Licenses accumulate. Reviewing them rarely happens until a renewal notice arrives, which is the worst moment to think about it.
The carrying cost
Renewal fees vary enormously — Missouri renews at 8, Illinois at 0 a year, California at 00 biennially, Washington at 47 plus surcharges. On top of that sits state-mandated CME, which is real time, and the administrative load of tracking cycles that do not align.
What changes under a compact
A license in a member state stops being worth one state. It becomes the qualifying license for privileges across the membership, which makes it worth considerably more than its renewal fee suggests — and worth more than a license of equal cost in a non-member state.
So the instinct to prune the license you are not currently using may be exactly wrong if that license is in a member state and your others are not.
A workable rule
Keep any license in a compact member state, particularly if it is your only one. Keep licenses in large markets you might plausibly return to. Keep cheap licenses almost regardless — at 8 a year, the option value beats the saving.
Consider dropping expensive licenses in non-member states you have no realistic plan to work in, where reinstatement remains available if you are wrong.
Before you drop anything
Check the reinstatement rules. Most states treat a short lapse as administrative and a long one as a fresh application. The cliff is commonly around two years, and crossing it converts a cheap decision into an expensive one.
And prefer inactive status where it exists. It is cheaper to hold than active and far cheaper to return from than lapsed.
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