What This License Is
The Vermont Casualty line covers "insurance coverage against legal liability, including that for death, injury, or disability" — 8 V.S.A. §4813g(a)(4). Personal and commercial auto liability, commercial general liability, workers compensation, professional liability and umbrella all sit inside it.
It does not reach first-party property damage, which is the separate Property line. Producers who need both sides of a commercial account hold Casualty and Property, or take the combined Series 14-31 in one sitting for $87 rather than $146.
Remember the structural point Vermont shares across both pairs: there is no combined "Property and Casualty" line of authority. The combined paper is an examination that qualifies you for two separate statutory lines, graded as one result.
Casualty Exam Options in Vermont
| Route | Exam | Scored | Unscored | Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casualty only | Series 14-42 | 100 | 5 | 2 hr | $73 |
| Property + Casualty | Series 14-31 | 150 | 5 | 2 hr 30 min | $87 |
Both are Prometric exams offered at a test centre or by remote proctoring, and both content outlines carry an effective date of 3 November 2019. The questions are four-option multiple choice throughout.
Vermont publishes no passing mark, so prepare against the content outline. The state-specific material below is worth learning precisely because it is finite, statutory, and different from the national baseline in three separate places.
Most Tested Topics on the Vermont Casualty Exam
Vermont's auto rules break the national pattern in a way that is easy to state and easy to get backwards. From the TESTivity Vermont regulations curriculum, statute-verified — first, auto:
| Auto concept | The Vermont rule | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Fault system | Tort (at-fault) - Vermont mandates liability cover plus UM/UIM and does not mandate PIP | 23 V.S.A. ss 800, 941 |
| Compulsory liability minimums | 25/50/10 - $25,000 one person, $50,000 two or more, $10,000 property damage in any one crash | 23 V.S.A. s 800(a) |
| Alternative to a policy | Evidence of self-insurance in the amount of $115,000 filed with the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles | 23 V.S.A. s 800(a) |
| UM and UIM status | MANDATORY - no policy may be issued without it; it is not an offer-and-reject coverage | 23 V.S.A. s 941(a) |
| UM and UIM minimum limits | $50,000 per person and $100,000 for two or more - HIGHER than the liability minimums | 23 V.S.A. s 941(c) |
| UM property damage | A statutory ceiling of $10,000 per claim, subject to a $150 deductible - a cap, not a floor | 23 V.S.A. s 941(a) |
| Negligence doctrine | Modified comparative - contributory negligence does not bar recovery if the claimant's negligence was not greater than the causal total negligence of the defendants | 12 V.S.A. s 1036 |
| The bar percentage | A claimant at exactly 50% still recovers, reduced by half; at 51% or more, barred | 12 V.S.A. s 1036 |
| Residual market | The Vermont Automobile Insurance Plan - all insurers writing auto must cooperate in a plan apportioning applicants who cannot obtain cover by ordinary methods | 8 V.S.A. s 4241 |
And workers compensation, where Vermont's structure is unusual in a different way:
| Workers comp concept | The Vermont rule | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage trigger | No numeric employee threshold. Vermont works by exclusion from the definition of worker rather than by headcount | 21 V.S.A. s 601 |
| The main exclusions | Casual employment not for the employer's trade or business; agriculture or farm employment where the employer's aggregate payroll is less than $10,000 in a calendar year, unless the employer notifies the Commissioner; and sole proprietors or partner owners of an unincorporated business | 21 V.S.A. s 601 |
| Administering agency | The Vermont Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation and Safety Division - not the insurance regulator | 21 V.S.A. ch. 9 |
| Wage replacement | Two-thirds of the average weekly wage, after a three-day waiting period, capped so that total weekly wage-replacement benefits do not exceed 90% of the employee's average weekly wage | 21 V.S.A. s 642(a)(1), (c)(1) |
| The maximum and minimum | s 642(a)(2) says only that compensation shall be not more than the maximum nor less than the minimum; the 150% and 50% of the state average weekly wage figures are defined in s 601 and reset each 1 July - never a fixed dollar amount | 21 V.S.A. s 601; s 642(a)(2) |
| Claim deadlines | Three clocks: notice to the employer as soon as practicable; a claim for compensation within six months of injury or death; and an outer bar of three years from the date of injury | 21 V.S.A. s 656; s 660(a) |
| Compliance options | Four: insure with an authorised carrier, obtain guarantee insurance, establish financial responsibility to the Commissioner's satisfaction, or join an approved nonprofit self-insurance corporation | 21 V.S.A. s 687(a) |
The single most-missed item on this paper is the UM/UIM minimums. Vermont sets its uninsured motorist minimums above its liability minimums — $50,000 and $100,000 against liability minimums of $25,000 and $50,000. A candidate who assumes UM tracks liability answers 25/50 and loses the point. The property-damage figure compounds it: the $10,000 in §941 is a ceiling on what UM property damage must indemnify, subject to a $150 deductible — writing UM as "50/100/10" in the same notation as liability limits invites exactly the wrong reading.
In the comp set the trap is the absence of a headcount. Candidates are trained to answer "one employee" or "three employees", and Vermont's statute names no number at all: it defines who is a worker and then excludes casual employment, small farm payrolls and owner-operators. A fact pattern about a two-person shop is testing whether you reach for a threshold that does not exist.
Vermont's Background Questions, and Why There Are No Fingerprints
Vermont publishes no fingerprint requirement for resident producer applicants, and that changes where the scrutiny falls: onto the background questions on the NAIC uniform application, and onto a statutory character standard the Commissioner applies directly.
Be precise about the negative, though. It is not that Vermont cannot fingerprint. 8 V.S.A. §4800(4)(E) gives the Commissioner express authority to "require persons engaged in activities that require a license under this chapter to submit fingerprints", to have them processed through the centralized producer licence registry or another approved third party, and to submit them to "the FBI, the Vermont State Police, or any equivalent State or federal law enforcement agency." The same subsection puts the cost on the applicant. The authority exists and is simply not exercised for resident producers today — so the accurate statement is that none is published, not that none can ever apply.
What you are actually judged against. §4813f(a) requires that the applicant "is competent, trustworthy, financially responsible, and of good personal and business reputation." That is a broader and more subjective standard than a criminal-history match, and the words financially responsible do real work: Vermont invites the Commissioner to look at an applicant's own financial conduct, not only their criminal record.
Answer affirmatively and document it. NIPR requires supporting documentation whenever a background question is answered yes. The right approach is the same one every regulator rewards: disclose, attach the disposition documents, and explain in writing rather than leaving the Commissioner to discover it. A disclosed matter with paperwork is an ordinary review; an undisclosed one that surfaces later is a §4804 disqualification question about candour rather than about the underlying event.
Federal law still applies over the top. A felony involving dishonesty or a breach of trust engages 18 U.S.C. §1033, which prohibits transacting insurance affecting interstate commerce without written consent — a federal prohibition entirely independent of whether Vermont issues you a licence. If this applies to you, resolve the §1033 consent question before you file, not after.
And it is an ongoing standard, not a one-off gate. The competent-trustworthy-financially-responsible test is a condition of holding the licence, so material changes are reportable — as is any change of business, home or mailing address, which DFR requires within 30 days.
What the Casualty Licence Costs
$73 for Series 14-42, $60 to DFR ($30 application plus $30 licence), $30 biennial renewal licensing fee (see the review note - the statute's $30 application fee arguably attaches to renewals too), and $80 per appointment paid by the appointing insurer.
There is no fingerprint fee in Vermont, because there is no published fingerprint requirement — one fewer cost to budget than in states that do fingerprint.
NIPR's transaction fee is additional and is not published by the state. The exam fee is not refundable or transferable.
Eligibility
At least 18, not disqualified under §4804, "competent, trustworthy, financially responsible, and of good personal and business reputation", fees paid, and Series 14-42 passed — 8 V.S.A. §4813f(a).
No pre-licensing education is required for any Vermont producer line, and no professional designation waives a Vermont examination — C.L.U., C.P.C.U., C.I.C. and Ch.F.C. appear nowhere in chapter 131. The word Chartered does not occur in the chapter at all. The waivers Vermont does recognise are set out in the Life & Health guide.
Apply on NIPR at least 48 hours after passing.
Continuing Education for Casualty Producers
Important CE details: Three of the 24 hours must be ethics and no more than six may be insurance agency management. No credit carries over between review periods, and a repeat of the same course inside one period earns nothing. The review period is fixed, ending 31 March of odd-numbered years, and continuing education does not apply at all until after the first renewal or first eligibility for renewal.
24 hours every two years, at least 3 in ethics, no more than 6 in agency management, no carryover, on a review period ending 31 March of odd-numbered years.
A producer licensed to sell property and casualty insurance carries the one-time three-hour National Flood Insurance Program course, counted inside the 24 rather than on top of it, and expressly not repeated in future review periods.
Beyond that, casualty producers carry the lightest specialty-training load in Vermont — there is no casualty equivalent of the long-term care or annuity training that life and health producers must complete before transacting those products.
Quick Reference
Official Links
Don't study generic. Study Vermont.
You've got the roadmap. Now get the Vermont-specific Casualty question bank, mock exams, and video course built by instructors with 20+ years teaching this material.