The Louisiana Appraiser and Umpire Registration
Appraiser and Umpire Registration
The registration a person needs before serving as the appraiser or the umpire named in the appraisal clause of a Louisiana property policy, the mechanism that settles what a first party loss is worth when the insurer and the insured disagree. Louisiana and Iowa are the two states here that regulate the appraisal clause this way, and they do it differently: Iowa issues an appraiser license and an umpire license and examines both, and Louisiana takes one application and one fee for a registration that may name either role or both, with no examination at all.
Course
None
This license has no pre-licensing course route.
Ways in
2
None of them requires a state exam, because this license has none.
Exam
n/a
Not required on any of the routes below.
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 a license already held.
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Route 1 Hold one of five licenses, with three years in it
No state exam for this license
A qualifying license, held actively
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3 years a Louisiana claims adjuster license
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3 years a Louisiana public adjuster license
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3 years a Louisiana architect license
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3 years a Louisiana general contractor license
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3 years a professional engineer license in any state
and property damage estimation
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Experience or training in property damage estimation. The Department names it as a requirement in its own right and puts no length on it and no syllabus behind it
Act 625 of the 2024 Regular Session put minimum qualifications on a registration that had had none since Acts 2012, No. 96 created it, and the Department states them: at least three years of experience in the licensed profession, experience or training in property damage estimation, and an actively held Louisiana claims adjuster, Louisiana public adjuster, Louisiana architect or Louisiana general contractor license, or a professional engineer license in any state. Four of those five are issued by a regulator that is not an insurance department, which Iowa's appraiser license asks for too, on the same three years. The registration itself is R.S. 22:1807.1(A): nobody may act as, or hold themselves out to be, an appraiser under R.S. 22:1311, R.S. 22:1892 or any policy of property insurance covering immovables unless registered with the commissioner as an appraiser, an umpire, or both. There is no examination and no course. Subpart A runs to three sections and none of them carries the qualifications, which is why they are sourced to the Department rather than to the Code.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-20
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Route 2 Be a Louisiana attorney, for the umpire registration only
No state exam for this license
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admission to the Louisiana bar, with experience in first-party property damage litigation
The umpire is the tie-breaker the two sides' appraisers choose, and this route reaches only that half of the registration: "To qualify as an umpire, the individual must meet the qualifications of an appraiser or be an attorney licensed in Louisiana with experience in first-party property damage litigation."Iowa's umpire license carries the nearest thing to it, reaching an attorney licensed in Iowa or another state with first-party experience where Louisiana's reaches only the Louisiana bar. A single $55 application and fee covers appraiser and umpire together.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-20
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Louisiana gives no appraiser or umpire examination and requires no course for the registration. What it asks for is three years in one of five licensed professions and experience or training in property damage estimation, with no hours and no syllabus set for the second, so there is nothing a school can sell against it. No seller carries a Louisiana product for it.