Insurance License Hub

The Pennsylvania Surplus Lines license

Surplus Lines

Places Pennsylvania risks with insurers the Commonwealth has not admitted. It is stacked on a property and casualty producer license, and its examination is the only one in the state the Department says has no exemptions at all.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

2

1 of them skips the state exam.

Exam

Varies

Priced per paper. The prices are below.

Either combination is $55. Each single paper is $45.

Every way to qualify

More than one route leads to this license, and which one you take changes what you study and whether you sit the exam. There is no pre-licensing course among them: this license is qualified for by sitting the examination or a license held in another state.

  1. Route 1 Hold the property and casualty producer license, then sit the paper

    State exam required

    The license underneath

    • A Pennsylvania insurance producer license for property and casualty, which the applicant must hold first

    and the examination

    • The Pennsylvania surplus lines examination, which the Department states every resident applicant must take: "There are no exemptions or exceptions"

    and the agency, where there is one

    • Where the individual is affiliated with an agency, that agency must itself hold both a Pennsylvania producer license for property and casualty and a Pennsylvania surplus lines license

    The Department's surplus lines licensing requirements sheet is the source and its second sentence is the finding: "Resident applicants must take the Pennsylvania surplus lines exam. There are no exemptions or exceptions."Nothing else licensed in Pennsylvania is put that way. Compare the producer examination, which section 604-A(d) of the Insurance Department Act waives for a Chartered Life Underwriter, a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter, a Certified Insurance Counselor, anybody licensed elsewhere for the same lines and anybody holding only a limited line. The requirement that the agency hold both licenses as well is the other unusual part: the individual's license is not enough to put the business through a firm that lacks one.

    Read at the Department on 2026-08-19

  2. Route 2 Hold surplus lines and property and casualty at home

    Exempt from the state exam

    • A home state license for surplus lines and a home state license for property and casualty, both held; the Department asks for both rather than either

    "Non-residents must be licensed in their home state for surplus lines and property/casualty."The same sheet applies the agency rule to nonresidents in the next sentence: where a nonresident individual is affiliated with an agency, that agency needs the Pennsylvania producer license for property and casualty and the Pennsylvania surplus lines license too.

    Read at the Department on 2026-08-19

Pennsylvania does examine a resident surplus lines applicant, and says the paper has no exemptions or exceptions, so unlike most licenses on this site there is something here to prepare for. No national seller prepares anybody for it: the five that cover Pennsylvania sell producer line packages, a public adjuster package and a motor vehicle physical damage appraiser package, and nothing for surplus lines.