Last reviewed: 17 September 2026

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What a "limited lines" insurance license actually is

Several of our Library pages — on travel insurance, bail bonds, pet insurance, crop insurance, and GAP insurance — each describe their own separately regulated producer license. They share a category: each is a "limited lines" license, a genuinely different kind of credential from the major-line licenses (life, property & casualty, and so on) most people picture when they think "insurance agent."

The line the NAIC model act actually draws

The NAIC Producer Licensing Model Act (Model #218) defines a short list of "major lines" of insurance: Life; Accident and Health or Sickness; Property; Casualty; Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products; and Personal Lines. A limited lines license is, by the model act's own structure, everything else — a license authorizing the sale of a narrower line of insurance defined separately from those major lines, usually tied to a specific product or a specific transaction it's sold alongside, rather than covering a broad category of coverage the way a major-line license does.

One core line named directly in the model act — three more added on top

The model act itself defines exactly one limited line directly: credit insurance (life, disability, unemployment, or property coverage tied to an extension of credit — the category our GAP insurance explainer covers one form of). NAIC's separate Uniform Licensing Standards add three more to that same "core" list, which our lines-of-authority explainer also covers: car rental insurance (sold incidental to renting a vehicle), crop insurance, and travel insurance. Those Uniform Licensing Standards also cap how many separate limited lines a single state may recognize at no more than nine total — so beyond these four core lines, a state generally has room for several more of its own choosing, but not an unlimited list.

States fill the rest — and even "surety" isn't fixed

Surety is a useful example of how much variation exists even within this one category: the Uniform Licensing Standards list it among limited lines, but a number of states instead license it as a major line in their own structure — there isn't one nationally fixed answer. Beyond the four core lines, states have used their remaining room under the nine-line cap for categories like bail bond (in some states licensed through a different state agency entirely, not the Department of Insurance), pet insurance (following a 2022 NAIC model act many states have since adopted), and preneed funeral insurance — documented examples of state-created limited lines, with the specific list and requirements varying by state more than a major-line license typically does.

What this means for checking a producer's license

The same lookup described in our licensing guide applies — but the specific line shown matters just as much as the "active" status word next to it, the same point our lines-of-authority explainer makes for major lines. A producer whose only active license is a limited line — travel insurance, say — isn't authorized to sell you an unrelated policy, like auto or homeowners coverage, no matter how confidently they present the pitch. If what's being offered doesn't match the line shown on the lookup, that's a direct, checkable mismatch worth asking about before buying anything.