N.J. Stat. § 17:49-1
No person, partnership, or unincorporated association of persons shall engage in the business of insurance in this State except as agent of a person, association, or corporation authorized to do the business of insurance in this State, unless possessed of unencumbered assets in excess of his or their liabilities in a sum equal to the capital stock and surplus required of an insurance corporation of this State organized upon the stock plan, doing the same kind of business, and invested in the same manner; nor unless he or they shall have deposited with the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance securities of the same character and amount required of an insurance company organized upon the stock plan doing business in this State, nor unless the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance shall have granted to him or them a certificate to the effect that he or they have complied with all the provisions of law which an insurance corporation of this State is required to observe, and that the business of insurance specified therein may be safely intrusted to the person, partnership or association to whom the certificate is granted.
N.J.S. § 17:49-1