What This License Is
A New Jersey Property line of authority covers insurance against loss of or damage to real or personal property - homeowners, dwelling fire, commercial property, inland marine and the rest. It is one line on a single New Jersey producer licence, issued by DOBI under the Insurance Producer Licensing Act of 2001.
New Jersey splits Property and Casualty into separate lines with separate exams. There is no single combined P&C exam here, which is a real structural difference from most states. A combined 40-hour prelicensing course exists and DOBI recognises a combined licence, but you earn it by passing two exams: 79 questions on Property and 91 on Casualty.
So this line on its own writes property risks and not liability ones. That is a genuine limit - a homeowners policy has a liability section, and commercial property clients expect general liability quotes. Most producers who start here add Casualty.
The narrower alternative is Personal Lines, which covers property and casualty but only for individuals and families on a noncommercial basis, in one 112-question exam and 20 hours of coursework. If your book will be personal auto and homeowners only, that is the more efficient route. If you want commercial property, this is the line.
Exam Options & Format
The Property exam is 79 scored questions in 3 hours 30 minutes at 70% correct, plus five to nineteen unscored experimental items PSI is trialling.
79 questions in 210 minutes is the most generous pacing New Jersey offers on any major line - about two minutes forty per question. Every New Jersey producer exam gets the same 3 hours 30 minutes no matter how long it is, so where Personal Lines candidates are working 112 questions into that window, you have room to read carefully. Use it on the policy-form questions.
PSI publishes no series or exam-code number for New Jersey exams - only names. Treat any quoted New Jersey series number as unsourced.
You can test at any of nine PSI sites in the state or by live remote proctoring. There is no attempt limit and no waiting period beyond the same-day rebooking restriction; each retake is another exam fee, and a passing score is valid for one year.
If you already hold a CPCU, AAI, ARM or CIC, New Jersey waives the 20-hour course - though not the exam, and the waiver expires in 90 days. The Life guide has the full designation table.
Most Tested Topics on the New Jersey Property Exam
New Jersey's property market is shaped by two things national material will not teach you: a genuinely strict rate-regulation regime, and a coastline that has been hit hard twice in living memory. These are checked against the statutes and DOBI:
| Concept | The New Jersey rule |
|---|---|
| Rate regulation | PRIOR APPROVAL - property and casualty rates, rules and forms are filed with and must be approved by the Commissioner before use. Homeowners has an expedited flex filing option for limited increases (N.J.S.A. 17:29A-1 et seq.) |
| Insurance credit scoring | Permitted but heavily restricted. An insurance score may not be the sole rating factor; models must be filed with DOBI and may not use race, ethnicity, sex, age, religion, income or address; and credit scoring is prohibited entirely for Basic policy and dollar-a-day (SAIP) auto policyholders |
| FAIR Plan | Yes - the New Jersey Insurance Underwriting Association (NJIUA), created in 1968, the residual property market for owners who cannot obtain coverage voluntarily. It also runs a Crime Indemnity Plan (N.J.S.A. 17:37A-1 et seq.) |
| Dominant catastrophe perils | Coastal windstorm and hurricane (Sandy, Ida), nor'easters and winter storms, and coastal and inland flooding - a Mid-Atlantic profile in which DOBI regulates standardised hurricane deductibles |
| Surplus lines prerequisite | A surplus lines licence requires the producer to already hold both resident Property and Casualty authority - N.J.S.A. 17:22A-38: "No license granting surplus lines authority shall be issued or renewed unless the applicant holds or will hold property and casualty authorities" |
| Diligent effort | Three declinations from authorised (admitted) insurers before a risk may be exported - unless the risk is on the Commissioner's Exportable List or the insured is an exempt commercial purchaser. The number is in N.J.A.C. 11:1-33.2, which defines diligent effort as placement "after the risk has been declined by three authorized insurers" |
| Surplus lines premium tax | 5% of total premium (3% for policies effective before 1 July 2009), remitted electronically through SLIP within 45 days after quarter end. Fees are not taxable |
| Surplus lines guaranty coverage | Very narrow. The New Jersey Surplus Lines Insurance Guaranty Fund covers only medical malpractice liability and property insurance on owner-occupied dwellings of fewer than four units. Everything else placed in the surplus market has no guaranty protection |
The surplus lines guaranty fund is the single best exam question on this line, because the intuitive answer is wrong. Candidates reason that New Jersey has a guaranty fund for surplus lines - which it does - and conclude that surplus placements are protected. They largely are not. The fund reaches medical malpractice liability and small owner-occupied dwelling property, and stops. A commercial surplus placement whose carrier fails leaves the insured with nothing to claim against, and that is exactly the point the question is testing.
Prior approval is the second thing to hold onto, because most states have drifted to file-and-use and generic material reflects that drift. New Jersey still makes the Commissioner approve rates before they are used. The practical consequence - and a fair exam framing - is that a New Jersey insurer cannot respond to a hardening market as quickly as one in a file-and-use state, which is part of why the residual market matters here.
On credit scoring, note the shape rather than a number: it is permitted, it cannot be the sole factor, the prohibited characteristics list is long, and it is banned outright for Basic and SAIP policyholders. A question that offers "prohibited in New Jersey" and "unrestricted in New Jersey" is offering you two wrong answers.
Where You Can Take the Exam in New Jersey
PSI prints its New Jersey test-centre addresses in the candidate bulletin - not every state's handbook does - and there are nine of them, reasonably spread for a state this size. No corner of New Jersey is more than about an hour from one.
| Area | Address |
|---|---|
| Secaucus (North / NYC side) | 110-B Meadowlands Parkway, Suite 204, Secaucus, NJ 07094 |
| Rochelle Park (Bergen) | 365 W. Passaic St, Suite 180, Rochelle Park, NJ 07662 |
| Parsippany (Morris) | 7 Entin Rd, Suite D, Parsippany, NJ 07054 |
| New Providence (Union) | Murray Hill Office Center, 571 Central Avenue, Suite 117, New Providence, NJ 07974 |
| North Brunswick (Middlesex) | 1440 How Lane, Suite 2E, North Brunswick Township, NJ 08902 |
| Hamilton Township (Mercer) | IBIS Plaza South, 3525 Quakerbridge Road, Suite 1000, Hamilton Township, NJ 08619 |
| Brick (Ocean) | 260 Chambers Bridge Road, First Floor, Brick, NJ 08723 |
| Marlton (Burlington / Philadelphia side) | 901 Lincoln Dr W, Suite 130, Marlton, NJ 08053 |
| Linwood (Atlantic, near Northfield) | Central Park East, 222 New Road, Suite 301, Linwood, NJ 08221 |
Treat that as a snapshot rather than a live roster. PSI stamps the bulletin these come from "Updated 1/18/2023," and test-centre rosters churn - sites open, close and move. Check what is actually bookable at `test-takers.psiexams.com/njins` before you plan a journey around one of these addresses.
Scheduling and the two-day rule. You book through PSI's site or by phone. You may cancel or reschedule without forfeiting the fee only if notice reaches PSI at least two days before the exam date. Miss that and the fee is gone.
Arrive 30 minutes early - New Jersey asks for more lead time than most states. PSI's instruction is "you should arrive 30 minutes before your appointment," where a typical state bulletin says fifteen. Part of the reason is that New Jersey checks a second document at the door: as well as your government photo ID you must present your prelicensing course completion certificate (electronic or hard copy both accepted) or a DOBI-issued waiver. The Life & Health guide covers the exam-day rules in full.
Remote proctoring is a genuine alternative rather than a fallback - the Accident & Health guide walks through it, including the no-breaks and no-scratch-paper rules that make it a real trade rather than a free win.
Surplus Lines: The Path from a Property License
New Jersey has a large excess-and-surplus market, and this line is the first half of the ticket to it. If you will place risks the admitted market will not take - coastal habitational property, high-limit or unusual liability, professional risks - surplus lines is the credential, and its prerequisites start here.
You need both Property and Casualty authority first. Not one, both - N.J.S.A. 17:22A-38 is explicit that no surplus lines licence issues or renews unless the applicant "holds or will hold property and casualty authorities." In practice that means two 20-hour courses and two exams before you even reach the surplus lines exam.
The surplus lines exam itself is short: 50 scored questions, in the same 3 hours 30 minutes as every other New Jersey exam, at 70%. And it takes no prelicensing education at all - DOBI's FAQ lists surplus lines as requiring none. It is the one New Jersey producer credential you can walk into on study alone.
Three things New Jersey used to require and no longer does. DOBI's own FAQ confirms there is no bond requirement, no requirement to maintain a New Jersey office, and nonresidents may hold surplus lines authority. All three were once true, which makes them a classic stale-material trap - if a study source tells you to post a bond, it predates the change.
Diligent effort means three declinations, and the exceptions are what you actually have to know. N.J.A.C. 11:1-33.2 defines it as placement "after the risk has been declined by three authorized insurers" - so before exporting a risk you must obtain and document three. Two things relieve that: the risk being on the Commissioner's Exportable List, or the insured qualifying as an exempt commercial purchaser. For substantially similar risks, contact with insurers within 30 days satisfies the requirement rather than starting over each time.
The affidavit is form SLPS-6-CERT-1, the Certification of Effort to Place Risk With Authorized Insurer - and note who completes it: the retail or originating producer, per insured, not the surplus lines producer, who retains copies (electronic retention is permitted). Legal and medical malpractice risks require SLPS-6-CERT-1 regardless of the Exportable List - the list does not relieve them.
Premium tax is 5% of total premium (3% for policies effective before 1 July 2009), filed electronically through SLIP within 45 days after the end of each quarter. Fees are not taxable, only premium.
And the point most worth carrying to a client conversation: the guaranty backstop is thin. The New Jersey Surplus Lines Insurance Guaranty Fund - administered by PLIGA - covers only medical malpractice liability insurance and property insurance on owner-occupied dwellings of fewer than four units. Every other surplus placement is outside it. That is a disclosure conversation, not a footnote.
What It Costs
About $275-$300 in unavoidable fees on a first-time pass: the exam, $66.05 for Live Scan fingerprints, and roughly $170 to file through NIPR ($150 licence plus $20 online processing). Paper filing makes the processing fee $40. Add your 20-hour prelicensing course.
Adding Casualty afterwards costs another course and another exam fee but no second licence fee - New Jersey issues one producer licence carrying whatever lines you qualify for, so the $150 is paid once per term regardless.
The exam fee is contested between New Jersey's primary sources - PSI's served bulletin says $38, DOBI's FAQ says $47. The $38 comes from a bulletin PSI stamps January 2023, so budget for $47. Registration fees are non-refundable and expire a year after you register.
Eligibility Requirements
At least 18, a completed 20-hour approved Property course (or a CPCU, AAI, ARM or CIC waiver), a passing exam result, Live Scan fingerprints as a resident, and a NIPR application within one year of passing. A resident licence needs a New Jersey residence or business address - no PO boxes.
The 20 figure is worth stating plainly because it is easy to get wrong: 20 hours covers the Property line alone. The 40-hour number that circulates is the combined Property and Casualty course, which covers both lines at once. If Casualty is definitely in your plans, the 40-hour combined course is the efficient purchase.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Twenty-four credits every two years, from providers DOBI has approved.
Two-year term expiring on the last day of your birth month, with a first term stretched to at least 18 months. 24 credits per cycle including 3 hours of professional ethics, one of which may be an insurance-fraud course.
Because the requirement attaches to the licensee rather than to each line, adding Casualty or Life later does not increase it. Up to 12 non-ethics credits carry over once to the next term; ethics credits never carry over. Courses and providers must be DOBI-approved, and PSI banks the completed credits for the Department at ce.psiexams.com.
One line-specific requirement does apply to you, and it is easy to miss because it is one-time rather than recurring: a producer authorised to sell flood insurance must complete a three-credit approved course on flood insurance and the National Flood Insurance Program (N.J.A.C. 11:17-3.6), at the first renewal following initial issuance. It counts inside the 24. Nonresidents compliant in their home state are exempt by reciprocity. The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal mechanics, the late-renewal window and the cliff that follows it.
Quick Reference
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