Insurance License Hub

Getting an insurance license in Kentucky

Kentucky licenses through the Kentucky Department of Insurance, which calls the licensee an agent. Which license you need depends on what you intend to sell, and the requirements differ sharply between them.

License types

Is a course required?

Kentucky requires pre-licensing education for Life, Health, Property, Casualty, Personal Lines , at 20 hours.

Twenty hours for each major line. The statute carries the figures itself rather than delegating them, which is unusual here: KRS 304.9-105(1)(e)1.a.i names all three and 806 KAR 9:025 Section 1(1) repeats them word for word, so the regulation cannot outlive the statute the way Tennessee's did. The statute was last amended effective 2026-07-15 by 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 45. The Department's own page states the twenty and does not mention the forty. The provider reports the completion to the Department electronically, but the Department puts the responsibility for it arriving on the applicant, who can fax, email or upload the Form CPL-01 certificate instead. A certificate without a signature and a date is invalid. Someone reinstating a license within 12 months of it going inactive is exempt from both the course and the exam. Both the statute and the regulation name three figures in one sentence: "a minimum of forty (40) hours for life and health insurance, forty (40) hours for property and casualty insurance, or twenty (20) hours for each line of authority, as applicable". Twenty is the per-line case. The certificate is valid for one year from completion.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-15 . KRS 304.9-105(1)(e)1.a.i, General qualifications for agent license, and 806 KAR 9:025, Section 1(1)

Kentucky requires pre-licensing education for Life and Health together, Property and Casualty together , at 40 hours.

Two lines at twenty each, named in the regulation as its own figure rather than left as arithmetic. Kentucky writes the combination into the rule the way Indiana and New Jersey do.

Read at apps.legislature.ky.gov on 2026-08-15 . KRS 304.9-105(1)(e)1.a.i, General qualifications for agent license, and 806 KAR 9:025, Section 1(1)

Kentucky requires no pre-licensing course for Variable life and variable annuity products, Limited lines of authority under KRS 304.9-230.

A sourced zero, and the statute excepts these lines in the same sentence that imposes the hours on every other one. Section 1(1)(a) of the regulation excepts them from the prelicensing course outright, and section 2(3)(g) excepts variable life and variable annuity products from the examination as well. The six limited lines are preneed funeral, travel, limited line credit, crop, rental vehicle and self-service storage space, and among them only crop and rental vehicle carry an examination at all, the rental vehicle one administered by a rental vehicle agent rather than by the Department. A resident cannot hold the variable line without an active life line of authority first, which is where its course and examination actually sit.

Read at apps.legislature.ky.gov on 2026-08-15 . KRS 304.9-105(1)(e)1.a and KRS 304.9-230, and 806 KAR 9:025, Section 1(1)(a)

Fees

Charge Paid to Amount
Resident individual agent license 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(7)(a)1. It is the license itself and it is not the whole cost: the same subparagraph charges "an additional forty (40) dollars for each line of authority", so a resident taking one line pays $80 and a resident taking two pays $120. A nonresident pays $50 and $50 per line under 1(7)(a)2. The biennial renewal is $40 with no active appointment and nothing at all with one, under 1(7)(c)1. Kentucky Department of Insurance $40.00
Non-resident individual agent license 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(7)(a)2, plus an additional $50 for each line of authority. Nonresident business entities pay $120 and $120 per line under 1(7)(a)4. It is scoped to nothing because an applicant is resident or non-resident and never both, and the resident figure is the one the cost pages total. Kentucky Department of Insurance $50.00
Appointment, per insurer 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(7)(d)1, which prices the resident individual's appointment at $40 for the property, casualty and personal lines together, $40 for life, health and variable together, and $40 for every other line of authority separately. It is paid per insurer represented, and the biennial appointment renewal is $40 again under 1(7)(e)1. Kentucky Department of Insurance $40.00
Resident individual line of authority 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(7)(a)1 charges "an additional forty (40) dollars for each line of authority" on top of the license fee, so this row is charged once per line an applicant takes and the total on a page carrying one line is $80. A nonresident pays $50 per line. Kentucky Department of Insurance $40.00
Temporary agent license 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(7)(b). It is the cheapest license fee in the Kentucky schedule and the site carries no page for the temporary agent license it pays for, so it is scoped to nothing. Kentucky Department of Insurance $20.00
Adjuster license, biennial 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(10)(a), which prices the license, the biennial renewal and the late renewal penalty at fifty dollars each. It replaces the agent fee this row used to inherit: an adjuster pays no line of authority charge. Kentucky Department of Insurance $50.00
Temporary apprentice adjuster license 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(10)(b), which prices the apprentice adjuster's temporary license on its own at half the full adjuster's fifty dollars. Kentucky Department of Insurance $25.00
Consultant license, biennial 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(9), which prices the surplus lines broker, the consultant, the reinsurance intermediary and the managing general agent together at $100 each for the license, the biennial renewal and the late renewal penalty alike. Kentucky Department of Insurance $100.00
Rental vehicle agent license, biennial 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(19)(a)1, with the biennial renewal and the late renewal penalty at the same $100. A rental vehicle managing employee pays $40 under (19)(a)2, and each location registers separately at $50 under (19)(c). Kentucky Department of Insurance $100.00
Examination fee 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(17), fifty dollars for each examination, and the regulation names who sits them: agents, life settlement brokers, adjusters and consultants. Kentucky Department of Insurance $50.00
Life settlement broker license, biennial 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(12)(a) and 806 KAR 9:310 Section 1(1)(c)2, which set the same $250 for the license, the biennial renewal and the late renewal penalty. A business entity life settlement broker pays $750 under 4:010 section 1(12)(b). A life agent taking the exemption route remits the same $250 with the notification. Kentucky Department of Insurance $250.00
Life settlement provider license, biennial 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(13)(a) and 806 KAR 9:310 Section 1(1)(c)1, both $500, for the license, the biennial renewal and the late renewal penalty alike. A business entity life settlement provider pays $1,500 under 4:010 section 1(13)(b). Kentucky Department of Insurance $500.00
Pharmacy benefit manager license, annual 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(8)(a), for the license and for each annual renewal. A late renewal carries a $500 penalty. It is not the whole cost: 806 KAR 9:360 Section 2 adds a $10,000 registration fee within thirty days of licensure and annually thereafter. Kentucky Department of Insurance $1,000.00
Pharmacy benefit manager registration, annual 806 KAR 9:360 Section 2, payable within thirty days of initial licensure and annually thereafter on or before March 31, on top of the $1,000 license fee. A pharmacy benefit manager that solely provides services for a workers' compensation plan does not pay it. It is the largest single charge in the Kentucky schedule. Kentucky Department of Insurance $10,000.00
Portable electronics retailer license, per location 806 KAR 4:010 section 1(8)(b), charged per Kentucky location for one to twenty locations. A retailer with twenty-one or more pays $2,500 in total instead, so the per-location charge stops rising at that point and a retailer with twenty-five locations pays less than one with twenty-four would under the per-location rule. Kentucky Department of Insurance $100.00

Every amount above was read at its own source on 2026-09-05. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.

Approved courses

Kentucky approves the provider, the instructor and the course, and publishes only the provider. The listing read on 2026-08-15 holds seventeen active independent providers, the ones a prospective agent may use, and the Department keeps a second listing of company providers that only an insurer's own agents may use. Because what is published names companies rather than courses, a row here can say the company is approved in Kentucky and cannot say the state approved that particular course. Kentucky is not on the NAIC external lookup: the call that answers for Arkansas and Tennessee returns a 500 for it. You can search it at the Department .