How To Become An Insurance Agent In Nevada

What Kind Of Agent Are You Going To Be?

A majority of people who are applying for their insurance license have a plan in already in place of where they are going to use it. If you don't yet have a plan on how you will be using your insurance license, this is the place to start. Here are some of the questions that you should ask yourself:

What type of insurance am I going to sell?
- Home & Auto? Life Insurance? Variable Life Insurance? This will tell you which "lines of authority" that you need to hold. The most common lines of authority are Property & Casualty (P&C) and Life, Accident, & Health (L&H).
Am I starting my own agency or working inside of an existing agency?
- It may depend on how your agency is set up to tell you what type of licenses you need to hold.
What types of licenses does my company require me to hold?
- Whether working for an agency, or owning an agency, you may be required by the company to hold more than one type of license.

How To Get Your Insurance License In Nevada

Pre-License Education

The first step in getting a Nevada insurance license is taking pre-license education courses. These are state required courses pertaining to the subject matter that will be on the license exam. To fill the pre-license requirement, you must complete a certain amount of credit hours depending on the lines of authority (types of licenses) you wish to attain.

You must complete twenty (20) hours of pre-license education per line of insurance that you will test for. In Nevada, Property, Casualty, Life, and Health are all separate lines, so to take the exams for all of these lines, you would need to complete eighty (80) hours of pre-license education.

You will receive a certificate upon completion of the courses. Keep these certificates, as you will need them when taking your exams.

Most applicants choose to take these courses online, as it fits their schedule better, but there are also in-person courses available. You should choose which format in which to take your courses based on your preferred method of learning. The goal isn't just to get the courses out of the way, it's to prepare you to pass your license exam on the first attempt.

There are multiple versions of each of the licensing examinations. These versions are known as forms. Although all forms of an examination are developed based on the content outlines, the difficulty of the forms of an examination may vary slightly because different questions appear on each form. To ensure that no candidate is put at an unfair advantage or disadvantage due to the particular form of an examination that he or she is given, a statistical procedure known as equating is used to correct for differences in form difficulty.

For example, in an examination with two (2) forms, Form A and Form B, the state licensing agency determines that answering 30 questions correctly on Form A demonstrates the minimum amount of knowledge necessary to be licensed. It is further determined through the equating process that Form B contains slightly more difficult questions than Form A; therefore, answering 30 questions correctly on Form A would indicate the same level of knowledge as answering only 28 questions correctly on Form B. Under this set of circumstances, a score of 30 questions correct would be used as the passing score on Form A whereas a score of 28 questions correct would be used as the passing score on Form B.

A second statistical procedure known as scaling is used to derive the numerical score to report for each candidate. Scaling is used to place a raw score on a common reporting scale on which each scaled score represents a given level of knowledge regardless of the difficulty of the form on which the raw score was achieved.

To illustrate how scaling works, suppose that in the examination example used above, the state licensing agency decides to use a score of 500 as the passing score for reporting purposes. (Note that the score selected to be used as the reported passing score is not related to, and has no bearing on, the difficulty of the examination.) Based on the information provided above, a raw score of 30 on Form A would translate to a scaled score of 500; a raw score of 28 on Form B would also translate to a scaled score of 500 since a raw score of 30 on Form A represents the same level of knowledge as a raw score of 28 on Form B.

Scaled Score and Percent Score

The passing score of an examination was set by the State of Nevada Insurance (in conjunction with Pearson VUE) after a comprehensive study was completed for each examination. Currently, the State of Nevada Insurance uses a scaled cut of 80 for all examinations except for the Bail Bonds exam. Raw scores are converted into scaled scores that can range from 0 to 100. The scaled score that is reported to candidates is neither the number of questions they answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly. With a passing score of 80, any score below 80 indicates how close the candidate came to passing, rather than the actual number or percentage of questions the candidates answered correctly. Nevada Administrative Code 697.125 requires that an applicant for a license as a bail bondsman, bail solicitor or property bondsman achieve a score of at least 67 percent to pass the licensing examination. For Bail Bond exams, it is the percentage of questions answered correctly on the examination. Candidates need to answer 67% of questions correctly in order to pass the examination. As such, a percent correct score is printed on the candidate score report for the Bail Bonds exam and a scaled score is printed on the candidate score report for all other Nevada Insurance exams."

Check out our Insurance Exam Guide. It's extremely in-depth, and will hopefully help you pass the first time.

How to Pass the Insurance Exam

Insurance license tests are intentionally difficult, but not impossible by any means. You should study to the point of comfortability with the information before you attempt the test. Failing the exam isn't the end of the world, but keep in mind that you will need to pay the fee each time you attempt the test.

Note: StateRequirement recommends that you study for one exam at a time, then after passing, starting on your next line. The exams are difficult enough on their own without confusing information from one line to another.

You may register to take your exams and find more information on the Pearson Vue Nevada Insurance page.

Note: When scheduling your exams, ask them about fingerprinting services as well, as this is your next step.

Fingerprinting And Background Check

The state of Nevada requires that all insurance license applications provide fingerprints prior to licensing. Giving your fingerprints will initiate a background check. If you have any prior misdemeanors or felonies, this may affect the outcome of your licensing efforts. For more information on this topic, call the Department of Insurance at 775-687-0700.

Fingerprinting is easiest completed through Pearson Vue. These can usually be taken on the same day as your exam.

The fee for fingerprint services is $60, plus a processing fee. Your fingerprints will be submitted automatically to the Insurance Department.

License Application

After you have passed your exams, the next step is to apply for your license. If you have more than one line of authority that you tested for, be sure to apply for all of those lines.

The fee for an online application is $185. If you wish to add another line of authority at a later date, there is a $50 license amendment fee.

When completing the application, be sure to upload any documentation that the state doesn't already have. This may include the pre-license completion certificate, exam score certificate, fingerprint documentation, etc.

Apply for your license online with the Sircon Nevada Insurance website.

License Application Review

Once you have submitted your application and passed your exams, your license application will be reviewed by the state. Your background check will also be reviewed.

If everything is to acceptable standards your license should be issued quickly. If there are any items from your background check that need to be reviewed, it may slow down the process of issuance. If this is the case, the state may contact you to provide context to the issues that they have run into.

The biggest hold-up with the process is waiting for the fingerprints to return from the FBI. The process could take between two to six (2-6) weeks. When the license is issued, you should receive an email from Sircon with verification that the process is complete.

Congratulations!

You've done the work, put in the time and effort, and now hold the key to your own success! We're proud of you. Take five (5) minutes and celebrate.

Nevada Insurance License Renewal & Continuing Education

Nevada Department Of Insurance Contact Information

Mailing Address:

Nevada Division of Insurance
1818 E. College Pkwy., Suite 103
Carson City, NV 89706
Phone: 775-687-0700
Fax: 775-687-0797
Website: http://doi.nv.gov/

Information on this page has been gathered by a multitude of sources and was most recently updated in November 2018.

Any Information on this site is not guaranteed or warranted to be correct, accurate, or up to date. Huge Hammer LLC and its members and affiliates are not responsible for any losses, monetary or otherwise. For more information, please contact your state's authority on insurance. Disclosure: StateRequirement has an affiliation with Kaplan Education company, and may receive compensation based on user activity on this site. We truly believe that Kaplan offers excellent products and services, and compliments the mission of StateRequirement.