Insurance License Hub

The California Surplus Line Broker license

Surplus Line Broker

Places California business with insurers not admitted here. It cannot be a first license: the applicant must already hold both the property broker-agent and the casualty broker-agent licenses, and a nonresident must hold a surplus line broker license at home as well.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

1

There is no state exam for this license.

Exam

n/a

Not required on any of the routes below.

Every way to qualify

  1. Route 1 Hold the property and casualty broker-agent licenses

    No state exam for this license

    Underlying licenses

    • a California Property Broker-Agent license AND a California Casualty Broker-Agent license

    • or

      for a nonresident, both of those plus a Surplus Line Broker license in the applicant's resident state

    and bond

    • a bond in the penal sum of $50,000, which is the largest bond on California's producer schedule

    California Insurance Code section 1761 is the authorizing act. The Department records the requirement as Experience rather than as a license held, and writes it as one line: "Must hold a Property Broker-Agent and a Casualty Broker-Agent (resident and nonresidents) and a Surplus Line Broker license in resident state (nonresidents)."California residency is not required. The fee turns on how the licensee will trade: $646 for somebody who only transacts on behalf of a surplus line broker business entity, and $1,296 for somebody who does not.

    Read at the Department on 2026-08-20

California requires no course and gives no examination for this license; the way in is the two producer licenses underneath it, and those pages carry the course list.