The Wisconsin Personal Lines license

Twenty hours split eight and twelve. The eight hours of principles, general Wisconsin insurance law and ethics carry across every line applied for inside a twelve-month window, so the second line costs twelve rather than twenty. The education is only good for a year: Ins 26.04(1) asks that it be completed not more than one year before the date tested. The certificate of completion has to be carried to the testing center on paper or electronically, and a candidate who arrives without it is not allowed to sit and loses the exam fee, which is not refundable. A course taken at any time rather than in real time carries one more step that no other state here imposes: correspondence, online, video, audio, CD and DVD courses only count once the student has passed a proctored examination on the course itself, separate from the state exam, with an affidavit from an impartial proctor. Ins 26.03(3m) is what makes the delivery matter, because it defines a credit hour as at least fifty minutes of classroom instruction or 4,500 words of self-study.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-15

Ins 26.04(2)(i) lists these and no others for the Personal Lines line, and a different list applies to every other line, so a designation that exempts a life applicant does nothing for a property one. The exemption reaches the course and not the examination: the same subsection says "prelicensing education and examination requirements" one paragraph earlier, at Ins 26.04(2)(f), where it means both. Every exemption here is a step rather than an automatic pass: Ins 26.04(3) makes the applicant file an exemption request with supporting documentation, and the Office says it must be submitted and approved ninety days before the exam date and answers within thirty days of receiving it.

Read at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov on 2026-08-15

Ins 26.04(2)(c), and the evidence of attendance goes in with the application. The Office calls the same thing a two-year Wisconsin technical college degree on its own page. It exempts the course and not the examination. Every exemption here is a step rather than an automatic pass: Ins 26.04(3) makes the applicant file an exemption request with supporting documentation, and the Office says it must be submitted and approved ninety days before the exam date and answers within thirty days of receiving it.

Read at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov on 2026-08-15

Ins 26.04(2)(d). An official transcript is required for any college degree exemption. It exempts the course and not the examination. Every exemption here is a step rather than an automatic pass: Ins 26.04(3) makes the applicant file an exemption request with supporting documentation, and the Office says it must be submitted and approved ninety days before the exam date and answers within thirty days of receiving it.

Read at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov on 2026-08-15

Ins 26.04(2)(f) is the one exemption on this page that reaches the examination as well as the course, and it says so in as many words. It is per line: the previous license has to carry each line applied for in Wisconsin. The application goes in on the NAIC Uniform Application, and if the National Insurance Producer Registry cannot confirm the previous home state license, evidence of it has to be supplied. Every exemption here is a step rather than an automatic pass: Ins 26.04(3) makes the applicant file an exemption request with supporting documentation, and the Office says it must be submitted and approved ninety days before the exam date and answers within thirty days of receiving it.

Read at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov on 2026-08-15