ThesisOctober 9, 2026 2 min read By api.insure

The state reserves a few acts. Everything else is software.

Most of a claim is information work. The decision is reserved to a licensed adjuster. An API should treat that line as a contract, not a dead end.

In short

Insurance law reserves a short list of acts to licensed people: adjusting and settling a claim, and selling, negotiating and binding coverage. Everything around them, from intake to estimate review, is open work software can do. api.insure runs the open work at API speed and routes each reserved act to a licensed professional, returning a typed state while it waits.

A homeowner's roof takes wind and hail on a Tuesday. By Wednesday the claim exists, and a long list of work begins: take the first notice of loss, acknowledge it on the record, gather photos and the roofer's estimate, match the policy forms to the peril, and check the estimate's line items against the photos.

None of that work requires a license. All of it is information work, and software already does it well.

Then the file reaches one act that is different. Someone has to decide the claim.

The line the state draws

Every state reserves a few acts to licensed professionals. On the claims side, a licensed adjuster investigates, adjusts and settles. On the coverage side, a licensed producer sells, solicits, negotiates and binds. The list is short, and it is drawn per state and per line of authority.

Everything else is open:

intake and acknowledgment
file assembly and document prep
coverage reads and estimate review
quote math and renewal watch

Why software stops short today

When a product's workflow reaches a reserved act, it usually ends. The file is exported, emailed to a claims shop, or uploaded to a portal. The product loses the thread, the customer waits, and nobody owns the statutory clock that started at first notice.

The other option is worse: let the software decide anyway. That is not a bug ticket. It is unlicensed adjusting, with the product's name on the complaint.

The line as a contract

api.insure treats the reserved act as a typed step in the API. Your agent calls POST /claims and the open work runs. When the next act is reserved, the claim answers PENDING_ADJUSTER and names the license that act requires:

json

{  "claim": "clm_8f3ka92",  "status": "PENDING_ADJUSTER",  "reservedAct": {    "verb": "adjust",    "license": "TX all-lines adjuster",    "verified": "at_call_time"  }}

A licensed adjuster on the network reviews the prepared file under authority the carrier delegates, and decides in their own judgment. The decision and the adjuster's attestation come back on decision.issued, and the payment record on claim.paid.

Coverage runs the same way. Rating is open work and answers at once. Offering and binding are producer-reserved: a bind answers PENDING_PRODUCER until a licensed producer binds, and policy.bound brings back the policy number.

What this changes

The product keeps the thread from first notice to payment. The agent does the work it can do at API speed, and stops exactly where the state says to. And the person who decides is licensed for the state and line, verified at the moment of the act.

Questions

Which acts does insurance law reserve to licensed people?

On the claims side, investigating, adjusting and settling a claim are reserved to a licensed adjuster. On the coverage side, selling, soliciting, negotiating and binding are reserved to a licensed producer. The list is drawn per state and line of authority.