- DE-PC stands for the Delaware Property & Casualty Insurance Producer Exam, administered by Pearson VUE for the Delaware Department of Insurance.
- Property has 102 total questions (85 scored), Casualty has 114 total questions (95 scored), each within a 2 hour 15 minute window.
- Each exam splits into a general-knowledge portion and a Delaware-law portion; you can retake a failed portion alone, but must pass both within one year.
- Scheduling both major lines the same day costs one $90 fee, and Spanish-language versions exist.
What DE-PC Actually Means
DE-PC is shorthand for the Delaware Property & Casualty Insurance Producer Exam - the licensing test the Delaware Department of Insurance requires before someone can legally sell, solicit, or negotiate property and casualty insurance in the state. It is not a designation you earn through a private certifying board, and it is not a general industry credential you list after your name the way you would a professional certification acronym. It is a state producer license exam, delivered at Pearson VUE test centers, that stands between a candidate and the legal authority to write P&C business in Delaware.
Because the letters "DE-PC" are used elsewhere for entirely different credentials in other industries, it's worth being precise here: this article, and every fact in it, refers only to the Delaware insurance producer exam. If you found this page while researching insurance licensing, you're in the right place. If someone told you DE-PC involves a certifying body outside Delaware's insurance regulator, that's a different program entirely.
Why the Name Matters for Your Prep
Understanding exactly what DE-PC means changes how you prepare. Because it's a state-specific producer exam rather than a generic industry credential, a meaningful chunk of the content isn't about insurance concepts in the abstract - it's about Delaware statutes, regulations, and bulletins. That's a different studying problem than memorizing universal P&C theory. You need materials built around Delaware's actual content outline, not a repurposed multi-state study guide.
If you want the full breakdown of what's tested and how heavily, the DE-PC Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 14 Content Areas walks through every domain in depth. For a broader orientation before you dive into domains, What Is DE-PC? covers the licensing process end to end.
Key Takeaway
Because DE-PC is a Delaware-specific producer exam, generic national P&C study material will under-prepare you for the Delaware statutes and bulletins portions of each test.
The Anatomy of the Exam Behind the Name
Delaware's P&C producer license actually covers two separate exams - Property and Casualty - and candidates typically need to pass both if they want the full P&C license. Each exam is built from two distinct components: a general-knowledge portion covering insurance concepts and policy mechanics, and a Delaware-law portion covering state-specific statutes, regulations, and bulletins.
- Property exam: 102 total questions, 85 of which are scored (17 are unscored pretest items), delivered in 2 hours 15 minutes.
- Casualty exam: 114 total questions, 95 of which are scored (19 are unscored pretest items), also delivered in 2 hours 15 minutes.
The pretest items are mixed in with scored questions and aren't distinguishable during the exam, so every question deserves full attention regardless of whether it ultimately counts toward your score. Domain weighting, as reported in the January 15, 2025 content outline, is calculated only from the scored-item counts - the pretest questions don't factor into the percentages you see for each domain.
One structural detail candidates frequently misunderstand: the general-knowledge and Delaware-law portions are graded as separate pass/fail components within the same exam. If you fail one portion but pass the other, you only need to retake the portion you failed - but both portions must be passed within one year of each other, or you'll need to start over on both.
For a deeper look at how tough these two exams feel in practice, see How Hard Is the DE-PC Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026. If you're wondering what score you actually need to clear, DE-PC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass lays out the scoring mechanics.
The 14 Domains Hiding Behind the Acronym
The Delaware content outline splits the license into 14 domains - seven for Property (Domains 1-7) and seven for Casualty (Domains 8-14). Percentages are calculated independently within each exam, based on scored-item counts only.
Property Domains (1-7)
- Domain 1: Types of Policies - 25.9%
- Domain 2: Insurance Terms and Related Concepts - 17.6%
- Domain 3: Policy Provisions and Contract Law - 15.3%
- Domain 4: Delaware Statutes, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Life, Accident and Health, Property and Casualty Insurance - 15.3%
- Domain 5: Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Common to Both Property and Casualty Insurance - 5.9%
- Domain 6: Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Property Insurance Only - 5.9%
- Domain 7: Insurance Ethics - 14.1%
Casualty Domains (8-14)
- Domain 8: Types of Policies, Bonds, and Related Terms - 24.2%
- Domain 9: Insurance Terms and Related Concepts - 15.8%
- Domain 10: Policy Provisions - 12.6%
- Domain 11: Delaware Statutes, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Life, Accident and Health, Property and Casualty Insurance - 13.7%
- Domain 12: Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Common to Both Property and Casualty Insurance - 5.3%
- Domain 13: Delaware Statutes, Rules, Regulations, and Bulletins Pertinent to Casualty Insurance Only - 15.8%
- Domain 14: Insurance Ethics - 12.6%
Notice that Domains 1 and 8 - the "Types of Policies" domains - carry the heaviest weight on each exam, meaning policy classification and structure deserve the most study hours of any single topic. Ethics (Domains 7 and 14) also contributes 12 scored questions to each state-law portion, so it's a meaningful chunk of your score rather than an afterthought. A full breakdown of study allocation by domain is available in DE-PC Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.
| Exam | Total Questions | Scored Questions | Pretest Questions | Time Allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Property | 102 | 85 | 17 | 2 hrs 15 min |
| Casualty | 114 | 95 | 19 | 2 hrs 15 min |
Registration and Fee Mechanics
Delaware doesn't require prelicensing education before sitting for either exam, which is a notable difference from many other states and one of the more practical facts to know when planning your timeline. There's no mandatory course hours prerequisite standing between you and exam day - though that also means the content outline and your own study discipline carry more weight, since there's no built-in classroom coverage to fall back on.
Candidates who schedule both the Property and Casualty exams on the same day pay a single $90 fee rather than two separate fees, which is a meaningful cost consideration if you're pursuing the full P&C license rather than just one line. Spanish-language versions of the exam are also available through Pearson VUE for candidates who prefer to test in Spanish.
Resident applicants also go through state and federal criminal-history reporting as part of the licensure process - this runs alongside, not instead of, the exam itself. For the complete cost picture across both exams, fees, and any related expenses, see DE-PC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. Eligibility specifics, including the background-check process, are detailed in DE-PC Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and current testing windows are covered in DE-PC Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.
Key Takeaway
Booking Property and Casualty on the same day under the single $90 fee is the most efficient path if you're aiming for the full P&C license rather than a single line.
Who Actually Earns a DE-PC License
The people sitting for this exam are almost always aspiring or transitioning insurance producers - individuals who need a Delaware resident license to sell property and casualty products through an agency, brokerage, or captive carrier arrangement. It's also relevant to producers relocating to Delaware from another state who need to establish resident licensure rather than relying solely on non-resident reciprocity.
Once licensed, producers aren't done with regulatory requirements - Delaware residents must complete 24 continuing-education hours per biennium, including 3 hours specifically in ethics. Producers who write flood coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program also need a 2-hour flood course, which counts within the general CE requirement rather than as an add-on. This CE cycle is worth planning for early, since it's a recurring obligation tied directly to keeping the license active after you pass.
If you're trying to decide whether pursuing this license fits your career plans, Is the DE-PC Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 weighs the considerations, and DE-PC Jobs covers where licensed producers typically find work. Compensation expectations are addressed separately in DE-PC Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis.
Turning the Meaning Into a Study Plan
Once you understand that DE-PC is really two exams stacked into one licensing process, the smartest prep sequencing follows the domain weights rather than an arbitrary generic order. Front-load your study time on the heaviest domains first - Domain 1 (Types of Policies) for Property and Domain 8 (Types of Policies, Bonds, and Related Terms) for Casualty - since each represents roughly a quarter of its exam's scored questions.
Property Foundations
- Domain 1: Types of Policies (25.9% weight)
- Domain 2: Insurance Terms and Related Concepts
Property Contract Law and Delaware Rules
- Domain 3: Policy Provisions and Contract Law
- Domains 4-6: Delaware statutes and bulletins for Property
Property Ethics and Casualty Foundations
- Domain 7: Insurance Ethics
- Domain 8: Types of Policies, Bonds, and Related Terms
Casualty Concepts and Delaware Rules
- Domains 9-10: Terms and Policy Provisions
- Domains 11-13: Delaware statutes for Casualty
Ethics Review and Full Practice
- Domain 14: Insurance Ethics
- Full-length timed practice runs for both portions of each exam
Building your review around a short-loop technique - reviewing missed questions the same day, then again 48 hours later - works especially well for the Delaware-law domains, since statute and bulletin references don't stick from a single read-through the way general insurance concepts often do. Run full practice sessions on DE-PC Exam Prep's practice tests so you get used to the pretest-mixed question format and the 2 hour 15 minute pacing before exam day.
For a condensed reference you can revisit the night before each exam, the DE-PC Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts distills the highest-yield facts across all 14 domains. And if you'd rather see aggregate outcomes before committing your study hours, DE-PC Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows covers what's publicly known about results.
Frequently Asked Questions
DE-PC stands for the Delaware Property & Casualty Insurance Producer Exam, administered by Pearson VUE for the Delaware Department of Insurance. See What Does DE-PC Stand For? for more detail on the naming.
It's effectively two exams - Property (102 total questions, 85 scored) and Casualty (114 total questions, 95 scored) - each with its own general-knowledge and Delaware-law portions, and each allotted 2 hours 15 minutes.
No. Delaware does not require prelicensing education for the P&C producer exam, though resident applicants do complete state and federal criminal-history reporting as part of licensure.
You only need to retake the failed portion - general knowledge or Delaware law - but both portions must be passed within one year of each other.
Candidates who schedule Property and Casualty on the same day pay a single $90 fee rather than two separate fees; see DE-PC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown for the full breakdown.