Arkansas Life & Health Study Guide

Two bodies of Arkansas material span both exams, and neither is glamorous: what happens when an insurer fails, and what you owe the Department to keep your licence. They are also, reliably, where the marks are — because Arkansas’s guaranty association limits genuinely differ from the figures national study material teaches, and its continuing education scheme ends in automatic suspension rather than a polite reminder.

The guaranty association — where Arkansas is not the NAIC default

If a life or health insurer becomes insolvent, the Arkansas Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association responds (§ 23-96-101 et seq.). Learn these against the national baseline, because two of them are not it:

• Life death benefit — $300,000, and it is a combined limit with net cash surrender value, per life (§ 23-96-114(a)(2)(A)(i))
• Cash surrender value — not a separate bucket; it shares that same $300,000
• Annuity present value — $300,000 (§ 23-96-114(a)(2)(A)(iii))
• Health benefit plan — $500,000; disability income and long-term care — $300,000 (§ 23-96-114(a)(2)(A)(ii))
• Aggregate per life — $300,000 across all coverages, except $500,000 where a health benefit plan is involved (§ 23-96-114(b)(1)(A))

Two of those deserve a second look. The annuity limit is $300,000, not the $250,000 most states and most national outlines use — so the instinct here is wrong in Arkansas’s favour. And because the death benefit and cash surrender value share a single $300,000 ceiling, a policy with both is not covered for the sum of the two. That combination is the fact pattern the exam builds.

One conduct rule rides alongside the numbers: using the guaranty association’s existence in advertising or to induce a sale is prohibited except in conformity with the Commissioner’s rules (§ 23-96-105(a)(1)). A producer reassuring a nervous client that “the state fund covers this anyway” is not being helpful; they are committing a violation.

The free-look ladder, across both lines

Arkansas’s free-look periods sit at the statutory floor until something triggers a longer one. A new individual life policy or ordinary annuity gets 10 days (§ 23-79-112(f)). A replacement — life or annuity — gets 30 days, under AID Rule 97 § 6(A)(4) rather than the Code. And on the health side, long-term care gets 30 days (§ 23-97-311), as does Medicare supplement under AID Rule 27.

Continuing education — one requirement, however many lines

Here is the rule that rewards holding both lines: your continuing education does not double. AID Rule 50 sets 24 hours per two-year cycle, including at least 3 hours of ethics, for the producer licence as a whole. It is not multiplied by lines of authority. Carrying Life and Accident & Health together is still 24 hours. (A separate 24 does apply if you also hold an adjuster licence — Rule 50 says that part expressly.)

The cycle runs to your birthday, not to the licence’s issue date, so your first cycle may be shorter than two full years depending on when you were licensed.

And the ladder that ends in suspension

Arkansas does not send escalating reminders. Section 23-64-304(d) sets an automatic, escalating fine and then takes the licence:

• $25 if cured within 30 days of the due date
• $50 within 60 days
• $100 within 90 days
• After 90 days — the licence is automatically SUSPENDED
• Reinstatement within one year costs $150; after a year, you re-license from scratch

One practical trap sits underneath all of this: approved providers have 10 days after completion to file the roster. Your compliance is measured by what has been reported, not by what you have completed — so a course finished on your birthday can be reported after your deadline has passed. Finish early enough that the provider’s filing window closes before your due date, not after it.