Do You Need a Pre-Licensing Course for the North Carolina Property & Casualty Exam? (2026)

No. Since 1 October 2025, North Carolina no longer requires a pre-licensing course, for any line, including Property and Casualty. The change comes from S.L. 2025-45, and the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) announced the repeal of the pre-licensing education requirement on 2025-10-09. You can go straight to the exams.

You still have to pass the state exams: the Property Agent exam (code 04) and the Casualty Agent exam (code 05), each with 55 scored questions, 75 minutes and a scaled passing score of 70. You also pay the licensing costs: $50 registration per line of authority (G.S. 58-33-125), $44 application processing, $38 SBI/FBI fingerprints for a first license and a $5 NIPR fee.

Property and Casualty on one application come to $187 in those costs. Add two exam attempts at $45 and the total is $277.

Before the repeal, the course was a gate. Now nothing stands between you and the exam except preparation, and that matters, because the first-time pass rates are 49% for Property and 53% for Casualty (2025, NAIC compiled). Removing the course did not make the exams easier. It moved the responsibility for being ready to you.

Plan the preparation yourself. The exams weigh North Carolina law heavily, 13 items on Property and 15 on Casualty, and national study material covers that thinly.

LanePrep is exam preparation, not a mandated course. You do not need it to qualify to sit the exam, and completing it does not replace any requirement. What it offers is a way to learn the outline: audio lessons you can play in the car or on a commute, quiz questions after each chapter, and free practice sets by topic, with an explanation for every answer.

The chapters, from personal property coverages through North Carolina casualty law, follow the exam outline, so you can study for the Property exam, the Casualty exam or both.

Without a mandated course, the order of study is your choice. A workable one: learn the shared terms and concepts, then the coverages that carry the most scored items for your exam, then North Carolina law, then timed practice. If you plan to sit both exams, finish one before starting the other, because the Property and Casualty outlines diverge after Section I.

Leave room at the end for review. The 24-hour wait between attempts is short, and each attempt costs $45, so a plan that reaches the exam already strong is cheaper than one that relies on a second try.

Check the current requirements with NCDOI before you apply, since this is a recent change. Then see what the license costs, how the exams are built and how hard they are, and try the course preview.