Insurance License Hub

The Montana Public Adjuster license

Public Adjuster

Works a claim for the policyholder rather than for the insurer. Montana narrows it by the act rather than by the line, where Missouri confines its own to fire and allied lines: the vendor's own handbook says the holder may only investigate and report to the principal, and may adjust first-party physical damage claims only.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

2

1 of them skips the state exam.

Exam

$65

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 or a license held in another state.

  1. Route 1 Pass the Public Adjuster examination

    State exam required

    The examination

    • The Public Adjuster examination, one hour, prescribed by the commissioner and sat at Pearson VUE. Montana's own passing score is 75 percent, which is higher than most.

    and residence, or a state that returns the favor

    • A resident of Montana, or a resident of another state that lets Montanans act as adjusters there. A nonresident whose own state does not license adjusters at all may designate Montana as a home state and qualify as if resident here.

    and an office the public can reach

    • An office maintained in Montana and accessible to the public, keeping the usual and customary records of transactions under the license for at least five years. It may be in the licensee's home.

    and character and a background examination

    • At least eighteen years old, trustworthy and of good character and reputation, and a licensing background examination under 33-17-220, which is fingerprints and a criminal history check submitted to the Montana Criminal Records Division.

    and the bond and the contracts

    • A $5,000 bond and a copy of the contracts, which the Department asks of a public adjuster and of no other adjuster. 33-17-302(1) is why the contracts are wanted: a public adjuster may not act without a written contract with the insured, every contract is filed with the commissioner, and eleven things have to be in it, including the adjuster's license number, attestation language stating that the adjuster is fully bonded under state law, and the full compensation the adjuster is to receive.

    The Department states the extra requirement in one sentence on its licensing page: "In order to obtain a public adjuster license, you must provide at $5,000 bond and a copy of the contracts."The license itself is issued under 33-17-301 like the other two, because 33-17-301(7) says "adjuster" includes public adjusters. What is unusual is the scope, and it is the examination vendor rather than the Code that prints it: "A public adjuster has authority under his/her license only to investigate and report to his/her principal. Public adjusters are allowed to adjust first-party physical damage claims only."Pennsylvania bars its public adjuster from personal injury and automobile property damage and Indiana bars its from filing the claim at all; Montana's is narrower than either, because it is confined to first-party physical damage and to reporting rather than settling. 33-17-302(2) then forbids four contract terms outright, among them collecting the whole fee from the insurer's first payment rather than a percentage of each, and 33-17-302(3) is a rule nothing else here carries: where the insurer pays or commits in writing to pay the policy limits within 72 hours of the loss being reported, the public adjuster may not take a percentage commission on the total and may not tell the insured that the recovery is unlikely to go up. 33-17-302(4) makes the adjuster disclose in writing any financial interest in a construction firm, salvage firm, building appraisal firm, motor vehicle repair shop or anybody else estimating or doing the work, and 33-17-303(4) bars acquiring any interest in the salvage without the insured's written permission.

    Read at the Department on 2026-08-19

  2. Route 2 Hold the same license in another state

    Exempt from the state exam

    • an adjuster license in another state, currently held, or cancelled less than 90 days before the application arrives with a certification or database record showing good standing at cancellation

    33-17-301(4) is written the way this site has learned to read carefully: "an individual who applies for a nonresident license under this section in this state and who was previously licensed in another state may not be required to complete any prelicensing education or examination requirements."It is a nonresident route rather than a general one, and 33-17-301(4)(b) conditions it on the other license being current or on the application arriving inside ninety days of its cancellation.

    Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19

No national seller sells a course for this license. Montana requires no course of a public adjuster, and what it asks for beyond the paper is a $5,000 bond and a copy of the contracts. The adjuster products the other sellers carry are written against the Multi-line paper rather than this one.