The key questions are always: whom do you represent, and what may your license sell?
License scope (Ins. Code §1626):
Accident and health or sickness agent (§1626(a)(2)): transacts coverage for sickness, bodily injury or accidental death, and may include disability income.
Life agent (§1626(a)(1)): transacts insurance on human lives, including endowments and annuities, and may include death or dismemberment by accident and disability income. So disability income can sit under either license, and accidental death is not exclusive to A&H.
An A&H agent has no authority to transact life, annuity, property or casualty insurance (CDI outline).
Certified insurance agent (CDI outline, citing 10 CCR §6800): a licensed agent who has also completed Covered California's certification, which includes required training and agreements. A license alone, however long held, is not certification. That regulation has since been repealed; today the certification runs through Covered California.
Agent vs. broker:
- Insurance agent (§31): acts by and on behalf of an insurer, for classes of insurance other than life, disability or health.
- Life licensee (§32): acts as an agent on behalf of a life or disability insurer to transact life insurance, accident and health or sickness insurance, or both. Since January 1, 2026, §32 calls this a life and accident and health or sickness licensee.
- Insurance broker (§33): for compensation and on behalf of another person, transacts insurance other than life, disability or health with, but not on behalf of, an insurer.
In short: an agent owes its duties first to the insurer; a broker's client is the buyer. A licensee may act for an insurer only after that insurer files a notice of appointment (§1704).
Solicitor (§1624): a natural person employed to aid an insurance agent or broker in transacting insurance other than life, disability or health. A solicitor only assists the employer and holds no authority from an insurer, and there is no such license as an accident and health or sickness solicitor. The current text describes the employer as a property and casualty broker-agent acting as an agent or broker.
Life and disability insurance analyst (§32.5): advises people about their life or disability policies for a fee paid by someone other than an insurer. No fee may be received without a written agreement signed by the person charged (§1848). It must say the information may be obtained from the insurer without cost, list the services and the fee, and, for an analyst who is also an agent, disclose the agent license and the commissions. The analyst keeps a copy for at least three years after the services and may not charge for servicing policies the analyst wrote.