The Iowa Viatical Settlement Broker license
Viatical Settlement Broker
Acts for the person selling a life policy rather than for the buyer. Iowa is one of eight states here that examines it, where the other seven of the fifteen license it on a life producer license held for a year instead, and it gives the licensee a three-year term with twenty credits of training against it.
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 a license already held.
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Route 1 Pass the Iowa viatical settlement examination
State exam required
The Division asks for a completed application, a $100 fee and proof of one of two things, and this is the first: the applicant has passed the Iowa Viatical Settlement examination. The result keeps ninety days and voids if the application does not follow. No course. Iowa Code 508E.3(5) is the statutory side and it is a list of findings the Commissioner makes on investigation rather than a syllabus: competence, trustworthiness and good faith, a good business reputation, and experience, training OR education qualifying the applicant for the business, with no hour count set against any of the three. Iowa Administrative Code chapter 48 carries the rules. The term is three years under 508E.3(3), and 508E.3(8) asks twenty credits of viatical settlement training across it, which is continuing rather than pre-licensing.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-18
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Route 2 Hold the license in a state that examined you for it
Exempt from the state exam
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a current viatical settlement broker license from another state insurance department that required an examination on viatical and life settlement contracts
The second of the Division's two proofs, and both limbs have to hold: the other state required an examination on viatical and life settlement contracts, and the applicant currently holds that state's viatical settlement broker license.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-18
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Route 3 Be the viator’s own retained professional
Exempt from the state exam
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a licensed attorney retained to represent the viator, whose compensation is not paid directly or indirectly by the viatical settlement provider
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a certified public accountant retained to represent the viator, whose compensation is not paid directly or indirectly by the viatical settlement provider
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a financial planner accredited by a nationally recognized accreditation agency, retained to represent the viator, whose compensation is not paid directly or indirectly by the viatical settlement provider
Iowa Code 508E.3(1)(c), and it is an exemption from the license rather than a way into it: such a person may negotiate a viatical settlement contract on behalf of the viator without obtaining a viatical settlement broker license at all. Who pays is what decides it. The moment the compensation comes directly or indirectly from the viatical settlement provider, the exemption is gone.
Read at legis.iowa.gov on 2026-08-18
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No national seller sells a course for this license. Iowa is one of the few states that examines this license and nobody sells preparation for the Iowa Viatical Settlement examination. What the sellers do carry for the underlying life line is on the Life page.