If you hold a Louisiana residential license and you’re still carrying $100,000 in general liability, you’re out of compliance. Act 757 raised the floor to $500,000, and it’s been effective since the governor signed it on June 2.
The 2026 legislative session produced the biggest rewrite of Louisiana’s contractor licensing framework in years, centered on Senate Bill 326, known as Act 757, with a related adjuster transparency provision under Act 372 that took effect August 1. Kean Miller attorneys Trippe Hawthorne and Crystal Burkhalter laid out the changes in a four-part series.
Insurance minimums and the end of assignment of benefits
The fivefold insurance increase applies to residential, mold remediation and home improvement contractors. Licensees must show proof of coverage for at least six months covering all licensed scopes. Commercial contractors still face no statutory insurance requirement.
The second change is bigger for anyone in restoration work. The act declares void any assignment of post-loss insurance benefits under residential or commercial property policies. Contractors can no longer take an assignment of insurance proceeds as payment or security. Firms built around AOB arrangements have to restructure how they get paid, not adjust a clause.
Alongside it, a list of newly prohibited conduct: interpreting insurance policies for clients, adjusting claims, providing work agreements without good-faith cost estimates, sharing legal fees with attorneys, and advertising as an insurance claims specialist.
The enforcement side has more teeth
New grounds for discipline include failing to pay for materials or services after receiving client funds for that purpose, material misrepresentations in permit applications, and damaging property to induce an owner to sign a contract.
Penalties now reach 10% of total contract value, or $10,000 where the value can’t be determined, and the board can recover its administrative costs and attorney fees. The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors is also exempt from standard disciplinary timeline limits, and its investigation documents are shielded from public records requests until a matter reaches hearing. Appeals go to the 19th Judicial District Court within 30 days.
One procedural change will bite someone: licensees must keep a current email address on file, because that’s how the board sends official correspondence now. A stale address means missed notices.
The direction of travel
The session consolidated authority, too. The State Plumbing Board was abolished and plumbing licensing moved to the LSLBC. Not everything favored regulators. Act 939 limits licensing boards’ ability to recover attorney fees in certain disciplinary proceedings.
Louisiana isn’t alone. State licensing regimes are tightening across the Gulf and Southeast, usually after a storm cycle exposes how much roofing and restoration work runs through thin capitalization and assigned claims. The insurance floor is the part contractors can fix this week. Call the carrier; don’t wait for renewal.