New Hampshire · Insurance Adjuster SampleInteractive Mind Map
New Hampshire Adjuster Regulations
A visual breakdown of the New Hampshire rules an adjuster is tested on — including the six exemptions that all turn on the word 'solely', the license with no expiration date, the claim clocks that run in working days despite a rule saying otherwise, the one-way attorney-fee shift filed in the courts title, and the 1969 statute requiring you to show your license to every witness before you speak to them.
New Hampshire is the most contrarian state you will study, and it runs contrary in both directions at once. It is the only state in the country that does not require you to carry automobile liability insurance — and it is one of the few that licenses the salaried staff adjuster the rest of the country exempts. § 402-B:2, II reaches a person adjusting claims “whether employed by or contracted by or with an insurer,” and the six exemptions that follow contain no carve-out for the carrier's own employee.
Almost nothing else works the way you expect either. The license has no expiration date — RSA 402-B:10-a says it “shall remain in effect.” Neither the statute nor the examination vendor publishes a passing score, a question count or a time limit. New Hampshire can be your designated home state, and has accepted designations since 5 May 2015, though a great deal of circulating material says the opposite. The unfair claims statute carries no general business practice element, so a single act violates. There is no first-party bad-faith tort and insurance is exempt from the Consumer Protection Act — and yet RSA 491:22-b gives a prevailing insured their attorney's fees, one-way, from a statute filed in the courts title where no adjuster thinks to look.
The map also covers the inversions that decide files: claim clocks that run in working days despite a rule declaring calendar days the default, a 12-point bold consumer notice triggered by a reservation of rights, a guaranty fund that takes no deductible at all, a valued policy law in a region that supposedly has none, mandatory medical payments coverage in a state with no compulsory liability insurance, a 50/50 split of fault that recovers, and a 75 percent total-loss threshold that is genuine but applies only within the model year plus four calendar years, with airbags, tires and entertainment systems taken out of the numerator.
Two chapters — and New Hampshire licenses the person most states exempt. RSA ch. 402-B licenses claims adjusters; RSA ch. 402-D licenses public adjusters under completely different machinery. Two of 402-B’s most load-bearing sections moved recently: § 402-B:2 by 2024, ch. 331 § 5 (eff. 1 Jan 2025) and § 402-B:1 by 2025, ch. 191 § 3 (eff. 13 Sept 2025).
⚠⚠ THE HOOK IS THE LOCATION OF THE RISK, NOT THE LOCATION OF THE ADJUSTER§ 402-B:1:“It is unlawful for any person, whether as agent or employee, to act directly or indirectly, as an insurance claims adjuster on policies written on risks located in this state for any insurance company, including unadmitted surplus lines companies, unless licensed as provided in this chapter.” ⚠ An adjuster who never sets foot in New Hampshire, working a New Hampshire file from a desk three states away, is inside the prohibition. And the surplus lines clause is new in 2025 — the section’s only other Source entry is 1969.
⚠
⚠⚠ NEW HAMPSHIRE LICENSES STAFF ADJUSTERS
§ 402-B:2, II: an insurance claims adjuster is one who investigates, negotiates or settles property, casualty or workers’ compensation claims “whether employed by or contracted by or with an insurer, a claims adjusting company, or a third party administrator.” The definition expressly reaches the carrier’s own employee — and the six exemptions in paragraph III contain no carve-out for the salaried employee of an insurer. ⚠ Most states exempt exactly that person. If you adjust New Hampshire risks for the carrier that employs you, you need a license.
Who is outside ch. 402-B
§ 402-B:2, III
Attorneys
admitted under RSA 311, “when acting in their professional capacity as an attorney”
Fact-gatherers
employed solely to obtain facts, or to furnish technical assistance, for a licensed adjuster
Fraud investigators
employed to investigate suspected fraud who “do not adjust losses or determine claims payments”
Portable electronics staff
⚠
using an automated claims adjudication system — no more than 25 per supervisor
Clerical staff
⚠
solely executive, administrative, managerial or clerical — and “Completion of a first notice of loss form is a clerical duty”
Auto glass
⚠
a person who solely handles automobile glass replacement or repair claims
⚠
⚠ EVERY EXEMPTION TURNS ON THE WORD “SOLELY”
Paragraphs (b), (e) and (f) all read “employed solely” or “solely performs.”The exemption evaporates the moment the person does anything beyond the exempt task. The intake clerk who also negotiates a small claim has left paragraph (e) and needs a license. ⚠ And (e) legislates what “clerical” means — the first-notice-of-loss sentence is the exact boundary between exempt intake staff and a licensed adjuster, written into the statute so it cannot be argued about.
RSA 402-B claims adjuster
RSA 402-D public adjuster
Whose side
the insurer’s
the insured’s
Bond
none
$20,000 minimum
License term
perpetual
expires 1 October of the second calendar year
Fee
$75 / $75
$100 / $100
Prescribed contract
no
yes, with a 3-business-day rescission
Escrow · records · conduct
no
yes (§§ 402-D:15, .16, .17)
⚠ The person representing the CONSUMER is regulated far more heavily than the person representing the CARRIER. The claims adjuster posts no bond, signs no prescribed contract, keeps no statutory records and holds a license that never expires. The public adjuster does all four and renews on a fixed calendar date.
A license with no expiration date, and an exam with no published numbers. § 402-B:10-a is the entire expiration section: a license “shall remain in effect unless revoked or suspended as long as the fee set forth in RSA 400-A:29 is paid and educational requirements … are met by the due date.”
⚠
⚠⚠ THERE IS NO LICENSE TERM — AND A NONRESIDENT LICENSE DIES BY OPERATION OF LAW
The fee schedule calls the payment a “Biennial renewal” — that is a payment cadence, not a license term. No birth month, no odd/even year, no expiration date on the credential. § 402-B:7, III:“Termination of the insurance adjuster’s resident license shall be deemed termination of the New Hampshire nonresident insurance adjuster license unless the adjuster timely files a change of address.” ⚠ No order, no notice, no hearing. An adjuster who lets a home-state license go while still working New Hampshire files is unlicensed — and that is a criminal offense here.
Reporting duty — § 402-B:7
Clock
Trigger
Change of address
30
the change
Administrative action elsewhere
30
“of the final disposition”, with a copy of the order
Criminal prosecution
30
⚠ “of the initial pretrial hearing date” — not arrest, not charge, not conviction
⚠⚠ NO PASSING SCORE. NO QUESTION COUNT. NO TIME LIMIT.§ 402-B:4 requires only “a reasonable written examination … in such form as said commissioner shall prescribe.” It fixes none of the three. And neither does the PSI candidate bulletin. ⚠ Treat any source confidently quoting a New Hampshire adjuster passing score, question count or seat time as unsourced. What the bulletin does say: “A small number (5 to 10) of ‘experimental’ questions may be administered … These questions will not be scored.”
Exam
Series
Fee
Property and Casualty
12-75
$72
Workers’ Compensation
12-76
$59
Two lines of authority, not three license classes. § 402-B:5-a speaks of licensees “with workers’ compensation authority” and “those without.” You may hold one or both. Adding a line later costs $50 and requires passing the appropriate exam. PSI replaced Prometric on 1 July 2025. There is no prelicensing requirement and no fingerprint requirement.
⚠
⚠⚠ NEW HAMPSHIRE CAN BE YOUR DESIGNATED HOME STATE — MOST PUBLISHED MATERIAL SAYS OTHERWISE
§ 402-B:2, I:“If such state does not issue an insurance claims adjuster license for the line of business sought, the insurance claims adjuster may designate as his or her ‘home state’ any state in which the insurance claims adjuster qualifies pursuant to the provisions of RSA 402-B.” The Department’s own notice is captioned “DECLARATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE as HOME STATE — Effective 5/5/2015”: “Any non-resident adjuster living in a state that does not license adjusters and is requesting NH as their DESIGNATED HOME STATE MUST pass the appropriate NH Adjuster exam.” ⚠ Eleven years, and the claim that New Hampshire cannot be designated is still circulating.
⚠ THE TWO ROUTES LEAD TO OPPOSITE OUTCOMES ON THE SAME QUESTIONHome state licenses adjusters? Take the § 402-B:5 waiver and skip the exam — and note the alternative route in the same paragraph: “or if no license is required in said states, then nonresident applicants who have engaged in the business of claims adjusting for a period of 6 months.” Want New Hampshire as your designated home state? You must sit and pass the New Hampshire exam — and its continuing education becomes yours, because the nonresident CE excuse runs to your state of residence or designated home state.
Fees in another chapter, a CE deadline that runs 60 days early, and no grace period at all. § 402-B:8 contains no dollar figures. It routes every fee to RSA 400-A:29, the Department-wide schedule — itself amended by 2025, ch. 191 § 13.
Fee — RSA 400-A:29
Adjuster
Public adjuster
Application and license
$75
$100
Biennial renewal
$75
$100
Additional fee for late renewal
$75
$100
Late completion of CE
$25
$25
Amendment to license
$50
—
⚠
⚠⚠ “NH DOES NOT ACCEPT LATE RENEWALS”
That is the Department’s own sentence: “Failure to renew on time will require a new application and 2x the renewal fee per NH RSA 400-A:29.” § 402-B:8, III gives “within 24 months from the due date … reinstate the same license without the necessity of passing a written examination. However, a penalty in the amount of double the unpaid renewal fee shall be required.” $75 + $75 = $150. ⚠ The 24 months is a reinstatement window, not a grace period. What it buys is exemption from re-examination, not forgiveness of the penalty. Past 24 months you apply as a new applicant. There is no period in which a lapsed New Hampshire adjuster may lawfully keep adjusting.
⚠ THE CE DEADLINE RUNS 60 DAYS BEFORE RENEWAL — AND THE CERTIFYING ACT IS THE AGENCY’S§ 402-B:5-a:“Every 2 years, at least 60 days prior to the renewal date of their license, persons holding an adjusters license shall be certified by the insurance department as having completed 24 hours of continuing education instruction,” of which at least 3 hours must be adjuster ethics. ⚠ New Hampshire does not give you until the renewal date. And course completion that has not yet been posted and certified does not satisfy the sentence — the verb is “shall be certified by the insurance department.”
Continuing education
Hours
Source
Total, biennially
24
§ 402-B:5-a
Adjuster ethics, minimum
3
§ 402-B:5-a
With comp authority — workers’ comp
10
⚠ RSA 281-A:63
With comp authority — multi-line
10
⚠ RSA 281-A:63
Without comp authority
24
may be all multi-line
Nonresident with home-state compliance
0
excused entirely
⚠
⚠ RSA 281-A:63 DOES NOT SAY 24 — AND ITS FIRST SENTENCE IS THE BIGGER RULE
Everyone cites 281-A:63 for the 10/10 split. Read directly it requires “a minimum of 20 hours” — not 24 — and says nothing about ethics. The 24 and the 3 come from § 402-B:5-a. Neither section states the whole rule. ⚠ And its first sentence is one nobody quotes: a carrier, self-insured employer or claims adjusting company handling New Hampshire comp claims “shall utilize a claims adjuster licensed in New Hampshire and such claims adjuster shall maintain suitable facilities in this state.”A physical presence requirement.
⚠⚠ § 402-B:9 — SHOW YOUR LICENSE TO EVERYONE, BEFORE YOU DEAL WITH THEMUnamended since 1969: “The licensee shall exhibit said license to each person, whether an insured, a claimant, a witness, a potential witness or any other informant with whom he may deal in the course of investigating or adjusting any claim or potential claim prior to any such dealings and shall identify the name of the company for which he works and the name of the insured.” ⚠ Who: witnesses and “any other informant,” not just the insured and claimant. When: before the dealing. What: the license plus your company plus the insured’s name. A recorded statement taken without it is taken in breach.
⚠
⚠ TWO SEPARATE $2,500s — AND THE ENTITY COMMITS A FELONY
§ 402-B:12: an administrative fine up to $2,500 per violation, on twelve grounds, after notice and hearing. § 402-B:13: acting without a license, misrepresenting your identity or your principal’s, or wrongfully divulging information is “a misdemeanor if a natural person, or … a felony if any other person” — plus a criminal fine up to $2,500 each. ⚠ An adjusting company that deploys unlicensed staff onto New Hampshire risks is exposed at a different order of magnitude than the individual is.
Two rulebooks, and a default that almost every rule overrides. Part Ins 1001 governs claim settlement for all insurers except property and casualty. Part Ins 1002 governs property and casualty. Ins 1002.03(a) declares “all time periods referenced in this part shall be calendar days” — and then nearly every operative deadline says otherwise.
working dayscalendar days
Duty — Part Ins 1002
Clock
Rule
Commence investigation
5 wk
1002.05(a)(1)
Acknowledge receipt of notice of claim
10 wk
1002.05(b)
Written acknowledgment on request
5 wk
1002.05(b)
Reply to claims communications
10 wk
1002.04(b)
Respond to a Department inquiry
10 wk
1002.04(c)
Complete decision — coverage, acceptance, denial or payment
30
⚠ 1002.05(c) — calendar
Status letters after the delay letter
30
⚠ and every 30 days thereafter
Pay after agreement
5 wk
1002.05(d)(1)
Pay after receipt of requested documentation
5 wk
1002.05(d)(2)
⚠
⚠⚠ THE RULE THAT DECLARES CALENDAR DAYS IS OVERRIDDEN BY ALMOST EVERYTHING AFTER IT
Read 1002.03(a) and you will set your diary in calendar days. Read the operative rules and you will find working days on the investigation clock, both acknowledgment clocks, the Department-inquiry clock and both payment clocks. Only the 30-day decision and the 30-day status letters actually run on calendar days. ⚠ A multistate adjuster who reads “10 days” as calendar under-counts by roughly four.
⚠ THE 12-POINT BOLD DEPARTMENT NOTICE — AND ITS THREE TRIGGERSIns 1002.05(h) requires a notice “in at least 12-point font bold type” giving the Department’s consumer services address and 1-800-852-3416, on: 1. any denial in whole or in part — expressly including denial “on the basis of no coverage or that the amount of the loss is below the deductible”; 2. any reservation of rights letter; and 3.second and subsequent delay letters — the first does not need it. ⚠ A reservation of rights triggering a consumer-complaint notice is unusual, and a below-deductible letter is a denial for this purpose.
⚠
⚠ PART Ins 1001 IS THE OPPOSITE OF PART Ins 1002 ON FRAUD
In property and casualty, a delay letter citing suspected fraud suffices “if it indicates that the reason for the delay is that further investigation is needed to determine the validity of the claim” — generic language is enough. Outside property and casualty, Ins 1001.02(e) bars justifying a fraud-based delay “unless the insurer has notified the department and has provided the department with specific reasons to support its suspicions.” ⚠ The two parts are not interchangeable.
Two more rules that constrain the file
What it requires
Ins 1002.12(a)
⚠
Before denying for the insured’s breach of a policy obligation, establish that the breach was material AND “document the basis for concluding that the breach is material in the claim file”
Ins 1002.13
⚠
On a motor vehicle property damage liability claim, “when liability has become clear the insurer shall immediately inform the claimant that coverage exists for the rental” — and must document evidence that a rental was offered. Making the offer is not enough.
Ins 1002.06
A denial must state the reason and the policy provision; every payment must state the reason and the date of loss
⚠ Why these rules nearly lapsed.RSA 541-A:17: “No rule shall be effective for a period of longer than 10 years.” Ins 1002 has already lapsed once — its predecessor expired 1 July 2015 and the replacement took effect 26 October 2015, leaving a gap with no claim-settlement time limits in force. The current rule hit its ten years on 26 October 2025, and the rules database records that they are “extended pending readoption pursuant to RSA 541-A:14-a” — so they are in force today. A free mirror prints the expiration date and stops there.
No bad-faith tort, no consumer protection claim — and real exposure anyway. New Hampshire removes the two remedies an adjuster most expects to face, and then hands the policyholder something else entirely, filed one title over from where anyone looks for it.
The remedy
New Hampshire
First-party bad-faith tort
✗
Does not exist.Bell (2001) “decline[d] … to overrule Lawton v. Great Southwest Fire Ins. Co., 118 N.H. 607 (1978), and recognize a tort claim for bad faith delay or refusal to settle a first-party insurance claim.”
Consumer Protection Act
✗
Insurance is exempt.Bell: “the insurance trade is exempt from the Consumer Protection Act pursuant to RSA 358-A:3, I.”
RSA 417 private action
⚠
EXISTS — conditionally. RSA 417:19 lets a consumer sue only after the Commissioner’s finding or cease-and-desist order “has become final.”
Attorneys’ fees
✓
RSA 491:22-b — a one-way shift to the prevailing insured
⚠
⚠⚠ 120 DAYS OF AGENCY SILENCE COUNTS AGAINST THE CONSUMER
RSA 417:19, II:“failure of the commissioner to take action … within 120 days from the date of the receipt of a complaint from an alleged injured person shall constitute a finding that the alleged act or practice is NOT in violation of this chapter.” Appealable only under RSA 541. ⚠ That is the reverse of the usual intuition. In most regimes agency inaction leaves the claimant’s options open. Here it defeats the claim.
⚝ THE REAL EXPOSURE IS IN THE COURTS TITLE, NOT THE INSURANCE TITLERSA 491:22-b, in full:“In any action to determine coverage of an insurance policy pursuant to RSA 491:22, if the insured prevails in such action, he shall receive court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees from the insurer.” ⚠ One-way. The insured recovers on prevailing; the insurer never does. This is New Hampshire’s functional substitute for a bad-faith tort, and it sits in Title LI (Courts). An adjuster who searches only the insurance code will conclude — wrongly — that New Hampshire carries no fee exposure. Companion deadline: a coverage petition must be filed within 6 months (RSA 491:22, III).
⚠
⚠⚠ NO GENERAL BUSINESS PRACTICE ELEMENT — A SINGLE ACT VIOLATES
RSA 417:4, XV(a):“Any of the following acts by an insurer, if committed without just cause and not merely inadvertently or accidentally, shall constitute unfair claim settlement practices.” The NAIC model’s “with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice”does not appear. What New Hampshire substitutes is a culpability filter, not a frequency filter. ⚠ An adjuster trained in a general-business-practice state will assume a one-off error is safe here. It is not. And one enumerated practice names you: “knowingly underestimating the value of any claim by an insurer or by an adjuster representing the insurer.”
Where a rule you correctly learned somewhere else is wrong here. These are inversions, not gaps — rules you can state confidently, find support for, and get backwards. New Hampshire has more of them than any state you will study.
The national rule
New Hampshire
Auto liability insurance is compulsory
⚠
NOT required — the only state. RSA 264 demands proof only after a qualifying conviction or an accident. Limits when written: 25/50/25.
Medical payments coverage is optional
⚠
MANDATORY, $1,000 minimum (RSA 264:16), covering costs incurred within 3 years, not assignable, not subject to health-carrier coordination.
UM is offer-and-reject
⚠
Mandatory and auto-matched to the liability limits elected. Written rejection exists only for umbrella or excess layers.
Releases are unregulated
⚠
RSA 264:15, V requires an all-caps warning, signed by the releasor, on any BI settlement document that may touch UM. Without it the release is defective.
Fraud reporting is the insurer’s duty
⚠
RSA 417:28 reaches “any person or entity regulated under title XXXVII” — YOU personally. 60 days from reason to believe.
Fraud warnings are permissive or absent
⚠
MANDATORY on all claim forms with prescribed wording (RSA 402:82, I) — but NOT required on applications.
Guaranty funds take $100 off each claim
⚠
No deductible at all. Comp paid in full, other claims capped at $300,000, and unearned premium is not sub-capped.
Valued policy laws are rare in the Northeast
⚠
New Hampshire has one — RSA 407:11. Buildings, total destruction, fire or lightning, specified-amount policies only.
Standard fire policy = the 1943 NY form
⚠
New Hampshire enacts its own as statute, RSA 407:22, last amended eff. 1 Jan 2010. Suit clause: 12 months from inception of the loss.
A 75% total-loss threshold applies to all vehicles
⚠
Only within the model year + 4 calendar years, and airbags, tires and entertainment systems come out of the numerator. It is an alternative to an impractical-to-repair prong.
Comparative fault compares to each defendant
⚠
Defendants in the aggregate, and the test is “not greater than” — a 50/50 tie recovers.
Unlicensed adjusting is a misdemeanor
⚠
Misdemeanor for a human, FELONY for an entity (§ 402-B:13).
⚠
⚠⚠ 50 PERCENT IS THE HINGE IN TWO DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS
RSA 507:7-d: contributory fault does not bar recovery “if such fault was not greater than the fault of the defendant, or the defendants in the aggregate.” So a plaintiff at exactly 50% RECOVERS, reduced by half. RSA 507:7-e, I(b): joint and several liability applies “except that if any party shall be less than 50 percent at fault, then that party’s liability shall be several and not joint.” So a defendant at exactly 50% stays JOINTLY liable. ⚠ Several liability starts BELOW 50, not at it.
⚠ AND WORKERS’ COMPENSATION RUNS ON A SHORTER CLOCK THAN EVERYTHING ELSE30 calendar days to decide a claim generally under Ins 1002.05 — but only 21 days to pay or deny a workers’ compensation claim under RSA 281-A:42, which carries a civil penalty up to $2,500, a separate penalty up to $2,500 for late filing that expressly reaches a claims adjusting company, interest from the date payment was due, and suspension or revocation of the carrier’s authorization for persistent noncompliance. ⚠ And note the contrast: New Hampshire does not require you to insure your car, but workers’ compensation insurance IS compulsory. Rates for injuries on or after 1 July 2026: maximum $2,323.00, minimum $464.66 — and the date column is an injury date, not a payment date.
Ten New Hampshire fact patterns — the inversions, not the definitions. Most of these turn on the same thing: a rule you correctly learned somewhere else.Read the feedback even when you are right.
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