Getting an insurance license in Rhode Island
Rhode Island licenses through the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, which calls the licensee a producer. 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 cover for sickness, bodily injury or accidental death in Rhode Island, and it may carry disability income benefits too. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Casualty
Sells cover against legal liability in Rhode Island, including liability for death, injury or disability and for damage to real or personal property. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Company Adjuster
Investigates, negotiates or settles property, casualty or workers compensation claims in Rhode Island for insurers or self-insurers, under contract as an employee rather than as an independent contractor. No pre-licensing course is required and the Department says so in as many words.
No course
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Credit
Limited line credit insurance in Rhode Island. Neither a pre-licensing course nor a state examination is required of the applicant, and the only instruction the statute asks for falls on the insurer rather than on the person selling.
No course
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Crop
Sells crop insurance in Rhode Island as a core limited line. Neither a pre-licensing course nor a state examination is required of the applicant.
No course
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Emergency Adjuster
A ninety day company or independent adjuster license issued in a declared catastrophe, at no charge, on the insurer’s notification rather than on the adjuster’s application. Public adjusters cannot have one.
No course
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Independent Adjuster
Investigates, negotiates or settles property, casualty or workers compensation claims in Rhode Island for insurers or self-insurers, under contract as an independent contractor rather than as an employee. No pre-licensing course is required and the Department says so in as many words.
No course
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Life Settlement Broker
Negotiates life settlement contracts for the owner of a policy. A life producer of a year’s standing reaches it by giving notice within thirty days rather than by qualifying again, and everybody else applies.
No course
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Life Settlement Provider
Buys life insurance policies from their owners. A perpetual license held by an organization, qualified on a plan of operation and an anti-fraud plan, and the most expensive thing Rhode Island licenses.
No course
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Life
Sells life insurance in Rhode Island, which the statute writes as coverage on human lives including endowment and annuity benefits, benefits for death or dismemberment by accident, and disability income. Rhode Island asks no pre-licensing course for it.
No course
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Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser
Appraises damage to motor vehicles insured under automobile physical damage policies, on or for third party claimants. Rhode Island examines it, reciprocates with nobody, and requires the appraisal business to stand apart from the repair trade.
No course
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Personal Lines
Property and casualty insurance sold to individuals and families for primarily noncommercial purposes in Rhode Island. It is one line rather than two and no pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Pet
Sells pet insurance in Rhode Island as a non-core limited line. No pre-licensing course and no state examination, but the Pet Insurance Act adds a product training that has to be done before the first sale.
No course
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Portable Electronics Vendor
Licenses the shop rather than the person at the counter. One license covers every employee at every location the vendor operates, and no employee is separately licensed or examined.
No course
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Property
Sells cover for direct or consequential loss or damage to property of every kind in Rhode Island. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Public Adjuster
Acts for the insured rather than the insurer, and only on first party claims under policies insuring real or personal property. Automobile is outside it and so is every life, accident and health claim. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
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Reinsurance Intermediary
One license covering both the broker who places reinsurance for a ceding insurer and the manager who binds it for a reinsurer. It is stacked on a producer license, and it runs for a term the commissioner sets rather than a fixed one.
No course
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Surety
Sells surety in Rhode Island as a non-core limited line. Neither a pre-licensing course nor a state examination is required of the applicant.
No course
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Surplus Line Broker
Places Rhode Island risks with eligible non-admitted insurers. It is stacked on a producer license rather than sold beside one, there is no examination, and the renewal waits on the Division of Taxation.
No course
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Third Party Health Insurance Administrator
A certificate of authority rather than a license, held by the organization that collects premiums or settles claims on somebody else’s health coverage. It is qualified on solvency and a staffing plan, and it is the only thing the Department issues annually.
No course
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Title
Sells title insurance in Rhode Island. The Department’s own checklist is three items long and none of them is a course or an examination.
No course
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Travel
Sells travel insurance in Rhode Island under the Travel Insurance Act. The license is held by the business, the retail staff who offer it are registered rather than licensed, and any producer already holding a major line may sell travel insurance without it.
No course
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Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products
Sells cover provided under variable life insurance contracts and variable annuities in Rhode Island. The statute lists it among the lines a producer may qualify for and conditions it on nothing else, so the examination is what stands in front of it. No pre-licensing course is required.
No course
Is a course required?
Rhode Island requires no pre-licensing course for Every producer line of authority.
The Department says Rhode Island does not require pre-licensing education and in the same sentence strongly suggests preparing for the exam anyway. A sourced zero that comes with advice attached.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-14
Rhode Island requires no pre-licensing course for Public, company and independent adjusters.
Insurance Bulletin 2023-2 says it twice under two headings, once for the company and independent adjuster and once for the public adjuster, in the same words the Department uses for producers: "Pre-licensing education is not required but is recommended."The statutory zero is behind it at 27-10-3(a), whose six findings are a closed list with no course in them.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-18
Rhode Island requires no pre-licensing course for Motor vehicle damage appraisers.
The Department’s own application instructions are the whole of it: pass the Rhode Island Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser examination, provide a certified background check from your resident state, file the employment affidavit where you are not an insurance company employee, and pay $150. No course appears in the instructions or in chapter 27-10.1, and 27-10.1-1(a) makes the examination the only condition on issue.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-18
Fees
| Charge | Paid to | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance producer license, resident Biennial, and the same figure covers the major lines, title and every limited line. It is built out of the $55 a year the regulation sets plus a $5 a year continuing education tracking fee, and the Limited Lines Travel Producer is priced separately at the same $120 in the business entity schedule. It is scoped to the surplus line broker as well, because 230-RICR-20-50-5.4(B)(4)(b) says in as many words that the applicant "must apply and pay the above fees in addition to fees charged for the Insurance Producers license", so the two figures are meant to be added; and to the life settlement broker, which the regulation names in its purpose statement and then prices nowhere, so a producer license is the whole of what it costs. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $120.00 |
| Insurance producer license, non-resident Biennial. $60 a year, plus a $5 a year retaliatory fee and the $5 a year continuing education tracking fee. It is an alternative to the resident row above rather than a charge on top of it, so it is scoped to nothing and no cost page totals it. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $130.00 |
| Public, company or independent adjuster license Biennial, and the same for residents and non-residents. 27-10-4 waives it entirely for an honorably discharged wartime veteran producing the discharge certificate. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $250.00 |
| Motor vehicle damage appraiser license Biennial, and the same for residents and non-residents. Collected by NIPR at the time of application. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $150.00 |
| Surplus line broker license Biennial, paid on top of the producer license fee rather than instead of it. Built out of the $50 a year at 27-3-42. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $100.00 |
| Portable electronics vendor license Biennial, expiring on 31 May, and an applicant pays the full two years however many months of the first term are left. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $200.00 |
| Reinsurance intermediary license Biennial, built out of the $100 a year that 27-52-3(d)(3) sets for each year of a term the commissioner fixes by regulation and may not run past four years. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $200.00 |
| Third party health insurance administrator certificate of authority Annual, and the same figure covers the waiver certificate. The ERISA exempt registration is free. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $250.00 |
| Life settlement provider license The initial fee, and the largest the Department charges. The license is perpetual and costs $500 a year to keep, alongside the annual report. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $1,000.00 |
| Reinstatement Charged on top of the renewal fees where the application arrives within a year of expiry. It is a charge on a lapsed license rather than a cost of getting a first one, so it is scoped to nothing and no cost page totals it. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $50.00 |
| Emergency adjuster license The insurer files and pays nothing. R.I. Gen. Laws 27-10-8 turns the licensing sequence around: the applicant is otherwise qualified but unlicensed here, and it is the insurer that files within five days of deploying them, naming the individual, the insurer, the contract date, the catastrophe and its loss control number. None of the ten rows in Rhode Island's own fee schedule reaches it, and the license runs ninety days rather than a licensing term. | Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation | $0.00 |
Every amount above was read at its own source between 2026-08-21 and 2026-09-05. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.
Approved courses
There is no register. The Department publishes exam content outlines for study material publishers and education providers to write against, which is as close as Rhode Island comes to shaping a course. The one thing it does keep a register for is continuing education, and only since 2024: Insurance Bulletin 2024-7 created a State Based System course group called General Adjusting for the twenty-four hours it now asks of adjusters, which is a register of what counts after the license rather than before it.