How to get an Indiana insurance license: requirements, steps, and costs

Getting an insurance license in Indiana takes three steps: complete state-approved pre-licensing education, pass the licensing exam through Pearson VUE, and apply online for a $40 nonrefundable fee, per the Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1]. Pre-licensing education runs 20 to 40 hours depending on the line of authority, the exam costs $69 for the major lines, and the department typically processes a complete application in 7 to 10 business days. Most people who want to become an insurance agent in Indiana move from the first study session to an issued license within a few weeks to a couple of months.

Indiana insurance license requirements

To qualify for a resident Indiana insurance license you must be at least 18, keep your principal place of residence or business in Indiana, and have a record free of acts that would disqualify you from licensure. The Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1] list these requirements for every resident license:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Maintain your principal place of residence or principal place of business in Indiana.
• Complete a pre-licensing education program and an examination when your line requires them.
• Have committed no act that is a ground for denial, suspension, or revocation of a license.
• Be a United States citizen or a legal alien with work authorization from the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, with documentation submitted to the department.
• Submit the required forms, application, and nonrefundable fees.

Applicants convicted of a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust must first obtain written consent under 18 U.S.C. 1033; the Commissioner will issue or deny that consent within 30 days of receiving a complete waiver application. Indiana's requirement list does not include fingerprinting, which some other states require for insurance licensing.

The Commissioner may also issue a temporary resident producer license for up to 180 days under Indiana Code 27-1-15.6-11, a path sometimes used when a producer dies or leaves an agency and a successor needs authority quickly.

Lines of authority in Indiana

Indiana issues producer licenses by line of authority, and the line you choose sets your pre-licensing hours and your exam. The table below compares the main lines residents pursue.

Every resident line carries the same $40 application fee, per the Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1]. Question counts follow the Pearson VUE Indiana content outlines^[2] effective November 26, 2025; each exam also mixes in unscored pretest questions (10 on Life, Health, Life & Health, and P&C; 9 on Personal Lines; 5 on the adjuster exam).

Exams for Surplus Lines, Public Adjuster, Bail and Recovery, the Laws and Regulations assessments, and Navigator cost $50 instead of $69. Several exams are also offered in Spanish.

Life insurance license in Indiana

A Life license requires 20 hours of approved pre-licensing education, per the Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1], and a 120-minute exam. The exam has 80 scored questions, 50 in general insurance knowledge and 30 on Indiana insurance law, plus 10 unscored pretest questions, according to the Pearson VUE content outlines^[2] effective November 26, 2025.

The license authorizes you to sell life insurance products. To sell variable life and variable annuity products you must add the Variable Life & Annuity line, which requires a FINRA Central Registry Depository (CRD) number and either holding or applying for a Life license, with no separate state exam, per NIPR's Indiana resident requirements^[3].

Accident and health insurance license in Indiana

An Accident & Health license requires 20 hours of pre-licensing education, per the Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1], and a 120-minute exam structured like the Life exam: 50 scored general-knowledge questions, 30 scored Indiana-specific questions, and 10 unscored pretest questions. The license authorizes you to sell health coverage products, including the individual and group health plans consumers buy through carriers and the marketplace.

Choosing between the single Accident & Health license and the combined Life & Health license is mostly a business decision. The combined path takes one 40-hour course and one exam, while the single lines take two separate courses and two separate exams.

Life and health insurance license in Indiana

The combined Life, Accident & Health license covers both lines with one 40-hour course and one exam, per the Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1]. The exam runs 180 minutes with 135 scored questions (100 general knowledge and 35 Indiana-specific) plus 15 pretest questions, per the Pearson VUE content outlines^[2].

Under NIPR's Indiana requirements^[3], an applicant must not apply for or actively hold both the combined Life & Health authority and the single Life or Accident & Health authorities. Pick one structure and stay with it.

Property and casualty insurance license in Indiana

A Property and Casualty (P&C) license requires 40 hours of pre-licensing education and the longest producer exam: 135 scored questions plus 15 pretest questions in 180 minutes. The license authorizes you to sell coverage for property damage and liability, on both personal and commercial risks.

The P&C license also opens doors that require it as a prerequisite. A Surplus Lines license requires an active P&C license, an $80 application fee, and a $50 exam, per the NIPR Indiana resident requirements^[3]. The limited line Crop & Hail authority is available only to producers who already hold an active P&C license.

Producers who sell flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program must complete a one-time 3-hour state-approved flood course, per FEMA's state training requirements^[4]. On the consumer side, filings Indiana drivers know well, such as SR-22 financial responsibility certificates, are also submitted through P&C carriers.

Personal lines insurance license in Indiana

A Personal Lines license requires 20 hours of pre-licensing education, per the Indiana Department of Insurance resident licensing guidelines^[1], and authorizes you to sell personal coverage such as auto and homeowners insurance, without commercial authority. The exam runs 120 minutes with 100 scored questions (75 general and 25 Indiana-specific) plus 9 pretest questions.

If you plan to sell commercial coverage later, the full Property & Casualty license may be the better starting point: the Pearson VUE candidate handbook^[5] notes that a P&C course also satisfies the education requirement for the Personal Lines exam.

Title and limited lines licenses in Indiana

Title and several limited lines licenses require little or no examination, which makes them the fastest Indiana credentials to earn. The Indiana Department of Insurance guidelines^[1] list Limited Line Credit, Title, Travel, and Portable Electronics as licenses that require no exam.

• Title: 10 hours of instruction, no exam, and a six-month completion certificate. Nonresidents whose home states do not license title may use Indiana's Designated Home State title route.
• Limited Line Credit: no pre-licensing education or exam at all, covering products such as credit life, credit disability, and GAP insurance.
• Crop & Hail: available to producers holding an active P&C license who submit a signed line-change letter showing at least 10 hours of completed CE, per the IDOI limited lines page^[6].
• Prearranged Funeral: requires an active Life license, a funeral director license from the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, a line-change letter, and 10 hours of CE.
• Bail and Recovery: a $50 exam of 60 questions in 60 minutes, per the Pearson VUE candidate handbook^[5], plus 6 hours of CE per cycle.

Pre-licensing education in Indiana

Pre-licensing education is the state-approved coursework you must finish before Pearson VUE will admit you to the exam. Indiana approves classroom, self-study, and online courses, and state-approved self-study may be used to fulfill the classroom requirement, per the resident licensing guidelines^[1]. The department's approved-education list is searchable through the Sircon system, and IDOI publishes pass ratios for approved providers.

Your school issues a certificate of completion that is valid for six months, per the IDOI resident licensing guidelines^[1]. Under Indiana Code 27-1-15.6-6(c), the exam and the license application must both be finished inside that window, and the certificate goes with you to the test center.

Under Indiana Code 27-1-15.6-9, the Commissioner may waive pre-licensing education for holders of certain designations: CLU, CFP, or CFC waive the Life and Accident & Health requirement; CPCU, CIC, or AAI waive Property & Casualty and Personal Lines; and a bachelor's degree in insurance waives all lines. Request the waiver by email to agentlicensing@idoi.in.gov and take the waiver approval to the test center. Waiver holders take only the Indiana Laws and Regulations assessment for their line.

Taking the Indiana insurance exam

Pearson VUE administers every Indiana Department of Insurance exam, and every exam requires a scaled score of 70 to pass. You reserve a seat online at pearsonvue.com/in/insurance^[7] or by phone at 866-895-0496, at least 24 hours before your test date; walk-ins are not available.

What to expect on exam day, per the Pearson VUE candidate handbook^[5] dated August 2026:

• The exam fee is $69 for the major lines and $50 for Surplus Lines, Public Adjuster, Bail and Recovery, the Laws and Regulations assessments, and Navigator, paid by card or voucher at reservation.
• Create your account with your legal name exactly as it appears on your government-issued photo ID, and bring that ID plus your course completion certificate, waiver, or certificate of eligibility.
• Report 30 minutes before the appointment; calculators are not permitted.
• Indiana test centers include Anderson, Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, South Bend, and Terre Haute, with additional sites at select military installations.
• Exams for Life, Health, Life & Health, P&C, Personal Lines, Independent Adjuster, and Navigator are offered in Spanish, and candidates with English as a second language may request 1.5x time with an approved form.
• Call at least 48 hours before the appointment to change or cancel, or you forfeit the fee.
• If you fail, you must wait 48 hours before retaking, and you pay the exam fee again.

Each exam mixes unscored pretest questions into the scored questions; the count for each exam appears in its content outline heading. Pearson also sells online practice tests for life, health, property, and casualty for $19.95, though they do not contain actual exam questions. Pass rates vary by line, and first-time candidates who complete a full course have historically passed the Property & Casualty exam at higher rates than the Health exam.

Applying for your Indiana insurance license

Apply online through Sircon (sircon.com/indiana) or NIPR once you have passed the exam, paying the $40 nonrefundable application fee plus a small online processing fee, per the IDOI initial application steps^[8]. An application stays "Pending" or "Under State Review" until education, exam, and application are all complete, and submissions still incomplete 30 days after the submission date are closed for deficiency.

Allow 7 to 10 business days for processing. You can check status through Sircon's "Check license application status" tool or the NIPR Licensing Center. Paper filers may send the NAIC Uniform Paper Application with a $40 check or money order payable to IDOI, per the resident licensing hub^[9].

Business entity licenses

A business entity producer application carries the same $40 fee and requires at least one designated responsible licensed producer whose active Indiana licenses cumulatively cover the lines on the entity application, per NIPR's Indiana business licensing requirements^[10].

After your license is issued

Your producer license authorizes you to sell, solicit, and negotiate insurance, but you transact for a specific insurer only after that company appoints you. Companies file and renew appointments themselves, and Indiana does not require an appointment before you apply for a license, so new agents typically line up appointments immediately after licensure.

Federal labor data offer a pay benchmark: insurance sales agents earned a median of $62,280 per year ($29.94 per hour) in May 2025, with the lowest 10% earning less than $37,330 and the highest 10% earning more than $138,140, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics^[11]. The occupation projects 3% employment growth from 2025 to 2035, about 43,100 openings per year, and typical entry-level education is a high school diploma. Agents who sell securities products such as variable annuities also need a FINRA Series 6 or Series 7 registration.

Renewal and continuing education in Indiana

A resident producer license renews every 2 years on the last day of the producer's birth month, and renewal requires 24 hours of continuing education (CE) plus a $40 renewal fee, per NIPR's Indiana renewal requirements^[12]. The renewal window opens 90 days before expiration, the late renewal fee is $160, and late renewal runs from 31 days to one year past expiration; after one year you must apply as new.

The CE rules carry conditions worth checking before you schedule courses, per the IDOI CE requirements by license type^[13]:

• Producers holding any major line owe 24 hours, and only 24 hours no matter how many lines they hold.
• The 3-hour ethics course is required only if you hold Accident & Health and/or Life; P&C-only producers owe 24 hours with no separate ethics mandate.
• Title adds a 7-hour Title coursework requirement.
• Consultant, Public Adjuster, Portable Electronics, Travel Insurance, and Surplus Lines license types have no CE requirement, nor do the Credit, Crop, and Funeral Director producer lines.

Carryover is allowed: for licenses renewing January 2022 and after, under Indiana Code 27-1-15.7-2.2, no more than 12 excess hours may be applied to the next renewal period, ethics and Long-Term Care hours cannot carry over, and carryover hours must be completed no more than 120 days before the renewal date, per the IDOI producer CE FAQs^[14]. You can verify your hours through the Continuing Education Transcript Inquiry at sircon.com/Indiana.

Product-specific training also applies before you sell certain products. Producers selling annuities must complete a one-time 4-hour annuity best interest course under the rule change effective July 1, 2024, per the IDOI annuity notification^[15]. Long-term care products carry their own training rules, including a classroom course for the Indiana Long Term Care Partnership Program, so confirm the CE requirements for that line before selling.

Nonresident licenses and reciprocity in Indiana

Nonresidents from reciprocal states receive an Indiana producer license without a pre-licensing course or exam, and the license carries the same scope of authority as the home-state license, per the IDOI nonresident licensing page^[16]. Applications go through Sircon or NIPR, and the individual application fee is $90 when no retaliatory fee applies, per NIPR's Indiana nonresident requirements^[17]; nonresident surplus lines is $120.

Under Indiana Code 27-1-20-12(a), the department imposes retaliatory fees equal to what another state charges Indiana professionals, so your actual fee depends on your home state, per the IDOI retaliatory fees page^[18]. Title applicants from Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, and Texas must instead apply for the Non-Resident Title Designated Home State license and meet Indiana's pre-licensing and CE requirements. Nonresidents who have satisfied their home state's CE are exempt from Indiana CE, though the Indiana Long-Term Care Partnership requirement still applies.

Adjuster licensing in Indiana

Indiana licenses adjusters separately from producers, with different rules for independent and public adjusters. An independent adjuster works on contract for insurers, and Indiana does not license staff adjusters employed directly by carriers, per the IDOI adjuster licensing requirements^[19].

A resident independent adjuster must be at least 18, complete a 40-hour pre-licensing program, and pass the Indiana Independent Adjuster exam, which has 100 scored questions plus 5 pretest questions in 105 minutes and is scheduled through Pearson VUE. The resident license fee is $40 plus an electronic processing fee, per the IDOI adjuster licensing requirements^[19]. Holders of an active Uniform Claims Certification from the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance are exempt from both the course and the exam.

A public adjuster, who represents policyholders rather than insurers, needs no pre-licensing education but must request a certificate of test eligibility from the department, pass the written exam, and file proof of a $10,000 Indiana surety bond. The resident fee is $50, the license runs one year and expires December 31, and effective July 1, 2023, public adjuster contract forms must be filed with the department before use.

What to do next

Start with your line of authority, because it determines your hours, your exam, and your study plan. Then work the sequence in order:

1. Search the approved-education list through Sircon and enroll in a course for your line.
2. Finish the coursework and keep the completion certificate.
3. Reserve your Pearson VUE exam and pass it on your first attempt.
4. Apply online at sircon.com/indiana or NIPR the same week you pass, while your completion certificate is still valid.

Once the license issues, print it through Sircon, line up carrier appointments, and calendar your CE and renewal deadlines from day one.