The Rhode Island Public Adjuster license

R.I. Gen. Laws 27-10-3(a) is a closed list of six findings the Department must make before it approves the application, and no course is in it: at least eighteen years old; eligible to designate Rhode Island as a home state; trustworthy, reliable and of good reputation; no act that is a ground for refusal under 27-10-12; the examination passed for the lines of authority applied for; and $250 paid. Insurance Bulletin 2023-2 says the rest in one sentence: "Pre-licensing education is not required but is recommended."The paper is Pearson VUE's, and the Department asks an applicant to wait three to five business days after passing before applying at NIPR, because the application looks the score up automatically and it takes that long to appear. A statewide criminal background check from the Rhode Island Attorney General is required and may not be more than thirty days old. The paper is its own, exam series 17, and the Department publishes its 2025 first-time pass rate for it: 4 of 7 in person and 3 of 8 remotely, the smallest cohort and the lowest pass rate of any Rhode Island insurance examination. 27-10-1(1) puts the limit on the license in the chapter's own purpose clause, "limiting their licensure to assisting insureds in first-party claims", and 27-10-1.1(i) draws it tighter still: real or personal property, other than automobile. Advertising for employment as a public adjuster and soliciting business are inside the definition, so holding out needs the license before a claim is touched. 27-10-5(c) forbids holding this license and a company or independent adjuster license at the same time, which is the one place in the chapter where two licenses exclude each other. 27-10-1.2(b) forbids a public adjuster from telling a claimant they represent an insurer.

Read at webserver.rilegislature.gov on 2026-08-18

27-10-6(f), added by P.L. 2022 ch. 119 and ch. 120 with effect from 2023-01-01, and it is Arizona's waiver arriving in a second state with one word changed. Arizona's 20-321.01(C)(3) says the requirement "are waived"; Rhode Island says the Department "may also accept" the certificate in lieu of the written examination, which makes it a discretion rather than an entitlement. The statute writes two tests into the program itself, a proctored examination long enough and rigorous enough to determine competence, and any other requirement the Department sets. It fixes no hour count, where Arizona's fixes forty. Rhode Island publishes no list of the claims associations whose programs it has approved, so this site names no company here. The parallel provision for non-residents is 27-10-7.1(d), and it lets the certificate stand in for the resident license the reciprocity route otherwise needs.

Read at webserver.rilegislature.gov on 2026-08-18

Insurance Bulletin 2023-2 states it and states the reason the route is narrower than the company and independent adjuster one: "There is no designated home state option for public adjusters."A company or independent adjuster living in one of the seventeen jurisdictions that license no independent adjuster may name a designated home state and qualify there; a public adjuster may not, so a resident license in the applicant’s own state is the only way in from outside Rhode Island. The Department enforces it in the application itself rather than by hand: its NIPR business rules will not let the application move forward unless an active resident license is on the Producer Database.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-18

27-10-7(b). It is written as a duty rather than an option, "shall make application within ninety (90) days", and no examination is required of that person. It is the adjuster twin of the producer route at 27-2.4-11(b) and it is shorter, because the producer version keeps something back and this one does not: a producer moving here still has to certify knowledge of Rhode Island law, and an adjuster does not.

Read at webserver.rilegislature.gov on 2026-08-18