What This License Is
The West Virginia Property and Casualty route earns both lines of authority — property insurance and liability insurance, personal and commercial — through a single combined examination. It is issued by the OIC and it is, in practice, how West Virginia licenses its property and casualty producers.
The Commissioner's 2025 report makes the point better than any argument: 667 candidates sat the combined West Virginia Property and Casualty paper that year. Two sat the individual Property exam and none sat the individual Casualty exam. The standalone papers exist and are fully supported — the Property and Casualty guides cover them — but the combined route is the road.
Holding these two lines also covers personal-lines risks, so a producer with full P&C authority does not need the narrower Personal Lines licence on top.
Exam Options & Format
The combined examination is InsWV-PC03: 150 questions in 210 minutes on the handbook's registration table, at $84.00 — the same fee as either standalone paper, for two lines instead of one.
Like every West Virginia major line it runs in two parts, a General Knowledge part and a West Virginia Specific part, with both to be passed within 12 months of the date the first was passed or all parts retaken. The content outlines effective June 16, 2026 give Property and Casualty each 50 scored plus 5 pretest on the general side and 30 scored on the state side.
The passing standard is a scaled score of 70, which the handbook states is neither the number nor the percentage of questions answered correctly.
One number worth going in with your eyes open about: the combined West Virginia Property and Casualty paper passed at 42% in 2025 — the lowest rate of any producer exam in the Commissioner's report. The general-knowledge components paired with it passed at 79% (Casualty) and 59% (Property). The state law is the differentiator, and it is what the most-tested section below covers.
Most Tested Topics on the West Virginia Property & Casualty Exam
The combined paper reaches the regulatory material that the single-line exams touch more lightly — what happens when a property and casualty insurer fails, who regulates producers and with what penalties, and what a producer may and may not give a client. These are the facts it tests:
| Concept | The West Virginia rule |
|---|---|
| Guaranty cap, covered claims | $300,000 per claim for covered claims other than workers' compensation and unearned premium — §33-26-8(a)(1) |
| Guaranty treatment, workers' compensation claims | Paid in full, except deliberate intention claims, which are capped at $300,000 per claim — §33-26-8(a)(1) |
| Guaranty cap, unearned premium | $10,000 per policy — §33-26-8(a)(1) |
| Anti-stacking rule | "all claims of any kind whatsoever arising out of, or related to, bodily injury or death to any one person constitutes a single claim" — §33-26-8(a)(1) |
| Net worth exclusion | A first-party claim by an insured whose net worth exceeds $25 million on December 31 of the year next preceding insolvency is not a covered claim, computed on a consolidated basis. Workers' compensation claims required by state law remain protected — §33-26-5 |
| Claim filing deadline in liquidation | The earlier of 25 months after the final order of liquidation or the final date set by the court — §33-26-8(a)(1) |
| Guaranty assessments | Per account, in proportion to net direct written premiums, capped at 2% of that member insurer's net direct written premiums annually — §33-26-8(a)(3) |
| Insurance Commissioner, appointment and term | Six years, appointed by the Governor "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate"; a citizen and resident of this state who must sever all connections with insurers "except as a policyholder or claimant" — §33-2-1 |
| Examination frequency, domestic insurers | At least once every five years — §33-2-9 |
| Unfair claim settlement standard | The fifteen practices at §33-11-4(9)(a)-(o) are actionable only when performed "with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice," and such a finding "may only be based on the existence of substantially similar violations in a number of separate claims or causes of action" — §33-11-4a(f) |
| Good faith disagreement | "A good faith disagreement over the value of an action or claim or the liability of any party to any action or claim is not an unfair claims settlement practice." — §33-11-4a(g) |
| Third-party bad faith action abolished | "A third-party claimant may not bring a private cause of action or any other action against any person for an unfair claims settlement practice." The sole remedy is an administrative complaint to the Commissioner, filed no later than one year following actual or implied discovery — §33-11-4a(a), (b) |
| Penalty ladder | $1,000 per act with a $10,000 aggregate; $5,000 per act where the person knew or should have known, with a $100,000 aggregate in any six-month period; $10,000 for a single intentional violation of §33-11-4(9); and $250,000 where the insurer's unfair claims settlement practices indicate a general business practice — §33-11-6(a)-(c) |
| Producer licensing civil penalty | Not to exceed $5,000, in addition to or in lieu of licence action; failure to pay within 30 days of notice means the Commissioner shall revoke or suspend the licence — §33-12-24(e) |
| Reporting duties, two clocks | Administrative actions within 30 days of the final disposition; criminal prosecutions within 30 days of the initial pretrial hearing date — §33-12-34(a), (b) |
| Rebating threshold | Educational materials, promotional materials or merchandise costing $25 or less are not "valuable consideration," regardless of whether a policy or contract is purchased — §114-70-3.1. A nominal referral fee is a one-time fee of $25 or less and may not depend on whether the referral results in a sale — §114-70-4.1, 4.2 |
Where the dollar figures actually point. §33-11-6 carries four different penalties and they do different jobs. $1,000 is the ordinary per-violation fine with a $10,000 aggregate; $5,000 is the enhanced figure where the person knew or should have known, aggregating to $100,000 in any six-month period; $10,000 attaches to a single intentional unfair claim settlement practice even without a general business practice; and $250,000 reaches the insurer whose practices indicate a general business practice. The section's opening paragraph applies the whole of it to "any person," and subsection (c) is the only limb narrowed to an insurer — so the $250,000 is not a producer penalty. The producer's own figure is a different one entirely: $5,000 under §33-12-24(e).
First party and third party are not the same. West Virginia abolished the third-party bad-faith private cause of action in 2005 and replaced it with an administrative complaint to the Commissioner, backed by a restitution fund that may pay actual economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $10,000, with attorney fees and punitive damages excluded. Nothing in §33-11-4a reaches a first-party claimant. Say "third party" every time — the distinction is the question.
Moving to West Virginia and Non-Resident Licensing
There are two different routes into West Virginia from another state, governed by different documents, and choosing the wrong one costs you an exam.
### Route one — becoming a West Virginia resident: the ninety-day rule
If you held a resident licence in another state and you are moving here, the candidate handbook waives the West Virginia examination — but only if you "make application for license within ninety (90) days of the date the license was canceled in the previous resident state." The handbook is explicit about missing it: "If application is made after ninety (90) days, the applicant must complete pre-licensing education and pass the examination for which application is made."
Note where the clock starts. Not your move date, not your lease date, not the day you registered a car here — the date your previous resident licence was cancelled. Many producers cancel a resident licence as a housekeeping step weeks before they think about West Virginia licensing, and the clock is already running. This rule lives inside the handbook's exam-waiver list rather than on any of the OIC's licensing pages, which is why it is easy to miss.
Moving in also calls for a letter of clearance from your prior state where that state provides one. Moving the other way, out of West Virginia, check with your new home state as to whether cancellation or additional documentation is required — requirements vary by destination.
### Route two — staying where you are: the non-resident licence
A non-resident licence lets you write West Virginia business without living here. The state fee is $50 for a producer, the same as a resident. Surplus Lines is $200; Professional and Surety Bail Bondsman are $200.
The exam is waived on reciprocity. Non-residents licensed in a reciprocal state may qualify for exemption from the West Virginia examination where that state awards licences to West Virginia residents on the same basis. Exams remain required for Professional and Surety Bail Bondsman regardless — that carve-out catches people.
Your records have to match. NIPR requires that the applicant's name, birth date, licence number, state of residence, Tax ID and National Producer Number match the current Producer Database record for the resident state. A stale middle initial or an old address in the PDB is the most common reason a non-resident application stalls, and it is fixed in your home state, not here.
Non-residents are not fingerprinted. The background-check requirement is a resident requirement. The exception is bail bondsmen, who are printed at initial application and at each two-year renewal using service code 228NS5, resident or not.
Continuing education transfers. Non-residents are exempt from West Virginia continuing education if their home state has a mandatory continuing education law. Satisfy your own state and West Virginia is satisfied. Residents get no such relief.
Lines available to non-residents track the resident list: Life, Accident and Health, Variable Annuity, Property, Casualty, Personal Lines, Credit, Car Rental, Travel, Title, Surety, Self Storage and Crop, plus Surplus Lines, Professional Bail Bondsman and Surety Bail Bondsman.
Two quirks worth knowing before you file: Variable Annuity requires a FINRA registration and no separate West Virginia exam; and for Crop, the Commissioner may accept certification that the individual has passed a proficiency examination approved by the Federal Risk Management Agency.
The OIC maintains separate document sets for resident and non-resident producers, and their FAQs are not identical — the non-resident FAQ carries a standalone "License fees" heading the resident one does not. Read the one that matches your status.
Renewing a West Virginia Producer License
Biennially, by the last day of your birth month. That is the cycle — and it is administrative rather than statutory. §33-12-17(a) leaves the expiration dates to the Commissioner's discretion, and the statute's own default is annual, at midnight on May 31 for individual producers and June 30 for agencies. The biennial birth-month cycle is the Commissioner's exercise of that discretion, which is why the OIC's own renewal document, not the Code, is the thing to cite.
Your first term is not two years. The OIC states that a new licensee's expiration date "will be anywhere from 24-35 months ending on the last day of your birth month." Depending on where in the cycle you are licensed, the first term can run almost three years — which also means your first continuing education deadline may be much further out than you expect, and the second one much closer behind it.
The mechanics. Renew through NIPR; the window opens 90 days before expiration. The fee is $50, plus a $6.18 transaction fee for electronic filing. NIPR verifies continuing education compliance before it will let the renewal through, so unposted credits block the transaction, not just the licence.
There is no grace period. The Commissioner's renewal document says so directly. If the licence is not renewed before the expiration date it is expired or suspended and appointments are cancelled — meaning the carriers you write for have to reappoint you, not merely wait. NIPR's page describes a late-renewal window beginning the eighth day after expiration and running one year; the OIC's position is that no grace period exists. Both are published and they disagree about days one through seven. Do not test the difference.
Late renewal, and its ceiling. Late renewal costs the $50 base plus a $50 penalty, $100.00 in total. It is available for one year after expiration — "After one year of the expiration date on the license, the Producer Late Renewal form will not be accepted." Past that you reapply for a new licence meeting all licensing requirements, which means pre-licensing and the exam again. A business entity's late penalty is $25, for a $225 total.
### Continuing education
24 hours per biennial compliance period, three of which must be ethics. Worth knowing where that comes from: §33-12-8(c)(1) does not impose it — it is a ceiling, providing that "No program may be approved by the commissioner that includes a requirement that any individual insurance producer complete more than 24 hours of continuing insurance education biennially," and the statute never uses the word "ethics." The 24-hour and three-hour ethics requirement is the Commissioner's programme, administered under §33-12-8 and 114 CSR 42. The same statute caps preneed burial and telemarketing-only producers at six hours.
Carryover, with a catch. Up to 6 hours over the minimum carry to the next biennium. But ethics hours carried forward count only as general credits — they cannot be carried over as ethics hours. Three fresh ethics hours are required every cycle no matter how far ahead you are.
The 30-day posting trap. Providers have 30 days from course completion to file your credits, and the Commissioner warns that "Courses taken less than 30 days before the expiration date may not be credited to your record in time to renew your license." Since NIPR checks compliance before accepting the renewal, a course finished in the last month of your cycle can be complete, paid for, and still not there when you need it. Finish 45 days out.
If you fall short. Continuing education reinstatement costs $5.00 for each hour completed after the licence's expiration date, and the requirements must be met within one year of expiration.
Who is exempt. Producers licensed only for credit, surety, travel, title, crop and car rental — or any combination of those lines — are not required to complete continuing education. Bail bondsmen have none. Non-residents are exempt where their home state has a mandatory continuing education law. There is no exemption based on age or years licensed in the Commissioner's continuing education document.
Appointments are a separate transaction. Initial appointments are $25 and annual renewals $25; domestic farm mutual resident appointments are $5. An insurer must file a notice of appointment within 15 days from the date the agency contract is executed or the first insurance application is submitted — §33-12-18(b) — so you may lawfully take an application before the appointment is on file. On the way out, §33-12-25 requires the insurer to notify the Commissioner within 30 days following the effective date of a termination and to mail you a copy, by certified mail with return receipt where the termination is for cause; you then have 30 days to file written comments with the Commissioner.
Two reporting duties you owe personally. Under §33-12-34 a producer reports any administrative action taken in another jurisdiction or by another government agency in this state within 30 days of the final disposition, and reports any criminal prosecution within 30 days of the initial pretrial hearing date. Same number of days, two different triggers — the administrative clock runs from the end of the matter, the criminal clock from near its beginning.
One filing trap on the OIC's licensing page worth carrying: surplus lines and business entity applicants who apply before March 1 in any year must renew at the upcoming renewal — May 31 and June 30 respectively — which can mean renewing within weeks of being licensed. And paper invoices were discontinued effective March 1, 2025; invoices now go to the business email on file with NIPR, so a stale email address there means a missed renewal notice.
What It Costs
$84.00 to Pearson VUE for the combined examination — one fee, two lines. $47.25 to IdentoGO for fingerprinting. $50.00 to the Insurance Commissioner with the application, which is charged per application rather than per line. Plus pre-licensing coursework at 20 hours per line of authority, priced by the provider.
That is about $181.25 in fixed costs on a first-time pass. At the 2025 combined-paper pass rate of 42%, budgeting for a second $84.00 sitting is prudent.
Ongoing, the licence costs $50.00 every two years, or $100.00 if renewed late. Continuing education reinstatement adds $5.00 per hour for any hours completed after expiration. Appointments are $25 initially and $25 annually, paid by the appointing insurer.
The OIC's fee schedule dated 8/19/2026 gives fingerprinting as $47.25; the June 2026 handbook still prints $45.75. Budget the higher, more recent figure.
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, on the biennial birth-month cycle. The renewal section above covers the mechanics in full — the carryover rule, the posting trap, the late-renewal ladder and the reinstatement charge.
Property and casualty producers carry no product-specific training gate; the annuity and long-term care requirements attach to the life and health lines. If you add those lines later, the Life & Health guide covers what comes with them.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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