The Mississippi Professional Bail Agent license
Professional Bail Agent
Writes bail bonds in Mississippi on double the producer requirement, in two kinds the Department licenses differently. A Limited Surety agent is appointed by an insurer by power of attorney; a Personal Surety agent posts $30,000 of their own. And nobody reaches either without three consecutive years as a soliciting bail agent first, which is a ladder rather than an entry requirement: the junior license is a real license and the three years are served holding it.
Course
40 hrs
The shortest single course route.
Ways in
2
Every one of them requires the state exam.
Exam
$50
Required.
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. They are listed in full because the course is only the first of them.
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Route 1 Take the 40-hour course
State exam required
Pre-licensing education
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40 hours of pre-licensing education for the Bail Agent line, approved by the Department
and three years as a soliciting agent
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3 years a Mississippi soliciting bail agent license held for the three consecutive years immediately before the application
- or
a Mississippi professional bail agent license held before 1 July 2011, which the statute grandfathers out of the three-year requirement
and security, by kind of agent
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Limited Surety: a power of attorney from the sponsoring insurer, with a $25.00 Certificate of Authority fee filed with the application.
- or
Personal Surety: a $30,000 security deposit lodged with the Department when the original application is filed, as a certificate of deposit, Treasury bond or note made payable in the name of both the bail agent and the Department under Miss. Code Ann. 83-39-7, with an Irrevocable Security Power form completed by the lending institution's officers.
and fingerprints and photograph
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A complete set of fingerprints taken by the Department at $50.00, by appointment only since 16 March 2020, and a recent full face color photograph.
Forty hours, double what a producer line takes and the largest pre-licensing figure Mississippi asks of anybody, and the instructor files the completion electronically with the Department. The paper is the Bail Agent examination at Pearson VUE, two hours and 60 questions. What sits in front of both is a three-year wait: "No license shall be issued to a professional bail agent unless the applicant has been duly licensed by the Mississippi Insurance Department as a soliciting bail agent for a period of three (3) consecutive years immediately preceding the submission of the application, unless the applicant was previously licensed as a professional bail agent before July 1, 2011."So the soliciting agent license is not an alternative to this one, it is the way in. The Department also publishes the fees on its bail page: $100 for the professional agent, $40 for a soliciting or enforcement agent, $50 for fingerprinting, and a Professional Bail Agent's Certificate of Authority rising to $50 on 1 July 2026 under Senate Bill 2409. The professional agent files an annual report for the previous calendar year before 1 June, or a statement that no license was held. Licenses renew in September of odd years.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-20
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Route 2 Have been licensed under the bail chapter within the last 90 days
State exam required
Recent bail license
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A Mississippi bail license under chapter 39, held within ninety days of the application, with the continuing education requirements of section 83-39-3(8)(a) met
and three years as a soliciting agent
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3 years a Mississippi soliciting bail agent license held for the three consecutive years immediately before the application
- or
a Mississippi professional bail agent license held before 1 July 2011, which the statute grandfathers out of the three-year requirement
and security, by kind of agent
-
Limited Surety: a power of attorney from the sponsoring insurer, with a $25.00 Certificate of Authority fee filed with the application.
- or
Personal Surety: a $30,000 security deposit lodged with the Department when the original application is filed, as a certificate of deposit, Treasury bond or note made payable in the name of both the bail agent and the Department under Miss. Code Ann. 83-39-7, with an Irrevocable Security Power form completed by the lending institution's officers.
and fingerprints and photograph
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A complete set of fingerprints taken by the Department at $50.00, by appointment only since 16 March 2020, and a recent full face color photograph.
Miss. Code Ann. 83-39-3(7)(a): an applicant who has met the continuing education requirements and has been properly licensed under the chapter within ninety days of applying is not subject to the prelicensing education requirement. The same paragraph carries a grandfather for anyone licensed under the chapter on 2014-07-01 who kept the continuing education current. Neither touches the examination. The instruction sheet adds a second waiver of the forty hours: "Prelicensing education is not required for a professional bail agent (currently licensed) who applies for a different category of license if the prior license has remained in effect without any action taken against it and the applicant has successfully completed the continuing education requirements", which is how a Limited Surety agent moves to Personal Surety or back without retaking the course.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-20
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A course is required and nobody sells one
Mississippi's register holds four approved bail courses at forty credits each and not one of them is from a national seller: Mississippi Bail Training Institute, the Mississippi Coalition of Bail Sureties, and two from the MS Bail Agents Association, one classroom and one self-study. Three of the four are classroom only. No national seller prices a Mississippi bail product, so the forty hours are sold only in this state, and only by Mississippi organizations.