The Massachusetts Insurance Adviser license

G.L. c. 175, section 177B. The applicant appears where the Commissioner designates and sits a written examination prepared and administered by the Commissioner or by a testing service the Commissioner names, and the section requires those examinations to be scheduled at least semiannually on three months' notice. The license runs three years and renews without the detailed information section 162L asks for the first time. Section 177C is what makes the contract load bearing rather than administrative: a contract with an insurance adviser is unenforceable by the adviser unless it is in writing, executed personally in duplicate, delivered to the client, plainly specifies the fee and the services, and is on a form currently approved by the Commissioner. Section 177A draws the fence in the other direction, defining an insurance adviser as somebody who is not an officer or salaried employee of a company acting for it, not a licensed broker, not a licensed agent acting for a company of which they are agent, and not an attorney at law or certified public accountant acting within their profession. The Division puts it plainly: advisers do not sell, solicit or negotiate unless separately licensed to do so. Section 177B carries the examination twice, once as a duty and once, in its last paragraph, as something the Commissioner "may require"; there are three adviser papers on the vendor's list and the Division asks for one, so the duty is the live sentence.

Read at malegislature.gov on 2026-08-19