SIC Code Lookup

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system is a numeric coding system established by the U.S. government in 1937 to classify industries by their primary business activity. SIC codes use a four-digit structure organized into divisions (identified by letter ranges), major groups (two-digit codes), industry groups (three-digit codes), and specific industries (four-digit codes).

Although the NAICS system officially replaced SIC in 1997, SIC codes remain widely used in insurance, banking, securities regulation, and government contracting. The SEC, OSHA, and many state insurance regulators still require SIC codes on filings and reports. Many insurance carrier systems and rating algorithms continue to use SIC codes as a primary or secondary classification method.

The SIC system organizes all economic activity into 10 major divisions: Agriculture (A), Mining (B), Construction (C), Manufacturing (D), Transportation and Public Utilities (E), Wholesale Trade (F), Retail Trade (G), Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (H), Services (I), and Public Administration (J).

In the insurance industry, SIC codes serve as a fundamental building block for risk classification. When submitting a commercial account to a carrier, the SIC code communicates the nature of the insured business quickly and precisely. Underwriters use SIC codes to determine whether a risk falls within their appetite, to look up industry-specific loss data, and to apply the correct rating factors.

For insurance agencies using Applied Epic or similar management systems, maintaining accurate SIC codes at the client level improves data quality across the entire workflow. Accurate SIC coding enables better book-of-business analysis, more targeted marketing campaigns by industry vertical, and more efficient carrier submissions. It also supports compliance with state surplus lines filings and federal reporting requirements.

The insurance industry itself is classified under SIC Division H: code 6311 covers Life Insurance carriers, 6331 covers Fire, Marine and Casualty Insurance, and 6411 covers Insurance Agents, Brokers, and Service companies. Understanding where your own agency and your clients fall in the SIC hierarchy is essential for accurate data management and reporting.

The answer depends on the carrier and the use case. Many insurance carriers accept both SIC and NAICS codes, but some legacy systems only support SIC. State regulatory filings may require one or the other depending on the jurisdiction. As a best practice, agencies should capture both SIC and NAICS codes for every commercial client.

NAICS provides more granular classification for service industries, technology companies, and newer economic sectors that didn't exist when SIC was last updated. If you need to distinguish between different types of technology companies or healthcare providers, NAICS is typically more precise. For traditional manufacturing, retail, and construction businesses, SIC codes remain perfectly adequate.

Cross-reference tables between SIC and NAICS are published by the U.S. Census Bureau, making it straightforward to map between the two systems. Many agency management systems including Applied Epic support both classification systems simultaneously.