Good Afternoon all! A number of people in California have emailed me asking me about insurance licensing for insurance candidates in the Golden State. As many are aware, things tend to be a little different in California and the insurance licensing process is a bit different as well. The questions that I’m getting deal with many different concerns and I’ll do my best to answer them! Read on for more details!
California has many different classes of insurance licenses, most of which have different names than the other states. Each licensing category has an associated set of “educational objectives” which detail the content that will be tested for each examination. Not all licensing categories require prelicense education nor do all require an examination be successfully completed. The list that follows is a comprehensive list of the licensing categories in California with those licensing categories that require prelicense education and testing highlighted and linked to the educational objectives.
Fire and Casualty Broker-Agent: This examination is comprehensive in scope and depth as it allows the agent to sell almost any kind of coverage except for life insurance. As you will see, the term “casualty” is far-reaching in terms of what California considers as part of this licensing category:
- Automobile Insurance
- Commercial General Liability coverage
- Commercial Property coverage
- Contractual Liability Insurance
- Crop Insurance
- Disability (can also be transacted with a life agent license)
- Dwelling Property
- Earthquake Insurance
- Flood
- Health
- Homeowners
- Indemnity
- Inland Marine
- Liability Coverage
- Livestock
- Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
- Personal Lines - Property/casualty insurance
- Pet Insurance
- Prepaid Legal
- Umbrella Policy
- Watercraft
- Workers Compensation Insurance
- Life Agent ( Life-Only Agent, Accident and Health Agent): Both the “life only” and “accident and health” will only allow the agent to sell those specific lines of coverage. These lines of authority may be taken as either a separate examination, in which case the licensing candidate must pay exam fees twice, or as a “combined” examination.
- For a LIFE ONLY license, here is the coverage a licensee can transact:
- Life Insurance - Designed to protect against the risk caused by someone’s death. Death exposes a family or a business to certain financial risks such as burial expenses, paying off debts, loss of family income and business profits. Life insurance products include, but are not limited to:
- Permanent Life
- Temporary Life
- Group Life
- Universal Life
- Credit Life
- Annuities
- Disability Income
- Funeral and Burial
- Accident and Health Agent: In order to transact these types of insurance, the candidate will have to obtain an Accident and Health agent license and will be allowed to transact the following coverages:
- Health Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- Credit Disability Insurance
- 24-Hour Care Coverage
- Long-Term Care
- Personal Lines Broker-Agent: This license will allow the licensee to transact ONLY personal lines property and casualty sold primarily to families and will not authorize the licensee to transact any commercial insurance coverage. In order to transact commercial coverage, a Fire and Casualty Broker-Agent license is required. Personal lines authority extends to the following types of coverage:
- automobile insurance (including recreational vehicles used for noncommercial purposes),
- personal watercraft insurance,
- residential property insurance (including earthquake and flood insurance),
- inland marine insurance covering personal property, and
- umbrella or excess liability insurance.
- Limited Lines Automobile Insurance Agent: This license allows the agent to transact only automobile insurance and will not allows the transaction of any other fire and/or casualty line of insurance. Specifically, this license will allow the agent to transact:
- Automobile Insurance - For the private, non-commercial use of the insured motor vehicle with a load capacity of 1,500 pounds or less.
- Automobile Liability Coverage
- Automobile Physical Damage Coverage
- Automobile Collision Coverage
- Surplus Line Broker
- Rental Car Agent Licensing
- Insurance Adjuster
- Special Lines’ Surplus Line Broker
- Interim Public Insurance Adjuster
- Public Insurance Adjuster
- Bail Solicitor
- Bail Agent
- Administrator
- Bail Permittee
- Travel Agent
- Motor Club
- Reinsurance Intermediary-Broker/ Intermediary-Manager
- Cargo Shippers’ Agent
- Stock Agent
- Life and Disability Insurance Analyst
- Communications Equipment Insurance Agent
- Part-Time Fraternal Agent
- Vehicle Service Contract Provider
- Self-Service Storage Agent