The Washington Surplus Line Broker license
Surplus Line Broker
Places business with insurers that are not admitted in Washington, on top of a property and casualty producer license. Two bonds, an office in the state, and a resident examination whose content outline the Office publishes: 25 of its items are on insurance company annual statements and the IRIS ratios.
Course
None
This license has no pre-licensing course route.
Ways in
3
2 of them skip the state exam.
Exam
Varies
Priced per paper. The prices are below.
Either combination is $55. Each single paper is $38.
Every way to qualify
More than one route leads to this license, and which one you take changes what you study and whether you sit the exam. There is no pre-licensing course among them: this license is qualified for by sitting the examination, a license held in another state or moving here already licensed.
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Route 1 Hold the property and casualty lines, and pass the surplus line paper
State exam required
The producer license underneath
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a Washington resident insurance producer license carrying the property and casualty lines of authority, held and maintained for as long as the surplus line broker license lasts
and the tax bond
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A bond of $20,000 in favor of the state of Washington with authorized corporate sureties the commissioner approves, conditioned on conducting the business under the license in accordance with chapter 48.15 RCW and on remitting the surplus lines premium tax promptly, kept in force for as long as the license is
and the premium bond, which is sized by last year's business
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A second bond in favor of the people of the state or of a named insured, of $2,500 or five percent of the previous calendar year's surplus line placement premiums, whichever is greater, capped at $100,000 of total aggregate liability, contingent on accounting to anybody who asked the broker to obtain insurance for the money or premiums collected
and an office at a designated location in Washington
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An office maintained at a designated location in this state, which the opening sentence of RCW 48.15.070 writes as a continuing condition of the license rather than as something proved once
RCW 48.15.070(1) and (2). The producer license is a continuing condition rather than an entry test, written as "an applicant and a licensee... must have and maintain". A business entity qualifies through a resident employee authorized to exercise its powers, and the commissioner has to find the applicant competent and trustworthy. The Office publishes an exam content outline for this paper and it is unusually specific about the financial half: 25 items on insurance company annual statements, naming Schedule D, Schedule F, Schedule P, Schedule T, Schedule Y, the jurat page and the five-year historical data, plus the thirteen IRIS ratios and the London market. The Surplus Line Association of Washington, membership of which is a condition of doing the business at all, offers classes on those topics; the Office links them as help rather than as a requirement. No pre-licensing education is required for this license and none ever was.
Read at app.leg.wa.gov on 2026-08-19
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Route 2 Hold a surplus line broker license in your home state
Exempt from the state exam
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a surplus line broker license or its equivalent in the applicant's home state, in good standing, plus an active producer license there carrying the property and casualty lines
RCW 48.15.073(1) conditions the nonresident license on the home state issuing nonresident licenses to Washington residents on the same basis, and (2) deems the holder of a home state surplus line broker license in good standing to meet Washington's minimum standards. Subsection (3) is the one that matters commercially: a nonresident licensee must fulfill all the same responsibilities as a resident "except for bonding", so neither bond above follows the license across the state line. The Office adds the producer license on both sides, a Washington one for residents and a home state one for nonresidents.
Read at app.leg.wa.gov on 2026-08-19
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Route 3 Move to Washington and apply within 90 days
Exempt from the state exam
The license being given up
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90 days Licensed as a resident surplus line broker in another state, moving to Washington, with the application reaching the commissioner within 90 days of that resident license being cancelled.
and the tax bond
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A bond of $20,000 in favor of the state of Washington with authorized corporate sureties the commissioner approves, conditioned on conducting the business under the license in accordance with chapter 48.15 RCW and on remitting the surplus lines premium tax promptly, kept in force for as long as the license is
and the premium bond, which is sized by last year's business
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A second bond in favor of the people of the state or of a named insured, of $2,500 or five percent of the previous calendar year's surplus line placement premiums, whichever is greater, capped at $100,000 of total aggregate liability, contingent on accounting to anybody who asked the broker to obtain insurance for the money or premiums collected
and an office at a designated location in Washington
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An office maintained at a designated location in this state, which the opening sentence of RCW 48.15.070 writes as a continuing condition of the license rather than as something proved once
RCW 48.15.070(3) waives the examination alone, and the bonds and the office survive it because they fall on every resident licensee. The ninety days run from the cancellation of the old resident license rather than from the move, which is the opposite way round from the producer clause at RCW 48.17.175(2).
Read at app.leg.wa.gov on 2026-08-19
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No national seller sells a course for this license, though Washington does examine for it: the Office's own portion pass report names WA Surplus Lines Broker among its eleven papers, and publishes an exam content outline for it. The only teaching aimed at that paper is the Surplus Line Association of Washington's own classes, which the Office links from the licensing page and which are not sold by any provider on this site.