Insurance License Hub

Getting an insurance license in Montana

Montana licenses through the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, which calls the licensee a producer. Which license you need depends on what you intend to sell, and the requirements differ sharply between them.

License types

Is a course required?

Montana requires no pre-licensing course for Every producer line of authority except surety bail bond.

The office publishes four steps to a resident license: pass the exam, apply through NIPR, submit the applicant rights and consent to fingerprint form, and send fingerprints and their fee to the state's Criminal Records Division. No course appears in it. A sourced zero read off a complete list. That zero was recorded on 2026-08-14 and it no longer reaches every line: Chapter 592 of the Laws of 2023 added part 16 to the producer chapter and put sixteen hours of bail enforcement training on a surety bail bond applicant, and Chapter 473 of 2025 amended it. The general producer qualifications at 33-17-211 still carry no course, which is why both records are right at once, and the Department's four steps were re-read on 2026-08-19 and still name none. One training requirement does reach every producer and it is not pre-licensing: 33-17-243 says a producer "may not sell, solicit, or negotiate insurance through an exchange on or after October 1, 2013, without first completing the producer exchange training and certification program as prescribed and approved by the commissioner". That is a certification layered on a license somebody already holds, like the four-hour annuity training, the three-hour flood course and the eight-hour long-term care training the Department lists under continuing education, so it does not gate the license and does not appear as a route.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-19

Montana requires pre-licensing education for Surety Bail Bond , at 16 hours.

"An applicant for a surety bail bond insurance license shall satisfactorily complete a basic course of training for bail enforcement agents that is approved by the commissioner", and the course is sixteen hours covering eight named subjects: constitutional law and civil liability, the rights of individuals in custody, use of force guidelines, procedures for arresting and surrendering defendants, handling individuals with mental health or substance use challenges, defensive tactics, bail bond ethics, and report writing and form completion. Two things can stand in for it. 33-17-1602(7)(a) takes a course of training required by a municipal, state or federal law enforcement agency or by a branch of the armed forces to carry out the duties of a peace officer, and sets it no length, which is Nevada's bail enforcement agent rule almost word for word. 33-17-1602(7)(b) takes proof of on-the-job training in the same areas, on a decision the statute expressly puts outside the contested case procedure. Anybody already licensed when the requirement came in is exempt from the initial hours and not from the biennial continuing education.

Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19 . MCA 33-17-1602(1) and (3), enacted by Ch. 592, L. 2023 and amended by Ch. 473, L. 2025

Montana requires pre-licensing education for Viatical Settlement Broker . No hour count is published with it, and the note below says what that means here.

An applicant for a viatical settlement broker license "shall attend required viatical settlement broker training and pass a viatical settlement broker examination designated by the commissioner by rule". Neither the training nor the examination carries an hour count, a subject list or a register anywhere in the Code, and the examination is not among the twelve Montana papers the examination vendor lists, so both are the commissioner's to set by rule. The hours are null rather than zero because a course is asked for. A resident or nonresident producer with a life line of authority held for at least a year is deemed to meet the licensing requirements instead, and notifies the commissioner within thirty days of starting rather than applying first.

Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19 . MCA 33-20-1303(2)(a)(i)

Montana requires pre-licensing education for Navigator . No hour count is published with it, and the note below says what that means here.

A navigator must have "documentation of successful completion of the centers for medicare and medicaid services navigator certification training requirements or navigator recertification training requirements, as applicable". Montana sets no hour count, approves no provider and gives no examination for it: it has adopted a federal training program by naming it, which is what Washington did with the Crop Adjuster Proficiency Program and Maine with an unnamed federal certification. There is nothing for a seller to be approved for and no figure to publish, so the hours are null.

Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19 . MCA 33-17-241(1)(d)

Fees

Charge Paid to Amount
Resident producer license Montana charges a resident producer nothing to apply. 33-2-708(1)(b) prices a nonresident producer license, a lapsed resident reinstatement, a surplus lines license, an adjuster license, a consultant license, a viatical broker license, a rental car entity license and a navigator certification, and it names no application fee for a resident producer license at all. The examination fee is the vendor's and is paid to Pearson VUE at booking. The same silence covers the temporary producer license and the travel limited line: 33-2-708(1)(b) is a closed list of the licenses Montana charges extra for, and neither of those appears on it any more than the resident producer does. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $0.00
Resident producer license, lapsed reinstatement What a resident producer pays to bring a lapsed license back, under 33-2-708(1)(b)(ii). It is not a cost of getting licensed, so no route cost includes it. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $100.00
Non-resident producer license $100 to apply, $50 for the biennial renewal and $100 to reinstate a lapsed one. It is what a nonresident pays instead of the resident producer's nothing, so no cost page totals both. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $100.00
Adjuster license 33-2-708(1)(b)(iv): $50 to apply, $100 for the biennial renewal and $200 to reinstate a lapsed one. One fee covers all three adjuster license types, because the Code issues them under one section. The renewal costs twice the application, which is the shape Montana uses for its adjuster, consultant, surplus lines and viatical broker licenses alike. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $50.00
Consultant license 33-2-708(1)(b)(v): $50 to apply, $100 for the biennial renewal, $200 to reinstate. The same fee whichever of the two scopes the license is issued for. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $50.00
Surplus lines producer license 33-2-708(1)(b)(iii): $50 to apply, $100 for the biennial renewal, $200 to reinstate. It is paid on top of the property and casualty producer license the applicant already has to hold. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $50.00
Viatical settlement broker license 33-2-708(1)(b)(vi): $50 to apply, $100 for the biennial renewal, $200 to reinstate. A life producer of a year's standing pays a $50 original notification fee under 33-2-708(1)(b)(viii) instead, on the deemed route rather than the training and examination one. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $50.00
Rental car entity producer license 33-2-708(1)(b)(vii) prices the application at $100 and adds a $25 quarterly filing fee, which is the only recurring quarterly charge in Montana's schedule. It is also the only place the Code gives this license a name of its own; 33-17-1502(1) calls it a business entity insurance producer license. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $100.00
Navigator certification 33-2-708(1)(b)(ix): $100 to apply, $50 for the biennial renewal and $100 to reinstate a lapsed certification. It is the one Montana fee that falls at renewal rather than rising. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $100.00
Administrator certificate of registration 33-17-603(2) and (3) set both halves at $100, the application and the annual continuation due on or before 1 July. Acting as an administrator without the certificate is a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $1,500. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $100.00
Course or program review fee What a sponsoring organization pays the commissioner to have a continuing education course or program reviewed under 33-17-1204 and 33-17-1205, capped at $1,500 per sponsor per biennium. Insurers and industry associations are exempt. It is paid by the school rather than by the applicant, so no route cost includes it. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance $75.00
Pharmacy benefit manager, reinsurance intermediary and viatical settlement provider fee Searched and not published. MCA 33-2-708 is Montana's fee schedule and it was read end to end for this audit. Subsection (1)(b) is a closed list of the licenses Montana charges extra for, and it runs to ten items: the nonresident producer, the lapsed resident reinstatement, the surplus lines producer, the adjuster, the consultant, the viatical settlement BROKER, the rental car entity producer, the notification fee for a life producer acting as a viatical settlement broker, the navigator certification and copies of documents. The pharmacy benefit manager, the reinsurance intermediary and the viatical settlement PROVIDER are on none of it. Montana charges a resident producer nothing at all, so silence in this schedule is not automatically a fee set elsewhere, but neither is it proof of zero. The amounts are left unread rather than guessed. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Not confirmed

Every amount above was read at its own source between 2026-08-19 and 2026-09-05. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.

Approved courses

There is no register of approved pre-licensing courses and, for a producer, no course to approve: the office sends candidates to the vendor's candidate handbook and content outlines. Three Montana licenses do carry a course and none of them is served by a register. The surety bail bond agent's sixteen hours are approved by the commissioner one course at a time rather than published as a list. The navigator's training is the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program, which Montana adopts by naming it and does not approve itself. And the viatical settlement broker's training and examination are both set by the commissioner by rule, with no hours, no subjects and no list anywhere in the Code. What the commissioner does publish is a $75 review fee per continuing education course or program under 33-17-1204 and 33-17-1205, capped at $1,500 per sponsor per biennium, which is a charge rather than a register.