What This License Is
A West Virginia Casualty line of authority covers liability insurance — automobile, general liability, professional liability, workers' compensation and the commercial casualty lines. It is issued by the OIC and examined separately from Property.
In practice the standalone route is rare. The Commissioner's 2025 report shows zero candidates sat the individual West Virginia Casualty exam that year, against 667 who took the combined Property and Casualty paper. The line is fully supported and the exam is offered; almost everyone reaches it through the combined route instead.
One boundary worth knowing before you sell: West Virginia's workers' compensation market has been open to private carriers only since July 1, 2008, and an employer who cannot find coverage goes to an assigned-risk plan administered by the Insurance Commissioner rather than to a single carrier of last resort. That structure is covered below.
Exam Options & Format
The standalone examination is InsWV-Cas40: 90 questions in 120 minutes on the handbook's registration table, at $84.00 per attempt. The combined InsWV-PC03 is 150 questions in 210 minutes at the same fee and earns both lines.
Both run in two parts — General Knowledge and West Virginia Specific — with both to be passed within twelve months of the first. The content outlines effective June 16, 2026 give Casualty 50 scored plus 5 pretest on the general part and 30 scored on the state part, with no pretest items on the state paper.
The passing standard is a scaled score of 70, which the handbook states in terms is neither the number nor the percentage of questions answered correctly.
Most Tested Topics on the West Virginia Casualty Exam
West Virginia's auto and workers' compensation rules carry several features that generic prep gets wrong. These are the ones the state part tests:
| Concept | The West Virginia rule |
|---|---|
| Financial responsibility minimum limits | $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident bodily injury and $25,000 property damage, beginning January 1, 2016 — §17D-4-2(b), in Chapter 17D rather than the insurance code. The older 20/40/10 in subsection (a) survives only for policies in force on December 31, 2015, until they expire or renew |
| Uninsured motorist, mandatory coverage | Mandatory at limits no less than the §17D-4-2 requirements, with an option to buy up to $100,000 / $300,000 / $50,000 — §33-6-31(b) |
| Uninsured motorist property damage deductible | The endorsement may exclude the first $300 of property damage resulting from an uninsured motorist's negligence — §33-6-31(b), second proviso |
| Underinsured motorist, mandatory offer | An option up to limits not less than the bodily injury and property damage liability limits the insured purchased, and expressly "without set off against the insured's policy or any other policy" — §33-6-31(b), third proviso |
| Silence as rejection of optional coverage | Failure to return the Commissioner's offer form within 30 days creates a presumption of an effective offer and a knowing rejection of the optional coverages, binding on all insureds — §33-6-31d(b)-(c) |
| Arbitration cannot be forced on a UM claim | No UM endorsement "may contain any provision requiring arbitration of any claim," nor may the insured be restricted from employing counsel or instituting proceedings — §33-6-31(g) |
| Auto cancellation notice, tiered | At least 14 days for nonpayment of premium; 30 days for all other grounds — §33-6A-1. The grounds are available only after the policy has been in effect 60 days or upon renewal |
| Three moving violations — the full ground | "Three or more moving traffic violations committed within a period of twelve months, each of which results in three or more points being assessed on the driver's record by the Division of Motor Vehicles" — §33-6A-1. Three minor violations do not qualify |
| Auto nonrenewal notice | At least 45 days advance notice of the insurer's election not to renew; hearing cost is assessed against the losing party and may not exceed $75 — §33-6A-4 |
| Total loss threshold | Damage equivalent to 75% or more of market value as determined by a nationally accepted used car value guide, or a flood-damaged vehicle — §17A-4-10 |
| Driving uninsured, first offence | Licence suspended 30 days and registration revoked — or a $200 penalty fee paid before the suspension's effective date avoids both — §17D-2A-7. A second offence within five years is a 90-day suspension |
| Workers' compensation, the three dates | Legislation in 2005; the employers' mutual insurance company "began operation on January 1, 2006"; the state "opened to a private, competitive market for workers' compensation insurance on July 1, 2008" — §23-2C-1 |
| Workers' compensation assigned risk | An employer must have been categorically declined by at least two insurers that are not affiliated with each other; all private carriers must participate as a condition of their authority to transact business — §23-2C-10(b), (d) |
| Casual employer exemption, a four-part test | Not more than three employees and employment that is "temporary, intermittent, and sporadic in nature" and not exceeding 10 calendar days in any calendar quarter — §23-2-1(b)(4) |
| Agricultural service exemption | "Employers of five or fewer full-time employees in agricultural service" — §23-2-1(b)(2). A different number from the casual-employer test; do not merge them |
The UM/UIM pair does two different jobs, and the exam knows it. Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory at the financial responsibility minimums, with a mandatory option to buy up to 100/300/50. Underinsured motorist coverage is not mandatory at all — what is mandatory is the offer, and the offer runs up to the liability limits the insured actually purchased, with no set-off against their own policy or any other. Then §33-6-31d supplies the mechanism that decides most real claims: the insured has thirty days to return the Commissioner's form, and failure to return it is a statutory presumption of an effective offer and a knowing rejection, binding on all insureds. Silence rejects.
The workers' compensation timeline has three dates, not two. The legislation is 2005, the employers' mutual began operating January 1, 2006, and the private competitive market opened July 1, 2008 — and §23-2C-1 states all three in its own findings. Saying West Virginia "privatised in 2005" or "in 2006" is wrong on the exam. The section notes it "remains in this code for historical purposes," which is a hint that the dates themselves are the point.
Fingerprinting and the West Virginia Background Check
The order of operations is the whole game here, and West Virginia's is unusual: you do not get fingerprinted until after you pass. The handbook's six-step overview reads: complete all pre-licensing education; make a reservation and pay the examination fee; take the examination; after passing the examination make a fingerprint reservation; get fingerprinted; apply for a licence. Booking prints early accelerates nothing, and it starts a clock you do not want running.
Who has to. The handbook states that all applicants seeking resident West Virginia insurance licences must submit fingerprints for a state and federal criminal background check. That reaches Life; Accident and Health; Property and Casualty; Personal Lines; Surplus Lines; Variable Life and Annuities; Viatical Settlement Brokers; Adjusters; Travel Insurance Entity Producers; and Professional and Surety Bail Bonds.
Who does not. Limited-lines producer applicants; non-residents; renewing producers; and producers licensed before June 1, 2015, unless they add a new line of authority after that date. Bail bondsmen are the exception inside the exception — printed at initial issuance and at every renewal, the only category with recurring prints.
The requirement rests on 114 CSR 2A, "Fingerprinting Requirements for Applicants for Insurance Producer License and Insurance Adjuster License," whose sunset date was extended to August 1, 2036 by HB 4245 in the 2026 session — the legislature reaffirmed the rule rather than letting it lapse.
The vendor and the code. Prints are captured by IdentoGO. Report West Virginia OIC service code 228NS5 so the Commissioner can retrieve your results. That code is universal to the agency, not issued per applicant — the OIC's service-code form describes it as unique to the hiring or licensing agency and warns against using it for another purpose. This matters: several states issue a per-applicant code only after the application is filed, which is why their fingerprint step comes last. West Virginia's does not, and that is exactly why prints can precede the application here. Schedule at uenroll.identogo.com, find a facility at identogo.com, or call 1-855-766-7746 (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern). The appointment takes about ten minutes and you leave with a 12-digit TCN receipt — keep it.
No ORI number is published. Neither of the OIC's two fingerprint documents — the service-code form or the Fingerprinting FAQs — contains an Originating Agency Identifier. If a study site hands you one for West Virginia, it did not come from the Commissioner. The service code is what IdentoGO needs.
The fee. The OIC's Licensing and Education fee schedule, updated 8/19/2026, lists fingerprinting at $47.25, and the Fingerprinting FAQs and the Licensing Division page agree. The June 2026 candidate handbook still prints $45.75, itemised as a $12.50 fingerprint fee plus $20.00 to the West Virginia State Police and $13.25 to the FBI. Budget $47.25.
Where the prints go. IdentoGO electronically captures and transmits the digital fingerprints to the West Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — consistent with the handbook's own fee itemisation.
Identification at the appointment. The OIC's service-code form enumerates eighteen acceptable photo identification types, including state and commercial driver's licences, state, federal and government ID cards bearing seals, military ID and Common Access Card, DD Form 1172-2, Employment Authorization Document (I-766) with photo, Permanent Resident Card (I-551), United States and foreign passports, Mexican and Canadian driver's licences, visas, the Merchant Mariner Card and the Enhanced Tribal Card. Bring the one you are most certain of.
One figure NIPR adds that the OIC does not: that fingerprint documentation for West Virginia major lines is submitted within fifteen days after applying. That sits awkwardly against the handbook's print-before-you-apply sequence, so follow the handbook's order and treat NIPR's fifteen days as a backstop rather than a plan.
What It Costs
$84.00 to Pearson VUE per examination, $47.25 to IdentoGO for fingerprinting, $50.00 to the Insurance Commissioner with the application, plus a 20-hour pre-licensing course priced by the provider — about $181.25 in fixed costs on a first-time pass.
The combined Property & Casualty examination costs the same $84.00 as the standalone Casualty paper and earns two lines.
The fingerprint fee is the one that can be charged twice. If the process is not completed inside the validity window the prints expire, and the handbook is explicit that the process must be repeated and the fees paid again. That is the strongest practical argument for filing the application the same week you are printed.
Eligibility Requirements
The candidate handbook sets five requirements: be a resident of West Virginia; be eighteen (18) years of age or older; satisfy the Insurance Commissioner that you are trustworthy and competent; take the examinations administered by Pearson VUE; and — the item most study material still gets wrong — sponsorship by an insurance company is no longer required on the application.
A criminal conviction is not an automatic bar. The OIC's Resident Producer FAQ addresses it directly, and the Commissioner maintains a 1033 Information set — 1033 Procedures, 1033 FAQs and a 1033 Short Form Application — with a $100.00 waiver fee on the published schedule. Federal law (18 U.S.C. 1033) bars anyone convicted of a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust from working in insurance without written consent, and the 1033 waiver is how that consent is obtained here.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Twenty-four hours per biennial compliance period, three of them ethics. Up to six hours over the minimum carry into the next biennium, but ethics hours carry forward as general credit only — three fresh ethics hours are due every cycle. Providers have 30 days to file your credits, and the Commissioner warns that courses taken less than 30 days before expiration may not post in time to renew.
Twenty-four hours per biennial compliance period including three ethics hours, renewing by the last day of your birth month. The Property & Casualty guide covers the mechanics in full.
Casualty producers carry no product-specific training gate — the annuity and long-term care requirements attach to the life and health lines. Adjusters are a separate licence type with their own rules, and the OIC's Adjuster FAQs note that three hours in workers' compensation claims adjustment is recommended for holders of that line rather than required.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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