If you’re thinking about becoming an insurance agent in Florida, the first step you’ll need to take in order to kickstart your career is to obtain a Florida insurance license.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of how to become an insurance agent in Florida, as well as what to do once you get licensed.

Florida Insurance License

In order to get your Florida insurance license, you’ll need to complete the following seven steps:

1. Figure Out Which Insurance License You’ll Need
2. Meet the Licensing Requirements
3. Complete Your Insurance Exam’s Prerequisites
4. Submit Your Insurance License Application
5. Send Proof of Prerequisite to the Department of Financial Services
6. Complete a Fingerprint and Background Check
7. Pass the Relevant Florida Insurance License Exam(s)

Below we have explored each step in more detail.

Step 1: Decide Which Insurance Licenses You Need/Want

The first step will be deciding what type of insurance policies you’ll want to sell — at least at the start of your career.

This is because the type of insurance policies you’re hoping to sell will dictate the type of license you’ll need. For example, you’d need a Property & Casualty (P&C) license to be able to sell auto, home, or business insurance.

Here’s a list of all the different types of insurance agent licenses that are available in the state of Florida:

• Property and Casualty
• Health and Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts)
• Title
• Warranty
• Bail Bond
• Other

Each of these insurance licensing categories also come with their own subset of licenses called “classes”. For example, under the Property and Casualty there are eight distinct classes, including General Lines and Personal Lines.

While there are a large number of different licenses to choose from, the vast majority of insurance agents will either obtain a Property and Casualty (P&C) or Health and Life license.

In fact, many agents actually opt to go for both of these licenses as it allows them to offer clients a much wider range of the most common insurance products.

However, if you already know you want to specialize in one particular type of policy, you’ll of course only have to focus on the specific license that’s relevant to this insurance type.

It’s worth noting at this point that if you’re looking to work as an insurance adjuster, you’ll need to obtain a separate license — which you can find more information about in our Florida Adjuster License overview.

Step 2: Meet the Licensing Requirements

In order to be eligible for an insurance license in Florida, there are certain criteria you must satisfy beforehand.

While some specific licenses may contain additional eligibility requirements, the following prerequisites are generally always required:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Be a resident of the state of Florida
• Be a United States citizen OR a legal alien with authorization to work from the US Immigration and Naturalization Services
• Not possess a resident license from any other state

Note: To find out the specific eligibility requirements of the license you want to obtain, check out the Florida Division of Insurance Agent & Agency Services website.

Step 3: Complete the Exam Prerequisites

The next step you’ll want to take toward becoming a licensed insurance agent in Florida is to satisfy your insurance line’s exam prerequisites.

Now, it’s important to note that — unlike many other states — Florida offers a number of different ways you can satisfy this education requirement, such as:

• Completing an approved insurance prelicensing education course (recommended)
• Earning an insurance degree which includes credit hours in specific subjects (e.g., property, casualty, surety, marine and health insurance)
• Presenting an original letter from the appropriate American Institute (e.g., American College of Financial Services)

While these are just some of the potential routes that may be available to you depending on the license you’re applying for, we always recommend opting for a pre-license course as it’s the most effective way to ensure you pass the insurance exam on your first attempt — saving you both time and money in the long run.

This is because several of the features that come with these courses — such as live tutoring, study calendars, and hundreds of practice exams — are designed to enhance your understanding of the material, making you more comfortable and confident on the day of the exam.

Due to the sheer number of pre-licensing education courses available, it’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed when deciding which one is right for you. To avoid this, we typically recommend making a decision based on the following factors:

• The course’s flexibility (e.g., does it allow flexible learning, does it require completing within a short time-window, etc.)
• The course’s price (this one is obvious; our only tip here is to not go too low, as from our experience you tend to get what you pay for when it comes to these)
• The course’s reputation — how reliable is each provider? The last thing you want is insufficient and/or incomplete resources before your exam

If you want more information before getting started, you can also have a look at our in-depth overview of the five best pre-license education courses in 2024.

Step 4: Submit Your Insurance License Application

With all of your prelicensing education out of the way, you’ll be ready to actually apply for your license. In Florida, applications are submitted online through the state’s MyProfile account system for a fee of $50 (plus a small $5 license ID charge).

Be aware that if you’ve completed the prelicensing education for multiple lines of authority, you’ll be required to submit an application (and pay the filing fees) for each of them.

Florida’s MyProfile system will essentially be your home base for all license actions from this point forward — even once you receive your license later down the line, this is where you’ll complete most other actions regarding your continuing education (CE) and appointments.

Note: Fingerprinting fees are not included within the filing cost of your application — these must be paid directly to the service provider.

Step 5: Send Proof of Prerequisite to the Department

After this is complete, the next step is to send proof to the Bureau that you’ve satisfied your insurance line’s exam prerequisites (from Step 2). The exact documents you’ll need to send for this step will vary depending on the license you’re looking to obtain and the way in which you choose to prove your eligibility.

For example, for General Lines P&C license, you could provide evidence of any of the following:

• A Department-approved, 200-hour course in P&C insurance
• At least one year of full-time employment in the last four years in all lines of P&C insurance (property, casualty, surety, health, and marine)
• At least one year of full-time employment in the last four years as a licensed Customer Representative, Personal Lines Agent, or Service Representative plus a 40-hour course Department-approved in the areas of property, casualty, surety, marine and health insurance
• An insurance degree from an accredited institution containing 18 semester hours of college credit in the areas of property, casualty, health, and commercial insurance
• A letter from the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters demonstrating you’ve obtained the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) designation

Be aware that these prerequisites only apply to applicants for a General Lines P&C license. If you’re applying for a different insurance license, you’ll need to refer to the Florida Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services website for the different ways you can prove your eligibility.

Note: If you choose to file your documents independently, you’ll need to do so at the following email address: agentlicensing@myfloridacfo.com.

Step 6: Complete a Fingerprinting And Background Check

The final step you’ll need to complete before you take your insurance license exam is getting fingerprinted and completing a background check.

This process, which can either be done electronically or by mail through IdentoGO, costs $50.75 (plus local county sales tax) and will initiate a background check into your past conduct to confirm you meet the federal and state regulations regarding insurance agents.

To organize a fingerprinting appointment, you’ll need to go to the IdentoGO website or call (850) 413-3140. Once complete, you’ll be notified by the Florida Department of Financial Services regarding your registration by email and through your MyProfile account.

If you’ve committed certain felonies (e.g., embezzlement, money laundering, or counterfeiting) you may be permanently barred from licensure, while other misdemeanors may mean you’ll only have to instead wait until a disqualifying period passes before you can apply.

Note: For a full list of crimes that will impact your application, and their penalties, have a look at the Florida Division of Insurance Agent & Agency Services’s Applicants with Criminal Histories page.

Step 7: Pass the Relevant Florida Insurance License Exam(s)

After completing all of the above steps, you will need to take (and pass) the relevant Florida insurance license exam(s), which costs $44.

We say “relevant” because this will depend on the line you wish to specialize in; for example, if you’re planning to become a life and health insurance agent, you will need to pass the Life, Accident, & Health 2-15 (L&H) exam — which lasts 2 hours and 45 minutes and has 150 scored questions (plus 15 pretest questions).

In Florida, all insurance exams are proctored and multiple-choice, though can be taken both online and in-person. To register for your insurance licensing exam, you’ll need to do so in-person through the nearest test center, as OnVUE no longer accepts online reservations. To find the nearest test center to you, check out the Pearson VUE website.

Keep in mind that you can sit for more than one exam at a time (e.g., if you want to apply for both a P&C and a life and health insurance license).

Even so, we recommend avoiding this route; this is because passing your exam is hard enough as is, and there is arguably little to gain and a lot to lose with the added risk of confusing separate line material.

We found that the best approach is to study for one at a time, averaging between two to six weeks of study time per exam — depending on whether you are studying full time or part-time, as well as on how comfortable you are at taking proctored exams.

You should also note that you’ll need to obtain a total score of 70% in order to pass, and will only have up to a maximum of five attempts at each exam per year. If you do obtain a passing score, you’ll only have a year after the date in which you sat the exam to complete the licensing process — after which you will need to retake.

Note: For more information on this topic, you can have a look at our Florida Insurance License Exam guide.

Step 8: Application Review

And that’s it! After satisfying all the other requirements and submitting a license application to the Florida Division of Insurance Agent & Agency Services all that’s left to do is wait.

If everything on your application has been filled out correctly, your license should be issued within three to five weeks — which is the amount of time it typically takes for a license application and background check to be reviewed.

It’s important to be aware that the issuance of your insurance license can take a bit longer than this if there are any items from your background check that need to be looked over. However, the state will likely get in touch with you to give some context if they run into any issues.

In any case, the state will send you an email regarding the status of your license once this review has been completed, so keep an eye out for that!

After Getting Your Florida Insurance License

Once you’ve passed all your exams and your licensing application has been approved, you’ll be a qualified insurance agent in Florida.

At this point, there are four main steps that we recommend new insurance agents to take:

1. Obtain Any Relevant Securities Licenses: If you’re planning on selling advanced life insurance products, you’ll need to pass the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam and obtain the relevant securities licenses (e.g., Series 6, 7, and 63).
2. Choose a Means of Selling: You’ll have to decide whether you’d prefer working as a captive agent employed by one company, or running your own business as an independent agent.
3. Develop Your Marketing Approach: To succeed as an insurance agent, you’ll need to adopt a marketing approach that’s effective for you. Finding and sticking to a niche, as well organizing all client appointments for the start of your week, are two great ways to do this.
4. Keep Your License Valid: In Florida, you’ll be required to complete either 10, 14, or 24 hours of continuing education (CE) in order to maintain your license (depending on your insurance line). This will need to include either four hours of a Law and Ethics update module or three hours of an Ethics, Rules or Compliance module.

Florida Division of Insurance Agent & Agency Services Contact Information

Mailing Address:

Florida Department of Financial Services
Division of Consumer Services
200 East Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0322

Physical Address:

Florida Department of Financial Services
Division of Consumer Services
200 East Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0322

Phone: (877)693-5236

Email: AgentLicensing@MyFloridaCFO.com 

Website: https://www.myfloridacfo.com/Division/agents/ 

License Search: https://licenseesearch.fldfs.com/