Can You Keep Earning Referral Fees After You Sell Your Side Insurance Book? Florida's 2-20 Rules (2026)

By Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors · September 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Florida bars any fee to an unlicensed person for a referral that depends on whether a sale results (FS 626.112(8)); the Department of Financial Services reads that as "a flat fee for every referral is fine, a fee only for referrals that close is not" [1][2]. Atesa does not pay for names, so the only paid path in our program is the licensed one.
• A licensed 2-20 can share commission only with other agents licensed and appointed for the same kind of insurance (FS 626.753(1)(a)); that is the door our referral program walks through: 50% of first-year commission on referred new business, no renewals [3].
• A licensed but unappointed 2-20 may not solicit, quote or discuss coverage (FS 626.112(1)(a), 626.7315), and 48 months without an appointment ends eligibility in that class until you requalify as a first-time applicant (FS 626.431) [1][4][5].
• Renewal and deferred commissions can still be paid to someone who has stopped holding a license (FS 626.753(1)(b)); a fixed-price book sale usually replaces them anyway [3].
• A seller's non-compete of three years or less is presumed reasonable and more than seven years unreasonable (FS 542.335(1)(d)3.); scope it to the accounts sold and write the referral arrangement into the same agreement [7].
• 13,845 of Florida's 53,782 valid resident 2-20 holders (25.7%) carry no active property-and-casualty appointment, by our count from the DFS licensee files dated September 3, 2026; most of the people asking this question are in that group [8].

Yes, if you keep your 2-20 license and an appointment: you can share commission with the buyer as a licensed agent, and at Atesa that is 50% of first-year commission on referred business that actually binds, nothing on renewals. If you let the appointments lapse or drop the license, Florida allows only a flat fee per name that does not depend on whether the policy is written (FS 626.112(8)), and we do not pay for names, so the honest answer for the unappointed or unlicensed seller is that there is no referral income from us; any renewal or deferred commission you already earned can still be paid to you (FS 626.753(1)(b)). The statute draws one line: a payment that rises and falls with whether your referral buys a policy is lawful only when you are licensed and appointed to write that line yourself, and that is the only kind of referral payment we make.

I get this question most weeks now, usually from a real estate broker, a mortgage originator or a tax preparer who sold me a small property-and-casualty book and then kept fielding insurance questions from the same clients. They want to know what they are allowed to earn from those conversations after the sale. The honest answer is shorter than they expect, because the statute is specific, and the practical answer is that the money is real but modest, which is exactly why I would rather publish it than negotiate it.

This post covers the three positions a seller can be in after closing, what each one may be paid, what the purchase agreement should say about referrals, and the mistakes I see people make when they try to keep a foot in the insurance business without an appointment behind them.

The three positions you can be in after you sell the book

Every seller of a small Florida book lands in one of these three boxes within a year of closing. The box, not the relationship with the buyer, sets what you can be paid.

Two details in that table do most of the work. First, "appointed" is not the same as "licensed": an appointment is a carrier's authorization to sell its products, and Florida treats acting as an agent without one as unlicensed activity even if the license itself is valid (FS 626.112(1)(a)) [1]. Second, the commission-sharing statute only permits sharing between agents "appointed and licensed to write the same kind or kinds of insurance" [3], which is why an unappointed 2-20 cannot take a percentage of anything.

What the referral statute actually says

The controlling sentence is FS 626.112(8): no agent, agency or other licensee "may pay any fee or other consideration to an unlicensed person other than an insurance agency for the referral of prospective purchasers to an insurance agent which is in any way dependent upon whether the referral results in the purchase of an insurance product" [1].

The Department of Financial Services, which enforces it, explains the line in plain terms on its compliance page for general lines agents: it is fine to pay an unlicensed person for every referral, and it violates the law to pay that person only for referrals that result in a sale [2]. The department has issued a declaratory statement on the subject, linked from that page, and it is worth reading before anyone signs a referral agreement [2].

So the only lawful way to pay an unlicensed person for referrals is a fixed amount per name handed over, paid whether or not the client buys. We do not run that arrangement: paying for names that never become policies is money spent on nothing, and paying only for the names that close is the violation the statute describes. A percentage of premium, a bonus when the policy binds, or a "marketing fee" that happens to track closed business are all the same violation with different labels, which is why our program is licensed-only.

The clients you sold me are already paid for. The referral question is about the next client, the one who walks into your real estate closing or your tax office in March and asks who does your insurance now. Florida lets a licensed, appointed agent be paid for that introduction when it binds, and lets nobody else be paid on results. I would rather you know which side of that line you are on before you pick up the phone.

— Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors

Commission sharing: the licensed-agent route, and our 50/50 first-year split

If you keep your 2-20 and keep at least one property-and-casualty appointment current, you remain an agent in the eyes of the statute, and FS 626.753(1)(a) lets you divide or share commissions with other agents licensed and appointed to write the same kind of insurance [3]. That is the route our referral program uses.

The terms are the same for every licensed referrer we work with, whether or not they sold us a book:

• 50% of first-year commission on new business you refer that we write. If the carrier pays the agency $360 of first-year commission on a homeowners policy, you receive $180. If it pays $2,400 on a small commercial package, you receive $1,200.
• No renewal commission. The renewal is where the servicing cost lives: certificates, endorsements, claims, the non-renewal scramble every Florida agency has run since 2022. The agency that carries that work keeps that commission.
• The accounts you sold us are excluded. The purchase price already paid for them. The referral split applies to new households and businesses, including the ones your sold clients send you.
• You stay responsible for your own license. Continuing education, the appointment fee and the license itself are yours; the split assumes you are current, because the statute does.

Why first-year only? Because a referral is worth a great deal on day one and very little on day 400. The introduction is the valuable act; the retention is the agency's work. Paying half of the first year and nothing after is the arrangement that matches the money to the effort, and it survives an audit because both parties are licensed and appointed when the commission is shared.

Two mechanical points. The share must be paid between agents, not to a real estate brokerage or a tax firm; FS 626.753(2) bars sharing commission with a corporation unless it is an insurance agency [3]. And the split needs a written agreement that names the line of business, because the statute ties sharing to the kind of insurance both agents are licensed and appointed to write [3].

Licensed but unappointed: the 48-month clock and what you cannot do

About one in four Florida 2-20 holders sits here. Our count of the DFS licensee files dated September 3, 2026 found 53,782 valid resident 2-20 licenses and 13,845 of them (25.7%) with no active property-and-casualty appointment [8]. Across 13 North and Central Florida counties, roughly 880 people hold both a 2-20 and an active real estate license, and 398 of those are exact full-name matches between the DFS and DBPR public files [8]. If that is you, three rules apply.

You cannot act as an agent without an appointment. FS 626.112(1)(a) requires both a license and an appointment to transact insurance, and FS 626.7315 lists what an unlicensed person may not do for a general-lines product: solicit insurance or procure applications, receive or receipt money for an insurer, or act as an agent in any other way [1][4]. Quoting a client's homeowners policy "as a favor" is soliciting.

You cannot share commission. Sharing is limited to agents "appointed and licensed" for the line (FS 626.753(1)(a)) [3]. Unappointed, the statute leaves only a flat fee for names, which we do not pay, so there is no referral income from us until an appointment is back in place; that is the main reason licensed referrers keep one appointment alive.

The clock is running. When your last appointment in a class ends, the department notifies you that your eligibility to be appointed in that class expires unless you are appointed within the 48-month period; an individual who fails to maintain an appointment during any 48-month period is not granted one until he or she qualifies as a first-time applicant (FS 626.431(2)-(3)) [5]. An appointing carrier can terminate an appointment at any time with at least 60 days' written notice, except for cause (FS 626.471(1)) [6], so the clock often starts on a carrier's decision, not yours.

The practical move, if you want to keep earning from referrals, is to keep one appointment current and treat the license as the asset it is. The cost of doing so is small next to half of a year's commission on the clients your other business already sends you.

Unlicensed: no referral fee from us, and what happens to the commissions you already earned

If you let the license go, or never renewed it after selling, two things are true at once.

Florida allows an unlicensed person to be paid for referrals only as a flat amount per referral that does not depend on the outcome, under the same FS 626.112(8) rule and the same DFS reading of it [1][2]. We do not pay it. A fee for introductions that never become policies is bad business, and a fee only for the ones that bind is the violation, so an unlicensed seller's referral income from us is zero; the way to earn it back is to requalify and get appointed.

And the commissions you already earned do not disappear. FS 626.753(1)(b) says the sharing rules shall not be construed to prevent the payment of renewal commissions or other deferred commissions to a person solely because that person has ceased to hold a license [3]. That matters most to owners who kept a book and stopped working it; in a sale, the fixed price replaces the renewal stream, so the clause mostly protects trailing commissions that were earned before closing and paid after it.

Put the referral terms in the purchase agreement, not in a handshake

The document that governs your life after the sale is the restrictive covenant in the purchase agreement, and Florida is unusually specific about it. For the seller of all or part of a business, a court presumes a restraint of three years or less reasonable in time and more than seven years unreasonable, and the presumptions are rebuttable (FS 542.335(1)(d)3.) [7]. Two to three years, limited to the accounts sold, is the normal term on a small book.

A referral arrangement lives comfortably inside that covenant if the agreement says so. The clauses I write:

• Scope of the non-solicit: the insurance accounts sold, listed by policy or by client, and nothing that touches your other business.
• Referral carve-out: you may refer new prospects to the buyer, and the buyer may pay you for them on the terms stated, so that a referral can never be argued to be a solicitation of the sold accounts.
• The licensed or unlicensed switch: the split applies while you hold a valid 2-20 and an active appointment for the line; if either lapses, the split stops the same day, because the statute stops it, and resumes when an appointment is back in place.
• No renewal tail: first-year commission only, on business the buyer writes; nothing on the accounts already purchased.

If the buyer is financing the purchase with an SBA 7(a) loan, one more line matters: under SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, the seller may not remain as an officer, director, stockholder or employee, and a transitional consulting contract may not exceed 24 months [9]. A referral agreement is not a consulting contract, but the buyer's lender will read them together, so keep them separate documents.

Florida-Specific Considerations

• Two regulators, two licenses. Your real estate license answers to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and your 2-20 to the Department of Financial Services; selling insurance accounts affects neither, and only the non-solicit reaches your other practice.
• The appointment is the line. Florida draws the licensed-versus-unlicensed line at the appointment, not the license (FS 626.112(1)(a)) [1]. Most people who think they are "still licensed" for referral purposes are unappointed, and an unappointed 2-20 cannot share commission.
• Keep the paper. Every referral payment we make ties to a licensed, appointed referrer, a dated introduction and the policy it produced; the DFS test for unlicensed payments is whether the payment depends on a sale [2], and a licensed-only program never has to argue the point.
• Continuing education keeps the option open. A 2-20 you intend to keep still carries its continuing-education requirement; letting the license lapse to save the hours converts you to the unlicensed box permanently until you requalify [5].
• Home territory. We write these agreements for referrers across Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau and Flagler counties and the Orlando metro, and the terms are the same in every county because the statute is.

Your 5-Step Timeline After the Sale

FAQ for the Seller Who Still Gets Insurance Questions

Q: Can I get paid for referring clients to the agency that bought my insurance book?

A: Yes, if you keep your 2-20 and an active appointment: the buyer can share commission with you as a licensed agent (FS 626.753(1)(a)), and at Atesa that is 50% of first-year commission on referred business that binds, no renewals. If you are unappointed or unlicensed, Florida allows only a flat fee per referral that does not depend on whether the client buys (FS 626.112(8)), and Atesa does not pay referral fees for names.

Q: Why does Atesa pay 50% of first-year commission and nothing on renewals?

A: Because the introduction is the referrer's work and the renewal is the agency's. Half of the first year matches the money to the effort, and paying nothing on renewals keeps the arrangement clean when the referrer's license or appointment status changes later. The accounts you sold us are excluded because the purchase price already paid for them.

Q: I still hold my 2-20 but no carrier appoints me. Can I take a commission split?

A: No. Commission sharing is limited to agents who are both licensed and appointed for the line (FS 626.753(1)(a)), and acting as an agent without an appointment is prohibited (FS 626.112(1)(a)). Atesa does not pay the flat per-name fee the statute would allow, so the referral income resumes only when you are appointed again; you have 48 months from your last appointment to do that before you must requalify as a first-time applicant (FS 626.431).

Q: Can the buyer pay me a percentage of premium for every referral that closes?

A: Only if you are licensed and appointed for that line. For anyone else, a payment that depends on whether the referral results in a purchase violates FS 626.112(8); the Department of Financial Services says a flat fee for every referral is lawful and a fee only for referrals that close is not. That is why Atesa's program is licensed-only and pays on bound business.

Q: What happens to renewal commissions I earned before I let my license go?

A: They can still be paid to you. FS 626.753(1)(b) prevents the sharing rules from blocking renewal or deferred commissions solely because the recipient no longer holds a license. In a book sale, the fixed price usually replaces the renewal stream, so this mostly protects trailing commissions earned before closing.

Q: Does the non-compete stop me from referring my real estate or mortgage clients?

A: It should not, if it is written correctly. Florida presumes a seller's restraint of three years or less reasonable (FS 542.335(1)(d)3.), and a well-drafted non-solicit covers the accounts sold, not your other business. The purchase agreement should carve out referrals to the buyer explicitly so a referral can never be read as a solicitation.

Q: Can my real estate brokerage or tax firm receive the referral payments instead of me?

A: Not as a commission share. FS 626.753(2) bars sharing commission with a corporation unless it is an insurance agency. Florida would allow a flat, non-contingent fee to an unlicensed business under the same FS 626.112(8) rule as a fee to an individual, but Atesa does not pay for referrals that way; the licensed, appointed agent, not the firm, receives the share.

Q: I want to keep referring but I let my appointments lapse two years ago. Is it too late?

A: Not yet. Eligibility to be appointed in a class ends after 48 months without an appointment (FS 626.431(3)); at two years you can still be appointed by a carrier, with your continuing education current, and move back into the commission-share box. After 48 months you would requalify as a first-time applicant.

Related Reading

• You Kept the 2-20 but Moved On: How to Sell a Side Insurance Book in North and Central Florida (2026) — the sale itself, for the owner with two licenses.
• Earn-Outs, Seller Notes, or a Fixed Price: How a Small Florida Insurance Agency Sale Gets Paid in 2026 — why the price is one number at close under $500,000.
• Selling Your Florida Insurance Agency Because You're Done, Not Retiring: The 2026 Career-Change Seller's Guide — the seller who moved on to another business.
• What Is a Florida Insurance Agency Actually Worth? A Buyer's 2026 Valuation Guide — the framework behind the fixed price.

How Atesa Risk Advisors Can Help

We buy small property-and-casualty books across North and Central Florida from owners who have moved on to real estate, lending, tax work or something else entirely, and most of them keep sending us clients afterward. The book gets one fixed price paid at close; the referrals that follow get the same published terms every licensed referrer receives, 50% of first-year commission and nothing on renewals, written into the purchase agreement so nobody has to remember a handshake.

If you are unappointed or unlicensed, we will tell you on the first call that there is no referral fee from us, and help you decide whether keeping one appointment alive is worth it; for most people who already send clients, it is.

Want the book priced and the referral terms in writing before you decide? Get your free valuation and consultation at atesariskadvisors.com/get-quote or call (904) 900-5063.

Sources

[1] Florida Statutes § 626.112, License and appointment required; agents, customer representatives, adjusters, insurance agencies (2026)

[2] Florida Department of Financial Services, Compliance Information for General Lines Agents and Customer Representatives: Referrals

[3] Florida Statutes § 626.753, Sharing commissions; penalty (2026)

[4] Florida Statutes § 626.7315, Prohibition against the unlicensed transaction of general lines insurance (2026)

[5] Florida Statutes § 626.431, Effect of expiration of license and appointment (2026)

[6] Florida Statutes § 626.471, Termination of appointment (2026)

[7] Florida Statutes § 542.335, Valid restraints of trade or commerce (2026)

[8] Florida Department of Financial Services, Licensee Search: Bulk Downloads (all valid individual licenses and active appointment files, dated September 3, 2026; counts are Atesa Risk Advisors' computation)

[9] U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8.1, Lender and Development Company Loan Programs (effective October 1, 2026): changes of ownership

External Resources for the seller who still gets insurance questions:

• Florida DFS Licensee Search — check your license status, appointments and continuing-education due date
• Florida DFS, Compliance Information for General Lines Agents — the department's own explanation of referral payments
• Florida DBPR License Verification — real estate license status

Ricardo Alonso is the Founder of Atesa Risk Advisors, a Florida independent insurance agency in Jacksonville. Licensed 2-20 General Lines Agent and 2-15 Health & Life Agent, with a Master of Liberal Arts in Finance from Harvard University. He buys small property-and-casualty books across North and Central Florida and pays the referral terms described here to the licensed agents who send him business.

This article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute insurance, legal, tax, or financial advice. Statutory references were checked against the published 2026 Florida Statutes and the Department of Financial Services compliance page at the time of writing; license and appointment counts are Atesa Risk Advisors' computation from public state files on the dates shown and change daily. Referral and commission-sharing terms described are Atesa Risk Advisors' current program and may change. Consult a licensed Florida attorney before signing a purchase agreement, restrictive covenant or referral agreement.