How to get a Texas property and casualty license

The Texas General Lines - Property and Casualty license lets you sell homeowners, auto and commercial coverage. The path is short: pass one exam, get fingerprinted, apply, and get appointed by an insurer. The details below come from the Pearson VUE candidate handbook (#124400) and the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI).

The requirements

• Be at least 18.
• Pass the exam. What's actually on the Texas P&C exam covers its two halves.
• Submit a completed application, with the fee and your fingerprint receipt, within 12 months of passing the exam.

The process

1. Reserve and take the exam through Pearson VUE. Texas insurance exam day: what to bring and retake rules covers the logistics.
2. Get fingerprinted. Most applicants use IdentoGO, which sends electronic prints to Texas DPS and the FBI. You submit through TDI's online initial application and fingerprint portal, and schedule with the service code TDI emails you.
3. Apply through Sircon or NIPR after you pass.
4. Get appointed. An agent must be appointed by each insurer they represent before transacting business for it (Texas Insurance Code 4001.201). Passing the exam and holding a license is not enough on its own.

Exam exemptions

TDI and the handbook list three ways to be exempt from the exam:

• holding the CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter) designation,
• holding an active license in a reciprocal state,
• a license that expired 90 or more days ago but less than a year ago.

The CPCU is the property and casualty exemption. The life and health license has a different designation, the CLU.

The temporary license option

A 180-day temporary license is available before you pass. The appointing insurer or agency must provide 40 hours of training within 30 days (Texas Insurance Code 4001.160). Texas temporary insurance license explained covers the limits that come with it.

Keeping the license

The license term is two years, and you renew with 24 hours of continuing education including 3 hours of ethics. Note that Texas individual licenses expire on the holder's birthday (Texas Insurance Code 4003.001), not at the end of the birth month as some guides state. Texas insurance license renewal and continuing education has the full rules.

Prepare for the exam

Encodr's free Texas Property and Casualty course builds from insurance basics through homeowners, auto and commercial lines to the Texas rules. How to study for the Texas general lines P&C exam gives a plan, and the study schedule generator turns your exam date into daily targets. If you may add health products later, how to get a Texas life and health insurance license covers that license. All courses are on the exam prep hub.