Michigan Property & Casualty Exam Overview

Welcome and the First Critical Distinction

Welcome to OpenExamPrep's FREE Michigan Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance exam prep guide. This resource layers the Michigan-specific regulations, licensing logistics, and state insurance laws on top of national P&C fundamentals so you can pass in 2026. The single most important opening lesson: "the Michigan P&C exam" is not one test. It is a set of distinct licensing examinations, and the question count, time limit, and passing score change depending on which one you sit. Candidates who skim this distinction often book the wrong exam or memorize the wrong cut score.

Who Administers the Exam

Michigan insurance licensing examinations are administered by PSI Services LLC ("PSI") under contract to the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS). The two bodies have separate jobs:

• DIFS sets the licensing rules, approves pre-licensing course providers, fixes the cut scores (minimum passing percentages), conducts background review, and issues the actual license.
• PSI develops the test items, operates the test centers, scores your exam in real time, and emails the score report.

On the exam, the regulator is called DIFS or simply "the Department." Do not select the older name OFIR (Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation) — that office was reorganized into DIFS back in 2013, and answer choices naming OFIR are distractors. Michigan is not a Pearson VUE state for these exams; that is a common trap pulled from generic study material.

The Three P&C Exam Options (Know the Difference)

You may license Property and Casualty as two separate exams, or sit the combined Property & Casualty exam in a single session:

Here is the trap the exam (and our quizzes) will test: the combined 150-question exam carries a single 74% cut score. There is no per-section "75/74" split on one combined sitting. The 75% applies only to standalone Property; 74% applies to standalone Casualty and to the combined exam. PSI also embeds a handful of unscored experimental (pretest) items that do not count, so the total questions you see can slightly exceed the scored counts above.

Other Test-Day Logistics

• Delivery: In-person at a PSI test center only. Effective June 10, 2025, DIFS directed PSI to discontinue all remote-proctored Michigan insurance exams; remote registrations are no longer accepted.
• Results: Immediate, on-screen, plus an emailed score report. A passing result is valid for 12 months from the pass date.
• Fee: $41 per attempt, payable to PSI; each retake is another $41.
• Arrival: Plan to arrive 30 minutes early for check-in with a valid government-issued photo ID. A second ID or signature may be requested.

Pre-Licensing Education Requirements

Michigan requires 20 hours of DIFS-approved pre-licensing education per line of authority. Sitting both lines (or the combined exam) therefore requires 40 hours total. Each 20-hour block has a fixed structure:

You must finish the approved course before you test, and your certificate of completion is valid for 12 months — you must pass the exam within that window. One memorize-this exception: the Variable Life & Annuities producer line requires no pre-licensing education (pass the exam only), but that is a Life-side line, not P&C, so it does not change the 40-hour P&C requirement.

Step-by-Step Licensing Process

Step 1 — Complete Pre-Licensing Education

Finish your 40 hours of DIFS-approved coursework (20 hours Property + 20 hours Casualty, each including 6 hours of ethics/Michigan law). Retain your certificate of completion; some providers report completion to DIFS electronically, but keep your own proof and remember the certificate expires in 12 months.

Step 2 — Register and Pay PSI

Register at psiexams.com, create a candidate account, select the correct Michigan P&C exam (standalone Property 16-67, standalone Casualty 16-68, or combined 16-81), and pay the $41 fee. Since June 10, 2025 you must choose an in-person test center — there is no remote option. Choosing the wrong code means re-registering and paying again.

Step 3 — Pass the Exam

Arrive 30 minutes early with a valid government photo ID. Answer within the time limit and clear the cut score (75% Property / 74% Casualty / 74% combined). You get immediate on-screen results plus an emailed report; a failing report includes a diagnostic showing your weakest content areas so you can target a retake.

Step 4 — Apply for the License

Apply through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) at nipr.com. Michigan's producer application fee is $10 plus a $5.60 NIPR transaction fee — among the lowest application fees nationally. You authorize a background review, and prior criminal or financial disclosures can trigger additional DIFS scrutiny under federal 1033 waiver rules.

Step 5 — DIFS Review and Issuance

DIFS reviews the application, exam result, and background before issuing the license. Once issued, a producer license follows a two-year cycle tied to your birth month (not the original issue date), which is the renewal anchor you will be tested on.

Total Cost to Get Licensed

Continuing Education (After You Pass)

Michigan resident producers must complete 24 hours of CE every two-year term, including 3 hours of ethics. Up to 12 hours may carry over to the next term as general credit, and a small per-credit reporting fee applies. CE must be DIFS-approved and is tracked electronically; lapsed CE blocks renewal and can lead to license suspension. Build the habit early rather than cramming 24 hours in the final month.

Common Logistics Traps

• Confusing the one-time 40-hour pre-licensing requirement with the recurring 24-hour CE requirement — different numbers, different purposes.
• Assuming Pearson VUE or remote proctoring; both are wrong for Michigan in 2026.
• Applying the 75% cut score to the combined exam.
• Thinking the license renews on the issue-date anniversary rather than the birth-month cycle.

How This Guide Is Organized

This state guide assumes you already know national P&C fundamentals; it adds Michigan's distinctive rules. Later chapters cover DIFS regulation and producer duties, Michigan property insurance (including the Michigan Basic Property Insurance Association / FAIR Plan for hard-to-place risks), and Michigan casualty — most importantly the July 2020 No-Fault auto reform, its tiered Personal Injury Protection (PIP) choices, and the 50/100/10 minimum liability formula. Master the Michigan-specific numbers above, then move into Chapter 1.