The West Virginia Viatical Settlement Broker license

The Department's own examination crosswalk gives this license a paper of its own, the Viatical Settlement Broker examination, which is unusual: most states that license a viatical or life settlement broker qualify it on a producer license or on experience and examine nothing. 33-13C-3(d) is one investigation covering both licenses and five of its six findings are shared: competent and trustworthy and acting in good faith; a good business reputation and qualified by experience, training or education; a certificate of good standing from the state of domicile for a legal entity; an anti-fraud plan meeting 33-13C-14(g); and evidence of financial responsibility. No course and no hour count anywhere in the article. 33-13C-3(b)(1) then carries something almost no licensing statute on this site does, a full second-chance provision written into the qualification itself: the commissioner may not disqualify an applicant for a prior conviction unless it bears a rational nexus to the activity, has to weigh the seriousness of the crime, the time since, its relationship to the work and any rehabilitation, and must let a disqualified applicant apply anyway after five years where the offence was not a felony under 33-13C-14 and not violent or sexual. An individual with a criminal record may petition for a determination before applying at all, and the commissioner answers within 60 days. The financial responsibility figure is where the two licenses separate. Both may post $250,000, as equity in audited statements or as a surety bond in favor of the state; only the broker may substitute professional liability cover, and only if the commissioner permits it, at $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 in the aggregate.

Read at code.wvlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19

33-13C-3(a)(2)(A) is an exemption rather than a license, and the qualifier is the whole of it: a life producer "may operate as a viatical settlement broker without obtaining a license pursuant to this section if the viatical settlement activities of the producer are incidental to the producer’s insurance business activities". Delaware and Rhode Island reach the same place by deeming a life producer of a year’s standing to have met the licensing requirements; West Virginia does not ask for the year and does ask that the work stay incidental. 33-13C-3(a)(3) then carves out an attorney, a certified public accountant and an accredited financial planner retained to represent the viator and not paid by the provider.

Read at code.wvlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19