Georgia Adjuster Insurance Exam 2026

Four Licenses, Two of Them Exam-Free

Georgia's Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire (OCI) issues four adjuster credentials, and which one you need depends on what you adjust — not on how senior you are.

Adjuster (Property & Casualty) — the main credential. 16 hours of prelicensing, the 12-GA-24 exam, $120 license fee.

Public Adjuster — you act for the insured, not the carrier. § 33-23-1 defines it as representing *"only a person who is insured"* on first-party claims. It has its own separate exam, 12-GA-20, and adds a $5,000 bond.

Workers' Compensation Adjuster — no prelicensing course and no exam. The CWCP designation qualifies you outright.

Crop/Hail Adjuster — again no course and no exam; a CAPP card or an approved proficiency program qualifies you.

Designations can also buy you out of the main exam. Rules 120-2-3-.25 and .09 waive the adjuster and public adjuster exams for holders of the CPCU or the Universal Claims Certification (UCC).

Staff Adjusters Are Not Exempt — They Are Outside the Definition

Nearly every summary of Georgia says salaried staff adjusters are *exempt* from licensing. That is the right outcome reached by the wrong route, and the difference matters.

§ 33-23-1(a)(1) defines an adjuster as someone who *"for a fee, commission, salary, or other compensation investigates, settles, or adjusts and reports to his or her employer or principal with respect to claims arising under insurance contracts"* — and then excludes agents and salaried employees of agents or insurers adjusting losses under policies they issue. They were never captured in the first place. There is no carve-out to lose.

What replaces licensing is a registration duty on the insurer, not on you. Under Rule 120-2-3-.24 the carrier files a list of its staff adjusters electronically through OCI-GIMS each year during the window of March 1 to 31, at $50 per staff adjuster plus a $5 processing fee, with a $15 per adjuster late fee after March 31. Registrations run one year. The insurer must also name a staff adjuster coordinator, list supervisors, and file changes within 30 days.

The rule reaches *"salaried employees who adjust claims in this state, regardless of where such employees are located"* — so an out-of-state desk adjuster handling Georgia losses is inside the registration scheme.

Prelicensing, Fingerprints and the Residency Rule

You must be at least 18 and, under § 33-23-5, *"of good character."*

Prelicensing: 16 hours of Property and Casualty adjuster coursework — 8 hours per major line — per OCI. Course completions transmit electronically.

Fingerprinting is required for every adjuster type, submitted electronically through Identogo for a criminal background check. Georgia publishes no fee for it; the handbook says only that the applicant bears the cost.

Residency is a real requirement, and it has two limbs. § 33-23-5 requires that you *"reside and be present within this state for at least six months of every year"* or maintain your principal place of business here. Separately, § 33-23-25 requires every licensed adjuster to keep *"a place of business accessible to the public"* — in Georgia, or in your state of domicile if you are a nonresident licensee.

A completed citizenship affidavit with a copy of your ID accompanies the application, which is filed online through Sircon.

Nonresidents are licensed under § 33-23-29 without examination if already licensed in the home state, paying the greater of Georgia's fee or the home state's fee. Verification runs through the NAIC producer database or, failing that, an original home-state certification letter dated within 90 days.

Pearson VUE — And Which Exam You Sit

Adjuster (12-GA-24) — 100 scored questions plus 5 pretest items, 2 hours, $67.

Public Adjuster (12-GA-20) — a separate exam, 100 scored questions, 2 hours, $67.

Workers' Compensation and Crop/Hail adjusters sit nothing. The CWCP designation and the CAPP card respectively take the place of both the course and the exam.

Question counts and time limits live in Pearson's per-exam content outlines rather than the candidate bulletin — a distinction that catches out candidates who read only the bulletin.

Two 12-month clocks bracket the process. You must pass the exam within 12 months of completing your prelicensing course, and file your application within 12 months of passing the exam. Rule 120-2-3-.09 is explicit: *"a person who has not filed an application within twelve (12) months of the date of receiving a passing exam score will be required to retake the examination."*

70% — And It Is a Raw Percentage

Georgia is refreshingly direct about this where many states are not. Rule 120-2-3-.09 states it as law: *"The passing grade on examinations for licenses shall be seventy percent (70%)."*

Pearson's handbook confirms the method rather than contradicting it: *"You need to answer 70% of questions correctly in order to pass the examination,"* reported on a *"scale of 0%-100%."*

So it is a raw percentage, not a scaled score. Seventy of the 100 scored questions. The 5 pretest items do not count either way.

Retakes: you may reschedule within a day, but you must wait 14 days after the first and second failures and 60 days after the third and each subsequent attempt. There is no limit on the number of attempts.

Renewal, and a CE Rule With Two Tiers

§ 33-23-18 puts adjusters on the same architecture as producers, and names them expressly: *"All resident agent, limited subagent, adjuster, and counselor licenses ... shall be issued on a biennial basis and shall expire on the last day of the licensee's birth month."*

Continuing education has two tiers under Rule 120-2-3-.15, and most summaries report only the first:

Licensed less than 20 years — 24 hours per biennium, including 3 hours of ethics.

Licensed 20 years or more — 20 hours, still including 3 hours of ethics.

And a carve-out that is easy to miss: if you are licensed as a workers' compensation adjuster only, the ethics requirement does not apply to you.

Rule 120-2-3-.16 governs the deadlines: a 15-day late window with a late fee, a $150 reinstatement penalty, new electronic fingerprints if you reinstate six or more months after expiration, and — if you let a year pass without reinstating — reapplying from scratch and redoing all prelicensing.

Five Years of Records — and Who the Unfair Practices Act Actually Binds

§ 33-23-34 gives adjusters their own retention rule, and it is not a flat five years. Records must be kept *"at the address as shown on his or her license or at the insurer's regional or home office situated in this state"* and must include, for an adjuster, *"a record of each investigation or adjustment undertaken or consummated and a statement of any fee, commission, or other compensation received or to be received."*

The period: *"five years beginning immediately after the completion of the transaction or the term of the contract, whichever is greater"* — and there is a practical carve-out for independent adjusters, whose records *"may be kept at the office of the insurer for whom the adjuster acted."*

Discipline — § 33-23-21 lists 22 grounds. Note the section itself contains no fine amounts, so any figure attributed to it is wrong. It does impose two reporting duties on you: report a criminal prosecution within 30 days, and report a conviction, first-offender plea or another state's discipline within 60 days.

Now the question that decides your personal exposure. Georgia's unfair claims settlement practices article defines *"person"* in § 33-6-32 to include adjusters by name — but the operative prohibition in § 33-6-33 reaches only *"any domestic, foreign, or alien insurer"*. Independent adjusters are not primary violators of § 33-6-34. And § 33-6-37 forecloses private suits against anyone under the article.

The Clocks Are in a Regulation — and It Only Covers Cars

§ 33-6-34 contains exactly one number — item (11)'s duty to provide claim forms within 15 calendar days of request. Everything else in the statute is a reasonableness standard.

The real clocks are in Rule 120-2-52, and here is the trap: despite being titled *"Fair and Equitable Settlement of First Party Property Damage Claims,"* Rule .02 limits the whole chapter to claims *"arising under personal private passenger motor vehicle policies."* Its authority is § 33-34-8 — the Motor Vehicle Accident Reparations Act.

Acknowledge the claim — 15 days. Provide proof of loss forms — 15 days. Determine liability on a motor vehicle claim — 15 days after the completed proof of loss. Complete the coverage investigation where no proof of loss is required — 30 days from communication of the claim. Tender payment — 10 days once coverage is confirmed and the amount determined and not in dispute. Outside cap: 60 days.

All of those are calendar days. The only business-day clock in the chapter is the 5 business days to tell the claimant more time is needed after a deadline has run.

Georgia has no all-lines prompt-payment or interest statute. The prompt-pay provisions in Title 33 (§§ 33-24-59.5 and 33-24-59.14) are health benefits only.

§ 33-4-6, the 60-Day Demand, and the Case That Changed in 2019

§ 33-4-6 is Georgia's signature provision: on refusal to pay *"within 60 days after a demand has been made by the holder of the policy"* and a finding of bad faith, the insurer owes the loss plus "not more than 50 percent of the liability of the insurer for the loss or $5,000.00, whichever is greater, and all reasonable attorney's fees."

Read that formula carefully. It is a percentage of the loss, with a 50% ceiling — and a $5,000 floor that displaces the percentage when the percentage is smaller. On a small loss the penalty can exceed the loss itself.

The demand is a condition precedent, and it must come from the policyholder. Sixty days must elapse. No demand, no statutory penalty — and a third-party claimant cannot make one.

The standard is *"any frivolous and unfounded refusal in law or in fact to pay"* (*King v. Atlanta Cas. Ins. Co.*), and there is no penalty *"where the insurer has reasonable grounds to contest the claim"* (*Lavoi Corp. v. National Fire Ins. of Hartford*). Limitations: six years, as an action on a written contract.

§ 33-4-7 is the separate third-party statute most summaries omit. It imposes an *"affirmative duty to adjust that loss fairly and promptly"* on motor vehicle liability insurers, breached where *"liability has become reasonably clear and the insurer in bad faith offers less than the amount reasonably owed."* Same penalty formula, same 60-day window.

Add-On UM, Stacking, and the Duty to Assess Diminished Value

Minimums are 25/50/25 — and the mandate chains through three sections, only one of which prints the numbers: § 33-34-4 points to § 40-9-37, which points to § 33-7-11(a)(1)(A).

Georgia repealed no-fault in 1991. There is no PIP mandate and no med-pay mandate; § 33-34-3.1 requires only that collision, comprehensive and loss-of-use be made available.

UM/UIM defaults to ADD-ON, and the insured elects out. § 33-7-11(b)(1)(D)(ii)(I) states the excess form as the rule — coverage applies *"in addition to the amounts payable under any available bodily injury liability and property damage liability insurance coverages."* Subdivision (II) gives the reduced-by form only where the insured *"reject[s] the coverage referenced in subdivision (I) ... and select[s] in writing."* This is the reverse of many states.

Worked example. $100,000 UM, a $25,000 tortfeasor, $150,000 of damages. Add-on: $125,000 available. Reduced-by: $100,000. Same policy limits, $25,000 difference.

UM can be rejected — but only in writing by a named insured, and the rejection carries forward on renewal with the same insurer. Umbrella and excess policies carry no UM unless affirmatively provided.

Stacking is permitted. The statute never uses the word, which is why searching for it finds nothing — but the official annotations record that the 1980 amendment to the *"uninsured motor vehicle"* definition *"now allows an insured to 'stack' his multiple policies of uninsured motorist coverage where the tortfeasor is minimally insured,"* and that the statute's use of *"policy"* rather than *"policies"* does not change that result (*State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Hancock*, 164 Ga. App. 32 (1982)).

A Standard Fire Policy That Says Two Years, and a Conditional Valued Policy Law

Georgia prescribes a standard fire policy, but § 33-32-1 does not reprint it — it directs the Commissioner to prescribe one, and the form itself is Rule 120-2-19-.01. It is the numbered 165-line form, captioned *"Standard Fire Insurance Policy for Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi."*

The suit clause says two years, not twelve months. Lines 157-161: *"No suit or action on this policy ... shall be sustainable ... unless commenced within two (2) years next after inception of the loss."* Because Rule 120-2-20-.02 bars any contractual limitation *"less favorable to the insured than that specified in the 'Standard Fire Policy',"* Georgia's first-party property suit floor is already two years today.

Other clauses worth knowing from the form: proof of loss within 60 days of the loss unless extended in writing; the Company's option to repair, rebuild or replace on 30 days' notice after proof of loss; loss payable 60 days after proof of loss and ascertainment; no abandonment; and a mortgagee clause allowing that interest to be canceled on 10 days' notice, with the mortgagee given 60 days to render its own proof of loss.

Appraisal under the form: on written demand of either side, each names a competent and disinterested appraiser within 20 days; the appraisers pick an umpire, and failing for 15 days to agree, a judge of a court of record appoints one. The appraisers state actual cash value and loss separately for each item, and an award of any two filed with the Company determines the amount. Each side pays its own appraiser; umpire and appraisal expenses are split equally.

Georgia has a valued policy law — § 33-32-5 — but it is heavily conditional. Fire only, total loss only (*"wholly destroyed"*), one- or two-family residential buildings specifically described, natural persons as named insured, no fraud or criminal fault, depreciation between policy date and loss still deductible, and if the loss occurs within 30 days of the original effective date the insured gets actual loss sustained instead of the face amount.

The Pool, the $50 Deductible, and a Felony With No Threshold

Georgia's property and casualty guaranty mechanism is not called a guaranty association. It is the Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool, §§ 33-36-1 to 33-36-20. Searching Title 33 for a guaranty association lands you on Chapter 38, which is life and health.

The cap is $300,000 per covered claim, *"whichever is less"* against the policy limits — and workers' compensation claims are expressly excluded from that cap, so they are paid to policy limits.

The claim deductible is $50, not the NAIC model's $100. Unearned premium is capped at $20,000. Net worth exclusions bite at $10 million (first party) and $25 million (third party). Claims are barred 18 months after the liquidation order or on the court's final date, whichever is earlier.

Insurance fraud under § 33-1-9 is a flat felony — *"imprisonment for not less than two nor more than ten years, or by a fine of not more than $10,000.00, or both"* — with no misdemeanor tier and no dollar threshold. Venue is unusually broad, reaching *"any county where any act in furtherance of the criminal scheme was committed."*

Georgia requires no fraud warning statement on applications or claim forms — not mandatory, not optional, simply not legislated. There is no SIU or antifraud plan requirement either.

But reporting is mandatory for you. § 33-1-16(f) splits two ways: anyone *other than* a licensee may report suspected fraud; an insurer, agent *"or other person licensed under this title, or an employee thereof"* shall report to the Commissioner. No deadline is stated. Good-faith reporting is immunised *"in the absence of fraud or bad faith."*

The Panel of Physicians, 21 Days, and the 400-Week Cap

Rates are keyed to date of injury, so several tiers are live at once. For injuries on or after 1 July 2023: maximum TTD $800.00, maximum TPD $533.00. For 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023: $725 and $483. For 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022: $675 and $450.

The carrier's clock is 21 days. § 34-9-221: *"The first payment of income benefits shall become due on the twenty-first day after the employer has knowledge of the injury or death."* Form WC-1 is filed in the same 21 days.

Pay without prejudice runs 60 days. You may commence payment and still controvert, provided notice to controvert (Form WC-3) is filed within 60 days of the due date of first payment. Miss that window and you are locked in absent a change in condition or newly discovered evidence.

Late payment costs 15% where benefits are not paid when due without an award, and 20% where benefits payable under an award are more than 20 days late.

The panel of physicians is Georgia's signature feature. § 34-9-201 requires the employer to maintain at least six physicians, at least one practicing orthopedic surgery, with no more than two industrial clinics, posted *"in prominent places."* A certified WC/MCO is the alternative.

Waiting period seven days, becoming payable retroactively if disability extends beyond 21 consecutive days. Notice to the employer: 30 days. Statute of limitations: one year from injury, or one year from the last remedial treatment, or two years from the last payment of weekly benefits.

The 400-week cap reaches both indemnity and medical for non-catastrophic injuries occurring on or after 1 July 2013. Catastrophic designation lifts both.

Two Acts in Eighteen Months

SB 68 (2025 Ga. Laws Act 9), signed and effective 21 April 2025, rewrote parts of Titles 9, 40 and 51. Its default applicability is retroactive to causes of action pending on the effective date, with only two sections carved out as prospective.

What it changed that you will use: a new § 51-12-1.1 making both the amount billed and the amount actually necessary to satisfy the charge admissible on the reasonable value of medical care, and expressly abrogating the collateral source rule to that extent; seat belt non-use is now admissible on negligence, causation, apportionment *"or for any other purpose"*; any party may demand bifurcation of fault from damages under § 51-12-15; and a new statutory negligent security regime in §§ 51-3-50 to 51-3-57.

What it did NOT change, contrary to widespread reporting: apportionment and the comparative negligence bar. SB 68 never touched § 51-12-33. The bar remains at 50% — a plaintiff 49% at fault recovers 51%, a plaintiff exactly 50% at fault recovers nothing. Single-defendant apportionment was fixed earlier, by HB 961 in 2022.

HB 1344 (2026 Ga. Laws Act 635), signed 12 May 2026, takes effect 1 January 2027. The *"Georgia Insurance Affordability and Claims Integrity Act"* creates § 33-3-28.1, which lets the Commissioner issue a directive after a catastrophic event imposing statutory claim clocks that reach all property, not just auto; creates the two-year suit-limitation floor in § 33-24-59.37; and raises the unfair-practice penalties in § 33-6-8 from $1,000 to $5,000 per act, and from $5,000 to $25,000 for knowing violations.

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