Arkansas Adjuster Insurance Exam Guide 2026

What This License Is

An Arkansas adjuster license lets you investigate and negotiate the settlement of claims arising under insurance contracts. It is issued by the Arkansas Insurance Department (AID).

The governing law is Ark. Code Ann. Title 23, chapter 64, subchapter 2 — principally § 23-64-209 (qualifications) and § 23-64-210 (entities), with the definition and its exclusions in § 23-64-102(4).

§ 23-64-102(4)(A) supplies the definition: an adjuster is one who *"for compensation as an independent contractor or as the employee of an independent contractor or for fee or commission investigates and negotiates, on behalf of the insurer, settlement of claims arising under insurance contracts."* Those four bolded words do a great deal of work — they are the textual reason Arkansas has no public adjuster license at all.

Arkansas has three lines of authority. § 23-64-209(a): the Commissioner issues the license *"for property insurance, or for casualty insurance, or for workers' compensation insurance, or for any combination thereof."* You choose your lines, complete prelicensing for each, and test for each. Business entities may be licensed where every individual exercising the license powers is named and separately qualified.

Alongside the main license, AID administers a separate Crop Adjuster class ($50, no examination, exempt from continuing education) and a limited adjusters' license under § 23-64-102(4)(E) for sponsored employees of self-insured entities, valid only during that employment.

Workers' compensation is a separate line — this is the most expensive mistake in Arkansas

National adjuster courses teach that a property and casualty license covers everything, workers' compensation included. **In Arkansas it does not.** § 23-64-209(a) makes workers' compensation a coordinate third line of authority with its own 20-hour prelicensing course and its own examination. An adjuster holding only Property and Casualty in Arkansas is **not licensed to adjust Arkansas workers' compensation claims.** The trap has a second layer: because the Workers' Compensation Commission issues no adjuster credential of its own, material that goes looking for a separate WC credential concludes Arkansas has none — and misses the licensing split, which is the requirement that actually binds.

Who Does Not Need a License

Arkansas does not write its exemptions as a standalone list. It carves them out of the definition in § 23-64-102(4)(B)–(F), which is why they are easy to miss.

Attorneys — (4)(B): *"A licensed attorney at law who is qualified to practice law in this state."* Read it closely. The exemption reaches an attorney qualified to practice in Arkansas; an out-of-state attorney is not covered.

Salaried employees — (4)(C): *"A salaried employee of an insurer or of a managing general agent or of any adjustment bureau or association owned and maintained by insurers to adjust … losses of member insurers."* This is the company adjuster exemption, and it means Arkansas does not license company adjusters. But the word *salaried* is in the statute — an hourly, commission-paid, or contract claims employee is not squarely inside it.

Agents and marine average adjusters — (4)(D): a resident agent, marine average adjuster, or an agent or broker adjusting losses under policies issued by the insurer that appointed the agent.

Portable electronics claims support — (4)(F): supervised persons who collect claim information, furnish it to claimants, and do data entry into automated claims-adjudication systems for portable electronics insurance — provided one licensed adjuster or agent supervises no more than twenty-five (25) such persons.

The sixth carve-out lives in a different section entirely — the catastrophe provision at § 23-64-209(d), covered below. Anyone working from § 23-64-102 alone will miss it.

Public Adjusting Is Prohibited in Arkansas

Most states license public adjusters — the adjuster who represents the insured rather than the insurer — under a separate credential with a bond, a filed contract, and a capped fee. Arkansas does not, and the reason is worth understanding, because it goes further than a simple absence.

Three provisions combine. § 23-64-102(4)(A) defines an adjuster only as one who investigates and negotiates *"on behalf of the insurer."* § 23-64-201(c) provides that *"no person may adjust claims as an adjuster without licensure under this chapter."* And no public adjuster subchapter exists anywhere in chapter 64. Adjusting on behalf of an insured therefore requires a license that Arkansas does not issue — which makes it not merely unlicensed activity but prohibited activity.

AID says so directly on its Licensing page: *"Public adjusters are prohibited from adjusting claims in Arkansas."* And the Department enforces it as a practice-of-law matter. Its June 2024 report to the Arkansas Legislative Council records: *"The Department received one complaint for public adjusting and that was referred to the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law."*

Arkansas does license insurance consultants under § 23-64-102(5), but that credential does not authorize claim-specific settlement negotiation on an insured's behalf.

Every public adjuster figure you memorized is inapplicable here

The NAIC Public Adjuster Model Act numbers that travel through national courses — the $20,000 bond, the 10% or 15% compensation cap, the three-day right to rescind, the contract-filing requirement, the first-party-physical-damage-only scope limit — have **no Arkansas counterpart whatsoever**, because Arkansas has no public adjuster statute to hang them on. If a practice question asks you for Arkansas's public adjuster fee cap, the answer is that there is no such license.

Eligibility Requirements

Age — § 23-64-209(b)(1): *"Must be of the legal age of majority, or have had the disabilities of minority removed for all general purposes and provide evidence of same."* Arkansas's age of majority is 18.

Character — § 23-64-209(b)(3): *"Must be deemed by the commissioner to be competent, trustworthy, financially responsible, and of good personal and business reputation."*

Residency is a conditional test — § 23-64-209(b)(2): an applicant *"must be a resident of this state or licensed by another state that permits residents of this state to act as adjusters in the other state."* That is retaliatory reciprocity, not an open door — your home state has to let Arkansans work there. Subparagraph (B) adds that a nonresident cannot be licensed here *"unless the person is licensed as an adjuster in another state."*

Designated Home State: Arkansas issues one. But note the catch — if you designate Arkansas as your DHS, the Arkansas examination is required, because the nonresident reciprocity waiver only operates where another state has certified your qualification.

Background check — required, through the state system at `cbc-enterprise.ark.org/aid`. Arkansas operates both a name-based Arkansas State Police check and a fingerprint-based national check, and no AID rule, bulletin, or instruction sheet specifies which one adjuster applicants must take. Confirm with AID Licensing rather than budgeting from a third-party figure.

Office and records — § 23-64-209(b)(4): a licensee *"must have and maintain in this state an office accessible to the public and keep therein the usual and customary records pertaining to transactions under the license."* A home office is expressly permitted, and a licensed nonresident adjuster is not required to maintain an office in this state.

An ongoing duty people miss — § 23-64-201(e): licensees and applicants must notify the Commissioner in writing within thirty (30) days of any criminal charge, conviction, or plea — and of any bankruptcy filing. Failure may result in immediate suspension.

The one-year experience requirement was repealed. Almost every prep site still publishes it.

You will read that Arkansas requires one year of claims experience, or a year working under an Arkansas-licensed adjuster's supervision. **It does not, and has not for over a decade.** § 23-64-209(b)(3) read *"[Repealed.]"* in the 2016 and 2017 Code editions and now contains only the trustworthiness standard. NIPR states it flatly: Arkansas *"no longer requires proof of 12 months of experience or proof of a 12 months apprenticeship under a licensed adjuster."* Two footnotes worth knowing. First, even before repeal the statute required experience *"of sufficient duration and extent"* — it **never** specified one year; that number came from an AID application form. Second, AID still has a legacy Adjuster Affidavit posted whose attestations reference the old requirement, which is very likely why the misinformation persists. The statute controls.

Prelicensing Education — 20 Hours Per Line

Arkansas requires prelicensing education for adjusters. The authority is AID Rule 31, "Pre-License Education for Insurance Producers and Adjusters," effective February 14, 2022. Its scope provision, § 3.a.1.A, reaches *"All applicants seeking a license as an insurance adjuster,"* and § 3.a.1.E extends it to out-of-state applicants seeking *"any new resident or nonresident producer or adjuster license."*

The requirement is 20 hours per line of authority. Seeking two lines means 40 hours. Each 20-hour curriculum is prescribed in Rule 31 §§ 5.a.6–5.a.8 and includes, in every case, 5 hours of State Insurance Law and Rules, 2 hours of Unfair Claims Settlement Practices, and 1 hour of Ethics, with the balance in insurance concepts, adjusting definitions, and Arkansas line-specific adjusting practice.

There is no General Adjuster prelicensing course — Rule 31 prescribes curricula only for Property, Casualty, and Workers' Compensation.

Timing: the hours *"must be completed prior to the date of the licensing examination."* The 5-hour state law and 1-hour ethics components may be skipped if completed within the two years before application.

Two exemptions, and they are broad. Rule 31 § 3.b.4 exempts *"Applicants for an adjuster license holding a current certification issued by a national or state claims association that is a continuing education provider approved by the Commissioner."* Rule 31 § 3.b.3 separately exempts an adjuster licensed in good standing in another state under the Producer License Model Act who relocates to Arkansas. These exemptions are almost certainly why so many secondary sources report that Arkansas requires no prelicensing at all.

PSI will not stop you sitting the exam without the course — AID will stop your application

This is a genuine sequencing trap, and it costs people a testing cycle. Rule 31 directs that the completion certificate *"must be presented by the student to the exam vendor at the time the candidate is scheduled to sit for the exam."* But PSI's Arkansas bulletin lists prelicensing as required for exactly **five exams — Life; Accident, Health, Sickness; Casualty; Property; and Personal Lines — and no adjuster exam appears on that list.** At the test center you need only one form of identification. So a candidate who skips the course **can lawfully sit and pass the adjuster exam, and then be blocked at the AID application stage.** Take the course first. AID actively approves adjuster prelicensing providers and publishes all three curricula, so the requirement is live regardless of what the vendor collects at the door.

The PSI Examinations

PSI administers Arkansas's insurance examinations. The current candidate bulletin is revision 6/18/2025 and lives on PSI's site; the candidate portal is `test-takers.psiexams.com/arins`.

There are four adjuster examinations: General Adjuster, Property Adjuster, Casualty Adjuster, and Worker's Compensation Adjuster. Each runs 90 minutes and costs $40. The bulletin notes that *"any three Adjuster exams can be taken together."*

Plan on the General Adjuster exam plus a line exam. The examination content outlines make the structure clear: General Adjuster covers General Insurance Definitions, the Arkansas Insurance Commissioner and licensing, Unfair Trade Practices, and General Adjusting Practices — while the Property and Casualty outlines cover only line-specific definitions, coverages, and adjusting practice, and contain no Arkansas law, licensing, or unfair trade practices content at all. The two are complementary rather than overlapping. Note that Arkansas has never published this pairing as an explicit rule, and "General Adjuster" is not itself a line of authority — the license issues in Property, Casualty, or Workers' Compensation. If your budget is tight, confirm your exam combination with AID Licensing before you register.

The exams are short, which raises the stakes per question. Each carries 25 scored questions, confirmed from PSI's content outlines for General, Property, and Casualty. PSI does not publish a content outline for the Workers' Compensation Adjuster exam, so treat its length as unconfirmed. Candidates also see 5 to 10 unscored experimental questions on top of the scored items.

Your examination permit is valid 90 days and allows three attempts — and unusually, that rule sits in the statute as well as the handbook. § 23-64-209 provides that the permit *"will be valid for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of issuance"* and that after three failures *"the commissioner may require a waiting period of four (4) weeks before reexamination."* PSI states the four-week wait as mandatory. You also cannot book a retake on the same day you tested.

Remote proctoring is available, with one restriction worth planning around: *"Breaks are NOT allowed during remote online proctored examinations."*

70% here is a real percentage — you can actually count your practice answers

Many states report a scaled score that looks like a percentage but is not, which makes practice-test arithmetic meaningless. **Arkansas is not one of them.** PSI's bulletin says plainly: *"You must get 70% correct to pass,"* every content outline header reads *"90 minutes - 70%,"* and no scaled-scoring language appears anywhere in the bulletin or the outlines. With 25 scored questions, **70% means 18 of 25 correct — you can miss seven.** That also means a couple of careless errors on a 25-question form is a meaningful fraction of your margin, so treat the General exam's law-and-regulation material and your line exam's coverage material as two separate study blocks.

Fees, Renewal, and Continuing Education

Fees. The resident application is $55 through NIPR. Renewal is $120 biennially — AID's published schedule shows $140 where a continuing education filing fee applies — and nonresident adjuster licensing is $120. A late renewal costs $240, which tracks § 23-64-215's requirement of *"a penalty in the amount of double the unpaid continuation of license fee."* Crop Adjuster is a separate $50 class. *(A note for anyone reading the statute: § 23-61-401 still lists an adjuster's license at $25 per year, well below what AID actually charges. The statute delegates collection to rule; publish and budget from AID's schedule.)*

Your license expires on your BIRTH DATE, every two years. AID Rule 50 § 4.B is explicit for licensees issued in 2011 and later: renewal periods *"will not be based on birth year. The initial license will be issued for a two-year period and renewed biennially on the licensee's birth date."* Not the birth month, not a fixed calendar date, not the license anniversary. The odd/even birth-year language still printed in Rule 50 is leftover transitional text from the 2011–2012 conversion.

There is no grace period. AID states it flatly: *"There is no grace period — renewal fees are due on the expiration date of the license."* Miss the date and the fee doubles.

But you have twelve months to reinstate without retesting. § 23-64-215: *"A licensee who allows his or her license to lapse may reinstate the license within twelve (12) months after the due date of the continuation of license fee without the necessity of passing a written examination."* Beyond twelve months, you retest. Read the two rules together: there is no *free* grace period, but there is a paid one-year runway.

Continuing education is 24 hours every two years, including 3 hours of ethics. AID Rule 50 § 4.A.2 requires *"a minimum of twenty-four (24) hours of continuing education instruction approved by the Commissioner, which must include three (3) hours of ethics in each two year license renewal cycle,"* and § 23-64-209 says the same. Ethics is the only named subrequirement — Arkansas has no separate state-law-update hour. Rule 50 § 4.G bars repeating a course for credit within a two-year period, and late CE reporting draws $25 to $150 in penalty fees.

There is no appointment to maintain. § 23-64-219, the appointment statute, is written for insurance producers. Nothing in the adjuster provisions requires an insurer appointment.

The nonresident CE exemption is a three-part test, not a blanket pass

Rule 50 § 4.A.2 exempts an adjuster where: *"a. An adjuster that is licensed in another state; b. The licensing state **requires** continuing education; **and** c. The adjuster has satisfied the continuing education requirements of the licensing state or designated home state."* Note the **and**. All three must hold. **A nonresident whose home state imposes no CE requirement at all is not exempt** — the second element fails, and Arkansas CE is owed. Crop Adjusters, separately, are exempt from CE entirely.

Catastrophe and Storm Deployment

Arkansas neither issues a catastrophe adjuster license nor grants a blanket exemption. It takes a middle path: a written notification that buys you a fixed window.

§ 23-64-209(d)(1)(A): an adjuster *"sent into this state on behalf of an insurer for the purpose of investigating or making adjustment of a loss resulting from a catastrophe under an insurance policy is not required to be qualified or licensed under this section if within ten (10) business days of entering the state the adjuster notifies the commissioner in writing of the adjuster's activities on behalf of the insurer."*

Then the clock runs. § 23-64-209(d)(1)(B): the adjuster *"shall cease and desist adjusting activity in this state within ninety (90) days of the notification … or obtain an adjuster's license."* § 23-64-209(d)(2) permits a request for *"an additional ninety (90) days,"* which the Commissioner *"has the discretion to approve."*

So the practical shape is: notify within 10 business days, work up to 90 days, ask for 90 more if the deployment runs long, and license if it runs longer than that. The duty to notify sits on the adjuster, and AID maintains a public catastrophe adjuster registry listing active registrants with their license number, home state, and Arkansas counties.

Arkansas does not publish a fee for the catastrophe notification, and none appears in the statute or in the Department's fee materials.

The statute needs no declared disaster — the Department's website says it does

§ 23-64-209(d) is triggered by *"a loss resulting from a catastrophe."* There is **no requirement of a gubernatorial or Commissioner declaration** anywhere in the statutory text. AID's Licensing page, however, describes the duty as reaching adjusters coming into Arkansas *"to adjust claims as a result of a **declared** catastrophe."* The statute controls and is the broader of the two. The safe practice, and the correct exam answer, is the statutory rule: entering Arkansas to work a catastrophe loss for an insurer starts a **10-business-day** notification clock regardless of whether anyone has declared anything.

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Quick Reference

Licensing AuthorityArkansas Insurance Department (AID)

Governing lawArk. Code Ann. Title 23, ch. 64, subch. 2 — §§ 23-64-209, 23-64-210; definition at § 23-64-102(4)

Lines of AuthorityProperty · Casualty · Workers' Compensation — WC is separate, and P&C does not cover it

Exam ProviderPSI

ExamsGeneral Adjuster + at least one line exam; any three may be taken together

Questions25 scored per exam (General, Property, Casualty), plus 5–10 unscored

Passing Score70% — a true percentage, so 18 of 25

Time Limit1 hr 30 min per exam

Exam Fee$40 per exam; fee valid 1 year from payment

Exam Permit90 days, 3 attempts, then a 4-week wait and reapply

Pre-LicensingRequired — 20 hrs per line (5 state law + 1 ethics), AID Rule 31

ExperienceNone. The one-year requirement was repealed

Background CheckRequired via cbc-enterprise.ark.org/aid; fee not published

Application$55 resident / $120 nonresident, via NIPR

Renewal$120 biennially ($140 with CE filing); $240 late; no grace period

License Term2 years, expiring on your BIRTH DATE

ReinstatementWithin 12 months of the due date without retesting

AppointmentNot required

CE24 hrs / 2 yrs including 3 ethics; no law-update hour; nonresident exemption is a 3-part test

Catastrophe workWritten notice to the Commissioner within 10 business days; 90 days, plus one discretionary 90-day extension

Public AdjustersPROHIBITED — referred to the Supreme Court's unauthorized practice of law committee

Official Links

Arkansas Insurance Department — Licensing→Ark. Code Ann. § 23-64-209 — Qualifications for adjuster's license→Ark. Code Ann. § 23-64-102 — Definitions, including the adjuster exclusions→AID Rule 31 — Pre-License Education for Producers and Adjusters→AID Rule 50 — Continuing Education for Producers and Adjusters→AID — License Renewal Fee Schedule→AID — Catastrophe Adjuster Registry→PSI — Arkansas Insurance Candidate Bulletin→PSI — Arkansas candidate portal→NIPR — License Application→

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Arkansas Adjuster Insurance Exam 2026