Insurance License Hub

The Iowa Surety license

Surety

Surety in Iowa. Like Crop it comes from rule 191-10.7 rather than from the Code's own list, and the rule names it without defining it. The examination reaches it, and no pre-licensing course is required.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

3

2 of them skip the state exam.

Exam

$44

Required on some routes and not others.

Every way to qualify

More than one route leads to this license, and which one you take changes what you study and whether you sit the exam. There is no pre-licensing course among them: this license is qualified for by sitting the examination, a license held in another state or moving here already licensed.

  1. Route 1 Pass the examination

    State exam required

    Iowa Code 522B.4(1) asks a written examination of a resident individual applying for a producer license unless the applicant is exempt under 522B.8, and 522B.5(1) is the closed list of what the commissioner must find before approving the application: at least 18 years old, no act that is a ground for denial, the $50 license fee paid, the examinations passed for the lines applied for, and the requisite character and competence. It is introduced with "all of the following" and no course is in it, which is where Iowa's zero is read. Rule 191-10.24(3)(d) has the Division's testing service prepare an examination for every line in Iowa Code 522B.6(2) and in rule 191-10.7, variable contracts excepted, so this line has one. A pass is good for 90 days under rule 191-10.4(4): apply later than that and the result is void.

    Read at legis.iowa.gov on 2026-08-16

  2. Route 2 Hold the same line in another state

    Exempt from the state exam

    • an insurance producer license carrying the Surety line of authority in another state

    Iowa Code 522B.8(1). Somebody previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state does not sit Iowa's examination. The exemption holds only while that other license is current, or else the request for licensure has to reach the Division within 90 days of its cancellation, with a certification from the other state that the applicant was in good standing when it was cancelled. The certification may be obtained through the producer database.

    Read at legis.iowa.gov on 2026-08-16

  3. Route 3 Move to Iowa and apply within 90 days

    Exempt from the state exam

    • 90 days Licensed as an insurance producer in another state carrying the Surety line of authority there, and applying to become an Iowa resident licensee within 90 days of establishing legal residence in Iowa.

    Iowa Code 522B.8(2). Iowa writes this one as a duty rather than an option: a producer licensed in another state who moves here "shall make application within ninety days of establishing legal residence" to become a resident licensee under 522B.5. No examination is required for a line of authority previously held in the prior state, unless the commissioner determines otherwise by regulation.

    Read at legis.iowa.gov on 2026-08-16

The Iowa Insurance Division requires no pre-licensing course for this license, so there is nothing here to price. Anyone selling you one is selling exam practice.