You Kept the 2-20 but Moved On: How to Sell a Side Insurance Book in North and Central Florida (2026)

By Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors · September 5, 2026

Key Takeaways

• 53,782 Floridians hold a valid resident 2-20 license, and 13,845 of them (25.7%) have no active property-and-casualty appointment behind it, by our count from the Department of Financial Services licensee files dated September 3, 2026 [1].
• Across 13 North and Central Florida counties, roughly 880 people hold both a 2-20 and an active real estate license; 398 of those are exact full-name matches between the DFS and DBPR public files [1][2].
• The book of business is the asset, not the license. Selling the accounts does not surrender your 2-20, and Florida's commission-sharing statute does not stand in the way of renewal or deferred commissions being paid to you solely because you no longer hold a license (FS 626.753(1)(b)) [3].
• Forty-eight months without an appointment ends your eligibility to be appointed in that class, and acting as an agent without an appointment is unlawful (FS 626.431, 626.112(1)(a)) [4][5].
• A seller's non-compete of three years or less is presumed reasonable under FS 542.335, and anything over seven years is presumed unreasonable; scope it to the insurance accounts you sold and your other business stays untouched [7].
• On a book under $500,000 in revenue, the price is fixed and paid at close, with a 90-day handoff and no earn-out.

Yes, you can sell the insurance side of your working life and keep the rest. In Florida the book of business is an asset separate from the license: the client accounts and the right to renew them transfer to the buyer, your 2-20 stays yours as long as you keep it appointed and current, and on a book under $500,000 the price is a fixed number paid at close. The rest of this guide is the detail: how many owners are in your position in North and Central Florida, what the statutes let you keep and what they make you give up, and how the sale actually runs when the seller has a real estate office or a tax practice to get back to.

One in four valid Florida 2-20 licenses has no property-and-casualty appointment behind it. A 2-20 is the state's resident general lines license, the credential that lets you sell home, auto and business insurance, and an appointment is a carrier's written authorization to sell its policies. Without at least one appointment the license is a card in a drawer. 13,845 Floridians are carrying that card right now [1].

Some of them are new licensees between jobs. A lot of them are people I recognize from the calls we take: an agent who built a small book, moved into real estate or mortgage lending or tax preparation, kept the license because it took a 200-hour course, or a year of insurance work, and a state exam to get (FS 626.732) [16], and still services a few hundred thousand dollars of premium between closings and tax season. The first two owners who reached us through our valuation tool this month fit that description exactly. Neither was retiring. Both wanted the insurance book gone cleanly and everything else left alone.

This is written for that owner.

How Many Side Books There Are in North and Central Florida

No state agency publishes a count of people who hold two licenses. We built one. The Department of Financial Services posts a daily file of every valid Florida insurance license and every active appointment [1]. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation posts county-level files of every real estate licensee weekly [2]. We matched them by last name, first name and county across the thirteen counties we buy in, then checked a sample of matches by hand against city and middle name. Exact full-name matches are the floor; the name-and-county estimate is the working number, and it is probably within ten percent of the truth.

Sources: DFS bulk licensee and appointment files dated September 3, 2026; DBPR real estate licensee-by-county files dated September 3, 2026; Atesa Risk Advisors computation [1][2]. DFS records a licensee's business county and DBPR records the home county, so a Duval agent who lives in St. Johns is missed; the true count is higher, not lower.

Real estate is only the profession we can count. Statewide, DBPR reported 247,909 active sales associates, 43,389 brokers and 24,172 broker associates in December 2025 [2]. The Office of Financial Regulation reported 54,446 active loan originator licenses for its 2023-24 fiscal year [8], and DBPR counted 35,667 active CPAs the same year [9]. The mortgage and accounting files do not carry the fields we need for a clean match, so I cannot tell you how many of those people also hold a 2-20. From the phone, it is a lot.

Two things in the table matter for a seller. First, in every county between a fifth and a third of the 2-20s are unappointed, which means the pool of active agents is smaller than the license count suggests, and the buyers who are active have a wide choice of books. Second, Flagler, Polk, Osceola and Lake run above 30% unappointed. Those are the counties where the side book is most common and where a clean, fixed-price exit gets the most attention from the sellers we talk to.

What the License Does and Does Not Do When You Sell

Start with the distinction the statutes make. Florida requires an agent to be "currently licensed by the department and appointed" to act as an agent at all (FS 626.112(1)(a)) [5]. The license is yours. The appointment belongs to the relationship with a carrier: the carrier renews it in your birth month every 24 months and pays $60 in fee and taxes (FS 626.381(1), 624.501(6)(a)) [10]. The carrier can end it at any time but owes you at least 60 days' written notice unless your contract says otherwise or the termination is for conduct that would justify license discipline, and you can end it whenever you like (FS 626.471) [11].

The book is the asset, not the license. When you sell, the accounts move to the buyer through agent-of-record letters carrier by carrier, and nothing in that process touches your license number. What happens to the license afterward is a separate decision, and there are three versions of it.

If you hold an agency license as well as your individual one, there is a fourth item. An agency owned and operated by a single licensed agent doing business in their own name, with no other licensees, is exempt from agency licensing (FS 626.112(7)(a)) [5]. Everyone else has an agency license with an agent in charge, and if the agency stops doing business for more than 30 days the agent in charge, or a director or officer listed on the application, has 35 days to cancel the license, notify the appointed insurers, tell policyholders where their policies went, notify any premium finance companies and pay out fiduciary funds (FS 626.173) [13]. If the agent in charge leaves and no replacement is designated, the agency license expires on its own on the 91st day (FS 626.0428(4)(f)) [14]. In a side-book sale the buyer's closing checklist should include these filings, because the seller has usually never had to do them.

What a Side Book Is Worth

A side book prices the same way any small book does, with one adjustment. Buyers pay for the renewal commission the accounts will produce after the seller is gone, so the starting point is twelve months of commission statements by carrier. On books under $100,000 in annual commission our framework runs 0.8 to 1.2 times that figure, paid once, at close. Where a book lands inside the range depends on retention, carrier mix, account age and loss history, and I walked through each of those in the valuation guide.

The adjustment is retention. A book that has been serviced between real estate closings for three years has clients who are used to voicemail. Some of them are already shopping. A buyer who takes that book on will lose more accounts in the first renewal cycle than they would from a full-time agency, and the price reflects it. The honest counterweight is that the same clients have been under-served on coverage, which means the buyer's first-year remarketing usually recovers revenue that a fully-worked book would not have left on the table. In our experience those two effects roughly offset on a book that is at least appointed and current. They do not offset on a book whose carriers have already sent non-renewal notices.

Carrier mix is the other lever. A book that is heavy in Citizens, the state-backed insurer of last resort, is priced on how much of it can be moved to private carriers during depopulation; I covered that arithmetic in the Citizens-heavy book guide. A side book of preferred-carrier homeowners policies in St. Johns County is a different animal from a Citizens-heavy book in Putnam, and the number should say so.

What a side book does not get is an earn-out. Under $500,000 in revenue there is not enough money in the deal to pay for the accounting, the disputes and the two years of tethering an earn-out requires, and the seller in this post has a day job. The price is one number, paid at close. If a seller prefers installments for tax reasons we will write a fixed-schedule note, but the amount does not move with retention. The reasons are in the earn-out post.

The two owners who reached us first this month were not retiring. One ran a real estate office, one had moved into another business, and each still carried a small P&C book that got serviced between other work. Neither asked about a producer contract or an earn-out. They asked for a number, a closing date and their evenings back.

— Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors

The Non-Solicit and Your Other Business

Every book sale includes a promise not to solicit the accounts you sold. Florida's restrictive-covenant statute is unusually specific about how far that promise can reach, and it favors sellers who keep the scope narrow.

The covenant has to be in writing and signed by you (FS 542.335(1)(a)). The buyer has to point to a legitimate business interest, and the statute names "substantial relationships with specific prospective or existing customers" and customer goodwill tied to a trade name, a location or a marketing area as two of them (FS 542.335(1)(b)). For a restraint against the seller of a business, the statute's rebuttable presumptions run that three years or less is reasonable and more than seven years is unreasonable (FS 542.335(1)(d)3.), and a court "shall not consider any individualized economic or other hardship" to the person bound when deciding whether to enforce it (FS 542.335(1)(g)) [7].

Read that last clause carefully. If you sign a covenant that reaches your real estate or tax clients, the fact that enforcing it would gut your other business is not a defense. So the covenant should say what it is for: the insurance accounts listed on the closing schedule, for a term of two to three years, and nothing else. A realtor keeps every listing and every buyer. A tax preparer keeps every return. The buyer gets the policies and the right to renew them, which is what they paid for.

One more line for the realtor and the lender. After you drop your appointments you may not solicit, negotiate or discuss coverage; that is licensed-and-appointed work (FS 626.112(1)(a)) [5]. Handing a buyer the new agent's number is not. Florida bars any licensee from paying an unlicensed person a referral fee that depends in any way on whether the referral results in a sale (FS 626.112(8)) [5], and the Department of Financial Services reads that to mean a referral fee, if there is one, is a small fixed amount per referral paid whether or not a policy is written [15]. If you keep the 2-20 without appointments you are neither unlicensed nor appointed, and the statute was not written with you in mind, so have the buyer's counsel confirm how any referral payment to you is structured before the first one is paid. The right shape for the relationship after closing is simpler than a fee: your clients get a local agent, and you get a phone number to give them.

The 90-Day Handoff When the Seller Has a Day Job

The mechanics are the same as any small book sale, and I detailed them in what happens to clients and staff. Three things run differently when the seller is part-time.

Client contact is the whole job. A full-time agency's clients know the agency; a side book's clients know one person's cell number. The first thirty days are a joint letter and a joint phone call to every account that matters, in the seller's voice, introducing the buyer. Retention is decided in that window, and it is the only thing the seller is asked to do.

The carriers do not care about your other career. Agent-of-record changes run carrier by carrier on each carrier's form. Some accept a batch letter; Citizens takes an individual form per policy. The buyer drives this, but the seller signs, and it has to happen while the seller's appointments are still active. Drop the appointments after the transfers clear, not before.

Your errors-and-omissions policy needs a decision. Agent E&O is written on a claims-made basis, meaning it covers claims reported while the policy is in force, not claims that arise from work you did while it was in force. If you cancel it the day you close, a client who alleges next year that you under-insured them in 2024 has no policy to claim against. Ask your E&O carrier about an extended reporting period, the option to report claims after cancellation, before you cancel anything.

Sixty to ninety days from signed offer to the last handoff call is the normal run. After that the seller's involvement is a forwarding number.

I am not saying every side book should be sold. If yours is appointed, current on CE, renewing at 90% and you still enjoy the calls, keep it; a small book that renews is a good annuity and the license cost you real work to get. This post is for the owner whose book has become a chore, whose CE deadline is a surprise every other year, and whose clients deserve someone who answers the phone. The book is the asset. Sell it like one.

Florida-Specific Considerations

• FS 626.112(1)(a) — no one may act as, or hold themselves out as, an insurance agent unless "currently licensed by the department and appointed" [5].
• FS 626.431 — once an appointment expires the agent has no authority it conferred; an agent who fails to hold an appointment in any 48-month period is not granted a new appointment in that class until requalifying as a first-time applicant [4].
• FS 626.7315 — a person not licensed as a general lines agent may not solicit insurance, receive premiums or represent themselves as an insurer's agent; this is the section that applies once the license itself is gone [6].
• FS 626.753(1)(b) — renewal and deferred commissions may be paid to a person who has ceased to hold a license [3].
• FS 626.2815 — 20 to 24 hours of continuing education every two years depending on years licensed; compliance is a condition precedent to issuing, continuing, reinstating or renewing any appointment [12].
• FS 626.0428(4) and 626.173 — agent-in-charge requirement and the 35-day closing procedure for an agency that stops doing business [13][14].
• FS 542.335 — restrictive covenants: writing, legitimate business interest, the three-year and seven-year presumptions for sellers of a business [7].
• FS 626.112(7)(a) and (8) — the single-agent exemption from agency licensing, and the bar on paying unlicensed persons sale-contingent referral fees [5].

Your 7-Step Timeline

FAQ for the Owner With Two Licenses

Q: Can I sell my insurance book and keep my real estate license?

A: Yes. The two licenses answer to different regulators, DBPR for real estate and DFS for insurance, and neither one is affected by selling client accounts. The only document that reaches your real estate work is the non-solicit, and it should be scoped to the insurance accounts you sold.

Q: Do I have to keep my 2-20 after I sell?

A: No. You can keep it appointed, keep it unappointed, or stop maintaining it. Unappointed, you may not sell or service insurance, and after 48 months without an appointment you lose eligibility to be appointed in that class until you requalify as a first-time applicant (FS 626.431(2)-(3)).

Q: Will I still be paid commissions I already earned if I let the license go?

A: Florida law says the commission-sharing rules do not prevent payment of renewal or deferred commissions to someone solely because they have stopped holding a license (FS 626.753(1)(b)). In a book sale the buyer pays a fixed price instead, so this mostly matters to owners who keep the book and stop working it.

Q: How long can the non-compete run?

A: For the seller of a business, Florida's rebuttable presumptions are that three years or less is reasonable and more than seven years is unreasonable (FS 542.335(1)(d)3.). Two to three years, limited to the accounts sold, is the normal term on a small book.

Q: What is a side book worth?

A: Under $100,000 in annual commission, our framework runs 0.8 to 1.2 times annual commission, paid at close. Retention history, carrier mix and whether the book is appointed and current move it inside that range.

Q: Can I refer my real estate or mortgage clients to the buyer afterward?

A: You may hand a client the new agent's number, but you may not solicit or discuss coverage without an appointment (FS 626.112(1)(a)). Florida bars referral fees to unlicensed persons that depend on whether a sale results (FS 626.112(8)), and DFS reads that as a small fixed fee per referral at most; have the buyer's counsel confirm how any payment to a licensed-but-unappointed referrer is structured.

Q: I have an agency license too. What happens to it?

A: If the agency stops doing business for more than 30 days, the agent in charge (or a listed director or officer) has 35 days to cancel the license with DFS, notify the appointed insurers, policyholders and any premium finance companies, and pay out fiduciary funds (FS 626.173). A buyer who has done this before will put it on the closing checklist.

Q: Is there an earn-out?

A: Not on a book under $500,000 in revenue. The price is fixed and paid at close; if you want installments, it is a fixed-schedule note, not a number that moves with retention.

Related Reading

• Selling Your Florida Insurance Agency Because You're Done, Not Retiring: The 2026 Career-Change Seller's Guide — the full guide for the owner who moved on.
• Earn-Outs, Seller Notes, or a Fixed Price: How a Small Florida Insurance Agency Sale Gets Paid in 2026 — why the small-book price is one number at close.
• Selling an Insurance Agency in Jacksonville or North Florida: The 2026 Local Owner's Guide — the North Florida market, county by county.
• What Is a Florida Insurance Agency Actually Worth? A Buyer's 2026 Valuation Guide — the framework behind the multiples above.

How Atesa Risk Advisors Can Help

We buy small property-and-casualty books in North and Central Florida, and most of the owners who sell to us are not retiring. They hold a 2-20 and run something else now. We price the book from twelve months of commission statements, give one fixed number paid at close, and run the 90-day handoff so the seller's clients land with a local independent agency instead of a service center. The non-solicit covers the accounts sold and nothing else.

If you want a number before you decide anything, our agency valuation tool returns a range from your policy count and renewal commission, and it asks why you are selling because the answer changes how we structure the handoff.

Ready to find out what the side book is worth? Get your free valuation and consultation at atesariskadvisors.com/get-quote or call (904) 900-5063.

Sources

[1] Florida Department of Financial Services, Licensee Search: Bulk Downloads (all valid individual licenses and active appointment files, dated September 3, 2026)

[2] Florida DBPR, Division of Real Estate: Public Records, Licensees by County (files dated September 3, 2026) and FREC Division Report, January 2026 (December 2025 counts)

[3] Florida Statutes § 626.753, Sharing of commissions

[4] Florida Statutes § 626.431, Effect of expiration of license and appointment

[5] Florida Statutes § 626.112, License and appointment required; agents, customer representatives, adjusters, insurance agencies

[6] Florida Statutes § 626.7315, Prohibition against the unlicensed transaction of general lines insurance

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

[8] Florida Office of Financial Regulation, Consumer Finance Licensing Statistics (Registration Statistics FY 2023-2024)

[9] Florida DBPR, Division Annual Report FY 2023-24, Table 1

[10] Florida Statutes § 626.381, Renewal, continuation, reinstatement, or termination of appointment and § 624.501, Filing, license, appointment, and miscellaneous fees

[11] Florida Statutes § 626.471, Termination of appointment

[12] Florida Statutes § 626.2815, Continuing education requirements

[13] Florida Statutes § 626.173, Insurance agency closure; cancellation of license and Florida DFS, Closing an Insurance Agency

[14] Florida Statutes § 626.0428, Agency personnel powers, duties, and limitations

[15] Florida Department of Financial Services, Compliance Information for General Lines Agents and Customer Representatives (Referrals)

[16] Florida Statutes § 626.732, Requirement as to knowledge, experience, or instruction (general lines agents)

External Resources for the owner with two licenses:

• Florida DFS Licensee Search — check your license status, appointments and continuing-education due date
• Florida DBPR License Verification — real estate and CPA license status
• Florida Office of Financial Regulation — mortgage loan originator licensing

Ricardo Alonso is the Founder of Atesa Risk Advisors, a Florida independent insurance agency. 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 works directly with owners who have moved into other careers.

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 Florida Statutes 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. Consult a licensed Florida attorney before signing a purchase agreement or restrictive covenant.