Getting an insurance license in Alabama
Alabama licenses through the Alabama Department of Insurance, which calls the licensee a producer. Which license you need depends on what you intend to sell, and the requirements differ sharply between them.
License types
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Accident and Health or Sickness
Sells health cover in Alabama. The statute names the line "accident and health or sickness, commonly known as disability" and allows it to carry disability income benefits. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Apprentice Adjuster
Twelve months, once in a lifetime, under a licensed independent adjuster who may supervise no more than five apprentices at a time. It is a way to adjust claims before passing the examination, and the examination has to be passed before it expires or the license cannot convert.
No course
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Bail Bond
Surety cover for bail in Alabama, defined by the criminal procedure title rather than by the insurance one. It is a line of authority in its own right and not one of the limited lines, so the examination reaches it.
No course
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Casualty
Covers legal liability in Alabama, including for death, injury, disability or damage to property, and surety is inside this line rather than beside it. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Credit
Limited line credit insurance in Alabama, which the statute defines as a long list of covers written alongside an extension of credit: credit life, credit disability, credit property, credit unemployment, creditor-placed, nonfiling, mortgage life, mortgage guaranty, mortgage disability, GAP and family and medical leave insurance among them. Alabama asks neither a pre-licensing course nor an examination of it.
No course
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Crop
Cover against damage to crops in Alabama from weather, fire, lightning, flood, hail, insects, disease or other yield-reducing perils, whether written by the private market or subsidized by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. Alabama asks neither a pre-licensing course nor an examination of it.
No course
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Dental Service Representative
Represents a dental service corporation the Commissioner has authorized to solicit, negotiate, advertise and effectuate dental service contracts. It is the one Alabama limited line that sits on another line: the applicant must hold and keep the accident and health or sickness authority underneath it.
No course
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Emergency Independent Adjuster
A registration the insurer files rather than a license the adjuster applies for, open only during a state of emergency and good for 90 days. The Department issues a physical pass with it, which nothing else on this site does.
No course
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Independent Adjuster
Determines the amount of a property, casualty or workers' compensation claim on an insurer's behalf, as an independent contractor or an independent contractor's employee. One license carries up to three lines of authority and each one is examined separately. No course anywhere in the chapter.
No course
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Legal Service Representative
Represents a legal service insurance corporation the Commissioner has authorized to do legal service insurance business in Alabama. The role is defined by the appointment rather than by the product, and the qualification is the ordinary producer one: at least 18, no ground for denial, no course and no examination named.
No course
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Life
Sells life insurance in Alabama, which the statute writes as coverage on human lives and allows to carry endowment and annuity benefits, accidental death and dismemberment, and disability income. Alabama asks no pre-licensing course for it.
No course
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Managing General Agent
Exercises general supervision over an insurer's Alabama business and appoints and terminates its producers. It is licensed and priced per insurer represented and per class of insurance handled, so a manager working four insurers holds four licenses and pays four times.
No course
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Motor Club Representative
Solicits memberships for an automobile club or association the Commissioner has authorized to sell them in Alabama. What is licensed is the selling of club memberships rather than the selling of insurance, and the qualification is the ordinary producer one with no course and no examination named.
No course
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Personal Lines
Property and casualty cover sold to individuals and families for primarily noncommercial purposes in Alabama. It is one line rather than two, and no pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Portable Electronics
Cover on portable electronics in Alabama, sold at the point of sale under the chapter that defines the product. Alabama asks neither a pre-licensing course nor an examination of it.
No course
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Property
Covers direct or consequential loss of or damage to property of every kind in Alabama. Alabama licenses property separately from casualty and asks no pre-licensing course for either.
No course
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Reinsurance Intermediary
One license covering both roles: the broker who places cessions without power to bind, and the manager who binds or manages a reinsurer's assumed business. Only the manager posts a bond, and Alabama sizes it per reinsurer represented.
No course
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Rental Vehicle
Insurance sold with a rented vehicle in Alabama, at the counter and incidental to the rental, under the limited license the statute gives motor vehicle rental companies. Alabama asks neither a pre-licensing course nor an examination of it.
No course
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Self-Service Storage
Insurance sold through a licensed insurer alongside a rented storage unit. Alabama defines the facility by what it is not as much as by what it is, excluding safe deposit boxes, bank and trust company vaults and public warehouses, and asks the ordinary producer qualification with no course and no examination named.
No course
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Service Representative
Closed. Alabama stopped issuing new service representative licenses on 1 January 2024 under Act 2023-104, and the only people who can hold one are those who already did and renew it on time. A lapse cancels it permanently.
No course
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Surplus Line Broker
Places cover that authorized insurers will not write, on a property and casualty producer license underneath. Alabama is the only state here that asks a broker for a high school diploma, and it asks for three years of recent full-time experience beside it.
No course
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Temporary Producer
Six months to sell before sitting the examination, sponsored and appointed by an insurance company that has registered its own officials to grant it. Once in a lifetime per line of authority, and it is on the Department's own list of what it issues, which is why it has a page here when other states' temporary licenses do not.
No course
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Title Insurance Agent
Issues title insurance for an appointed title insurer under the Alabama Title Insurance Act. Since 10 May 2016 an attorney admitted in Alabama needs no license for it at all, and neither does the law firm they work through, which removes the license outright rather than merely the examination, and reaches the firm as well as the individual.
No course
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Travel
Travel insurance in Alabama, sold under the limited license the statute gives travel insurance producers. Alabama asks neither a pre-licensing course nor an examination of it.
No course
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Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products
Sells variable life contracts and variable annuities in Alabama. There is no Alabama insurance examination for it and no course either, but it cannot be held on its own: the Life line and the securities registrations come first.
No course
Is a course required?
Alabama requires no pre-licensing course for Every producer line of authority.
The statute lists what the commissioner must find before approving a resident producer application, and introduces the list with the words "all of the following": at least 18, no act that is a ground for denial, the examination passed for the lines applied for, and the fees paid. That is the whole list and no course is in it. Section 27-7-4.3 then sets out the examination in full, including how long an applicant must wait after failing twice, and requires no education before it. A sourced zero read off a complete statutory enumeration. The Department's own producer requirements page was what held this state back: it introduces its list with "including, but not limited to", which is a list that cannot carry a zero however long it is. The statute closes it.
Read at alison.legislature.state.al.us on 2026-08-19 . Ala. Code 27-7-5(a), with the examination itself at 27-7-4.3
Alabama requires no pre-licensing course for Independent adjuster, Apprentice adjuster, Title insurance agent, Surplus line broker.
No course for any of them, and the Department's requirement pages are closed lists rather than sentences saying no. 27-9A-6(a) is five findings for an independent adjuster and the only study in it is the examination, which 27-9A-7(a) puts separately on each of property and casualty, workers' compensation and crop. The apprentice adjuster is qualified by supervision and must pass that same paper before its twelve months run out. The surplus line broker is the one license in the state with a schooling requirement of any kind and it is not a course: Regulation 36 asks for a high school diploma and three years of recent full-time property and casualty experience. The title insurance agent is examined under chapter 27-25 and Regulation 148, with no course named in either.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-19 . Ala. Code 27-9A-6 and the Department's own licensing requirements pages
Fees
| Charge | Paid to | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Producer license, individual The Department publishes it as TOTAL INITIAL LICENSE FEES for a resident or non-resident individual producer; a business entity pays $130. Biennial renewal is $70. The Department states that the legal service representative, dental service representative and motor club representative licenses cost the same as a producer license, which is why they are scoped here. Choosing too few lines of authority on the application means reapplying through NIPR and paying again, because the Department will not add a line without the fee. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $80.00 |
| Biennial license renewal Renewal falls in the licensee's birth month whether they were born in an even or an odd year, and a late renewal adds $50. A business entity renews at $100. A renewal is not a cost of getting a first license, so it is scoped to nothing and no cost page totals it. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $70.00 |
| Notice of appointment $40 to file and $25 a year to continue. An appointment is what an insurer files after a producer is licensed, so it is scoped to nothing and no cost page totals it. The title insurance agent's appointment is cheaper, $30 to file and $10 to renew. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $40.00 |
| Independent adjuster license, individual Biennial renewal is $80, and a reissue within 365 days is $160. The same $110 buys the apprentice adjuster license, which lasts twelve months and cannot be had twice. Ala. Code 27-4-2(a)(11) prices every adjuster license the same way: $30 to file the application under (11)(a) and $80 for the original license and each biennial continuation under (11)(b)1, which is the $110 here. A business entity pays $200 for the license instead. The section draws no distinction between the independent, apprentice and emergency independent adjuster, so all three carry it. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $110.00 |
| Independent adjuster exam Paid to the University of Alabama, which is the Department's exam vendor rather than PSI, Pearson VUE or Prometric. The single-line producer paper is $50, the combined life and health and combined property and casualty papers are $75 each, and the title agent paper is $75; there is no single figure, which is why the state examination row carries none. | The University of Alabama | $75.00 |
| Managing general agent license, per insurer Per insurer represented, made up of a $30 application fee, a $125 license fee and a $250 examination fee, with a $75 annual renewal per insurer. The examination fee is the Department's financial examination of the licensee, not a test: its own page says a managing general agent is not required to take and pass an examination. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $405.00 |
| Reinsurance intermediary license A $30 application fee and a $140 license fee, renewing at $100 a year. One license covers the broker and the manager roles; only the manager posts the $100,000 fidelity bond, and a separate bond is filed for each reinsurer represented. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $170.00 |
| Surplus line broker license, individual Renewal is $200. A business entity pays $530 and $500. Every resident broker also attaches a $50,000 bond on form AL-SLB-13. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $230.00 |
| Temporary producer license Six months, once in a lifetime per line of authority, and only while the sponsoring insurance company's appointment stands. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $120.00 |
| Title insurance agent license, individual Biennial renewal is $40, which is the cheapest renewal on the schedule. A business entity pays $120 and $100. Alabama attorneys have needed neither since 10 May 2016. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $60.00 |
| Service representative license Biennial renewal is $70, and the license is closed to new applicants from 1 January 2024, so the fee reaches only people who already hold one. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $70.00 |
| NIPR transaction fee Charged on top of the state fee for every initial and renewal transaction, for all license types, and non-refundable. | National Insurance Producer Registry | $5.00 |
| Portable electronics license, small The Department prices the portable electronics license as small or large, at $100 or $1,000, for an individual and a business entity alike, and renews the small one at $100 and the large one at $500. The two are alternatives, so the smaller carries the license and the larger is scoped to nothing. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $100.00 |
| Portable electronics license, large The alternative to the row above rather than a charge beside it, so it is scoped to nothing and no cost page totals it. Renewal is $500 against the small license's $100. | Alabama Department of Insurance | $1,000.00 |
| Producer examination fee Ala. Code 27-4-2(a)(5)c sets no figure. It authorises a fee for each classification of producer examination or reexamination "an amount set by the commissioner not to exceed $100", so the ceiling is statutory and the price is not. The Department publishes no set amount this site has found, so it is recorded as unread rather than guessed and no cost page totals it. The adjuster examination is capped the same way at 27-4-2(a)(11)c and the Department does publish $75 for that one. | Alabama Department of Insurance | Not confirmed |
Every amount above was read at its own source between 2026-08-19 and 2026-09-05. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.
Approved courses
Alabama's administrative code carries no pre-licensing education chapter. Its insurance agency rules cover continuing education only, in chapter 482-1-110, which is titled for renewal and continuing education and nothing else. That is a fact about the rulebook rather than a statement about what an applicant must do, so this page does not say either way whether a course is required.