The Montana Viatical Settlement Broker license
Viatical Settlement Broker
Negotiates the sale of somebody's life policy on their behalf, owing them a fiduciary duty whoever pays. Montana is one of very few states that asks a viatical broker for training and an examination, and one of many that lets a life producer of a year's standing skip both.
Course
No count
A course is required and the regulator publishes no hour count for it.
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. They are listed in full because the course is only the first of them.
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Route 1 Attend the training and pass the examination
State exam required
The training
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A pre-licensing course in whatever the commissioner requires of a viatical settlement broker by rule, approved by the Department
and the examination
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A viatical settlement broker examination designated by the commissioner by rule. It is not on the examination vendor's list of Montana papers, which runs to twelve and does not include this one.
and the application and the fee
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An application in a form the commissioner approves, with the fee at 33-2-708: $50 for the original license, $100 to renew biennially and $200 to reinstate a lapsed one. The commissioner may ask for biographical, organizational, locational, financial and employment information and for a statement of the business plan.
33-20-1303(2)(a)(i) is the requirement and it is one clause: an applicant "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 in the Code, and the commissioner sets both by rule. That makes this the second live course requirement in a state this file recorded as requiring none, after the surety bail bond agent's sixteen hours, and the two are not alike: the bail course has a syllabus in the statute and this one has nothing but the word training. 33-20-1303(3) is the fiduciary duty and it does not depend on who pays: however the broker is compensated, the broker represents only the viator and owes a duty to act on the viator's instructions and in the viator's best interests.
Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19
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Route 2 Hold a life line of authority for a year
Exempt from the state exam
A year on the life line
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1 year an insurance producer license with a life insurance line of authority in Montana or in the producer's home state, held for at least one year
and notification inside 30 days, and a fee
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Not later than 30 days from the first day of acting as a viatical settlement broker, notification to the commissioner on the prescribed form acknowledging that the producer will operate under the viatical settlement part, with a $50 original notification fee under 33-2-708(1)(b)(viii).
33-20-1303(2)(b) deems a resident or nonresident producer with a life line held for at least a year to meet the licensing requirements, so the training and the examination fall away and the application follows the work rather than preceding it. 33-20-1303(2)(c) adds a duty nothing else here carries: where the commissioner asks, a life producer acting as a viatical broker states on the life producer license renewal form whether the intention is to carry on doing it, and no extra fee may be charged for saying so. 33-20-1303(2)(d) is the carve-out, for an attorney, certified public accountant or nationally accredited certified financial planner retained to represent the viator and not paid by the provider.
Read at mca.legmt.gov on 2026-08-19
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A course is required and nobody sells one
No national seller sells a course for this license. The training this license does require is not one a national seller could sell. MCA 33-20-1303(2)(a)(i) asks for viatical settlement broker training and an examination the commissioner designates by rule, with no hours, no subjects and no register anywhere in the Code, and no Montana viatical paper on the examination vendor's list of twelve. The way most brokers get in avoids both: a life producer of a year's standing is deemed to meet the requirements.