| No guaranty-advertising ban in the P&C act | RSA 408-F:19 bars using the life and health guaranty association as a sales inducement. RSA 404-B contains no matching section. Know which act carries the prohibition (RSA 408-F:19; RSA 404-B) |
| Grounds for denial or revocation | Thirteen enumerated grounds — and note the structure, because it is miscited constantly: RSA 402-J:12 has only five roman-numeral paragraphs, and the thirteen grounds are the lettered subparagraphs (a) through (m) of paragraph I. Two are distinctly New Hampshire: improperly using notes or other reference material to complete a licensing examination, at I(k), and knowingly accepting insurance business from an unlicensed individual, at I(l). Administrative fines reach $2,500 per violation (RSA 402-J:12, I) |
| Reporting, and the two different triggers | 30 days for both, measured from different events: an administrative action within 30 days of final disposition; a criminal prosecution within 30 days of the initial pretrial hearing date — not conviction, not indictment. That pretrial-hearing trigger is unusual and heavily tested (RSA 402-J:17) |
| Appointment, and whose job it is | A producer may not act as an agent of an insurer without appointment, and the appointing insurer — not the producer — files notice within 15 days from the date the agency contract is executed or the first application is submitted, whichever comes first. $25 to appoint, $25 to terminate (RSA 402-J:14; RSA 400-A:29, X(f)) |
| Commissions | No commission or other valuable consideration may go to a person for selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance unless properly licensed, and an unlicensed person may not accept it. Deferred commissions may still be paid to someone who was licensed at the time of the transaction (RSA 402-J:13) |
| Premium trust accounts | Fiduciary funds on New Hampshire business stay in a premium trust account separate from any other account, and "under no circumstances" may a producer place them in a personal or business operating account. Return premiums must reach the client no later than 15 days from the date the carrier determines them — the producer holds them in the trust account until then, and they go back to the insurer only if they cannot be delivered to the insured (Ins 4301.04(c), 4301.05(a), 4301.06) |
| Remitting COLLECTED premium — the trap | There is no flat rule-imposed deadline. Ins 4301.03(g) makes the timing "governed by the terms of the individual contracts or agreements between the producer and insurer." The 15-day rule applies to return premiums only, and a distractor applying it to collected premium is a common wrong answer. Note also that these rules moved out of former Part Ins 1303 — "Fiduciary Obligation of Agents and Brokers" — into chapter Ins 4300 in 2007. Ins 1305 is and always was "Waiver of Rules," so a citation to it for fiduciary duties is doubly wrong (Ins 4301.03(g)) |
| New Hampshire-specific unfair trade practices | Beyond the national list, RSA 417:4 adds: discrimination against living organ donors in life, LTC or disability coverage; collecting premium exceeding the filed and approved rate; reducing limits or increasing premium mid-term without the insured's consent; coercing a borrower's choice of insurer as a loan condition; steering to a particular auto body or glass repair shop; "most favored nation" provider clauses; and Medicare cold-lead marketing (RSA 417:4, VIII-a, XII, XIV, XVI, XX, XXI, XXIII) |
| The regulator | The New Hampshire Insurance Department, headed by a Commissioner appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Executive Council to a 5-year term — not elected. Insurance law is codified at Title XXXVII of the RSA, with rules in the Ins chapters of the Administrative Code. The Department is a standalone department, not housed inside a larger agency (RSA 400-A:3) |
| Renewal anchor | Last day of your birth month, biennially. Not the issue anniversary and not a fixed statewide date. The first term is short or long — it runs to the second birth month after issue. Note that this anchor is administrative: RSA 402-J:7 and RSA 400-A:29 establish a biennial term and a $150 renewal fee, but neither states what the date keys to (RSA 402-J:7; NHID Producers & Adjusters FAQ) |
| CE, and the citation that is usually wrong | 24 hours per 24 months, at least 3 and no more than 10 of them ethics, due 60 days before renewal, with the licensing exam satisfying the ensuing renewal. The section is RSA 402-J:7-a. It is not 402-J:19, which is Severability, and not 402-J:10, which is Assumed Names — both are miscited for CE in circulating material (RSA 402-J:7-a; Ins 1302.03) |
The reporting triggers are the highest-yield item here, because both are 30 days and the instinct is to treat them identically. They are not. An administrative action is reported 30 days after it ends — final disposition. A criminal prosecution is reported 30 days after the initial pretrial hearing, which is near the beginning. A producer charged with something and waiting for trial has a reporting obligation that has already matured; waiting for the outcome is itself the violation.
The premium remittance distinction is second, and it is the one that separates a producer who has read Ins 4300 from one who has skimmed a summary. New Hampshire imposes a hard 15-day deadline for returning return premium to the insurer, and imposes no deadline at all on remitting collected premium — that is left to the agency agreement. Candidates who learn "15 days" as a single fact apply it in both directions and get the collected-premium item wrong.
Third, and worth knowing for the professional reason as much as the exam one: New Hampshire grants no designation-based waiver of anything. RSA 402-J:9, 402-J:5, 402-J:16 and rule chapter Ins 1300 were each read end to end, and the only exam exemption New Hampshire recognises is prior licensure in another state. A CPCU, CLU, ChFC or CEBS shortens nothing here — not the exam, not the CE. Many states waive one or the other. New Hampshire waives neither.
Bringing an Existing License Into New Hampshire
New Hampshire is generous to producers who already hold a licence somewhere else, and stingy to everybody else. If you were licensed for the same lines in another state, the exam and the education requirement both disappear. If you merely hold a professional designation, you get nothing.
The core waiver — RSA 402-J:9, I. An individual applying for a New Hampshire producer licence "who was previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state shall not be required to complete any prelicensing education or examination." It applies in two situations:
- you are currently licensed in that other state; or
- you apply within 90 days of the cancellation of the previous licence, with confirmation from the prior state that you were in good standing when it cancelled.
Relocating to New Hampshire — RSA 402-J:9, II. A producer who moves here and becomes a resident must apply within 90 days of establishing legal residence, and "no prelicensing education or examination shall be required of that person to obtain any line of authority previously held in the prior state." Note the limit in that sentence: the waiver reaches lines you previously held. A line you did not hold before the move is a line you will sit an exam for.
The 90 days is the whole game. Both routes are 90-day windows and both are unforgiving once closed. A producer who relocates, gets busy, and applies at month five has lost a waiver worth $72 and a half-day — and will sit the paper alongside everyone else. Diary it the week you move.
Moving the other way — RSA 402-J:8, II. If you leave New Hampshire, or move between two other states while holding a New Hampshire non-resident licence, you must "file a change of address and provide certification from the new resident state within 30 days of the change of legal residence." Thirty days, not ninety. And a change of address costs nothing — RSA 400-A:29, X(c) excludes name and address changes from the $50 amendment fee.
Non-resident licensing — RSA 402-J:16. New Hampshire's reciprocity provision is a mandate rather than a discretion: "The commissioner shall waive any requirements for a nonresident license applicant with a valid license from his or her home state except the requirements imposed by RSA 402-J:8, if the applicant's home state awards nonresident licenses to residents of this state on the same basis." The waiver is conditional on your home state reciprocating.
CE reciprocity. A non-resident who has satisfied continuing education in the home state is treated as compliant in New Hampshire — RSA 402-J:7-a exempts them and Ins 1302.02(c) applies reciprocal recognition. You do not sit two CE cycles.
What New Hampshire does NOT waive, and this is worth being explicit about. There is no designation-based waiver of the examination or of continuing education. CLU, ChFC, CPCU, CEBS, FLMI — none of them shortens anything here. RSA 402-J:9 in full, RSA 402-J:5, RSA 402-J:16 and rule chapter Ins 1300 were each read for this guide and no designation appears in any of them. The only exam exemption in New Hampshire law is prior licensure in another state.
The practical upside. Because New Hampshire has no pre-licensing course and no fingerprints, an incoming producer who misses the 90-day window is not facing much: register with PSI, sit the paper, file at NIPR. That is a genuinely low barrier compared with a course-and-prints state, where missing a waiver can cost 40 classroom hours and a four-week background queue. The waiver is worth having, but losing it is not a catastrophe here.
Renewing a New Hampshire License, and the Timing That Costs People Money
New Hampshire's renewal system has one feature that reliably costs producers money, and it is not the fee. It is that the continuing education deadline falls 60 days before the licence expires, so by the time the renewal window opens, your CE was already due.
The term. Licences are biennial and expire on the last day of your birth month. Not the anniversary of issue, not a fixed statewide date. Your first term is therefore short or long rather than a clean 24 months — it runs to the second birth month after issue, which in practice is roughly 13 to 25 months. It is worth knowing that this anchor is administrative rather than statutory: RSA 402-J:7 establishes a term and RSA 400-A:29 prices a "biennial renewal" at $150, but neither states what the date keys to. The Department's own FAQ and NIPR supply the birth-month rule.
RSA 402-J:7 frames the licence as continuous: 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." Two conditions, either of which stops it.
The CE arithmetic — 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, may be ethics. New Hampshire caps ethics as well as requiring it — you cannot fill a cycle with ethics courses.
- A credit hour is at least 50 minutes of instruction; the same course cannot be counted twice in one renewal period.
- 24 total regardless of how many lines you hold — the requirement does not stack.
- Passing the state producer licensing exam satisfies the ensuing renewal, so a new producer owes no CE in the first cycle.
The timeline, laid out, because this is where the money goes:
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 60 days before expiry | CE deadline. All 24 hours completed and reported |
| 60 days before expiry | Renewal window opens; the Department emails a reminder to your business address |
| Last day of birth month | Licence expires; renewal window closes at midnight |
| Up to 24 months after | Reinstatement possible without re-examination |
| After 24 months | Apply as a new licensee — including the exam |
Read that table twice. The CE deadline and the opening of the renewal window are the same day, and the Department's reminder email arrives at roughly that point. A producer who treats the reminder as the starting gun has already missed the CE deadline by the time it lands. The Department also stopped mailing courtesy reminders on January 1, 2015, so the email is all there is.
What it costs when it goes wrong. Ins 1302.05 is blunt on the CE side: "no further license shall be issued … until such person shall have demonstrated compliance with all requirements," plus a $50 fee for late completion of continuing education. On the fee side, RSA 402-J:7 imposes "a penalty in the amount of double the unpaid renewal fee" for any renewal fee received after the due date — and RSA 400-A:29 separately lists a $150 additional late-renewal fee, consistent with doubling the $150. Reinstating a lapsed licence runs $300.
The two-year cliff. A lapsed licence may be reinstated within 24 months without passing a written examination. Past two years, NIPR is explicit: "the applicant must apply as a new licensee." That means the exam again — $72 for this paper — and the full $210 application and licence fee. The 24 months runs from expiry, not from when you noticed.
No carryover, and no exemptions worth waiting for. New Hampshire does not let you carry excess hours into the next cycle, and it grants no exemption for long service and none for professional designations. RSA 402-J:7-a and Ins 1302.02 through 1302.05 were read in full for this guide: the only exemptions are nonresident home-state reciprocity and the exam-passage credit. A producer with thirty years and a CPCU owes the same 24 hours as a producer in their second cycle.
Waivers do exist for genuine hardship. RSA 402-J:7 allows the Commissioner to waive renewal procedures for military service or for other extenuating circumstances such as a long-term medical disability. That is a request to the Department, not an automatic entitlement — make it before the deadline rather than after.
A note for adjusters, since agencies mix the two. Claims adjusters owe the same 24 hours including 3 ethics under Ins 1302.04(a), but public adjusters owe 15 hours including 3 ethics under Ins 1302.04(c). And adjuster-only courses do not count toward a producer's hours.
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 | $72 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 $282 |
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.
Over a career the renewal side matters more than the entry side. Budget $150 every two years for the biennial renewal plus your CE course costs, and note the three penalty fees that are entirely avoidable: $150 additional for a late renewal, $50 for late CE completion, and $300 to reinstate a licence that has actually lapsed.
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 Property & Casualty 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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