The New Hampshire Insurance Claims Adjuster license

RSA 402-B:4 requires a written examination administered by the commissioner, of sufficient scope to test the applicant’s knowledge of insurance, the duties of a licensee and the state’s insurance laws, and no course anywhere in the chapter. RSA 402-B:3 asks the application to state the applicant’s age, domicile, place of business and "line or lines of insurance for which the applicant desires a license", so the license carries lines without the chapter enumerating them. RSA 402-B:7, I is the finding the commissioner has to make and it is short: properly qualified in all respects, of good character, and the grant not against the public interest. New Hampshire draws the boundary of this license by definition rather than by splitting it. RSA 402-B:2, II is one sentence covering everybody who investigates, negotiates or settles property, casualty or workers compensation claims "whether employed by or contracted by or with an insurer, a claims adjusting company, or a third party administrator", so the company adjuster and the independent adjuster that Iowa, Nevada and Rhode Island license separately are one licensee here. What the state does instead is exempt six classes in RSA 402-B:2, III, and two of them are unusually specific: a person who only investigates, negotiates or settles automobile glass replacement or repair claims, and a person entering portable electronics claims into an automated claims adjudication system, so long as no more than 25 such people report to one licensed adjuster or producer. Completing a first notice of loss form is called a clerical duty in terms.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-19

RSA 402-B:5, II is two words long, "Attorneys-at-law", and it sits in a section headed Exceptions that says the commissioner "shall waive" the examination. It is worth separating from the exemption two sections earlier, because they do different things. RSA 402-B:2, III(a) puts an attorney acting in their professional capacity outside the chapter altogether, so no license is needed. RSA 402-B:5, II is for the attorney who wants the license anyway, and it takes the paper away. New Hampshire is the only state on this site where admission to the bar is a route to an adjuster license rather than only an exemption from needing one.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-19

RSA 402-B:5, I waives the examination for a nonresident licensed at home, and then answers the no-license-state problem in the same sentence rather than in a separate subsection: where the applicant’s own state issues no adjuster license, six months in the business of claims adjusting stands in its place. RSA 402-B:2, I is the matching home state rule, letting an adjuster whose own state issues no license for the line designate as a home state any state where they qualify under this chapter. RSA 402-B:7, III then ties the nonresident license to the resident one: terminate the home state license and the New Hampshire license is deemed terminated too, unless a change of address is filed in time.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-19