The Montana Surety Bail Bond license
Surety Bail Bond
Bail bonds in Montana, which the statute lists as its own kind of insurance immediately after surety rather than folding the two together. Since 2023 it is the one Montana license that asks an applicant for a course, sixteen hours of bail enforcement training the commissioner approves, and the only one where a peace officer's training will stand in for it.
Course
16 hrs
The shortest single course route.
Ways in
5
2 of them skip 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. They are listed in full because the course is only the first of them.
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Route 1 Take the 16-hour course and pass the examination
State exam required
The 16-hour basic training course
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16 hours of 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, approved by the Department
and a school leaving certificate and a clean record
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A high school diploma, general equivalency diploma or equivalent, and no felony convictions and no offenses involving dishonesty, violence or controlled substances. The commissioner verifies both before approving the application.
33-17-1602(1) is the requirement and (3) the syllabus: "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 "applicants shall complete a 16-hour basic training course" covering eight named subjects. It was enacted by Chapter 592 of the Laws of 2023 and amended by Chapter 473 of 2025, which is after the zero this site recorded for every Montana producer line, and it is why that zero no longer reaches this license. MCA 33-17-212(1) requires a written examination of an individual applying for a license except as subsection (6) provides, and 33-17-211(1) is the closed list of what the commissioner must verify before approving the application. It is the longest such list on this site and it is worth reading in full: 18 or older; no act that is a ground for refusal under 33-17-1001; the fees at 33-2-708 paid; the examinations for each kind of insurance passed within 12 months of application; residency in Montana or in a state that grants Montanans similar privileges, with the license terminating if the licensee relocates; competent, trustworthy and of good reputation; experience or training or otherwise qualified in the kinds applied for and reasonably familiar with the code; the funeral director bar; and a background examination under 33-17-220. No course is anywhere in that list, and that is still true: the sixteen hours come from part 16 of the same chapter rather than from the general producer qualifications, which is why the producer zero and this requirement can both be right at once. Montana publishes the pass mark, 75 percent, rather than a syllabus for the paper. Montana has no reciprocity route to a resident license and that is not an omission here. 33-17-212(6)(c) exempts "an applicant for a license as a nonresident insurance producer", and 33-17-212(7) grants the previously-licensed-elsewhere waiver expressly to somebody applying for a nonresident license in this state. Most states here write that waiver for the resident license, and Georgia and Oklahoma are the other two that do not: neither has a resident reciprocity route at all. Montana's own residency test at 33-17-211(1)(e) is what makes it work: an applicant qualifies by living in Montana or in a state that grants Montana residents similar privileges, so the chapter has less need of the two doors everybody else builds.
Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19
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Route 2 Peace officer or armed forces training instead
State exam required
Training somebody else required
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A pre-licensing course in training a municipal, state or federal law enforcement agency or a branch of the armed forces required, to carry out the duties of a peace officer
and a school leaving certificate and a clean record
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A high school diploma, general equivalency diploma or equivalent, and no felony convictions and no offenses involving dishonesty, violence or controlled substances. The commissioner verifies both before approving the application.
33-17-1602(7)(a) takes peace officer training in place of the sixteen hours and sets it no length at all, so there is no figure to show. Nevada's bail enforcement agent is the only other license on this site written that way, at NRS 697.177(3), and it takes the same two sources: a law enforcement agency or a branch of the armed forces. The test is what the training was required for rather than how long it ran.
Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19
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Route 3 On-the-job training, at the commissioner's discretion
State exam required
Proof of the work itself
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Proof of on-the-job training in the areas the basic course covers. 33-17-1602(7)(b) says that is sufficient for the commissioner to find that granting the license is in the public interest.
and a school leaving certificate and a clean record
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A high school diploma, general equivalency diploma or equivalent, and no felony convictions and no offenses involving dishonesty, violence or controlled substances. The commissioner verifies both before approving the application.
33-17-1602(7)(b) is a waiver rather than a route in the ordinary sense, and it comes with an unusual sentence attached: "The commissioner's decision whether to grant or deny a waiver under this subsection (7) is not subject to the provisions provided in Title 33, chapter 1, part 7."That is the contested case procedure, so a refusal here is not appealable the way other refusals are. Nothing else on this site removes a course on terms the applicant cannot contest.
Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19
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Route 4 Have held this kind of license since before 1961
Exempt from the state exam
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a Montana insurance producer license covering Surety Bail Bond, held lawfully as of or immediately before January 1, 1961 and continuously since
MCA 33-17-212(6)(a), and it is the oldest closing door recorded anywhere on this site: no examination is required of "an individual lawfully licensed as an insurance producer as to the kind or kinds of insurance to be transacted as of or immediately prior to January 1, 1961, and who continues to be licensed". Alabama's closes to anybody first licensed after 2013 and Kansas's crop door after April 30, 1986; Montana's shut sixty-five years ago and has stayed open only for people who never let the license go.
Read at leg.mt.gov on 2026-08-16
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Route 5 Have held this kind of license here within the last 12 months
Exempt from the state exam
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a Montana license covering Surety Bail Bond, held other than under a temporary license within the 12 months immediately preceding the application and never suspended, revoked or terminated by the commissioner
MCA 33-17-212(6)(b). No examination is required of an applicant for a license covering the same kind or kinds of insurance the applicant was licensed for in Montana within the 12 months immediately preceding the application, unless the earlier license was a temporary one or the commissioner suspended, revoked or terminated it. Arizona writes the same twelve months, Maine allows two years and South Dakota five.
Read at leg.mt.gov on 2026-08-16
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A course is required and nobody sells one
No national seller sells a course for this license. Nothing any of them sells could satisfy the course. MCA 33-17-1602 asks a surety bail bond applicant for sixteen hours of bail enforcement training the commissioner approves one course at a time, covering defensive tactics, use of force and procedures for arresting and surrendering defendants among other things, and no national insurance school sells anything of the kind. What the sellers do carry for Montana is producer and adjuster examination preparation.