The District of Columbia Bail Bonds license

D.C. Code 31-1131.05(a) asks a resident individual applying for a producer license to pass a written examination unless the application is for a limited lines license or the surplus lines line, or the applicant is exempt under 31-1131.05b or 31-1131.09. 31-1131.06(a) is what the Commissioner must find before approving it: at least 18 years old, no act that is a ground for denial under 31-1131.12, a pre-licensing course of study "if required by the Commissioner", the fees paid, and the examinations passed unless exempt. The District and Massachusetts are the two jurisdictions here where the course was handed to the regulator rather than written into the law or struck out of it: 31-1131.05a(a) gives the Commissioner power to require one by rule of every applicant except a title insurance producer, and the District has no title line because entry (7) was repealed. No such rule has been made, and the Department's own list of what a resident applicant must do carries no course. D.C. Code 31-1131.07(a-1): "A person shall not be issued a license in the bail bonds or surplus lines line of insurance unless the person holds, or is simultaneously issued, a license in the property or casualty line of insurance."The District stacks two of its lines on a third, and it is the only jurisdiction here that lets the underlying license be issued in the same breath rather than first. North Dakota's surplus lines producer wants the underlying producer license and nothing else, Iowa's excess and surplus lines wants a second examination on top, and Utah's wants an examination plus three of the last four years. The examination reaches this line: 31-1131.05(a)(1) excuses a limited lines applicant and a surplus lines applicant and stops there, and bail bonds is line (8) rather than one of the limited lines at (10).

Read at code.dccouncil.gov on 2026-08-16

D.C. Code 31-1131.09(a), and it is the whole of the District's exemption section. Somebody currently licensed for the same line of authority in another state, or applying within 90 days of that license's cancellation with good standing certified by the other state or shown in the NAIC producer database, completes neither prelicensing education nor an examination. Note what is not here: section 31-1131.09 stops at reciprocity and writes no duty on a producer who moves in to apply within 90 days, and its subsections (b) through (e) are all repealed. Counting every route on this site whose kind is residency_transfer, fourteen jurisdictions carry none: Alaska, California, the District, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. D.C. Code 31-1131.07(a-1): "A person shall not be issued a license in the bail bonds or surplus lines line of insurance unless the person holds, or is simultaneously issued, a license in the property or casualty line of insurance."The District stacks two of its lines on a third, and it is the only jurisdiction here that lets the underlying license be issued in the same breath rather than first. North Dakota's surplus lines producer wants the underlying producer license and nothing else, Iowa's excess and surplus lines wants a second examination on top, and Utah's wants an examination plus three of the last four years. That underlying requirement is not an examination, so 31-1131.09 does not waive it: somebody arriving from another state still needs the District's property or casualty license.

Read at code.dccouncil.gov on 2026-08-16