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The Delaware P&C exams, in one paragraph
Delaware licenses property and casualty producers through two separate exams administered by Pearson VUE for the Delaware Department of Insurance: the Delaware Property Producer exam (InsDE_Prop04) — 85 scored questions plus 12 unscored pretest questions, 135 minutes — and the Delaware Casualty Producer exam (InsDE_Cas05) — 95 scored questions plus 14 pretest questions, 135 minutes. Each exam is divided into a General portion (50 scored questions on product knowledge) and a Delaware State portion (35 scored on Property, 45 on Casualty) that are timed and scored separately. Results are reported as scaled scores from 0 to 100, and the passing score for your exam is printed on your score report. Delaware requires no pre-licensing education and does not pre-screen candidates: pass both exams, submit state and FBI criminal-history reports, and apply electronically through NIPR, while your scores remain valid for 12 months.
Who can take the Delaware Property and Casualty exams?
Delaware’s front door is unusually open — and that is precisely what makes the exams themselves the whole gate. Under the Department of Insurance’s published procedures and NIPR’s Delaware resident requirements:
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Hold a valid residence or business address in Delaware for a resident license (nonresidents licensed in their home state follow the reciprocal route and generally do not take these exams).
- Pass the examination for each line of authority you want — the Property Producer exam for the Property line, the Casualty Producer exam for the Casualty line, both if you want both. There is no combined sitting and no combined score.
- Complete no pre-licensing education. The handbook’s eligibility section states it directly: the Department of Insurance “does not require a specific program of pre-licensing education or otherwise pre-screen examination candidates.” There are no course hours to complete, no provider certificate to present, and no DOI approval to obtain before you reserve an exam. (One caution, logged in this guide’s internal source log: a generic bullet in the handbook’s reservation section mentions course-completion codes for major-line exams. It contradicts the handbook’s own eligibility section and the DOI’s published procedures; the eligibility section is the Delaware rule as the Department publishes it.)
- Be prepared for the background step. Licensing — not the exam — requires a state criminal-history report and a federal (FBI) criminal-history report, both dated within 90 days of receipt by the Department. The reports are obtained through the Delaware State Police, and a record does not automatically end an application, but the Department reviews the reports before a license issues, and the 90-day freshness window means timing matters (see the fees and registration section below).
- No sponsorship or appointment is needed to test. An insurer appointment comes after licensure; nothing about the exams requires an employer, an agency, or a carrier to sponsor you first.
In short: if you are 18 or older with a Delaware address, you may reserve either exam as soon as you are ready to sit it. Readiness is the only real eligibility question, and it is the one this guide’s study section addresses.
The exams, piece by piece
Both exams follow the same architecture. A General portion tests national product knowledge, terms, and policy provisions for that line. A State portion tests Delaware statutes, rules, regulations, and bulletins — plus a stand-alone Insurance Ethics section that appears in each exam’s State portion. The portions are separately timed (75 minutes General, 60 minutes State) and, critically, separately scored: the handbook’s score-reporting rules treat the content portion and the statutes-and-regulations portion as two results, not one blended result.
The Property Producer exam (InsDE_Prop04) — 85 scored + 12 pretest = 97 questions, 135 minutes
| Portion / section | Scored questions | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| General portion (50 scored + 5 pretest, 75 minutes) | ||
| I. Types of Policies | 22 | Homeowners (HO-2 through HO-8), dwelling policies, commercial package and commercial property, businessowners, builders risk, inland marine, flood (NFIP), farm, earthquake, mobile homes, watercraft, windstorm |
| II. Insurance Terms and Related Concepts | 15 | Risk, hazard, peril, loss valuation, coinsurance, indemnity, binders, endorsements, and core property vocabulary |
| III. Policy Provisions and Contract Law | 13 | Declarations, insuring agreement, conditions, exclusions, duties after loss, appraisal, subrogation, contract elements, underwriting sources, privacy and TRIA |
| State portion (35 scored + 7 pretest, 60 minutes) | ||
| I. Delaware Statutes, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Life, Accident and Health, Property and Casualty Insurance | 13 | License regulations, marketing practices, the Insurance Commissioner — the rules for every Delaware licensee |
| II. Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Common to Both Property and Casualty Insurance | 5 | Surplus lines, rate filings, fiduciary accounts, the Guaranty Association Act, premium financing, credit scoring |
| III. Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Property Insurance Only | 5 | The Delaware FAIR Plan; declination, renewal, and cancellation of property insurance contracts; flood program rules |
| IV. Insurance Ethics | 12 | Market conduct, authority, unfair practices (twisting, rebating, misrepresentation, unfair claims practices), fraud, privacy, disclosure |
| Total scored | 85 | Plus 12 unscored pretest questions = 97 on screen |
The Casualty Producer exam (InsDE_Cas05) — 95 scored + 14 pretest = 109 questions, 135 minutes
| Portion / section | Scored questions | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| General portion (50 scored + 5 pretest, 75 minutes) | ||
| I. Types of Policies, Bonds, and Related Terms | 23 | Commercial general liability, personal and business auto, workers’ compensation concepts, crime, surety and fidelity bonds, professional liability, umbrella/excess, businessowners liability |
| II. Insurance Terms and Related Concepts | 15 | Risk, hazards, negligence, liability, damages, binders, endorsements, certificates of insurance, and core casualty vocabulary |
| III. Policy Provisions | 12 | Declarations, insuring agreement, conditions, exclusions, supplementary payments, proof of loss, loss settlement, TRIA |
| State portion (45 scored + 9 pretest, 60 minutes) | ||
| I. Delaware Statutes, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Life, Accident and Health, Property and Casualty Insurance | 13 | License regulations, marketing practices, the Insurance Commissioner |
| II. Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Common to Both Property and Casualty Insurance | 5 | Surplus lines, rate filings, fiduciary accounts, the Guaranty Association Act, premium financing, credit scoring |
| III. Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Casualty Insurance Only | 15 | The Delaware Motorist Protection Act, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, auto cancellation and nonrenewal, the Delaware Automobile Insurance Plan, Delaware workers’ compensation law |
| IV. Insurance Ethics | 12 | Market conduct, authority, unfair practices, fraud, privacy, disclosure |
| Total scored | 95 | Plus 14 unscored pretest questions = 109 on screen |
Four structural facts that shape how you should prepare:
- Delaware law plus ethics is 80 of the 180 scored questions across the two exams — about 44%. No part of these exams rewards a purely national preparation. The State portions test named Delaware programs and statutes: the FAIR Plan, the Guaranty Association, the Automobile Insurance Plan, the Motorist Protection Act, and Delaware’s workers’ compensation rules, alongside the licensing and marketing rules every Delaware producer works under.
- The State portions repeat a common core — deliberately. Sections I and II of each State portion (13 + 5 questions) cover the same common Delaware material in both exams, and each exam adds its own 12-question Ethics section. Study the common core and ethics once, well, and it pays on both test days; the line-specific sections (5 Property-only, 15 Casualty-only) are where the two exams genuinely diverge.
- The Casualty exam is the bigger exam, and its State portion is the bigger portion. At 95 scored questions to Property’s 85 — and 45 State questions to 35 — Casualty asks more Delaware law, driven by the 15-question Casualty-only section (auto and workers’ compensation law). Budget study time accordingly rather than splitting it evenly.
- Portions pass and fail independently. A strong General portion cannot rescue a failed State portion, because they are scored as separate portions. The consolation is in the retakes section below: you retake only the portion you failed.
Pretest questions. The pretest items (12 on Property, 14 on Casualty) are tryout questions Pearson VUE is evaluating for future exams. They are indistinguishable from scored questions, they do not affect your result, and there is no strategy for them other than treating every question as scored. Note for the careful reader, logged in this guide’s internal source log: Pearson VUE’s handbook exam table prints a different General-portion pretest count (10) than its own content outlines (5). The totals in this guide follow the published content outlines, whose State-portion pretest counts match the handbook table exactly; the discrepancy is flagged in our source log and should be re-checked against the current handbook before you rely on an on-screen total.
The passing standard, explained
Each portion of each exam is reported as a scaled score from 0 to 100.
A scaled score is not a percentage of questions answered correctly, and the handbook says so in terms: the scaled score that is reported “is neither the number of questions answered correctly nor the percentage of questions answered correctly.” Scaling converts raw results across different forms of an exam — which mix slightly different questions — so that every form demands the same level of knowledge. A score below the passing line indicates how close you came, rather than reporting your raw percentage.
Here is the part Delaware candidates most often get wrong, because most states simply print a number: the Delaware handbook does not publish one universal passing number for these exams. It states that “some exams require a scaled score of 70 to pass and others require a scaled score of 80 to pass,” and that the passing score will be listed on your score report. The passing standard is set by the Delaware Department of Insurance in conjunction with Pearson VUE. What that means practically:
- Do not study to a percentage you found on a prep site. Non-official sources commonly cite a single figure for Delaware; the official handbook’s own text is the two-number statement above, with the operative number printed on the individual score report. Our source log records the specific figure as unverified from official sources, and this guide deliberately prints no single number as fact.
- Study to clear every portion with margin. Because the General and State portions are scored separately, “passing overall” is not a thing in Delaware — each portion must meet its standard. A preparation plan that leaves one portion near the line is a plan to retake that portion.
- Your score report is a pass/fail document with help attached. When you complete an exam you receive a score report marked “pass” or “fail” before you leave the test center. Passing reports include information on how to apply for a license; failing reports include diagnostic information about your performance — the starting point for a portion-targeted retake plan.
Delaware and Pearson VUE do not publish a pass-rate report for these exams in the handbook or the sources checked for this guide, so this guide states no pass rate. Treat any Delaware pass-rate figure you find elsewhere as unattributed unless it names its official report.
Fees and registration, step by step
Keep the payments separate — they go to different organizations, at different points in the process, and two of the figures are easy to confuse.
| Payment | Amount | Paid to | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam fee | $90 per examination — one $90 fee total if you schedule both exams for the same day | Pearson VUE | When you reserve |
| Criminal-history reports (state + FBI, certified) | $85 (state-only is $72) | Delaware State Police / State Bureau of Identification (via IdentoGO) | When you obtain your reports |
| License application | $125 (resident producer) | The State, via NIPR | After you pass |
| Company appointment | $75 | The State (insurer-filed) | When a carrier appoints you, after licensure |
Exam fees are non-refundable and non-transferable, are paid by credit card, debit card, or voucher at reservation, and are never accepted at the test center.
The sequence, in order:
- Reserve your exam(s) with Pearson VUE. Create an account and book through Pearson VUE’s Delaware insurance page, or call 800-274-0455. Reservations must be made at least 24 hours before the desired exam date; walk-in examinations are not available. Have ready your legal name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, daytime phone number, the name of the examination(s), and your preferred date and test center. Your name must match your identification.
- Decide the same-day question before you book, because it changes the price. Candidates scheduling more than one major-line exam in the same day — Personal Lines excepted — pay only one $90 examination fee. Property and Casualty on one day: $90 total, and a combined 206 questions across two 135-minute exams. On separate days: $90 each. Neither choice is wrong; the fee rule simply rewards the harder test day, so choose based on readiness, not only on the $90.
- Take the exam(s) at a Pearson VUE test center. The handbook lists Delaware centers in Dover and Newark, plus Philadelphia, PA and Salisbury, MD, with hundreds of other locations available nationally; schedules vary by center and are subject to change. Both the Property and Casualty exams are also available in Spanish. Arrive 30 minutes early (see the test-day section below) and leave with your official score report in hand.
- Obtain your criminal-history reports. Delaware requires a state criminal-history report and an FBI criminal-history report, each dated within 90 days of receipt by the Department. You request them from the Delaware State Police: a personal criminal-history report and a fingerprint card to submit to the FBI, under the State Bureau of Identification’s current fingerprint-based process (the certified state-and-federal history is $85). Because of the 90-day window, obtain the reports close to when you will apply — reports gathered months before you pass can expire before the Department receives them.
- Apply for the license — electronically, after passing. Delaware accepts only electronic license and renewal applications, submitted through NIPR (www.nipr.com), with the $125 resident producer fee. After submitting through NIPR, fax your state and FBI criminal-history reports to the Department at 302-736-7906. Do not fax your exam results — Pearson VUE transmits them to the Department electronically (NIPR notes results reach the system within about 2–5 business days). Your passing scores are valid for 12 months, so the application must be completed inside that window.
- Get appointed. The license authorizes you to act as a producer; an appointment by an insurance company is what lets you sell that company’s products. The handbook’s fee schedule lists a $75 company appointment fee. Appointment follows licensure and is arranged with each carrier you will represent.
A fee warning worth printing in a guide: the Department’s older hosted licensing-procedures document lists a $75 producer fee, while the current candidate handbook (June 2025) lists $125. This guide uses the current handbook’s $125 — confirm the live figure in NIPR when you apply, because NIPR is where the fee is actually collected.
Retakes and score validity
Delaware’s portion structure makes its retake rules the most candidate-friendly part of the system — and the most misunderstood.
- Retake only what you failed. Producer examinations consist of two portions — content (General) and statutes and regulations (State). Major-line candidates are required to retake only the portion of the examination they failed, not the whole exam.
- The one-year portion clock. You must pass the failed portion within one (1) year of passing the first portion in order to pass the entire examination. If both portions are not passed within that year, you must retake the entire examination. The clock runs from the portion you passed, so a failed portion left alone quietly becomes a full re-examination.
- Wait 24 hours to reschedule. Reservations for reexamination cannot be made at the test center, and you must wait twenty-four (24) hours before rescheduling. The exam fee applies per the handbook’s fee rules for each reservation.
- Change and cancel deadlines. To change or cancel any reservation without forfeiting the fee, call Pearson VUE at least forty-eight (48) hours before the examination; with proper notice the fee may be transferred to a new reservation or refunded. Without proper notice, the fee is forfeited. Limited excused-absence grounds (illness, death in the immediate family, disabling traffic accident, court appearance or jury duty, military duty, weather emergency) may be requested within 14 days of the exam date.
- Score validity for licensing. Examination scores are valid for 12 months from the date of examination for purposes of your license application. Pass, then apply promptly — the portion clock and the application clock are both running.
- No review of exam content. For security reasons, examination material is not available to candidates for review after the fact. Your diagnostic score report is the feedback the system gives you; build your retake preparation from it.
Test day
- Arrive 30 minutes early. Report to the test center at least thirty minutes before the examination to complete registration. Your identification and documentation will be reviewed and you will be photographed for your score report. Late arrival risks denied admission and a forfeited fee; Pearson VUE recognizes no grace periods — including on identification, where an ID that expired yesterday is treated as expired even if your state allows a renewal grace period.
- Bring two forms of signature identification. The primary ID must be government-issued, photo-bearing, and signed (driver’s license, state or national ID card, passport or passport card, military ID, or alien registration card are among the accepted forms); the secondary ID must carry a valid signature (a Social Security card or a debit/credit card qualifies, as does any primary-list ID). Identification must be in English. Candidates without the required items are denied admission, counted absent, and forfeit the fee.
- Sign the Candidate Rules Agreement. You will review and sign it at check-in, and take a short computer tutorial whose time does not reduce your exam time. The exam begins the moment you look at the first question, and it ends automatically when the allotted time expires.
- Expect a clean room. No personal items enter the testing room — phones and other electronics, watches, wallets, bags, hats, books, notes, pens, and pencils are stored in a secure area or left in your vehicle, with electronics turned off. Studying is not allowed in the test center, and visitors are not permitted. The administrator provides the materials permitted for notes or calculations; you may not write on them before the exam begins or remove them afterward. Eating, drinking, gum, and smoking are prohibited during the exam. Unscheduled breaks require the administrator’s attention, the exam clock keeps running during them, and you may not leave the floor or building.
- Pace for the portion in front of you. Each portion is its own timed sitting: 60 scored-and-pretest questions in 75 minutes for a General portion (about a minute and a quarter each), and 42 questions in 60 minutes on the Property State portion or 54 in 60 minutes on the Casualty State portion (about a minute each). Flag-and-return discipline matters most in the State portions, where the per-question budget is tightest.
- Results are immediate. You leave the test center with your official score report in hand, marked pass or fail — with application information if you passed, and diagnostic information if you did not. Duplicate reports are available through your Pearson VUE account.
How to study for these exams
The outlines are the syllabus — Pearson VUE publishes exactly what the exams cover, section by section, and the counts in the exam-breakdown sections above are question counts, not suggestions. A plan built on Delaware’s actual structure:
- Build the common Delaware core first. Sections I and II of the State portions (18 scored questions in each exam) plus the 12-question Ethics section in each exam mean 30 questions per exam — 60 across the pair — draw on licensing rules, marketing practices, the Commissioner, surplus lines, the Guaranty Association, and unfair-practices law that is substantially the same material both times. It is the highest-leverage study block in Delaware: learn it once, use it twice.
- Then split for the line-specific law. Property-only law is a compact 5 questions (the FAIR Plan and property-contract cancellation rules above all). Casualty-only law is 15 questions and deserves three times the attention: the Motorist Protection Act, UM/UIM coverage, auto cancellation and nonrenewal, the Automobile Insurance Plan, and Delaware workers’ compensation.
- Give the Types sections their combined weight. Property Types (22) and Casualty Types, Bonds, and Related Terms (23) are the largest single sections on either exam — 45 questions across the pair. Learn policy forms comparatively: what each covers, what it excludes, and how it pays.
- Learn terms inside questions, not off a glossary. The two Terms sections carry 30 questions across the pair and test vocabulary through scenarios — risk and hazard classifications, valuation, negligence, and damages. Definitions learned in context hold; definitions memorized off a list leak under time pressure.
- Practice by portion, then by exam, then (if you booked it) by day. Drill single portions first — Delaware scores them separately, so your readiness is a per-portion fact. Then sit full 97- and 109-question simulations against the real clocks. If you scheduled both exams for one day to save the second $90 fee, rehearse that day at least once: 206 questions is an endurance event, and endurance is trainable.
- Read every explanation, especially for questions you got right. A right answer reached by a wrong reason is a wrong answer waiting for a different question. On Delaware-law items especially, the explanation is where the statute’s actual rule replaces the plausible-sounding one.
- Schedule when the simulations say so — every portion of both exams comfortably in passing territory, not an average that hides one weak portion. Delaware’s structure punishes averages and rewards portion-level readiness.
This program’s Delaware practice bank (10,087 questions, including 2,593 on the Delaware State portions) is built on these same outlines, with generated practice exams available for the Property exam, the Casualty exam, each portion separately, or both exams combined. The Delaware Insurance Exam Prep program page shows the full coverage table — and the notify list there will email you when enrollment opens.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the Delaware property and casualty exams?
There is no single combined exam. The Property Producer exam presents 97 questions in 135 minutes — 85 scored (50 General + 35 State) plus 12 unscored pretest questions. The Casualty Producer exam presents 109 questions in 135 minutes — 95 scored (50 General + 45 State) plus 14 pretest questions. Pretest questions are mixed in and cannot be identified.
Is the Delaware P&C exam one test or two?
Two. Delaware licenses Property and Casualty as separate lines of authority, with separate exams (InsDE_Prop04 and InsDE_Cas05), separate General and State portions, and separate results. You need the Property exam for the Property line and the Casualty exam for the Casualty line.
What is the passing score for the Delaware insurance exams?
Results are scaled scores from 0 to 100, and a scaled score is neither the number nor the percentage of questions answered correctly. Pearson VUE’s Delaware handbook states that some Delaware exams require a scaled score of 70 and others 80, and that the passing score for your exam is listed on your score report — it does not publish a single number for these producer exams, so be wary of any source that states one as official.
Does Delaware require pre-licensing education?
No. The Department of Insurance does not require a specific program of pre-licensing education for these licenses and does not pre-screen exam candidates. Preparation is your choice; the exams, the criminal-history reports, and the NIPR application are the requirements.
How much does it cost to get a Delaware P&C license?
The exam fee is $90 per examination, paid to Pearson VUE — or $90 total if you schedule both exams for the same day. The resident producer license application through NIPR is $125, paid to the state after you pass. The certified state-and-FBI criminal-history process costs $85 through the State Bureau of Identification. A $75 company appointment fee applies when a carrier appoints you after licensure.
How do I register for the Delaware insurance exams?
Reserve through Pearson VUE’s Delaware insurance page or by calling 800-274-0455, at least 24 hours before your desired date. Walk-ins are not available. You will need your legal name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, the exam name(s), and your preferred date and center.
Can I take the Delaware insurance exams online?
The candidate handbook describes testing at Pearson VUE test centers and provides no at-home option for these exams; plan on a test-center sitting (Delaware centers are listed in Dover and Newark, with additional centers in Philadelphia and Salisbury and hundreds nationally).
What happens after I pass both exams?
Apply electronically through NIPR with the $125 fee, then fax your state and FBI criminal-history reports — each dated within 90 days — to the Department at 302-736-7906. Your exam results are transmitted electronically by Pearson VUE; you do not send them. Your scores are valid for 12 months, so complete the application inside that window. After licensure, a carrier appointment ($75) lets you sell that carrier’s products.
If I fail, how soon can I retake, and what do I retake?
You retake only the portion you failed — General or State — and you must wait 24 hours before rescheduling; reexamination cannot be booked at the test center. You must pass the failed portion within one year of passing the first portion, or the entire examination must be retaken.
How long are my Delaware exam scores valid?
Twelve months from the date of examination for licensing purposes — and the two portions of each exam must both be passed within one year of each other.
What Delaware-specific topics do the exams cover?
The FAIR Plan, the Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, the Delaware Automobile Insurance Plan, the Motorist Protection Act, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, auto and property cancellation/nonrenewal rules, Delaware workers’ compensation, surplus lines, premium financing, credit scoring in underwriting, and the licensing, marketing-practice, and ethics rules that govern every Delaware producer — 80 scored Delaware-portion questions across the two exams.
What is a scaled score, in plain terms?
A way of making different versions of an exam equally hard to pass. Your raw result is converted onto a standard 0–100 scale; the reported number is not your percentage correct, and a below-passing score tells you how close you came rather than how many questions you missed.
Are the two exams available in Spanish?
Yes. The handbook lists the Property and Casualty producer exams (along with Life, Accident & Health, and Personal Lines) as also available in Spanish.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider and is not affiliated with the Delaware Department of Insurance, Pearson VUE, or any state agency or exam vendor. This guide is general information about the Delaware licensing exam, current as of October 2026; Delaware Department of Insurance and Pearson VUE publications govern if anything here differs from them.