Insurance License Hub

The Hawaii Emergency Adjuster license

Emergency Adjuster

Not a license but a registration, and the only way a nonresident adjuster works a Hawaii loss without sitting the Hawaii paper. It opens only after the commissioner declares that resident adjusters cannot cope, and it runs 120 days.

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 Register after the commissioner's declaration, on another state's license

    No state exam for this license

    The commissioner's declaration, which has to come first

    • A declaration by the commissioner authorizing the assistance of nonresident adjusters, made because the common losses are the direct result of an event and are so severe that Hawaii's own licensed adjusters cannot adjust them within a reasonable time as the commissioner determines

    and a license somewhere with requirements like Hawaii's

    • a current adjuster license in another state whose licensing requirements are substantially similar to section 431:9-222, evidenced by a certified copy of that license given to the commissioner

    and the letterhead notice, filed by the company rather than the adjuster

    • Within three working days of the adjuster commencing work, a notice on its own letterhead from the insurance company, independent adjusting company or producer using the adjuster, giving the adjuster's name, Hawaii mailing and business addresses and phone numbers, and permanent home and business addresses and phone numbers

    431:9-201(b) is an exemption with three conditions rather than a license, and the first condition is the one that makes Hawaii's different from every other emergency adjuster provision here: nothing opens until the commissioner declares it. Washington's runs off the governor's proclamation, and West Virginia's, Rhode Island's and Nevada's off the insurer's own deployment. Hawaii's turns on the commissioner's finding that resident adjusters "will be unable to adjust the losses within a reasonable time". The second is unusual too, because the paperwork is somebody else's: the company using the adjuster files the notice, not the adjuster. "Event" is defined in the subsection as insured property losses in Hawaii resulting from a sudden, specific, natural or manmade disaster or phenomenon as the commissioner determines, so it reaches a single catastrophic occurrence rather than a season of claims. The registration then runs 120 days from the date of registration or for a shorter period the commissioner sets. Working without it is expensive: 431:9-201(c) is a civil penalty up to $5,000 for each factually different violation, (d) raises it to between $1,000 and $10,000 where the violation is knowing, and (e) counts every repetition separately.

    Read at capitol.hawaii.gov on 2026-08-19

No national seller sells a course for this license. There is nothing to sell: the registration asks for a license held in a substantially similar state and a letterhead notice filed by the company using the adjuster, with no examination and no qualification of its own.