Getting an insurance license in North Carolina
North Carolina licenses through the North Carolina Department of Insurance, which calls the licensee an agent. Which license you need depends on what you intend to sell, and the requirements differ sharply between them.
License types
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Accident and Health or Sickness
Sells accident, health and sickness cover in North Carolina. North Carolina stopped requiring a pre-licensing course for it on 2025-10-01.
No course
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Adjuster
Adjusts North Carolina losses across all property and casualty, workers' compensation included and ocean marine excluded. One license rather than a family, which is unusual: most states that license adjusters split them.
No course
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Auto Physical Damage
Places collision and comprehensive cover on a financed vehicle when the borrower has not. It exists for a lender's staff rather than for an insurance office, which no other license on this site does.
No course
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Auto Rental Limited License
Lets a vehicle rental firm sell cover with its rentals. No designated responsible licensed person is required, which is what makes it a limited license rather than an agency one.
No course
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Casualty
Sells casualty insurance in North Carolina, licensed apart from Property. North Carolina stopped requiring a pre-licensing course for it on 2025-10-01.
No course
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Credit Agent
Sells the cover a lender writes to protect its own loan. It is the only North Carolina license that needs neither an examination nor a fingerprint background check.
No course
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Crop Hail Adjuster
Adjusts North Carolina crop damage caused by hail, and by hail alone. Every other kind of crop loss has to go to a company, independent firm or self-employed adjuster instead.
No course
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Dental Services
Sells dental services plans in North Carolina. The Department's own chart says the license is needed for selling them for one named company, which nothing else on this site does.
No course
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Life
Sells life insurance in North Carolina. North Carolina stopped requiring a pre-licensing course for it on 2025-10-01.
No course
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Medicare Supplement / Long-Term Care
Sells Medicare supplement and long-term care cover in North Carolina. It sits on top of a Life or an Accident and Health license rather than standing alone. North Carolina stopped requiring a pre-licensing course for it on 2025-10-01.
No course
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Personal Lines
Sells the household half of property and casualty in North Carolina. North Carolina stopped requiring a pre-licensing course for it on 2025-10-01.
No course
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Portable Electronics
Lets a shop selling portable electronic devices insure them for its customers. No designated responsible licensed person is required.
No course
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Pre-Need Life
Sells life policies that fund a pre-arranged funeral. Its qualification comes from a different board entirely: the North Carolina Board of Funeral Service.
No course
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Property
Sells property insurance in North Carolina, licensed apart from Casualty. North Carolina stopped requiring a pre-licensing course for it on 2025-10-01.
No course
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Public Adjuster
Represents the insured on North Carolina first party property claims, and on nothing else. Third party and casualty claims are outside the license by the Department's own definition.
No course
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Self-Service Storage Limited License
Lets a self-storage firm insure what its customers put in the unit. No designated responsible licensed person is required.
No course
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Surplus Lines
Places North Carolina property and casualty business directly with carriers not admitted here, and files the forms and taxes that go with it. Anybody who goes through a wholesaler does not need it.
No course
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Travel, Accident and Baggage
Sells cover for people while travelling. No examination, and the Department's chart puts N/A in both the exemption and the reinstatement columns.
No course
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Variable Life and Variable Annuity
Sells variable life and variable annuity contracts in North Carolina. No examination of its own: it stacks on the Life line and on a securities registration the Department verifies through FINRA.
No course
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Vision Services
Sells vision services plans in North Carolina. The Department's own chart says the license is needed for selling them for one named company, which nothing else on this site does.
No course
Is a course required?
North Carolina requires no pre-licensing course for Life, Accident & Health, Property, Casualty, Personal Lines, Medicare Supplement / Long Term Care.
A sourced zero, and the strongest one recorded here. Subsections (d)(2) and (d)(3) of G.S. 58-33-30 were repealed with effect from 2025-10-01, and what (d)(1) says now is not silence but a prohibition: "The Commissioner shall not require an individual who applies for an insurance producer license in this State to complete any specific amount of instruction or any specific course of instruction."The state examination is unaffected and still required. The Department keeps publishing its list of pre-licensing providers, as a resource for applicants who want a course anyway rather than as a requirement.
Read at ncleg.gov on 2026-08-15 . S.L. 2025-45, s. 1(a), amending G.S. 58-33-30(d)
Fees
| Charge | Paid to | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| License registration fee G.S. 58-33-125(c). An unlicensed applicant pays $50 on application, and $50 again "for each additional kind of insurance" requested, so a producer taking two lines pays $100. A supplemental license to sell Medicare supplement and long-term care policies is a further $50 under the same subsection. It is nonrefundable under (g), and it is the application charge rather than the annual fee, which 58-33-125(a) sets separately by license type. | North Carolina Department of Insurance | $50.00 |
| Fingerprint submission Electronic submission through live scan is required for an initial license, or for a re-license after a lapse of a year. | North Carolina Department of Insurance | $38.00 |
| Adjuster license, annual G.S. 58-33-125(a), the first line of the statutory table. It is an annual fee rather than a one-off, and (g) makes the table "in lieu of any other license fees". A crop hail only adjuster pays $20 instead. | North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance | $75.00 |
| Crop hail adjuster license, annual G.S. 58-33-125(a), which prices the crop hail only adjuster at $20 against the $75 every other adjuster pays. It is the cheapest adjusting license in the North Carolina table. | North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance | $20.00 |
| Motor vehicle damage appraiser license, annual G.S. 58-33-125(a), annual, and the same $75 the table sets for an adjuster. | North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance | $75.00 |
| Surplus lines licensee, individual, annual G.S. 58-33-125(a), annual. A corporate surplus lines licensee pays $100 under the same table. | North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance | $50.00 |
| Limited representative license, annual G.S. 58-33-125(a), annual, for a limited representative. Cancellation costs the insurer a further $10 under the same table. | North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance | $20.00 |
| Insurance producer appointment, individual, annual G.S. 58-33-125(a), annual, and 58-33-125(g) makes it apply to each license rather than once per producer. A Medicare supplement and long-term care appointment is $10. Under (h) the insurer is billed for it rather than the producer, and renewal billing is annual. | North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance | $11.00 |
Every amount above was read at its own source between 2026-08-13 and 2026-09-05. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.
Approved courses
North Carolina approves the school rather than the individual course, and since 2025-10-01 it approves them for a course nobody is required to take. The Department reviews the school applications and sends the approved list to Pearson VUE to post on its North Carolina page, in two listings, classroom and online, so the register is scoped by delivery method as well as by provider. The Department's own words for what the list is now: a resource in assisting applicants to pass the state license examinations. You can search it at the Department .