Florida Non-Resident Adjuster License Requirements

To qualify for a Florida non-resident adjuster license, you must be at least 18, hold a resident adjuster license in good standing in your home state (or apply through the Designated Home State path if your state doesn’t license adjusters), pass a fingerprint-based background check, and submit the application with the $50 fee through MyFloridaCFO or NIPR. If your home state has an exam-reciprocity agreement with Florida, you skip the state licensing exam. The Florida non-resident adjuster license requirements below walk through each piece in the order you’ll encounter them.

Pick the Right License First

Non-residents apply for one of two license types, and Florida law prohibits holding both at once.¹

The Non-Resident All-Lines Adjuster license (Class 7-20) is the common path. It covers property, casualty, and marine claims and lets you adjust on behalf of an insurance company or independent adjusting firm.²

The Non-Resident Public Adjuster license (Class 73-20) is for adjusters who represent policyholders. It carries stricter prerequisites, including a $50,000 surety bond and detailed conflict-of-interest rules.³

If Your State Doesn’t License Adjusters

About 15 states don’t license insurance adjusters at all. If you live in one of them, there’s no resident license for Florida to reciprocate from, so you apply for a Designated Home State (DHS) adjuster license (Class 70-20) instead. That makes Florida your licensing home state for adjusting purposes. The DHS path usually requires passing Florida’s all-lines exam, though holders of certain professional designations (CPCU, AIC, RCA, and several others) are exempt. You cannot hold a resident adjuster license in any other state, or a DHS license from another state, at the same time.⁴

The DHS route is also available to company employee adjusters whose home state only licenses independent adjusters.

Basic Eligibility

Every applicant must be at least 18 and either a U.S. citizen or a legal alien with valid work authorization.⁵ A P.O. Box cannot serve as your residential address. The Department verifies your resident license through the NAIC database, so your home state license must be current before you apply.

Criminal History Bars

Florida runs a fingerprint background check on every applicant, and specific conviction categories block licensure. The bars apply to convictions, guilty pleas, and no-contest pleas regardless of whether adjudication was withheld. The Department will not issue any license until related fines, court costs, and restitution are paid.⁶

Permanent bar: capital felonies, first-degree felonies, any felony directly related to the financial services industry, embezzlement, money laundering, sale of unregistered securities, and false statements in financial services transactions.
15-year bar: felonies involving moral turpitude that fall outside the permanent-bar categories.
7-year bar: all other felonies, plus misdemeanors directly related to financial services.

The 7- and 15-year clocks start when you complete your sentence or final release from supervision, not from the conviction date. A gubernatorial pardon or restoration of civil rights can sometimes lift a bar, but the Department retains discretion to deny the license anyway, and a clemency order that explicitly excludes financial services licensure provides no relief.⁶

Whether You’ll Need to Take the Exam

Florida has exam-reciprocity agreements with most states. If your home state qualifies, you skip Florida’s licensing exam entirely. The DFS publishes a full reciprocity table listing each state’s status for both exam waivers and continuing education reciprocity.²

States with exam reciprocity include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming, among others. Puerto Rico also qualifies.

Several major states do not reciprocate on the exam, including California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Hawaii. Adjusters from those states must pass Florida’s all-lines adjuster exam before the license issues.

Fingerprinting

Electronic fingerprinting is mandatory. You must use IdentoGo, the Department’s approved vendor, which submits prints through the LiveScan system to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The fee is roughly $50.75 plus applicable sales tax.⁷

If you cannot reach a LiveScan location outside Florida, IdentoGo can process fingerprint cards submitted by mail; contact them directly to arrange it. Results are transmitted to DFS within about 72 business hours of processing.

Extra Requirements for Public Adjusters

Public adjuster applicants have two prerequisites the all-lines path doesn’t share.

You must file a $50,000 surety bond with the Department, issued by a surety insurer authorized in Florida. The bond names DFS as beneficiary and stays in effect for the life of the license plus one year after termination.⁸

You must also have been continuously licensed and employed as a public adjuster for at least the previous six months. If your home state doesn’t license public adjusters, six months of continuous employment as a resident adjuster in any state satisfies the requirement.³

Public adjusters also operate under strict conflict rules enforced by DFS. You cannot adjust a claim and participate in repairing the same property. You cannot steer policyholders to contractors where you have an undisclosed financial interest. You cannot accept referral compensation from anyone you do business with, and no one except another adjuster can pay you for referrals. If you previously adjusted a claim for an insurer or independent firm, you cannot later represent the policyholder on that same claim.⁹

Submitting the Application

Apply through the MyFloridaCFO portal or through NIPR, which handles the same non-resident and DHS application types for Florida.¹⁰ Have your home state license number, business and residential addresses, email, and phone number ready.

The application fee is $50, plus a $5 license identification fee, paid online at submission.¹¹ After submitting, create a MyProfile account on MyFloridaCFO to track status, view any deficiency notices, and communicate with the Department. Processing typically runs seven to ten business days.

One boundary worth flagging: emergency adjuster permits issued after hurricanes and other declared emergencies are not something you apply for yourself. Only Florida-licensed insurers and independent adjusting firms can submit those applications on behalf of individuals, and public adjusters are excluded from the process entirely.¹²

Keeping the License Active After Issuance

Florida adjuster licenses are perpetual. There’s no expiration date and no renewal fee. But two ongoing obligations decide whether the license stays valid.

Appointment

You must maintain at least one active appointment with an insurer or adjusting firm. No one can act as an adjuster in Florida without both a current license and an active appointment.¹³ The appointment fee is $60 per appointing entity for non-residents, with no additional per-county fee.¹¹

Go 48 months without any appointment and you lose eligibility, meaning you’ll have to re-qualify as a first-time applicant and repeat the full application and exam process.¹⁴ Late initial appointment filings also carry a $250 penalty.

Continuing Education

Florida requires a 4-hour law and ethics update course every two years, plus elective CE credits. The elective total depends on how long you’ve been licensed: 20 hours if fewer than six years (24 total), or 16 hours if six or more years (20 total).¹⁵

Non-resident all-lines adjusters can satisfy Florida’s CE by completing their home state’s CE, but only if that state has a CE reciprocity agreement with Florida. Check the DFS reciprocity table. If your home state has no CE requirement and you aren’t licensed in another state that does, you must complete Florida’s CE directly.

Address and Name Changes

You have 30 days from any change of address or name to update the Department through MyProfile. Missing that window can result in administrative action and a fine.¹⁶

If you operate from a home office or other business location while adjusting Florida claims, that location may need to be licensed separately as an adjusting firm. Exemptions exist, but the default rule is that any place of business used to perform adjuster functions requires its own firm license.⁵

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 626.876 – Exclusive Employment Public Adjusters All-Lines Adjusters
2
MyFloridaCFO. Non-Resident All-Lines Adjuster Reciprocity
3
Florida Department of Financial Services. Non-Resident Public Adjuster License
4
Florida Department of Financial Services. Non-Resident Designated Home State Adjuster License
5
MyFloridaCFO. Agents and Adjusters
6
MyFloridaCFO. Applicants with Criminal Histories
7
Florida Department of Financial Services. Fingerprinting Instructions
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 626.865 – Qualification for License as Public Adjuster
9
Florida Department of Financial Services. Public Adjuster Code of Ethics and Contract Checklist
10
NIPR. Florida Non-Resident Adjuster Licensing Individual
11
MyFloridaCFO. Fees and Payment Methods
12
Florida Department of Financial Services. Emergency Adjuster License
13
Florida Senate. Florida Code 626.112 – License and Appointment Required
14
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 626.431 – Effect of Expiration of License and Appointment
15
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 626.2815 – Continuing Education Requirements
16
MyFloridaCFO. Changing the Addresses or Name of an Agent, Adjuster, or Agency