What This License Is
§38-43-75(A)(4) defines the Casualty line as "casualty insurance coverage against legal liability, including that for death, injury, or disability or damage to real or personal property." That is the liability half of property and casualty: personal and commercial auto liability, homeowners and CGL liability, workers' compensation, umbrella, professional liability and surety-adjacent lines.
A Casualty-only producer cannot write the property side of a policy. Because virtually every personal and commercial package contract bundles both, the standalone Casualty license is most often a deliberate specialization — commercial liability desks, workers' comp shops, transportation risk — rather than a first license.
South Carolina's casualty section is unusually distinctive, and the reason is automobile insurance. The state mandates uninsured motorist coverage, prohibits arbitration clauses in it, authorizes suits against unknown drivers by name, and attaches a conclusive legal presumption to a single signed form. Nothing in national auto material prepares you for that cluster.
Exam Options & Format
InsSC-Cas06 is 80 total items in 120 minutes for $59 — and, like the Property exam, it carries only 5 pretest items, not 10. The scored split is 75 questions: 50 general and 25 South Carolina, and the South Carolina section contains no unscored items at all. Every state-law question you see on this exam counts toward your score.
You pass by reaching a scaled score of 70 on a 0-100 reporting scale. The handbook states the passing standard is "determined by the South Carolina Department of Insurance" and that scores "should not be interpreted as the percentage or number of correct answers." Pass and your report is pass/fail with application instructions; fail and it carries a numeric score plus diagnostics on the general portion.
The combined Property, Casualty, Surety and Marine exam (InsSC-PCSM04) costs the same $59 for 140 items in 165 minutes. Given identical pricing, the honest comparison is study hours: the combined exam covers the property material this one does not, and the combined license writes whole policies.
Retake terms are generous by national standards: 24 hours between attempts, up to six attempts per exam in a twelve-month period, at $59 each. The Personal Lines guide covers scoring and retake strategy in depth.
Most Tested Topics on the South Carolina Casualty Exam
South Carolina's auto statutes depart from the national baseline more sharply than almost any other topic on any of its exams, and the workers' compensation thresholds are their own cluster. All verified against the Code:
| Concept | The South Carolina rule |
|---|---|
| Auto minimum liability limits | 25/50/25 — $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage (§38-77-140) |
| Uninsured motorist coverage | MANDATORY. No auto policy may be issued or delivered without UM at limits no less than the §38-77-140 minimums (§38-77-150) |
| Uninsured motorist property damage | Included at no less than $25,000, and the policy may exclude the first $200 of loss — the classic South Carolina deductible (§38-77-150(A)) |
| Underinsured motorist coverage | Optional, but the insurer must offer it, and it is capped at the insured's own liability limits (§38-77-160) |
| The "meaningful offer" form | A Director-approved form explaining the coverage and listing available limits and premium ranges; if the named insured signs it, "it is conclusively presumed that there was an informed, knowing selection of coverage" (§38-77-350) |
| Arbitration in UM coverage | Prohibited — a South Carolina-specific rule (§38-77-200) |
| Suits against unknown drivers | "John Doe" actions are expressly authorized for unidentified hit-and-run UM claims (§38-77-180) |
| Personal injury protection | Not required in South Carolina — the statute expressly declines to mandate PIP (§38-77-144) |
| Negligence rule | Modified comparative negligence — a claimant recovers only if their fault is not greater than the defendant's; at 51% they recover nothing, at exactly 50% they still recover, reduced (Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243) |
| Residual auto market | The Associated Auto Insurers Plan, the assigned-risk plan required to be established by March 1, 2003 (§38-77-810) |
| Refusal to write auto | An auto insurer is not required to write coverage, but must keep a record of each refusal and its reason for three years (§38-77-112) |
| Workers' comp coverage threshold | Required once an employer regularly employs four or more — an employer with fewer than four or a prior-year payroll under $3,000 is outside the Act (§42-1-360) |
| Temporary total disability | 66 2/3% of the average weekly wage, with a $75 per week floor, capped at the statewide average weekly wage, for no more than 500 weeks (§42-9-10) |
| Workers' comp claim deadline | 2 years from the accident, or from the date of death (§42-15-40) |
The UM/UIM pair is the single richest source of South Carolina casualty questions, and the distinction is exactly backwards from most states. UM is compulsory — you cannot buy a South Carolina auto policy without it. UIM is optional but must be offered, and it cannot exceed your own liability limits, so a driver carrying 25/50/25 cannot buy 100/300 in UIM. Layered on top: UM property damage is part of the mandate, at $25,000, with an optional $200 deductible that exists in almost no other state's material. And §38-77-350's conclusive presumption is the reason the offer form matters so much: once the named insured signs it, the question of whether the offer was meaningful is closed as a matter of law.
Two more items that national prep will get wrong for you. First, South Carolina's residual auto mechanism is the Associated Auto Insurers Plan — the older South Carolina Reinsurance Facility and its recoupment surcharge are gone, and the mandate-to-write they sat on was replaced by §38-77-112, which says an insurer need not write auto coverage so long as it documents refusals. Any material teaching the Facility or the recoupment charge as live South Carolina law is teaching pre-1997 law. Second, on workers' compensation, read §42-1-360 carefully: the four-employee threshold and the $3,000 payroll test are joined by "or", so an employer with five employees and a tiny prior-year payroll is still exempt.
Fingerprinting in South Carolina — the Order Everyone Gets Backwards
South Carolina requires a fingerprint-based background check for new resident producers, and it runs the step in the opposite order from most states. Getting this wrong is not a paperwork inconvenience: prints taken under the wrong program are destroyed, and you pay again.
The statutory basis. §38-43-100(F) requires an applicant to "furnish a complete set of his fingerprints and the required fees and information … to the director or his designee" and to "undergo a state criminal records check, supported by his fingerprints, by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and a national criminal records check, supported by his fingerprints, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." The statute puts the cost on the applicant, and failure to furnish prints and fees "constitutes grounds for denial of an application for licensure." The requirement took effect for all resident producers in January 2017.
The order of operations. SCDOI's fingerprinting page states it plainly: fingerprints "should only be obtained after or at the time of application for NEW resident producer applications." The Department's own page even warns that its link should not be used to schedule an appointment. What actually happens is that you file the NIPR application first, and then "you will receive an email with the directions on how to schedule a fingerprint appointment." The full sequence is therefore: pass the exam → wait 48 hours → apply and pay at NIPR → receive SCDOI's email → schedule with IdentoGO → get printed.
The IdentoGO selection SCDOI publishes. The Department's fingerprinting page walks you through it: go to IdentoGO, choose South Carolina under "Search for services by state," click State Fingerprinting, then Schedule a New Appointment, and in the drop-down select "SC920124Z-DOI Producer Licensing/Renewal." Enter your zip code, pick a location, date and time, and complete the remaining screens to schedule and pay. If you have trouble, SCDOI gives IdentoGO's scheduling line as 844-321-2124. One caution: SC920124Z is a drop-down selection on that State Fingerprinting path, not a code you can paste into an IdentoGO enrollment-workflow URL — entered that way it will look invalid, which is why conflicting instructions circulate. Follow SCDOI's navigation, and use the code exactly as the Department publishes it.
What it costs. South Carolina publishes no fingerprint price. SCDOI's instructions end with "complete the fields as requested to schedule and pay" without naming an amount, and §38-43-100(F) establishes only that "the cost associated with the criminal history records checks must be borne by the applicant." You will see the price at the scheduling screen. Treat any specific South Carolina fingerprint figure you find quoted elsewhere — including the $50.50 that circulates — as unsourced.
Who is printed, and who is not. Fingerprints are for resident producers on new applications. SCDOI is explicit: "If you obtain fingerprints for any application other than a resident producer, your fingerprint results will be destroyed." Nonresident producers are not fingerprinted by South Carolina at all. Adjusters, public adjusters and appraisers run a separate SLED-report track.
Once, not every renewal. SCDOI: "Once your fingerprints have been successfully submitted and processed, you do not need to be re-fingerprinted with future license renewals." §38-43-100(G) codifies the exemption for producers whose prints are on file and whose licenses remain in good standing. The exception is severe: if you let a license lapse past the six-month reinstatement window, the license and all appointments cancel, and coming back means retaking the exam, being re-fingerprinted, and filing a new application and fee.
If you physically cannot be printed, the Director may waive the requirement "if it is impossible for the applicant to provide fingerprints due to a medically certified physical injury." That is the only waiver in the statute.
What It Costs
$59 to Pearson VUE for InsSC-Cas06, $25 to the Department through NIPR — about $84 in published fees on a first-attempt pass. Every South Carolina insurance exam costs the same $59, so the standalone Casualty route carries no price advantage over the combined exam.
Then two amounts nobody publishes: IdentoGO's fingerprint fee, collected at your appointment once SCDOI sends the scheduling instructions, and NIPR's transaction fee, shown at checkout. Budget for both without anchoring on a number you read somewhere — this is the exact spot where secondhand South Carolina figures are wrong.
Retakes are $59 apiece, with a 24-hour wait and a cap of six attempts per exam per year. Rescheduling at least 48 hours out is free; inside 48 hours the fee is forfeited.
Eligibility Requirements
§38-43-100(F) requires the Director to find that you are at least eighteen, are of good moral character with no felony or §38-43-130 disqualifying act in the last ten years and no misdemeanor involving "dishonesty, breach of trust, or other financial- or insurance-related crime" in the last five, have paid the §38-43-80 fees, and have passed the exam for each line requested.
Because your prints run through both SLED and the FBI, the application's background questions are the place to disclose rather than hope. An undisclosed matter that surfaces in the national check is treated far more seriously than a disclosed one, and §38-43-245 makes a fraudulent insurance application its own violation.
South Carolina's statute contains no residency or business-presence requirement. What it does require is current addresses — §38-43-107 obliges you to report a change of legal name or address within thirty days, on pain of the §38-2-10 penalties.
Keeping Your Casualty License Active
Important CE details: Limited lines producers are exempt from continuing education, and a nonresident producer satisfies South Carolina's requirement by meeting his home state's, where that state reciprocates.
Renewal is biennial by the last day of your birth month, on birth-year parity (§38-43-106, §38-43-110), and takes 24 hours of approved CE including 3 hours of ethics. The renewal fee is $25.
The split rule matters most to producers who hold casualty alongside life and health. §38-43-106 requires a producer licensed in both property and casualty and life, accident and health to complete at least one-third of the 24 hours in courses related to each — the Department operationalizes that as a minimum of 8 hours per side, plus the 3 ethics hours. Up to 18 hours earned in excess may be carried forward to the next biennial period.
If you sell federal flood policies, the three-hour NFIP course applies — but as a federal condition under the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004, which SCDOI may approve for three hours of South Carolina CE credit. The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal, late compliance and reinstatement in full, including the six-month window and the long-service exemption.
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