Timing and Your License Application

One of my clients just received his Pennsylvania licenses last week. He has separate licenses for 1st and 2nd mortgages and a main Pennsylvania office and a branch office in another state where his company is headquartered. This week, he received the paperwork for his renewal licenses. He asked me if he needed to bother with a renewal since he just had received his licenses. Unfortunately, I had to tell him that his licenses would expire on June 30th and if he didn't renew, he would not have any Pennsylvania licenses when they expired.

No one has any control over how long it will take the banking departments to review and approve a license application. Sometimes, you get lucky and your new license is approved just after all the renewals were processed. So your license is good for the maximum number of months. Or you've applied in one of the states, like California or Virginia, where the licenses never expire. But, in most states, you can only hope that the approval will be given long before the license period runs out before you have to renew.

I also caution my clients not to submit license applications during renewal season (which varies by state). When it is renewal season, most of the reviewers are concentrating on the renewal applications and the new applications sit unnoticed. I urge them to wait a few weeks so that the application and license fees are still in their bank accounts, not in the Banking Department accounts, just gathering interest for someone else.

Check with a licensing expert before you make a timing mistake.