What is an NPN (National Producer Number)?

An NPN is a unique identification number assigned to every licensed insurance producer through the national licensing system run by the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR). It stays with the agent for their entire career, across every state they are licensed in, which makes it the fastest way to look up any agent and confirm they actually hold an active license.

How do I check if an insurance agent is legit?

Ask for their full name and NPN, then run a free lookup at nipr.com or sircon.com, or search your state insurance department's license database, which you can find through naic.org. Confirm four things: the name matches the person you are talking to, the license status is active, they are licensed in your state, and they are licensed for health insurance lines. A legitimate agent will hand over their NPN without hesitation.

Where do I look up an insurance agent's license?

The two national lookup tools are nipr.com (the National Insurance Producer Registry) and sircon.com. Both are free and take about a minute. You can also verify directly with your state insurance department; the NAIC keeps a directory of every state department at naic.org. If the national tools and your state database disagree, treat the state database as the authority.

What are the red flags of a fake or shady insurance agent?

The big ones: they will not give you their NPN or full name, they pressure you to enroll on the same call, they refuse to put the benefits in writing before you pay, they ask you to send payment to a personal account or payment app instead of to the insurance carrier, or they cannot tell you plainly which carrier the policy is with. Any one of these is reason to stop and verify. Two or more is reason to hang up.

Why might the person calling me not be licensed in my state?

Many quote websites sell your contact information to call centers and agents around the country. The person who calls may be licensed somewhere, or nowhere, but selling insurance to you generally requires a license in your state. That is exactly what an NPN lookup checks: not just that a license exists, but that it is active in the state where you live.

How to verify a health insurance agent's license before you say a word.

Anyone can sound licensed on the phone. The good news: every real insurance agent in the country has a public ID number you can check for free in about a minute. Here is how, plus the red flags that mean you should hang up.

Reviewed by Anthony Galdorise (NPN 22105245) and Felipe Clavo (NPN 21239783), independent licensed health insurance advisors partnered with HealthClarity. Last updated July 2026. General educational information, not insurance advice.

What an NPN actually is

The National Producer Number, or NPN, is a unique ID assigned to every licensed insurance producer through the national licensing system run by the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR). Think of it as a license plate for insurance agents: one number, issued once, that follows them for their entire career and across every state where they hold a license.

Because the NPN is national and permanent, it is the single fastest way to check anyone selling insurance. An agent cannot make one up that survives a lookup, cannot borrow someone else's without the name mismatching, and cannot hide a lapsed or revoked license behind it. Which is why the first question to ask anyone who calls you about health insurance is simple: "What is your full name and NPN?"

How to run the lookup, step by step

Option 1: nipr.com (the national registry)

Go to nipr.com and find the license lookup tool.
Search by NPN if the agent gave you one, or by full name and state if not.
Open the record and check it against the person you are talking to.

Option 2: sircon.com

Sircon.com offers a similar producer lookup and pulls from the same state licensing data. Some people find its search easier; use whichever you like. Both are free.

Option 3: your state insurance department

Every state insurance department maintains its own license database, and it is the final authority on who is licensed in your state. You can find your state's department through the NAIC directory at naic.org. If a national tool and your state database ever disagree, trust the state.

What to confirm, whichever tool you use

The name matches. The record should show the same first and last name as the person you are talking to. "That's my manager's number" is not a match.
The license is active. Not expired, not lapsed, not revoked. Status should say active in plain terms.
They are licensed in YOUR state. An active license in another state does not authorize them to sell to you. Check the state list on the record.
They are licensed for health insurance lines. Licenses are issued by line of authority. Someone licensed only for auto or life may not be authorized to sell you a health plan.

The whole check takes about a minute. Any legitimate agent will happily wait while you do it, because they have nothing to hide and they know the shady ones do.

Red flags that mean stop

They will not give you their NPN. There is no legitimate reason to withhold it. It is public information about a public license.
Pressure to sign the same day. "This rate disappears tonight" is a sales tactic, not how insurance pricing works. A real plan will still exist tomorrow, after you have verified the person selling it.
They will not put the benefits in writing. Before you pay anything, you should be able to see the actual benefit schedule, not a verbal summary of a brochure.
Payment to a personal account. Premiums go to the insurance carrier, or occasionally to an administrator named in your paperwork. Never to an individual's bank account, Venmo, Zelle, or gift cards. That one is not a gray area.
They cannot say which carrier the policy is with. "It's through a network of top-rated carriers" is not an answer. You should hear a specific company name you can look up, and it should match your documents.

One red flag means slow down and verify. Two or more means hang up. And if someone claims to be from the government or from the marketplace itself, remember the official channels are healthcare.gov for marketplace plans and medicare.gov for Medicare. Neither cold-calls you to sell plans.

Why this matters more than it used to

Most health insurance quote websites are lead aggregators: you type in your phone number, and they sell it to call centers and agents around the country. Within minutes, your phone lights up with people you have never heard of, calling from numbers you do not recognize, all claiming to be "your agent."

Here is the part most people miss: the person calling may not be licensed in your state at all. Leads get sold and resold with no licensing check attached. Selling insurance to you generally requires a license in your state, and the only way to know the caller has one is to run the lookup yourself. The NPN check is not paranoia. It is the minimum.

Hold us to the same standard

HealthClarity is not a licensed insurance carrier or agency. We are a transparency platform that connects you with exactly one independent licensed advisor, and we publish our advisors' NPNs in the open, on purpose, so you can verify them before you ever talk to anyone:

Anthony Galdorise, NPN 22105245
Felipe Clavo, NPN 21239783

Go ahead and look them up at nipr.com right now. Then demand the same from anyone else who wants to sell you insurance. If they publish their number, verify it. If they hide it, that told you what you needed to know.

Want a price before you talk to anyone?

Verification is step two. Step one is knowing roughly what coverage should cost, so nobody can quote you fantasy numbers. Our free estimator shows a ballpark monthly price for private coverage with no email and no phone number required. Whether a marketplace plan, an employer plan, Medicare, or private coverage ends up being your best fit, walking in with a real number keeps everyone honest.

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