South Carolina Adjuster Insurance Exam 2026

What This License Is — and What Just Changed

A South Carolina adjuster license lets you investigate, evaluate, and settle claims for insurers, whether you work as a staff adjuster or independently. It is issued by the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI) through the Director of Insurance.

The governing law changed ten weeks ago. S.196 passed the House 108–1 on May 5, 2026, was ratified R-132 on May 14, and was signed by the Governor on May 19, 2026 as Act No. 209. It repeals Title 38 Chapters 47 and 48 — the entire prior adjuster and public adjuster licensing system — and replaces them with Chapter 91 (adjusters) and Chapter 92 (public adjusters). SECTION 6 provides that the act takes effect upon approval by the Governor; the legislative record carries an effective date of June 5, 2026. Either way, it is in force.

Act 209 creates statutory lines of authority for the first time: property and casualty, workers' compensation, crop, and any other line the Director prescribes. Repealed Chapter 47 had no lines in statute at all — the 'lines' existed only as separate Pearson VUE examinations. It also permits business entity adjuster licenses, which Chapter 47 did not.

Public adjusters — who represent policyholders rather than insurers — are licensed separately under Chapter 92, and Act 209 tightened that license considerably.

Eligibility Requirements

Under Act 209 § 38-91-60, an adjuster applicant must be at least 18, must not have been convicted of a felony within the previous 10 years, and must submit to state and federal criminal records checks supported by fingerprints — SLED for the state check and the FBI for the federal one.

Under the repealed chapter, and still on the SCDOI website today, there were no fingerprints at all. Residents submitted a SLED name-based criminal history report less than three months old, and previously licensed applicants from another state added a letter of clearance less than six months old. That is what the Department has been processing.

Answer all background questions truthfully regardless of which regime applies. Federal law — 18 U.S.C. § 1033 — independently bars anyone convicted of a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust from working in insurance without a written waiver.

No fee has been published for the new fingerprint checks. Act 209 does not set one and SCDOI has issued no schedule, so do not budget from a third-party figure.

Who Does Not Need a License

This is the most heavily tested part of South Carolina adjuster law, and Act 209 expanded it dramatically. Repealed § 38-47-10(B) contained only two exemptions: licensed producers, and portable-electronics claim data-entry staff. New § 38-91-40 contains thirteen.

The additions that matter most: an attorney at law admitted to practice in this State, when acting in his professional capacity as an attorney; an employee of an insurer who is not regularly engaged in the adjustment or investigation of insurance claims; a person employed only to furnish technical assistance to a licensed adjuster (investigator, engineer, estimator, handwriting expert, photographer, private detective); a producer or licensed employee of a producer processing an undisputed or uncontested loss; a person performing solely clerical duties; and a full-time salaried employee of a self-insurer.

Also exempt: anyone handling life, accident, and health claims; an individual employed to investigate suspected fraudulent claims who does not adjust losses or determine payments; a person handling service contract claims; a person handling commercial claims for excess coverages; a person settling only reinsurance or subrogation claims; and someone adjusting workers' compensation or disability claims under a third-party administrator license under Chapter 51.

Read the salaried-employee exemption carefully. It exempts an insurer's employee only where that person is not regularly engaged in adjusting or investigating claims. A staff adjuster who regularly adjusts claims still needs a South Carolina license — which is a real difference from states that exempt company adjusters outright.

One narrow carve-out survives from the old law into new § 38-91-140: an insurer's officer, employee, attorney, or producer may adjust food spoilage claims without an adjuster license where the coverage for that type of loss is contractually limited to $500 or less.

The Pearson VUE Exam, Line by Line

Pearson VUE has administered South Carolina's insurance examinations since May 1, 2023. Material naming PSI, Prometric, or Experior is out of date.

The current adjuster examinations, from the Pearson VUE South Carolina candidate handbook: Property, Casualty, Surety & Marine (InsSC-PCSMAdj11) — 105 items in 120 minutes, the broad option most adjusters take; Personal Lines (InsSC-PLAdj23) — 80 items in 120 minutes; Commercial Lines (InsSC-CLAdj24) — 75 items in 90 minutes; Workers' Compensation (InsSC-WCAdj25) — 60 items in 90 minutes; Crop Hail (InsSC-HAdj13) — 50 items in 60 minutes; and Public Adjuster (InsSC-PubAdj14) — 60 items in 65 minutes.

The fee is $59 per examination, and a retake costs another full $59. Your passing certificate is valid for 12 months — file the application inside that window or you are retesting.

Act 209 exempts three groups from the examination under § 38-91-80: an applicant holding the CPCU designation; an adjuster licensed in another state who applies within 90 days of establishing South Carolina residency; and a previously licensed South Carolina adjuster reinstating within 12 months. Note that Regulation 69-23 is broader — it waives the exam for CPCU or CLU holders — and has not been amended to match. The statute controls, but the conflict is unresolved.

There is no prelicensing education requirement in South Carolina, under either the old chapter or the new one.

Passing Score — a Scaled 70, Not 70%

South Carolina reports a passing score of 70, and the handbook is explicit that this is a scaled score, not a percentage. Scores *"range from 0 to 100, but should not be interpreted as the percentage or number of correct answers."* Regulation 69-23 independently sets the standard at *"at least seventy (70) points."*

Prep sites routinely say '70%'. That is wrong, and it matters — a scaled score is the output of an equating process, so you cannot compute your standing by counting right answers on a practice test.

Build your study around what is actually South Carolina's: the improper claim practices in Title 38, Chapter 59, the state's valued policy law at § 38-75-20, the Wind and Hail Underwriting Association, the three-tier UM/UIM structure in §§ 38-77-150 and 38-77-160, and the modified comparative negligence rule from *Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co.* Aim for a consistent 80% on practice material before you schedule.

Nonresidents, Reciprocity, and Designated Home State

Act 209 § 38-91-50 puts nonresident licensing on a home-state basis: a nonresident may receive a license *"with the same lines of authority held in the home state,"* provided the home state *"issues nonresident adjuster licenses to residents of this State on the same basis."* The repealed chapter carried a blunter version of the same idea — no license could issue to a nonresident *"who resides in a state refusing to license South Carolina adjusters."*

The designated home state question has flipped. Act 209 now contains a DHS provision: where neither the adjuster's state of residence nor the state of their principal place of business *"has a substantially similar law governing adjusters,"* the adjuster may designate another state in which they are licensed as the home state. Because Act 209 also adds fingerprints and CE, South Carolina now satisfies the criteria that DHS-checking states apply.

But SCDOI still says the opposite. Its adjuster page currently instructs that *"SC should never be selected as a DHS state when completing a new or renewal application through NIPR,"* reasoning that South Carolina requires no fingerprints and no CE. That reasoning is now obsolete, but whether NIPR and the NAIC have reclassified South Carolina operationally is unconfirmed. Treat South Carolina as statutorily eligible but administratively unconfirmed as a DHS state, and verify before you rely on it.

Retaliatory fees are real and still live. South Carolina charges a nonresident whatever that adjuster's home state charges a South Carolinian, subject to the state minimum. SCDOI has published $230 for North Carolina residents and $115 for Georgia residents. Whether the retaliatory floor rises from $80 to $100 under Act 209 has not been addressed.

Working a South Carolina Catastrophe

South Carolina's coastline runs from the Grand Strand to the Lowcountry, and catastrophe deployment here is governed by a regulation, not a statute. Act 209 contains no emergency, catastrophe, disaster, or temporary adjuster provision at all — those words appear nowhere in the act.

Regulation 69-1, 'Adjustment of Claims Under Unusual Circumstances,' survives the repeal of Chapter 47 and is the operative authority. An unusual circumstance exists when a *"specific, infrequent, and sudden natural or manmade disaster"* generates losses beyond the licensed adjusting capacity. SCDOI declares the emergency and announces when it expires. A nonresident adjuster may then work South Carolina losses on their home-state license, and may remain *"only for the period that is necessary to assist in the adjustments or appraisals."*

The operational numbers come from SCDOI procedure rather than the regulation, which sets no fixed day count. The initial emergency adjuster appointment may not exceed 120 days, with extensions requiring written Department authorization. Insurers have 48 hours after appointing an emergency adjuster to file the appointment application.

The insurer applies, never the individual. SCDOI is explicit that emergency permits must be obtained by the insurer or carrier, and that non-South-Carolina-licensed individuals and other business entities cannot obtain them directly. Emergency adjusters must carry the original appointment document, the disaster permit, and photo identification at all times.

South Carolina has no standing statutory moratorium on cancellation or nonrenewal after a catastrophe. SCDOI instead issues event-specific bulletins requesting accommodation, as it did for Tropical Storm Helene.

Renewal — and the CE South Carolina Now Requires

Renewal runs on a fixed biennial date, not your birthday. Adjuster licenses renew by August 31 of each odd-numbered year; public adjuster licenses by October 31 of each even-numbered year. Regulation 69-33 gives the windows as August 1–31 for adjusters and October 1–30 for public adjusters — note that Act 209 § 38-92-80(B) says October thirty-first while the unamended regulation says the thirtieth. The next adjuster renewal is August 31, 2027. Birth-month renewal in South Carolina applies to producers, not adjusters; do not cross the two.

Continuing education now exists, and it did not before. Act 209 § 38-91-90 requires a minimum of 24 hours per biennial cycle including 3 hours of ethics, tied to the renewal cycle. Anyone holding the workers' compensation line owes 3 additional hours specific to workers' compensation law and regulation. Nonresidents are exempt where their home state gives reciprocal credit to South Carolina residents.

SCDOI's website still says no CE is required. That describes repealed Chapter 47, under which South Carolina adjusters genuinely had no continuing education obligation — Regulation 69-50 reaches only producers. The Department has published nothing on how the new requirement applies to adjusters already licensed, and Act 209 contains no savings clause.

There is no appointment to maintain. Unlike Florida, South Carolina has never required an adjuster to be appointed by an insurer, and Act 209 does not add one.

Public Adjusters — the Biggest Change of All

If you are considering the public adjuster license, or you will be dealing with public adjusters on South Carolina claims, understand that Act 209 Chapter 92 changed this license more than any other.

A $20,000 minimum bond or letter of credit is now required. Repealed Chapter 48 had no bond requirement whatsoever.

Compensation is now capped at 10%. Section 38-92-120 provides that no public adjuster may accept compensation *"equal to more than ten percent of any insurance settlement or proceeds,"* and separately prohibits accepting *"any fee, retainer, compensation, deposit, or other thing of value, prior to settlement of a claim."* Repealed Chapter 48 had no cap at all. Note that South Carolina sets one flat rate — there is no separate, lower catastrophe cap of the kind Florida applies.

The insured may rescind within 5 business days of signing, which carried over from the old chapter. Contracts must be titled "Public Adjuster Contract" and state the compensation terms in bold type, including that payment comes from the recovery and not from the insurer. Public adjusting in South Carolina is first-party only.

There is no time-of-day solicitation window in South Carolina. Section 38-92-170(C) bars soliciting *"during the progress of a loss-producing occurrence,"* but South Carolina has nothing like Florida's 8 a.m.–8 p.m. rule or New York's 6 p.m.–8 a.m. curfew. Material importing one is wrong.

Public adjusters also owe 24 hours of CE including 3 ethics hours, renew by October 31 of even-numbered years, and pay a $100 license fee under Act 209.

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