Tennessee P&C Study Guide

Full property and casualty authority means the Tennessee Insurance Guaranty Association is your guaranty fund — a different body, with different numbers, from the one that protects life and health policyholders. Its cap is unusually low, its exceptions are unusually specific, and between them they account for a reliable share of the state-specific questions on both papers.

The covered claim, in three numbers

T.C.A. §56-12-107 defines the association’s obligation as “only that amount of each covered claim that is in excess of one hundred dollars ($100) and is less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).”

• Floor: $100. A small deductible that sits below the coverage — claims under it get nothing.
• Ceiling: $100,000. Not the $300,000 many states use, and not the figure national prep will have given you.
• Aggregate: $10,000,000. The association’s obligation “shall cease when ten million dollars ($10,000,000) has been paid in the aggregate to or on behalf of any single insured and its affiliates” — but read the opening of that sentence, because it carries an exception: “notwithstanding any other provisions of this part, except in the case of a claim for benefits under workers’ compensation coverage.”

Workers’ compensation is paid in full

The one carve-out, and the one the exam loves: the association “shall pay the full amount of any covered claim arising out of a workers’ compensation policy.” No $100,000 ceiling, no proration.

And the carve-out runs twice. Workers’ compensation is excepted from the $10,000,000 aggregate as well. So if a fact pattern gives you a $400,000 workers’ compensation claim against an insolvent Tennessee carrier, the answer is the whole $400,000 — not capped at $100,000, and not squeezed by the aggregate either.

Who regulates you, and how they got the job

Three facts about the Tennessee regulator, all examinable:

• It is the Department of Commerce and Insurance — a combined agency, not a standalone insurance department.
• Its Commissioner also serves as the State Fire Marshal. A genuinely unusual pairing, and one that shows up in questions about who has authority over what.
• The Commissioner is appointed by the Governor and serves in the Governor’s Cabinet at the Governor’s pleasure. Tennessee does not elect its insurance commissioner.

Insurance law is codified in Title 56 of the Tennessee Code Annotated, with producer licensing in chapter 56-6 and departmental rules in Title 0780 of the Rules of Tennessee.

Read the licence term literally

T.C.A. §56-6-107 says licences “shall remain in effect for twenty-four (24) months from the last day of the licensee’s birth month.”

Not from your birthday. Not from the issue date. A producer born on 3 March expires at the end of March, two years on — and the continuing education biennium runs on the same clock, “every two years following the last day of the producer’s birth month.” One date governs both.

Lapse, penalty, and the twelve-month door

Miss the deadline and three things happen in sequence.

First, a penalty of double the unpaid renewal fee is required for any renewal fee received after the due date — and TDCI reads that as an addition, not a substitution: an expired licence is reinstated “by remitting the license fee plus a reinstatement penalty fee of double the renewal fee.” On a $60 renewal that is $60 plus $120 — about $180, not $120.

Second, a statutory door stays open for a year — within twelve months from the due date you may “reinstate the same license without the necessity of passing a written examination.” Third, past twelve months that door closes, and on a P&C licence that means sitting both examinations again.

The Commissioner retains discretion to waive renewal procedures and examination requirements for military service or other extenuating circumstances.

Continuing education: what banks and what doesn’t

Twenty-four credit hours per biennium, three of them ethics. Tennessee counts the licensee, not the lines, so two lines of authority do not mean 48 hours.

Carry-over is where the asymmetry bites. Rule 0780-01-56-.08 permits carrying “a maximum of twelve (12) continuing education credit hours to the next renewal cycle” — then adds the sentence people miss: “however, carry over shall not apply to ethics continuing education credit requirements.” General hours bank. Ethics hours reset from zero, every cycle, forever.

Two further mechanics worth knowing: an approved course counts again for credit only after two years, and providers must transmit completion records electronically within 30 days — which matters if you finish your hours in the last week of a cycle.

The flood course property authority carries

Rule 0780-01-56-.08(1)(c) requires a resident producer authorised to sell property insurance, or both property and casualty, to complete a one-time three-hour flood course meeting the federal minimum training requirements of section 207 of the Flood Insurance Federal Reform Act of 2004. It counts inside your 24 hours for one biennium, and proof of an equivalent course completed after 1 January 2008 may exempt you.