The South Dakota Property Producer License
Property is its own line of authority in South Dakota - SDCL 58-30-152(3) - and its own examination, InsSD_Prop43. SDCL 58-9-5 supplies the statutory definition the exam works from: property insurance is "insurance on real or personal property of every kind and of every interest therein, whether on land, water, or in the air, against loss or damage from any and all hazards or causes, and against loss consequential upon such loss or damage, other than noncontractual legal liability for any such loss or damage." That closing clause is what separates Property from Casualty.
You can also reach Property through the combined InsSD_PropCas46 paper with Casualty, for $95 against $170 for two singles. Take the standalone paper when you genuinely only need Property - a crop-and-property agency, say, or a mortgage-related placement practice.
The route is short in the way every South Dakota producer route is short: no pre-licensing education, no fingerprinting, no background-check fee for a major-line producer, and no errors-and-omissions mandate. Pass, wait forty-eight hours, apply within 180 days, pay $25.
This guide owns South Dakota's `test-centers` module - which in this state means something slightly different from the usual. Pearson publishes no list of South Dakota test-centre cities or addresses, in the handbook or on the state programme page. What it does publish, in detail, is how you get and keep a seat: the reservation rules, the change and cancel policy, the excused-absence route, and the sentence permitting you to sit South Dakota papers anywhere in the country. That is the module, below.
The South Dakota Property Exam: Format, Fee and Delivery
The handbook's fee table gives Property as 90 questions in 120 minutes for $85, code InsSD_Prop43, and prints it a second time under "Online Exams (through OnVUE)" as OPSD_Prop43 at the same time, count and price. Property is one of the seven South Dakota exams available remotely; the Accident and Health guide walks the OnVUE requirements in full.
| What you are booking | The published figure |
|---|---|
| Exam code, test centre | InsSD_Prop43 |
| Exam code, online | OPSD_Prop43 |
| Questions | 90 |
| Time | 120 minutes |
| Fee | $85, either way |
| Combination alternative | InsSD_PropCas46, 145 questions, 150 minutes, $95 |
The content outlines split the paper as "50 scored plus 5 pretest questions" of general knowledge and "25 scoreable questions plus 5 pretest questions" of South Dakota material - 85 against the fee table's 90. Pearson's two documents disagree on six of the state's nine papers and Property is one of them. The handbook carries the newer stamp, rev08/2026, against the outlines' effective date of 1 March 2024.
Passing is a reported score of 70, not 70 percent. The handbook says scores "range from 0 to 100, but should not be interpreted as the percentage or number of correct answers." Fail and you may rebook after 24 hours, at the full $85; there is no published cap on attempts and no discount for a second sitting.
One point of contrast worth carrying into the booking screen: the Property & Casualty combination paper is where the two Pearson documents disagree most sharply, 145 against 90. If you are weighing the standalone paper against the combination, note that the combination's published length is 145 questions in 150 minutes - about sixty-two seconds an item, meaningfully tighter than the eighty seconds the single paper gives you.
Most Tested Topics on the South Dakota Property Exam
Twenty-five scored questions are South Dakota-specific, and the state's property law has an unusual shape: several of the things a national syllabus treats as universal simply do not exist here, and the one distinctive statute South Dakota does have sits in a chapter nobody would look in.
| Concept | The South Dakota rule | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Valued policy law | Real property wholly destroyed by fire, tornado or lightning - the policy amount is conclusively the value and the loss | SDCL 58-10-10 |
| Valued policy timing proviso | The loss must fall 90 or more days after issuance, or after a 25 percent or greater increase in limits | SDCL 58-10-10 |
| Valued policy, blanket forms | The section "does not apply" to a total loss to a building insured under a commercial blanket form covering two or more buildings | SDCL 58-10-10 |
| Standard fire policy | None prescribed - no fire policy chapter exists in Title 58 | SDCL 58-11-5 supplies the generic mechanism |
| Rate regulation | File-and-use: "The filing date is the effective date thereof" | SDCL 58-24-10 |
| Rate filing carve-outs | Inland marine risks not customarily rated to manual, and motor vehicle insurance | SDCL 58-24-10, 58-24-10.1 |
| Proof of loss, property | No statutory deadline; the insurer must furnish forms on written request | SDCL 58-12-1 |
| FAIR plan | None - no property residual market anywhere in Title 58's 79 chapters | Absence, verified against the chapter index |
| Credit-based insurance scores | No statute or rule located | Absence, verified against Title 58 and ARSD article 20:06 |
| Surplus line placement | "Diligent effort," with no minimum number of declinations stated | SDCL 58-32-17 |
| Adjuster licensing | South Dakota licenses no property and casualty adjusters | SD Division of Insurance |
Start with the valued policy law, because its location is half the question. SDCL 58-10-10 sits in chapter 58-10, "Insurable Interest" - not in a fire chapter, because South Dakota has none. It covers three perils, not one: "loss by fire, tornado, or lightning." It reaches real property, "including structures on land owned by a person other than the insured." And where the property is wholly destroyed without criminal fault by the insured, "the amount of insurance written in the policy shall be taken conclusively to be the true value of the property insured and the true amount of the loss and measure of damages."
Then read past the ellipsis, because the provisos are where the exam lives. The loss must fall ninety or more days after the policy issued, or ninety or more days after a twenty-five percent or greater increase in limits, with carve-outs for unchanged renewals, inflation-adjustment policies and replacement-cost conversions by written agreement. Builders' risk settles on the actual value of the completed portion. Appurtenant structures settle at actual replacement or actual cash value depending on the policy - "unless a specific value was assigned to each structure or property prior to the loss," in which case the assigned value governs. And one whole class of building is switched out of the section altogether: "This section does not apply to any claim for total loss to any building which is insured under a commercial blanket form with one amount covering two or more buildings." Where several policies cover, each insurer pays in proportion to its limit. And partial losses are not addressed at all - the section is a total-loss rule.
Then learn the absences, in the order they cost points. No standard fire policy means no 165-lines form, no statutory appraisal clause and no statutory proof-of-loss clock for property - SDCL 58-12-1 requires the insurer to furnish proof-of-loss forms on written request and expressly disclaims responsibility for "the completion of such proof or the manner of any such completion," and states no deadline in either direction. The ninety-day proof-of-loss figure a candidate half-remembers is SDCL 58-17-24, and it is health only. No FAIR plan means hard-to-place property goes to the surplus line market rather than to a residual mechanism; the only residual plan in the code is an automobile assigned risk plan at 58-11-57. And no credit-scoring statute means exactly that - an absence of regulation, not a published permission.
Surplus line is the natural exit route from those absences, and the Casualty guide owns that module: the state's term is surplus line broker, the standard is diligent effort with no minimum declination count, and the affidavit is due within thirty days.
Booking a South Dakota Insurance Exam
Start with the fact that surprises people: Pearson publishes no South Dakota test-centre list. The handbook says only that "Pearson test centers are available throughout the United States and U.S. territories" and directs candidates to the state programme page "to find a local test center." The Quick Reference repeats it - "Visit https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/sd/insurance.html for a complete list of test center locations." The state page in turn exposes a "Find a test center" control rather than naming any cities. If a study site hands you a confident list of South Dakota testing towns, it did not get it from Pearson or from the Division.
You may sit South Dakota papers anywhere in the country. This is published and it is genuinely useful: "As a new resident, you may take South Dakota licensing exams in any Pearson test center nationwide before moving to South Dakota." The state page also carries a link for finding a test centre on a military base. Geography is a scheduling problem in South Dakota, not a licensing one.
Reserving takes at least 24 hours, and there is no way around it. "You must make an online reservation at least 24 hours before the desired examination date," and the same rule applies to the phone channel on (888) 873-6205. The handbook closes the door on the alternative in five words: "Walk-in examinations are not available." Phone hours are Monday to Friday 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Central, Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Pearson's South Dakota programme page puts the same rule from the candidate's side, and it is the more encouraging phrasing: "Appointments may be made up to one calendar day prior to the day you wish to test, subject to availability." Same-week booking is realistic; same-day is not.
Payment happens at reservation, not at the door. Credit card, debit card or voucher, and "Fees will not be accepted at the test center." Once you have booked, the liability is personal: "You are individually liable for the full amount of the exam fee once a reservation has been made, whether paid individually or by a third party." An employer paying for your exam does not absorb the risk of your missing it.
The Change/Cancel Policy is 24 hours and it is worth reading whole. "If you wish to cancel or reschedule your examination without penalty, you must do so at least 24 hours before the examination ... If you wish to change or cancel a reservation and have provided proper notice, you may transfer the fees to a new reservation or request a refund. Refunds for credit or debit card payments are processed immediately while refunds for payments made with vouchers are processed within two to three weeks. If you change or cancel your reservations without proper notice, you are responsible for the exam fee." Note the split: card refunds are immediate, voucher refunds take two to three weeks.
Miss the exam and there is still a documented route back. The Absence/Lateness Policy gives fourteen days and six grounds: "If you are absent from or late to an exam, you may call Pearson within 14 days of the examination date to request an excused absence for the following reasons: Illness or illness of your immediate family member; Death in your immediate family; Disabling traffic accident; Court appearance or jury duty; Military duty; Weather emergency." A case number is assigned and you email supporting documentation. Without that - and without proper cancellation - "you will not be admitted to the exam and will forfeit the exam fee."
On the day, arrive at least thirty minutes early. The handbook's Quick Reference is the version with the qualifier: "You should report to the test center at least 30 minutes before your exam begins to complete registration." The Exam Day section renders it without the "at least"; take the stricter reading. Registration uses your Social Security number and it is verified again during the exam procedures. The Life and Health guide covers what happens once you are through the door - identification, prohibited items, breaks and the exam clock.
And if the weather closes the centre, that is Pearson's problem rather than yours. The handbook carries a dedicated Weather Delays and Cancellations section alongside its holiday schedule and its accommodations process - the three things most likely to move a booking that you did not choose to move. Accommodations are requested through Pearson rather than arranged at the centre, so build that request into your booking rather than your travel.
South Dakota Property License Fees
$85 to Pearson VUE, $25 to the state. South Dakota charges nothing for pre-licensing, fingerprinting, a background report or errors-and-omissions cover, because it requires none of them.
The exam fee is payable at reservation and is not refundable without twenty-four hours' notice. Where a refund is due, the medium matters: card refunds process immediately, voucher refunds take two to three weeks.
The licence fee is $25 resident, $30 non-resident, plus a transaction fee neither NIPR page discloses. The same $25 covers every line of authority in a single filing - there is no per-line charge in South Dakota.
Renewal is $20 biennially, $40 late. Appointments cost the insurer $10 resident or $20 non-resident, new or renewal, and are not a prerequisite to holding the licence.
If Casualty is in your plan too, the combination paper is where the money is: $95 for InsSD_PropCas46 against $170 for InsSD_Prop43 and InsSD_Cas44 taken separately. That $75 is the only volume discount South Dakota publishes anywhere - there is no back-to-back booking discount and no multi-exam voucher pricing described in the handbook's fee section.
South Dakota Property License Eligibility
Eighteen, a passing score, the $25, and honest answers to the background questions. SDCL 58-30-148 requires the director to find all four before issuing, and there is no fifth requirement - no education, no sponsorship, no appointment, no bond and no errors-and-omissions cover.
No bond, and that is worth stating precisely for a property producer, because South Dakota does impose one on the licence class next door. SDCL 58-30-126 is the chapter's only E&O provision and it reaches managing general agents at the director's discretion. The mandatory bond in the code is the surplus line broker's, at SDCL 58-32-10.1 - which is a different licence, obtained on top of property and casualty authority.
Residency is home-state residency. "A resident producer license is issued using your home state address," with home state meaning your principal place of residency or principal place of business. There is no waiting period and no requirement to be in the state to sit the paper.
The thirteen grounds at SDCL 58-30-167 govern refusal, suspension, revocation and the money penalty. Three catch people who assume the list is only about criminal history: using notes or reference material during a licensing examination, knowingly accepting business from an unlicensed person, and failing to comply with an administrative or court order for child support.
What South Dakota will not license you as, no matter your qualifications: a property and casualty adjuster or a consultant. The Division states both flatly. The consequence for a property producer is practical - claims work that would be adjuster-licensed elsewhere is not a separately licensed activity here, and advisory work that would be consultant-licensed elsewhere is done under a producer licence.
South Dakota Property Continuing Education
Important CE details: Budget 10 approved credits per biennium in the property and casualty classification, closing on the final day of whichever month you were born in. Picking up Life and Health later raises the ceiling to 20 rather than 30. Crop hail rewrites that arithmetic entirely: paired with one other classification the obligation is 10 credits of which precisely 2 must be crop hail, and no more than 2 crop hail credits will ever count. Nothing banks forward into the following biennium.
Ten credit hours of certified property and casualty courses every two years, due the last day of your birth month. That is ARSD 20:06:18:03(1) implementing SDCL 58-30-116(1), and the hours must be certified for the classification - property and casualty hours do not satisfy a life and health obligation or the reverse.
Hold both major groups and the total is twenty, not thirty. The statute caps it with a proviso: "However, no more than twenty hours of continuing education may be required of any licensee holding multiple insurance producer licenses."
Add crop hail and the arithmetic changes in a way that is easy to get wrong. ARSD 20:06:18:03 sets five subdivisions. Crop hail alone is four hours. Crop hail plus one other line is ten hours of which exactly two must be crop hail - and only two crop hail hours count toward the ten, so eight must come from the other classification. Crop hail plus more than one other line is twenty hours with two of them crop hail. The Division's own table renders the three-line case as two crop, eight property/casualty and ten life/health.
Two rules narrow how you satisfy the hours. Carry-over is prohibited by ARSD 20:06:18:18 - "No continuing education credit hours may be carried over from one two-year period to the next two-year period" - and 20:06:18:20 blocks credit for taking or teaching the same course twice inside a two-year period. No ethics hours are required.
And if you add Casualty mid-cycle, you are not caught retroactively. ARSD 20:06:18:03.01: "Any licensee who obtains a new line of authority during the licensee's two-year continuing education period does not need to fulfill the requirements of s 20:06:18:03 for the new line of authority until the next two-year period." The Property and Casualty guide walks the renewal filing itself, including the sixty-versus-ninety-day question about when the window opens.
Quick Reference
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