During the 2012 General Assembly session, the Virginia General Assembly enacted legislation that established standards for the licensing of public adjusters in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a result, beginning on January 1, 2013, any resident and nonresident individual or business entity that acts as a public adjuster in Virginia must obtain a license from the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance (the “Bureau”).
This licensing requirement applies to any individual or business entity that receives a salary, fee, commission, or other compensation, either directly or indirectly, for investigating, negotiating, adjusting, or providing advice to an insured in relation to first party claims arising under insurance contracts that insure real or personal property of an insured with the purpose of effecting the settlement of a claim on behalf of the insured.
All public adjuster applicants, including both individual and business entities, are required to meet certain pre-licensing and renewal requirements. All resident individual public adjuster applicants must:
(i) pass the Virginia pre-licensing Public Adjuster examination,
(ii) obtain a Virginia Criminal History Record Report from the Virginia State Police,
(iii) pay a $250 nonrefundable application processing fee,
(iv) meet the continuing education (“CE”) requirements discussed below, and
(v) certify via electronic attestation that they have, and will keep in force for as long as the license remains in effect, a $50,000 bond in favor of the Commonwealth with corporate sureties licensed by the Bureau.
Under the new law, all licensed public adjusters are required to renew their licenses every 24 months from the original public adjuster license issue date. In conjunction with this renewal process, Virginia resident public adjusters must complete a minimum of 24 hours of CE courses, including three hours of ethics, and pay a nonrefundable $15 CE processing fee. If a resident public adjuster fails to meet such renewal or CE requirements, the resident public adjuster's license will not be renewed.
The new law requires that nonresident public adjusters (i) be in good standing and currently licensed or otherwise authorized as a resident public adjuster in their home state, and (ii) pay a $250 nonrefundable application processing fee. Although nonresident public adjusters must comply with the renewal requirements discussed above, the corresponding CE requirements do not apply to nonresident public adjuster licensees who have met the CE requirements of their home state.
Further information is available at www.scc.virginia.gov/boi/pro/adj.aspx.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].