The District of Columbia Public Insurance Adjuster license

D.C. Code 31-1631.03 makes the license compulsory and 31-1631.02(5) defines the trade narrowly: a public insurance adjuster acts for compensation on behalf of an insured, and only in relation to first party claims arising under contracts that insure the insured's real or personal property. Section 31-1631.04(a) sets three conditions and the third is the one to read: the fee, a written examination, and "sufficient experience, training, and instruction concerning the adjusting of first party claims... as determined by the Commissioner in accordance with regulations issued pursuant to this chapter". The regulations are 26 DCMR A39 and they do not fill it in. Eleven sections cover the application, the bond, disclosure of every ten per cent owner, a list of every employee authorized to negotiate claim settlements with thirty days' notice of any hire or departure, escrow accounts, record keeping, disclosures and the form of contract, and not one of them states an hour, a month or a subject for the experience, training and instruction the statute delegates. What 26 DCMR A3901.3 does say is that the Commissioner "shall have the sole responsibility for establishing minimum qualification and passing requirements" and that those requirements "shall be on file at the offices of the Department and shall be made available for public inspection", so the standard exists as a paper at 1050 First Street NE rather than as a published rule. The bond is the hard requirement: 31-1631.05 asks for $20,000 from a surety authorized in the District before the license issues, in favor of the District, specifically authorizing the Commissioner to recover damages if the licensee is convicted of fraud or unfair practices, terminable only on thirty days' written notice, and the license terminates automatically the moment the bond stops being in force. A natural person adjusting through a company must hold a license and so must the company, under 26 DCMR A3900.4.

Read at code.dccouncil.gov on 2026-08-20

D.C. Code 31-1631.04(b) waives the examination on two conditions and the second is unusual: the other state must certify that the applicant passed a written examination, AND that other state must itself recognize District public insurance adjuster licenses for the purpose of licensing without an examination. It is reciprocity in the strict sense rather than the one-way recognition most states here call by that name, so whether this route is open to an applicant depends on what their own state does about the District's licensees. 26 DCMR A3900.3 adds the paperwork: a certificate of good standing from the home state's licensing authority. The bond at 31-1631.05 is owed on this route as on the other.

Read at code.dccouncil.gov on 2026-08-20