The Oregon Adjuster license

The Division says it in one sentence on its own adjuster page, and it is the whole of the education question here: "All applicants for an Oregon resident adjuster license must take the Oregon adjuster exam. No prelicense training is required."The twenty hours a class this state asks of a producer are at ORS 744.059(1)(c), inside the producer subchapter, and nothing in ORS 744.502 to 744.584 carries anything like them. ORS 744.525(1) is the resident qualification and it is four lines long: establish a residence or place of business in Oregon in which the applicant intends to transact insurance, before applying; pass an examination the director recognizes by rule as testing the classes of insurance the applicant intends to adjust and the applicant's knowledge of an adjuster's duties under the Insurance Code; be trustworthy and reliable with a good reputation, which the director evaluates on evidence; and be 18 or older when the license issues. ORS 744.521(1) then adds the administrative half, a complete application under 744.518, the fees, and no conduct that would attract discipline under 744.584. PSI administers the paper and it may be sat in any state, which the Division points out because candidates book the wrong one: "make sure that you request the Oregon Adjuster exam". ORS 744.531 is the class list and it has three entries: property and casualty, under which an adjuster may also adjust marine and transportation and surety losses; health, whether the cover came from an insurer or a health care service contractor; and any class the director adds by rule. Oregon puts them all on one license, exactly as it puts every producer class on one producer license, so a second class is another paper rather than another license. Two things about who needs this license at all are worth more than the paper. ORS 744.515(2)(a) exempts a licensed resident insurance producer outright, and also anybody an authorized insurer employs and authorizes in writing to adjust losses under its own policies, so Oregon licenses no staff or company adjuster. And ORS 744.515(2)(b) is a grace period before licensure rather than after expiry, which is the rarer kind: no license is needed "for a period during which a person adjusts one loss before obtaining the license, if the person applies for the license within two days after beginning the adjustment" and otherwise complies with the chapter. Adjust first, apply within two days, once. Nine other exemptions run alongside, and three of them are unusually specific: an average adjuster or adjuster of maritime losses adjusting maritime losses; an individual providing repair or replacement services under home protection insurance; and a person who gives an estimate for repairs they will do themselves without charging for the estimate, even where the repair itself is paid under the claim.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19

ORS 744.528(1) turns on the other state rather than on the applicant: the director may license a nonresident "if the state, province or designated home state in which the person is licensed gives the same privilege to a resident adjuster". 744.528(2)(b) then keeps the paper for anybody who has not already sat one: an individual must pass the Oregon examination "if the applicant is an individual and has not passed an examination with respect to a category of insurance business or class of insurance that the applicant intends to transact in this state". So this is a reciprocity route with a live examination inside it, and the Division tells nonresidents to ask before assuming: "Contact the Division of Financial Regulation to see if an examination is necessary."Since 2020-01-01 it will not renew a nonresident license from a non-reciprocal state until the Oregon adjuster examination is passed, and it names California, New York and Hawaii as states it examines. Somebody licensed there before 2006 need only notify the Division that they sat it; somebody licensed after 2006-01-01 must produce proof or take it. Designated home state runs one way here and it is worth keeping the directions apart. ORS 744.502(4) defines the term and 744.528(1) accepts a person licensed in a designated home state, so Oregon recognizes another state's designation. Nothing in the chapter lets anybody designate Oregon: 744.502(8) defines a resident as a licensee who resides or keeps a principal place of business here, and there is no provision admitting anybody else as one. Rhode Island's Bulletin 2023-2 names Oregon among the states that grant nobody designated home state status, and on this reading that is right, while the Division's own page saying Oregon "does recognize a designated home state" is about the other direction. Both are true.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19

ORS 744.528(2)(b) is drafted so the examination is the default and the exemption is the exception: a nonresident individual must pass the Oregon paper "if the applicant is an individual and has not passed an examination with respect to a category of insurance business or class of insurance that the applicant intends to transact in this state". Somebody who has sat an adjuster paper elsewhere for the same class takes the route above instead. The Division tells nonresidents not to guess which one they are on: "Contact the Division of Financial Regulation to see if an examination is necessary."Since 2020-01-01 it will not renew a nonresident license from a non-reciprocal state until the Oregon adjuster examination is passed, and it names California, New York and Hawaii among the states whose licensees it examines. Somebody licensed in one of those before 2006 need only notify the Division that they sat it; somebody licensed on or after 2006-01-01 must produce proof or take it.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19