What This License Is
In Wisconsin this is two lines of authority, not one — the property line and the casualty line, each with a separate exam, a separate license fee and a separate entry on your record. Both are issued by the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.
Wisconsin sells no combined Property and Casualty exam. Series 22-05 is Property, Series 22-07 is Casualty, each is 100 questions in 2 hours at $75, and each carries a $75 initial license fee. Together they reach the whole P&C market — personal and commercial property, general liability, workers compensation, professional lines, umbrella.
Before committing to both, price the alternative honestly. Personal Lines (Series 22-09) is one 100-question exam and one license fee, and it covers the personal property and personal casualty market — homeowners and personal auto — completely. Property plus Casualty costs $300 in exams and license fees against Personal Lines' $150. What the extra buys is the commercial market. If you will use it, take both; if you will not, you are paying $150 for access you never exercise.
Exam Options & Format
Two exams, identical in shape. Series 22-05 (Property) and Series 22-07 (Casualty) are each 100 scored questions plus 5 to 10 unscored pretest items, 2 hours, $75, and both are "General and State" papers with Wisconsin law embedded rather than examined separately.
Series 22-06 and 22-08 are the 35-question, 1-hour state-specific variants, available only to an applicant who previously held that Wisconsin line. Same $75.
Each fee is per attempt and non-transferable, though valid one year from payment. Attempts are unlimited on both papers, and the only scheduling constraint is that you cannot rebook on the day you tested — so consecutive-day sittings are possible if seats allow.
Since the 8-hour general block of pre-licensing carries across lines within 12 months, taking the two exams close together is the efficient route: 20 hours of coursework for the first, 12 for the second.
Most Tested Topics Across the Wisconsin Property and Casualty Exams
The Wisconsin content spanning both papers lands on the Insurance Security Fund's property-casualty side, the regulator's own structure, and the producer rules you live under once licensed. From the TESTivity Wisconsin regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Wisconsin concept | The rule, and where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Security Fund, property and casualty cap | $300,000 on a single risk, loss or life, "regardless of the number of policies or contracts" (§646.31(4)(ap)) |
| Security Fund, the $500,000 aggregate | Available only where benefits for property insurance, liability insurance and "disability insurance" combine on the same risk, loss or life — it is a combination ceiling, not a separate line's cap (§646.31(4)(ap)) |
| Security Fund and worker's compensation | Expressly excluded from the cap — comp claims are not subject to the $300,000 limit (§646.31(4)(ap)) |
| The absolute ceiling | The fund never owes more than "the loss obligation of the insurer in liquidation under the policy or coverage from which the claim arises" (§646.31(4)(b)) |
| The regulator | The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, headed by a Commissioner nominated by the Governor and appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate, serving at the Governor's pleasure with no fixed term (§15.06(1)(b)) |
| Where the law lives | Chapters 600 to 655 of the Wisconsin Statutes — a deliberately reorganized, plain-language insurance code — with producer licensing in ch. 628 and departmental rules in ch. Ins of the Administrative Code |
| Appointment, not listing | §628.11 is titled "Appointment of agents" and Ins 6.57 is "Appointment of insurance agents by insurers." No Wisconsin law in force uses the word "listing" |
| When the appointment must be filed | "Within 15 days of the date the agent contract is executed or the date the first insurance application is submitted" — the rule names two alternative triggers, so the first application may legitimately precede the appointment (Ins 6.57) |
| Who files it | The insurer, not the agent, and an appointment is valid only for the lines requested |
| Terminating an appointment | Notice filed prior to or within 30 calendar days of the termination date (Ins 6.57) |
| Appointment fee | $16 annually for resident agents, $30 for nonresident agents — "unless the commissioner sets a higher fee by rule" (§601.31(1)(n)) |
| Continuing education, no carryover | "Excess credit hours accumulated during any reporting period may not be carried forward to the next reporting period" (Ins 28.04) |
The appointment timing rule is the most exam-worthy item here, because it contradicts a rule national material teaches as absolute. Nearly every prep source says a producer may not solicit before being appointed. Wisconsin's Ins 6.57 ties the 15-day clock to "the earlier of the date that the agent contract is executed or the first insurance application is submitted" — which necessarily contemplates that an application may be submitted before the appointment is on file. Wisconsin runs a 15-day grace structure, not a hard pre-appointment bar.
The security fund rows are where Wisconsin's structure matters more than its numbers. One fund covers everything — life, annuity, health, property, casualty and comp — where most states run two separate associations. The $300,000 is a cap per risk, loss or life, not per policy, so stacking policies does not raise it. And worker's compensation sits outside the cap entirely, which is the single most testable sentence in §646.31(4)(ap): comp claims against an insolvent insurer are not squeezed into $300,000 the way a liability claim is.
One vocabulary point that pays off across both papers: when a Wisconsin statute says "disability insurance," check the chapter. In ch. 632 it is the general term for accident and health coverage. In §646.31(4)(ag) it is defined narrowly — comprehensive and major medical only — for the purpose of that one aggregate.
Moving In, Licensing Across State Lines, and What Wisconsin Will Not Waive
Coming to Wisconsin as a nonresident. The exam waiver is mandatory, not discretionary. Wis. Stat. §628.07: "The commissioner shall waive any examination requirement for a nonresident applicant … if the applicant's home state or state of residence has issued the applicant a license for which the qualifications are equivalent … and if that license is in good standing at the time of application." Nonresidents are also exempt from pre-licensing under Ins 26.04, and exempt from Wisconsin CE where their home state grants a reciprocal exemption.
The cost difference is worth noting: nonresidents pay the same $75 per line to get licensed but $70 biennially to renew, double the resident's $35.
Moving your residence to Wisconsin — and this is unusually generous. Obtain the Wisconsin resident license within one year of inactivating your previous resident-state license and you avoid pre-licensing, fingerprinting and the exam. All three. One limit: the relief covers the lines of authority you already held — any new line goes through the full resident process. Most states waive the exam on relocation and still make you get printed; Wisconsin waives the lot inside that window. Separately, §628.10 allows a 60-day period on a change of state of residence.
That one-year window is the single most valuable deadline in this guide for an experienced producer, and nothing prompts you about it. Diarize it the day you move.
What Wisconsin will not waive: the exam, for a designation. This trips people because Wisconsin does publish a long designation list — CLU, ChFC, CFP, CIC, CEBS, FLMI, LUTCF, RHU, REBC, HIA, AAI, ARM, CPCU — and it is easy to assume letters after your name shorten the path. They shorten the education, never the test. Ins 26.04 is titled "Prelicensing requirement"; the exam requirement lives separately in Ins 6.59 and no designation touches it. A CPCU still sits Series 22-05 and Series 22-07 like anyone else. The Life & Health guide covers the designation lists in full.
Temporary licenses (§628.09) are narrow and are not a bridge for a candidate. The commissioner may issue one "for a period of not more than 12 months" to the personal representative of a deceased intermediary, the designee of a disabled intermediary, or someone in active military service — the stated purposes being sale of the business, recovery, or orderly training of new personnel. The commissioner may restrict the authority granted, require a licensed sponsor who assumes full responsibility, require bonding, and administer examinations. It cannot be extended beyond its initial period and cannot continue after the business is disposed of. The fee is $75 per line of authority.
Renewal, the CE Banking Rule, and What a Lapse Actually Costs
The term and the date. "Resident and nonresident licenses expire every two years on the last day of the licensee's birth month." Not the birthday — the last day of the month you were born in. There is no even/odd birth-year split; no Wisconsin source establishes one, and several states' rules get imported here by mistake.
The renewal window opens 90 days before expiration, and the fee is $35 for residents, $70 for nonresidents.
A decoy worth naming. OCI's site also carries a January-to-March cycle — reconciliation by December 15, invoices opening January 6, closing March 15 at 4:00 p.m. That window belongs to insurer appointment renewals, not to your agent license. Conflating the two is easy and the consequences are asymmetric, so anchor on your birth month and ignore the January dates unless you work for a carrier.
The CE math. 24 credit hours biennially, with a minimum of 3 covering ethics in insurance (Ins 28.04). Wisconsin assigns none of it by line: a licensee "may fulfill the continuing education requirements by earning the required credit hours from courses taught in any or all of the major lines," so a P&C producer may satisfy the whole cycle with life coursework. National material almost always implies line-matched CE; Wisconsin does not require it.
Nothing carries over. Ins 28.04: "Excess credit hours accumulated during any reporting period may not be carried forward to the next reporting period." Overshooting is charity to yourself and nobody else.
And here is the rule that actually catches people: completing CE is not the same as having CE. Wisconsin runs provider-banked electronic reporting, not self-reporting. Under Ins 28.07(2) the registered provider submits an electronic list of course attendees within 10 days following the date of completion, and under Ins 28.04 courses are counted and banked in the order they are completed. The deadline is that credits be earned and banked on or before your expiration date — so a course you finish on the last day of your birth month has not renewed your license, because the provider has ten days to report it and you do not have ten days.
OCI's own advice is to be done at least 30 days early. That is not caution, it is arithmetic.
What a lapse costs. OCI is blunt: "If the required credit hours are not banked by the education provider before the license expiration date, the license of the intermediary will expire and all appointments will be terminated." The appointments are the part people underestimate — every carrier relationship you hold drops at once, and each has to be re-filed by the insurer afterwards. §628.10 requires 60 days' notice before revocation for CE noncompliance.
Reinstatement — twelve months, at double. Under §628.10(5)(a), a licensee revoked for CE, fee or tax noncompliance may reinstate within 12 months by meeting the requirements and paying twice the renewal fee — and the waiver covers "any prelicensing education or examination requirements." You skip both the 20 hours and the exam. Past twelve months, §628.10(5)(b) lets you apply for relicensing but the waiver is gone, so the 20 hours and the exams come back.
Hardship waivers exist but are not a safety net you can reach for late. Ins 28.05 allows a waiver for "medical incapacity, military duty, or another emergency situation" — and it must be submitted and approved 90 days before expiration. A waiver request filed in your birth month is a request filed too late.
What It Costs
To get both lines: $150 in exam fees, $150 in license fees, $34.75 in fingerprints and a one-time $10 resident application fee — about $370 on first-attempt passes, plus pre-licensing tuition.
Over the life of the license: $35 every two years to renew as a resident, $70 as a nonresident. Reinstating a revoked license costs twice the renewal fee under §628.10. A temporary license is $75 per line of authority. Insurer appointments cost the carrier $16 annually for a resident agent and $30 for a nonresident, regardless of how many lines.
The education saving is the one lever you control: 20 hours for the first line, 12 for the second within twelve months. Sequencing Property and Casualty inside a single year saves 8 hours of coursework and whatever your provider charges for them.
Eligibility Requirements
At least 18, with the substantive standard at Wis. Stat. §628.04: the commissioner must find the applicant "is competent and trustworthy" and intends in good faith to act as an intermediary. Twenty hours of pre-licensing education are required for each of these lines — twelve for the second within twelve months — and fingerprints through Fieldprint are required after passing.
§628.10 authorizes revocation for false statements in an application; §628.097 reaches delinquency in child support, taxes and unemployment insurance contributions. Disclose completely on the uniform application.
Continuing Education at a Glance
Important CE details: Excess hours never carry forward to the next reporting period, and the credits must reach the state through the provider rather than through you.
24 credit hours biennially. 3 in ethics. No line allocation. No carryover. Banked by the provider within 10 days, and it must be banked before your expiration date. The renewal section above walks the mechanics, the exemptions and what a lapse costs.
One line-specific note for P&C producers: Wisconsin imposes no property or casualty product-training requirement comparable to the life side's annuity best-interest obligation under §628.347. Your 24 hours are the whole of it.
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