$360 in Fees: California P&C License Cost 2026

The state and vendor fees to get a California Property and Casualty license add up to $360 if you pass the exam on the first attempt and test at a PSI center. Test at the CDI examination site in Los Angeles and the PSI convenience fee drops away, bringing the minimum to $317.

On top of that sit two costs the state does not set a price for: the 12-hour ethics and Insurance Code course, which you buy from a private provider, and whatever you spend on exam preparation. Both vary; neither is avoidable in practice, because the ethics course is a condition of the license and the combined exam fails more than four in ten first-time candidates.

• Required fees: $55 + $43 + $74 + $188 = $360 ($317 at the CDI Los Angeles site)
• 12-hour ethics course: private-provider price
• Exam preparation: $0 to several hundred dollars, your choice
• Each retake: another $55 plus $43

Four payments are mandatory for a candidate who passes the combined Property and Casualty exam and applies for the license.

1. CDI Exam Fee — $55

Paid to the California Department of Insurance per attempt. One fee covers the combined 150-question Property and Casualty exam; it is the same fee whether you instead sit the Property-only or Casualty-only exam.

2. PSI Convenience Fee — $43 (or $0)

PSI Services delivers the exam and charges $43 per appointment at its test centers. The CDI's own examination site in Los Angeles charges no convenience fee. If Los Angeles is within reach, this is the one line in the budget you can cut to zero.

3. Live Scan Fingerprints — $74

California runs fingerprint-based background checks through Live Scan, billed at $74. You pay this once as part of the application, not per exam attempt.

4. License Filing Fee — $188

Paid to the CDI with your application. The license runs for a two-year term.

Total: $55 + $43 + $74 + $188 = $360. None of it depends on how you prepare.

Insurance Code §1749(a)(1) requires a 12-hour course in ethics and the California Insurance Code, including one hour on insurance fraud, before a Property and Casualty license is issued. It is not a condition of sitting the exam, so you can take the exam first and the course afterward while your Live Scan and application are processed.

The CDI does not sell the course and sets no fee for it. You buy it from a CDI-approved provider, and prices differ by provider and format. Check the provider's CDI approval before paying — a course that is not approved for the 12-hour requirement is money spent for nothing.

Before 2026, Property and Casualty applicants had to complete a 20-hour pre-licensing course before taking the exam. AB 943 (Rodriguez, Chapter 566, Statutes of 2025) repealed that requirement effective January 1, 2026. The CDI Curriculum Board's meeting minutes of February 19, 2026 confirm the repeal applies to “property, casualty, commercial lines, personal lines, limited lines automobile, life, and accident and health or sickness license applicants” by name.

The result is that pre-licensing packages once sold as a legal prerequisite are now optional preparation. You still need to learn the material — the exam has not become easier, and the Property-only first-time pass rate is only 45% — but you decide how, and you are no longer paying for a seat-time requirement. If a provider is still quoting a 20-hour course as mandatory for the California Property and Casualty exam, its information is no longer current.

The combined exam is 150 questions across the Property and the Casualty objectives, with a 57% first-time pass rate in 2025. How much you spend on preparation is the biggest variable in the whole budget.

$0 — the free stack. The CDI publishes its License Examination Objectives for both the Property exam and the Casualty exam, and the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin explains the format and timing. Together they tell you what is tested, not how it works. Free flashcards and videos tend to cover general insurance concepts reasonably well and California-specific rules — the FAIR Plan, CAARP, the Unfair Practices Act — less thoroughly. Viable for a disciplined candidate with an industry background, riskier for someone starting from zero given how low the Property-only pass rate runs.

$15–$79 — a focused exam-prep course. LanePrep's California Property & Casualty course is nine audio chapters built from the CDI's Property and Casualty objectives, with chapter quizzes and a dedicated chapter on California P&C law. It costs $79 once or $14.99 per month; a candidate on the three-week plan can be done inside a single month. Chapters 1 and 9 are free, no signup, so you can judge the format before paying.

Full-service packages. National prep providers also sell Property and Casualty packages with video lectures, a textbook and instructor access, priced per course by the provider. The structure suits complete beginners and candidates whose agency reimburses the cost. Make sure any package you buy has been updated for the 2026 objectives and the post-AB 943 rules.

Retakes — $98 each

Every attempt costs the $55 CDI fee again, and the $43 PSI fee again unless you test at the Los Angeles site. California allows up to 10 attempts at the same exam type in 12 months with no waiting period under §1682, so there is no rule stopping you from rebooking quickly — but the 2025 repeat pass rate on the combined exam was 40%, against 57% for first-timers. Budget for one retake and prepare so that you do not use it.

Choosing the wrong exam

The Property-only and Casualty-only exams cost the same $55 + $43 as the combined exam for half the questions. If you only need one line, sitting the matching single-line exam does not save money over the combined exam — it only saves time in the chair. Decide which license you actually need before you book, since the fee is spent either way.

A second Live Scan

The $74 covers one submission. A rejected print set or an error in the request can mean paying again, so check the details before you leave the Live Scan location.

This is not part of the entry cost, but it arrives two years later and is easy to forget when comparing the price of a license against the income it is meant to produce. Renewal runs on the same $188 filing fee for each two-year term. Renewal is a filing, not a re-examination — once licensed, you do not take the Property and Casualty exam again as long as the license stays active.

For most self-directed candidates the cost-optimal path is:

1. Book the exam ($55 + $43, or $55 at the CDI Los Angeles site) and give yourself three weeks.
2. Prepare with a focused course and a question loop so the first attempt is the only one.
3. After the pass: 12-hour ethics course, Live Scan ($74), application ($188).

LanePrep covers step 2: nine audio chapters built from the 2026 CDI Property and Casualty objectives, chapter quizzes, and a dedicated chapter for California P&C law, for $14.99 per month or $79 once. Chapters 1 and 9 are free. For the exam itself — format, weights and the week-by-week plan — read how to pass the California Property & Casualty exam on your first try.

Exam format, fees and pass rates come from the California Department of Insurance exam chart, the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin and the CDI Curriculum Board meeting packet. Read October 2026.