Florida Property & Casualty Exam Overview

What the 2-20 License Authorizes

In Florida, property and casualty insurance is sold by agents who hold a 2-20 General Lines Agent license, issued and regulated by the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS), with product and solvency oversight from the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR).

The 2-20 is the broadest property and casualty credential in the state: it authorizes you to transact personal lines (homeowners, dwelling fire, personal auto), commercial lines (commercial property, commercial general liability, commercial auto, business owners policies, workers' compensation), surety and fidelity bonds, and inland and ocean marine coverage for admitted insurers.

The 2-20 is distinct from the narrower 20-44 Personal Lines Agent license, which is limited to personal residential and personal auto-type coverages and does not authorize most commercial business. Because the 2-20 grants the widest selling authority, it carries the most demanding pre-licensing requirement and the broadest exam, which is exactly why this guide spends as much time on commercial casualty and surety as on homeowners and auto.

Eligibility, Pre-Licensing, and Fingerprinting

To qualify for the 2-20, you must generally be at least 18 years old, be a U.S. citizen or legal resident with a valid Social Security number, and maintain a Florida residence (resident license). The defining education requirement is the state-approved 200-hour pre-licensing course in general lines insurance. A recognized alternative is a bachelor's degree with a major in insurance from an accredited four-year institution, which exempts the applicant from the course.

Before the license is issued you must also clear a background check via electronic fingerprinting. Fingerprints are captured by an approved LiveScan vendor and submitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the FBI; results are routed directly to DFS. Fingerprints taken for DFS within the prior 12 months generally do not need to be repeated.

Steps from start to licensed agent

1. Confirm eligibility (age, residency, Social Security number).
2. Complete the 200-hour approved pre-licensing course (or qualify by insurance degree).
3. Schedule and complete LiveScan fingerprinting.
4. Pass the Pearson VUE 2-20 state exam at 70% or higher.
5. File the license application in the DFS MyProfile portal and pay the fee (about $55).
6. Obtain a company appointment before actively transacting insurance.

Exam Logistics and Format

The 2-20 exam is delivered by computer at Pearson VUE test centers (and through approved online proctoring). All questions are multiple-choice with four options, and the test includes a small number of unscored pretest questions that are scattered randomly and do not count toward your result. You must earn a scaled score equivalent to 70% correct on the scored items to pass; results are reported as pass/fail at the test center.

Exact question counts and time limits drift slightly between candidate-handbook editions, so always confirm the current numbers in the official Pearson VUE candidate handbook before your test date.

How the Exam Splits: National Knowledge vs. Florida Law

The single most important thing to understand about the 2-20 is that it tests two different bodies of knowledge at once. Roughly speaking, a large share of the questions cover general (national) property and casualty fundamentals — the same concepts an agent would learn in any state — while the remainder cover Florida-specific statutes and regulation.

The national portion includes core insurance theory (risk, the law of large numbers, insurable interest, indemnity, and the elements and characteristics of an insurance contract), the structure of policies (declarations, insuring agreement, conditions, exclusions, endorsements), property forms (dwelling and homeowners forms, coinsurance, actual cash value versus replacement cost, commercial property, inland marine, and the National Flood Insurance Program), and casualty topics (negligence and liability, the Personal Auto Policy, Commercial General Liability, workers' compensation as an exclusive remedy, and umbrella/excess).

The Florida portion layers state law on top: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation as insurer of last resort, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, hurricane deductibles and sinkhole rules, Florida's no-fault PIP auto system (minimum $10,000 PIP plus $10,000 property damage liability), the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA), workers' compensation employee thresholds, and prohibited trade practices such as twisting, churning, sliding, and coercion.

What This Guide Covers and How to Study

This guide is deliberately built to mirror the exam's two-part structure. It opens with three national fundamentals chapters that teach the general property and casualty concepts you must master regardless of state: insurance and contract principles, property insurance coverages, and casualty/liability coverages.

It then continues with four Florida-specific chapters that translate those fundamentals into the exact statutes, programs, and figures Florida tests — including Florida property and catastrophe programs, Florida automobile and no-fault law, Florida workers' compensation, and Florida regulation, ethics, and prohibited practices.

A study strategy that maps to the exam

• Build the national base first. Florida law assumes you already understand concepts such as indemnity, coinsurance, and negligence. Learn these cold before adding state rules.
• Memorize the Florida numbers. The exam loves specific figures — the $10,000 PIP minimum, the 70% passing threshold, workers' compensation employee thresholds, and CE hours. Build flashcards for every number.
• Distinguish look-alikes. Sinkhole versus catastrophic ground cover collapse, replacement cost versus actual cash value, and occurrence versus claims-made are classic trap pairs.
• Practice timed questions. With roughly 165 scored items in about three hours, you have a little over a minute per question; practice maintaining that pace.
• Finish with full-length practice exams at 70%+ before scheduling, then review every missed question by topic so you can target weak chapters.

Work the chapters in order, take the end-of-section quizzes, and you will cover both halves of the exam systematically.