California insurance agent license lookup.

What the California service covers

California does not split agents, brokers and adjusters across separate websites. The CDI License Status Inquiry page describes a single online service, Check a License, and says it can be used to retrieve the licence status and discipline history of an agent, broker, adjuster, bail agent, business entity or another licensee. That wording matters when you are checking a firm: a business entity has its own record, separate from the people who work there.

The page also says that, from a result, you can select the available links on the licence record to review additional licence details. So the first screen is a summary, and the depth is behind the links. If you only glance at the first line you may miss a discipline entry that sits a click away.

Number search or name search

CDI’s help page says you can look a licensee up by licence number or by name. A number is the better key. The help page gives one rule about numbers: be sure you are entering a zero, not the letter O, and licence numbers never begin with a letter. If a number you were given starts with a letter, either it is not a California licence number or it was copied wrongly, and that is worth asking about before you spend more time searching.

Name searches are looser. The help page says a search may return up to 100 names, and that if more than 100 match you can use the Next link at the bottom of the page to keep reviewing them. For a common surname, expect to page through results and to need a second identifier such as a city or the licence number from a business card or policy paperwork.

When a business name will not match

CDI lists several practical tips, all from its help page. If you cannot find a licence by the full business name, type only the first 10 to 15 letters, and if that fails try again with one or two fewer characters. If the name begins with “The” or “A”, leave it off at first and add it back if nothing turns up. Apostrophes are used in business names (the page’s example is Susie’s Insurance Agency) but commas and periods are not. Spaces between initials matter: try the initials with a space first (its example is U 2 Insurance Agency), and if the name is not found, try them without (U2 Insurance Agency).

These are not quirks of this page; they describe how the state’s index treats names, which is why a record you are sure exists can fail to appear on the first attempt.

A worked example (hypothetical)

A homeowner is handed a quote by someone who says they are a California broker. She asks for the licence number, enters it into Check a License, and gets one record. She reads the status line, then follows the links on the record to see the additional details and whether any discipline is listed. The name on the record matches the person and the firm on the quote. Then she repeats the search for the agency name, because the person and the business each hold their own licence. Had the first search returned nothing, she would have checked the number for a letter O in place of a zero before doing anything else. No real person is described.

What a search result cannot do for you

A status page tells you what the state’s record shows when you look. It is not a guarantee about future conduct, and it does not tell you which products a person is allowed to sell beyond what the record itself displays. If you are relying on a licence for a large purchase, a claim, or a hiring decision, ask for the licence number in writing and keep a dated copy of what you saw. For a formal answer, CDI’s Licensing Services Division is the body that issues and maintains these licences.

What this page does not cover

We read two CDI pages: the License Status Inquiry page and its help page. We did not open the search application itself, so this page does not describe the exact status labels it shows, publish a licence-number length, or explain National Producer Number cross-checks or lines of authority. CDI’s pages also list licensing topics such as renewal, fees and application status, which we have not summarised here. Nothing on this page is a licence check.

Sources

Read November 2, 2026. Each page was opened and checked against the claim next to it.

• CDI: License Status Inquiry: the Check a License service, the entity types it covers, the browser note and the link to the record details.
• CDI: License Status Help: zero versus letter O, no leading letter in a licence number, the 100-name limit and the business-name search tips.