What the Arkansas Personal Lines License Covers
Arkansas's Personal Lines licence covers property and casualty risks for households — homeowners, dwelling fire, renters, and personal auto — and stops short of commercial lines. PSI titles the exam exactly that way: Personal Lines (Property/Casualty — no commercial lines).
It is a genuine alternative to the broader licence rather than a subset of it. Arkansas's other P&C route is a single combined Property/Casualty exam including commercial lines — 150 scored questions — and there is no standalone Property-only or Casualty-only producer exam in this state at all. Property and Casualty do exist as separate lines of authority with separate 20-hour pre-licensing courses, but PSI publishes one combined exam for them.
So the choice is straightforward: Personal Lines if your book will be households, the combined P&C exam if it will include businesses. Personal Lines is 55 fewer questions and one 20-hour course instead of two.
TESTivity recommends Achievable to satisfy your Arkansas pre-licensing requirement. Achievable is an approved provider, its insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, and completing the Achievable course earns you the certificate of completion Arkansas requires.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in Arkansas and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will absolutely help you pass the exam — but treat them as a supplement to your Achievable course, not a substitute for it.
Disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page.
Exam Options & Format
The Personal Lines examination is 95 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest items, with 210 minutes — three and a half hours — passing at 70%. Pretest items do not count against your time. At roughly 132 seconds a scored question this is the most relaxed pacing of any Arkansas producer exam.
PSI's content outline gives the structure precisely, and it is why the generous clock exists: an Arkansas-specific section of 25 scored questions (plus 2 pretest) in 80 minutes, and a general knowledge section of 70 scored questions (plus 8 pretest) in 130 minutes. The two are separately timed and separately scored, each at 70%.
Twenty-five questions in the state section at a 70% bar means seven wrong is your limit. Eighty minutes for twenty-five questions is an enormous allowance — Arkansas is not trying to rush you through the state material, it is trying to make sure you know it.
The broader Property/Casualty exam is 150 scored questions in the same 210 minutes, structured as an Arkansas-specific section of 25 scored in 50 minutes and a general section of 125 scored in 160 minutes. Same exam fee, same clock, considerably denser.
Most Tested Topics on the Arkansas Personal Lines Exam
Personal lines questions in Arkansas concentrate on two things: what an auto policy must contain, and how much notice an insurer owes before it walks away. Every figure below is verified against the Arkansas Code:
| Concept | The Arkansas rule |
|---|---|
| Auto liability minimums | 25/50/25 — $25,000 per person, $50,000 per occurrence, $25,000 property damage (§27-22-104(b)) |
| Fault system | Fault-based (tort) — Arkansas is not a no-fault state (§23-89-202) |
| PIP-style coverage | Must be OFFERED, rejectable in writing. If not rejected: $5,000 medical, income replacement of 70% up to $140/week for 52 weeks, and $5,000 accidental death (§§23-89-202, 23-89-203) |
| Uninsured motorist | Mandatory unless rejected in writing — minimum 25/50 (§23-89-403) |
| Underinsured motorist | Must be offered, rejectable in writing, and available only if UM is elected (§23-89-209) |
| Negligence doctrine | Modified comparative — 50% bar. A claimant whose fault is 'equal to or greater than' the defendant's recovers nothing (§16-64-122(b)) |
| Residual auto market | The Arkansas Automobile Insurance Plan (AAIP), AIPSO-administered |
| New-policy window | 60 days for both auto and homeowners — broader cancellation rights inside it (§23-89-303(b); §23-66-206(15)) |
| Cancellation for nonpayment | 10 days' notice, with the reason (§23-89-304; §23-66-206(15)(C)) |
| Cancellation for cause | 20 days' notice (§23-89-304(a)(2)) |
| Nonrenewal notice | 30 days before expiration — the same for auto and homeowners (§23-89-305; §23-88-105(a)) |
| Must a reason be given? | Auto: on the insured's written request, made at least 15 days before. Homeowners: the statute does not require it (§23-89-305; §23-88-105) |
| Residual property market | The Arkansas Rural Risk Underwriting Association (ARRUA) — a rural residual market, not an urban FAIR Plan (§§23-88-301 to -309) |
The PIP structure is the most distinctively Arkansas item on this exam, and it is a set of four numbers rather than one. Arkansas is not a no-fault state, yet it mandates that first-party coverage be offered — so a candidate who reasons "tort state, therefore no PIP" gets it wrong. If the insured does not reject it in writing, the policy carries $5,000 medical, 70% income replacement capped at $140 a week for 52 weeks, and $5,000 accidental death. Learn all four; questions test them individually.
The 50% bar is the other reliable point, and it is where Arkansas differs from its neighbour to the west. California runs pure comparative fault, where a 99%-at-fault claimant still recovers 1%. Arkansas bars recovery entirely once the claimant's fault equals or exceeds the defendant's — note equal to, which means a straight 50/50 split recovers nothing, not half. Fact patterns are built around exactly that boundary.
On the cancellation side, hold 10 / 20 / 30: ten days for nonpayment, twenty for cause, thirty for nonrenewal. Arkansas keeps auto and homeowners on the same numbers, which is a mercy — but splits them on whether a reason must be given, and that split is the question.
Arkansas Test Centers — All Thirteen Locations
PSI operates thirteen examination sites across Arkansas, and the coverage is genuinely statewide — northwest, the river valley, the delta, central Arkansas and the south. These are transcribed from PSI's current bulletin, revised 18 June 2025:
Northwest Arkansas — Bentonville, 2205 SW I St, Bentonville, AR 72712. Fayetteville has two: 97 N. Razorback Road, 1 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, and 3015 North College Avenue, Fayetteville, AR 72703.
River Valley and the northwest hills — Fort Smith, Adult Education Center, 501 South 20th St., South Campus Library, Fort Smith, AR 72901. Harrison, 1515 Pioneer Dr, Room L111, South Campus Library, Harrison, AR 72601.
Central Arkansas — Little Rock has two sites: Velvatex College, 1520 Martin Luther King Dr., Little Rock, AR 72202, and 8 Shackleford Plaza, Suite 300A, Little Rock, AR 72211. North Little Rock also has two: 2819 Lakewood Village Center, North Little Rock, AR 72116, and 8318 Remount Rd, North Little Rock Airport, North Little Rock, AR 72118. Conway, Get Smart Testing Center, 1060 Pat's Lane, Suite 1, Conway, AR 72032. Searcy, 2615 S Main St., Searcy, AR 72143.
The delta and the south — Jonesboro, 3014 Turman Drive, Suite F, Jonesboro, AR 72404. Pine Bluff, 1900 Hazel Street, Pine Bluff, AR 71603.
A warning about the list you may find elsewhere. The PSI handbook published on the Arkansas Insurance Department's own website is a 2019 revision. It lists a Magnolia site that does not appear in the current bulletin, and it omits Conway, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff and both Little Rock locations. If you are planning a drive around a list you downloaded from the state site, check it against PSI's scheduler before you set off.
Scheduling. Book through test-takers.psiexams.com/arins or by phone on (833) 518-7458 — but remember that in Arkansas you cannot book at all until PSI has emailed your approval to test, which comes after your NIPR application and background check clear. PSI also notes it has "examination centers in many other regions across the United States", which is the route for a candidate who lives near a state line.
Rescheduling. Two days' notice, by website or by speaking to a live representative. A voicemail or an email is explicitly not an acceptable cancellation, and missing the window forfeits the fee — which, inside a three-attempt cap, costs more than the $50.
Your Score, Your Three Attempts, and the 90-Day Clock
You find out immediately. Your score appears on screen at the end of the exam and a score report follows by email. There is no waiting period and no scoring window.
What the standard is — and where it applies. Arkansas requires 70%, published as a straight percentage on every PSI content outline ("70% Minimum Passing") and in the bulletin. There is no scaled-score conversion anywhere in the current bulletin. But apply it twice: the Arkansas-specific and general knowledge sections are separately scored, so a pass means 70% on each. On Personal Lines that is at least 18 of 25 in the state section and at least 49 of 70 in the general one.
Three attempts. Ninety days. Then a month off. This is the rule that most distinguishes Arkansas from its neighbours, and the bulletin states it plainly: candidates "must pass the examination within ninety (90) days of the date of issuance of the original approval date" and "may take the examination(s) a maximum of three (3) times within the ninety (90) day permit period." Fail three times, or let the ninety days run out, and you "must wait four weeks and repeat the entire process of applying for the approval to test" — a new application, a new fee, and a new background check.
There is no waiting period between attempts inside the window, so a quick second sitting while the material is fresh is a legitimate strategy. But the three-attempt cap changes the calculus that works in most states: you cannot treat the first attempt as a cheap diagnostic. Two casual failures leave you one real chance before a four-week reset.
Every attempt costs $50, and exam fees are non-refundable and non-transferable. Every attempt also requires you to show your pre-licensing certificate again — PSI's bulletin requires proof "for every attempt taken of the examination." Turning up without it does not buy you a free pass; it costs you the appointment.
Once you pass, the finish line is close. Because Arkansas made you apply before you tested, there is no second application waiting. The bulletin: "24 hours after successfully passing the examination, you may print your license" at nipr.com. You can also retrieve it through the NAIC's License Manager.
On score validity. NIPR states that Arkansas exam results are valid for one year. No PSI bulletin and no AID rule repeats that, so treat it as a single-source claim — and in practice it rarely matters, because the licence issues about a day after you pass. The deadline that will actually catch you runs the other way: the ninety days from approval to test.
What It Costs
About $92 on a first-time pass: $50 to PSI for the exam, roughly $20 to file through NIPR, and about $22 for the criminal background check — plus the 20-hour pre-licensing course, priced by the provider.
Personal Lines has a quiet cost advantage over the Life-plus-Health route: it is one line, one course, one exam. Against that, each of your three attempts is a full $50, and a fourth failure means paying the application and background-check fees again as well.
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum age 18, an Arkansas residence address for resident applicants, and a valid business email for the NIPR application. The 20-hour pre-licensing certificate and the criminal background check both have to clear before PSI issues your approval to test — the Life guide walks that sequence in full.
No experience requirement, and no carrier sponsorship requirement.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: The cycle runs to your birthday rather than to the licence's issue date, so your first cycle may be shorter than two full years depending on when you were licensed.
24 hours every two years including at least 3 hours of ethics, due on or before your birthday, under AID Rule 50. Holding more lines does not increase it.
Personal Lines producers have no line-specific training gate of the kind Life carries for annuities or Health carries for long-term care. Worth stating plainly because it is often assumed otherwise: Arkansas has no state flood training requirement for producers. The only flood content in Arkansas's scheme is the one hour inside your Personal Lines pre-licensing syllabus. Any flood training you are asked for beyond that comes from the federal NFIP scheme, not from AID.
Non-compliance escalates on its own: $25 within 30 days of the due date, $50 within 60, $100 within 90, and suspension after 90. The P&C guide covers renewal, reinstatement and carryover.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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