NJ DOBI Licensee Search: Statuses, Certification, and NMLS Cross-Checks

The NJ DOBI licensee search is a free online tool at www-dobi.nj.gov/DOBI_LicSearch/ that lets you confirm whether an insurance agent, real estate broker, mortgage lender, or other financial professional is currently licensed to do business in New Jersey. It’s actually three separate portals under one roof, one for banking, one for insurance, and one for real estate, and picking the right one is the first step.¹

Pick the Right Portal First

The landing page asks you to choose a category before you can search. Choose wrong and you’ll get no results, which can look identical to the person being unlicensed. They aren’t the same thing.

Banking covers mortgage bankers, licensed lenders, money transmitters, and other financial entities regulated under New Jersey banking law.
Insurance redirects to the NAIC’s SOLAR external lookup at sbs.naic.org, which handles insurance producers, public adjusters, and viatical settlement brokers.
Real Estate covers brokers, salespersons, broker-salespersons, referral agents, branch offices, and real estate companies licensed through the New Jersey Real Estate Commission.

Figure out what the person actually does before you search. An insurance agent won’t turn up under banking. A mortgage originator won’t turn up under insurance.

How to Search

Each portal accepts slightly different inputs, but across all three you can search by name or by the seven-digit license reference number. Partial names work, which helps when a business goes by a name that differs slightly from its legal name. If you already have the license reference number, use it. It’s the fastest route to the right record.²

The real estate portal adds filters for license type and status, so you can narrow to actively licensed brokers or, if you’re checking on someone specifically, filter to suspended or revoked records.

For insurance producers, the National Producer Number (NPN) speeds things up. The NAIC assigns the NPN during licensing, and it stays with that individual across every state where they hold a license.³

What the Results Show

Click into a matching record and you’ll see the licensee’s name, license reference number, business name and address, phone number, license authorities (the types of insurance or services they’re authorized to handle), the date first licensed, the current license expiration date, and the companies for which they hold agency appointments. For licensed organizations, the records also list licensed officers and partners.⁴

Some things stay off the public record. Criminal history, bankruptcy filings, medical disability records, and investigative files where no formal action was taken are all classified as nonpublic. A pending investigation stays hidden until the Department takes formal disciplinary action.⁴ So the absence of red flags in the search isn’t the same as a clean history; it just means nothing formal has been filed.

What Each License Status Means

The status field is the part of the record that tells you whether the professional can legally do business with you right now.

Actively Licensed. Fees paid, continuing education completed, authorized to conduct business. This is the only status that means the person can legally transact with you.
Inactive. The license exists but isn’t in use, often because someone missed a renewal or stepped away from the profession. An insurance producer who lets a license lapse has 12 months to reinstate it without retaking the exam, but owes a late penalty of up to double the unpaid renewal fee.⁵
Suspended. The Department has temporarily halted the person’s authority to practice, usually through disciplinary proceedings or failure to meet a regulatory requirement. A suspended professional cannot legally conduct business in the field.
Revoked. The license has been permanently taken away, generally after serious violations.
Surrendered. The professional voluntarily gave up the license, sometimes during an investigation or upon retirement.

If You See Suspended or Revoked, Stop

Under New Jersey rules, a suspended or revoked producer must immediately return the license to the Department. Existing appointments with insurance companies, employment arrangements with other producers, and officer or partner roles in licensed organizations are all severed on the spot. No one whose license has been suspended or revoked can work in any capacity for an insurance producer, not even in a support role, and no other licensed professional can advertise or do business using that person’s name. There is no refund of license fees for the remaining term, and if the license is reinstated after a suspension, the person has to refile every agency and employment relationship from scratch.⁶

For a consumer, the point is simple. Any transaction with a suspended or revoked licensee is a transaction with someone who has zero legal authority to act. Walk away.

Getting an Official Certification

If you need documentation for a court case, a business relationship, or a compliance file, you can generate an official Certification of License Status straight from the results for an insurance licensee in active status. After pulling up a producer, public adjuster, or viatical settlement broker’s record, click the status field to produce it.¹ The certification is the Department confirming that person’s license is current as of that moment.⁴

Cross-Checking With National Databases

The DOBI search confirms New Jersey licensure only. Plenty of professionals work across state lines, and two national tools fill in the rest of the picture.

NMLS Consumer Access

The Nationwide Multistate Licensing System runs a free public lookup for mortgage loan originators, consumer finance companies, debt collectors, and money services businesses. Enter an NMLS ID or name and you’ll see licensing status in every state where the person is registered. The data is self-reported to regulators and updated nightly on business days.⁷

National Producer Number Lookup

For insurance producers, the NPN works as a universal identifier across states. Look it up through the National Insurance Producer Registry, which connects to state licensing databases nationwide.³

Reporting Unlicensed Activity or a Complaint

If the search shows someone as unlicensed, or if you have a problem with a licensed professional’s conduct, the Department accepts complaints through separate online portals for banking, insurance, and real estate, mirroring the same three-category structure as the licensee search. All three are reachable from the Department’s consumer assistance page.⁸

Insurance complaints route through the NAIC’s online portal. Have your contact information, the name of the insurance company or agent involved, your policy and claim numbers, and a description of the problem ready. The form asks you to authorize the Department to share your complaint with the parties involved and to release relevant records for the investigation.⁹

The Department pursues unlicensed activity. In 2026, enforcement actions against people conducting insurance business without a license produced fines ranging from $3,750 for an individual who submitted 30 policies while unlicensed to $95,000 for respondents who operated without a producer license and failed to report federal criminal convictions.¹⁰

For real estate, the Department publishes non-confidential final disciplinary orders on its website going back to 1996. The orders are searchable by year, so you can check whether a broker or salesperson has been the subject of formal action even when the current status shows as active.¹¹

1
New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. NJDOBI Licensee Search
2
New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. NJDOBI Licensee Search – Real Estate
3
NIPR. Look Up a National Producer Number
4
Cornell Law Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 11:17-2.16 – Licensee Records
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Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes 17:22A-33 – Issuance of Resident Insurance Producer License
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Cornell Law Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 11:17D-2.5 – Effect of Suspension or Revocation of Producer License
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NMLS Consumer Access. NMLS Consumer Access
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New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. NJDOBI How to Request Assistance – Consumer Information
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NAIC. Consumer Complaint Form – NJ
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New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. NJDOBI 2026 Division of Insurance Enforcement Activity
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New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. NJDOBI Real Estate Commission Disciplinary Actions