Insurance License Hub

The Kentucky Public Adjuster license

Public Adjuster

Adjusts claims in Kentucky on behalf of the insured rather than the insurer, in property and casualty or crop. Kentucky is not issuing this license at present: for two years from April 13 2026 the commissioner may neither accept an application for one nor issue one, so the routes below describe a license that reopens in 2028 and a small set of people who can still reach it now.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

3

2 of them skip the state exam.

Exam

$50

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 designation already held or a license held in another state.

  1. Route 1 Pass the examination for the line

    State exam required

    A sourced zero, read off two complete enumerations rather than off an absence. KRS 304.9-430(2)(c) tells the commissioner not to approve an application unless seven findings are made, and passing the examination is one of them while a course is not. 806 KAR 9:025 Section 3 then lists what an adjuster applicant files, which is the NAIC application, a background check and the fee, and requires the examination for the line applied for. The same subtitle and the same regulation do carry a prelicensing course where one exists, for agents, so the omission here is the rule rather than a gap in it. The pass mark is 70 percent. The moratorium is KRS 304.9-430(1)(b) and it runs for two years from April 13 2026. It does not touch a public adjuster license already in force, which may still be renewed and stays in force until it expires or is terminated, and it does not touch anyone who held a temporary or apprentice adjuster license on that date, who may still apply under KRS 304.9-432. This license also carries a financial responsibility requirement the other adjuster licenses do not: a surety bond or an irrevocable letter of credit of at least fifty thousand dollars, maintained for the life of the license, and the license terminates automatically if it lapses.

    Read at apps.legislature.ky.gov on 2026-08-15

  2. Route 2 Hold Crop Adjuster Proficiency Program certification, for the crop line

    Exempt from the state exam

    • CAPP Crop Adjuster Proficiency Program certification, from the Risk Management Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture

    806 KAR 9:025 Section 3(3)(c) accepts a current Crop Adjuster Proficiency Program certification card in place of the crop adjuster examination. It reaches the crop line of authority and no other, and the card has to be active. It is the only route on any Kentucky license here that a federal agency, rather than the Commonwealth, decides.

    Read at apps.legislature.ky.gov on 2026-08-15

  3. Route 3 Hold the same license in your home state

    Exempt from the state exam

    • a public adjuster license in good standing in the applicant's home state

    KRS 304.9-430(14)(b). Kentucky issues the nonresident license on the home state's, provided that state issues nonresident licenses to Kentuckians on the same basis. Where the state someone lives in issues no adjuster license at all, the home state for this purpose becomes a state that does and has licensed them, which is the designated home state arrangement.

    Read at apps.legislature.ky.gov on 2026-08-15

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