The Oregon Insurance Consultant license

ORS 744.619(1) is the resident qualification and it asks four things: a residence or place of business in Oregon established before the application; five years of experience in the insurance business relating to the classes the license will cover, or equivalent education or qualifications the director specifies by rule; errors and omissions insurance in force under ORS 744.635; and an examination the director recognizes by rule. There is no prelicensing course anywhere in the subchapter. The last sentence of 744.619(1)(d) is the route most applicants will take and it is easy to miss, because it is attached to the examination paragraph rather than given a paragraph of its own: "The requirement in this paragraph does not apply to an insurance producer who holds a license to transact the categories of insurance business or classes of insurance that the insurance producer intends to transact as an insurance consultant."A producer already licensed for the class sits no consultant paper. ORS 744.626 is the class list, and it is one longer than the adjuster's: life, health, property and casualty with marine and transportation and surety inside it, and any class the director adds by rule. What the license is for is set by 744.605 partly in vocabulary and partly in substance. A person engages in business as an insurance consultant if they use, with their own name, the title of insurance planner, consultant, adviser or counselor, or financial and insurance planner, consultant, adviser or counselor, or any similar title; or if, for compensation other than commission on a sale, they advise, counsel or give an opinion on the benefits, advantages or disadvantages of insurance issuable in Oregon, or "in any other manner provide information about insurance". 744.605(2) then widens compensation to take in what the person is paid for related financial services provided alongside. The E&O cover is a continuing condition rather than a filing: 744.614(2)(a)(D) makes evidence of it a renewal requirement, and 744.635(2) lets the director suspend the requirement outright if the cover stops being available at reasonable cost, and reimpose it when it returns.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19

The last sentence of ORS 744.619(1)(d), and 744.621(2)(c) repeats it word for word for a nonresident: the examination requirement "does not apply to an insurance producer who holds a license to transact the categories of insurance business or classes of insurance that the insurance producer intends to transact as an insurance consultant". It waives the paper and nothing else, so the five years at 744.619(1)(b) and the errors and omissions cover at 744.635 both stand: a producer of two years' standing does not qualify here. Read against the twenty hours a class Oregon asks of a producer, this is the one place in the state where studying for a license buys you out of a later one.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19

ORS 744.621 is the nonresident qualification and it waives almost nothing. The five years and the errors and omissions cover carry over unchanged from 744.619, and the examination carries over too, with the same producer exemption attached. What reciprocity does here is admit the applicant at all: 744.621(1) requires the other state or province to give an Oregon resident consultant the same privilege, and it accepts registration under a regulatory program the director judges similar where the other state does not license consultants by that name. Compare the producer side, where ORS 744.067(1) removes the course and the examination together for somebody licensed elsewhere: the consultant reciprocity clause removes neither.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19