Insurance License Hub

Getting an insurance license in South Carolina

South Carolina licenses through the South Carolina Department of Insurance, 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

Is a course required?

South Carolina requires no pre-licensing course for Every producer line of authority.

The Department states that the General Assembly repealed the producer pre-licensing education requirements in the 2008 session, and that it does not approve the pre-licensing courses on the sponsor list it still publishes. Its own route to a resident license is three steps: pass the exam, apply, get fingerprinted. The exam is still required.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-13 . 2008 session of the South Carolina General Assembly

South Carolina requires pre-licensing education for Professional Bail Bondsman, Surety Bail Bondsman, Runner , at 30 hours.

Bail bondsmen are the exception the Department flags in capitals, and the one line where a course survived the repeal. The figure is 30 because that is what the statute says, reproduced in full in the Department's own bondsman guide: not less than thirty hours, with a written examination at the end of the course work, and it may not be satisfied by a mail order course. The same guide's question-and-answer section elsewhere answers 20 hours for a professional bondsman and runner and 60 for a surety bondsman. Those figures contradict the statute printed beside them and are not recorded.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-13 . S.C. Code ยง 38-53-85

South Carolina requires no pre-licensing course for Adjuster, Public Adjuster, Motor Vehicle Physical Damage Appraiser, Insurance Broker, Rental Car Company Limited License, Self-Service Storage Facility Limited License.

No pre-licensing course has ever attached to any of these. Chapter 38-47 asks the director to satisfy himself that an adjuster has sufficient knowledge of the insurance business and the duties of an adjuster and says nothing about a course; 38-48-20 gives the public adjuster the adjuster's own examination and no course; 38-49-20 sets the appraiser's fee and delegates the qualifications to regulation; 38-45-20 stacks the broker license on a producer license, an examination, a fee and a bond, with no course in the list; and the two limited licenses in chapter 38-43 ask for an application and an insurer's voucher. The producer zero above is a 2008 repeal and these are not repeals at all.

Read at scstatehouse.gov on 2026-08-17

Fees

Charge Paid to Amount
Initial producer license fee S.C. Code 38-43-80(A)(1)(a), which sets the same $25 for the biennial renewal. A producer for a common carrier selling only transportation ticket accident and health policies or baggage insurance on personal effects pays $20 instead, under 38-43-80(A)(2). It reaches the surety bail bondsman too, because the Department requires that license first: "If you are applying for a surety bondsman license, you will need to have an active producer license prior to your bondsman application submission" South Carolina Department of Insurance $25.00
Agency license fee S.C. Code 38-43-80(A)(1)(c), initial and biennial. Scoped to no license because it is charged to a firm rather than to any individual applicant, and is an addition to the individual fee rather than an alternative to it South Carolina Department of Insurance $40.00
Local insurer appointment fee S.C. Code 38-43-80(A)(1)(b), initial and biennial, with special and general appointments at $100 each. Scoped to no license because the appointing insurer pays it, and 38-43-80(B) cancels an appointment outright if it is not paid by 30 September of an even-numbered year, reactivating it only on the fee plus a $250 penalty by 1 December South Carolina Department of Insurance $40.00
Surplus lines broker license fee S.C. Code chapter 38-45, the brokers and surplus lines chapter South Carolina Department of Insurance $200.00
Adjuster license fee S.C. Code chapter 38-47 South Carolina Department of Insurance $80.00
Public adjuster license fee S.C. Code chapter 38-48, the same figure the ordinary adjuster pays South Carolina Department of Insurance $80.00
Motor vehicle physical damage appraiser license fee S.C. Code chapter 38-49 South Carolina Department of Insurance $80.00
Professional bondsman license fee S.C. Code 38-53-100(A), and the same $400 renews it under 38-53-140. Half of it never reaches the Department: $200 offsets its own costs and $200 goes to the State Law Enforcement Division, and 38-53-100(C) then sends 40 percent of everything collected to the clerk of court of the licensee's home county. 38-53-100(D) adds $150 a year to that clerk and $100 a year to the clerk of every other county the bondsman works in, both paid directly to and kept by the clerk South Carolina Department of Insurance $400.00
Runner license fee S.C. Code 38-53-100(B), and the same $200 renews it. Split the same way as the professional bondsman's, half to the Department's costs and half to the State Law Enforcement Division, with 40 percent of the whole going to the clerk of court. Licenses in this chapter all expire on 30 June South Carolina Department of Insurance $200.00
Portable electronics vendor license fee The Department's own page, and it names who writes the check: "The check must be issued by the supervising entity (licensed insurer or licensed business entity) and made payable to the South Carolina Department of Insurance."The vendor receiving the license does not pay for it South Carolina Department of Insurance $1,000.00
Premium service company license fee S.C. Code 38-39-20(b) calls it a biennial fee payable by 1 March; 38-39-30(c) in the next section still calls it an annual one, and the 2009 act that made it biennial did not conform the neighbor. The Department collects $1,000 through NIPR South Carolina Department of Insurance $1,000.00
Service contract provider registration fee S.C. Code 38-78-30(C), annually. Registrations expire on 30 September and the renewal window opens on 2 July South Carolina Department of Insurance $200.00
Third-party administrator license fee S.C. Code 38-51-20, with a $100 renewal due by 1 March each year South Carolina Department of Insurance $100.00
Reinsurance intermediary license fee S.C. Code 38-46-30(D)(1)(c), charged on issue and again on each annual renewal South Carolina Department of Insurance $100.00
Pharmacy benefits manager license fee A ceiling rather than a price: S.C. Code 38-71-2210(A)(2) says the Director may charge an initial application fee of up to $1,000 and an annual renewal of up to $500 South Carolina Department of Insurance $1,000.00
Pharmacy services administrative organization license fee A ceiling rather than a price, and the same one: S.C. Code 38-71-2320(A)(2) prices the pharmacy's side of the negotiation exactly as 38-71-2210(A)(2) prices the payer's, up to $1,000 initially and up to $500 a year South Carolina Department of Insurance $1,000.00
Bondsman examination fee The Department's bondsman page, which names the vendor and the figure together. It is the only South Carolina examination fee published on the Department's own pages Pearson VUE $59.00

Every amount above was read at its own source on 2026-08-20. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.

Approved courses

Two different things, and the difference is the repeal. For producers the Department publishes a list of pre-licensing course sponsors and says in the same document that it does not approve their courses, that the requirement was repealed, and that anyone using a sponsor on the list does so at their own risk: a courtesy, not a register. For bail bondsmen, whose thirty hours were never repealed, there is a real register on State Based Systems, and it holds four approved courses from three South Carolina schools. No national course seller holds one. You can search it at external-lookup-web.prod.naic.org .