What the Arkansas P&C Path Covers
Arkansas treats Property and Casualty as two separate lines of authority — they appear separately on NIPR, and AID Rule 31 prescribes a separate 20-hour pre-licensing course for each. But PSI publishes one combined examination: Property/Casualty (including commercial lines), 150 scored questions.
There is no standalone Property-only or Casualty-only producer exam in Arkansas. If you want one of those lines you sit the combined exam. The narrower alternative is Personal Lines, which drops commercial risks entirely and is a separate line again.
The economics work out unusually well here. One exam fee of $50 buys you both lines of authority — where a state like California would charge two application fees for the same pair. Arkansas's cost sits in the coursework: two 20-hour courses, reduced to 35 hours in total because Rule 31 will not make you repeat the Arkansas laws block.
Arkansas's regulator is conventional in structure — the Arkansas Insurance Department, a division of the Department of Commerce since the 2019 reorganisation, under a Commissioner appointed by the Governor with the Senate's consent rather than elected.
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 combined Property/Casualty examination is 150 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest items in 210 minutes, passing at 70%. Pretest items do not count against your time.
The structure matters as much as the totals. PSI's outline splits it into an Arkansas-specific section of 25 scored questions (plus 2 pretest) in 50 minutes, and a general knowledge section of 125 scored (plus 8 pretest) in 160 minutes — and the two are separately timed and separately scored at 70% each. Twenty-five state questions with a 70% bar means seven wrong is the limit.
One transcription note, in the interests of not misleading you: PSI heads that 125-question section "Property General Knowledge Content Outline", yet 25 + 125 accounts for the entire exam including its casualty content. Either the heading is a PSI artefact or casualty is nested beneath it. We are not going to tell you "X property questions and Y casualty questions" because PSI does not publish that split — plan for 125 general questions across both disciplines.
The narrower Personal Lines exam is 95 scored questions in the same 210 minutes, with a more generous 80-minute state section. Same $50. If your book will never touch a commercial risk, it is the lighter path — and the Personal Lines guide covers it.
Most Tested Topics on the Arkansas P&C Exam
The combined exam reaches commercial risks the Personal Lines exam never touches, and Arkansas's distinctive material clusters in three places: how rates are regulated, what happens when a carrier fails, and workers' compensation.
| Concept | The Arkansas rule |
|---|---|
| Rate regulation | Competitive rating — file-and-use. An insurer files 20 days before use (60 days if the market is declared noncompetitive) and the filing takes effect automatically unless disapproved (§23-67-211) |
| Credit-based insurance scoring | Permitted, with restrictions — it may not be the sole basis for an adverse action; gender, income, ZIP code and ethnicity are barred; no adverse action solely for lack of credit history; the report must be 90 days old or newer; re-underwrite on request every 36 months (§23-67-405) |
| Residual property market | The Arkansas Rural Risk Underwriting Association (ARRUA) — a rural residual market. Arkansas has no urban FAIR Plan (§§23-88-301 to -309) |
| Catastrophe exposure | Tornado and severe storm, earthquake (the New Madrid Seismic Zone underlies northeastern Arkansas), and flood |
| Surplus lines prerequisite | Three years of multi-line P&C authority, a $50,000 surety bond, affiliation with a licensed Arkansas broker firm, and a separate exam — application fee $1,035 |
| Surplus lines diligent effort | Required (§23-65) |
| P&C guaranty fund | The Arkansas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Fund (§23-90-101 et seq.) |
| Guaranty cap | $300,000 per covered claim — and there is NO per-claim deductible in Arkansas law (§23-90-103(2)(A)) |
| Unearned premium | Returned in full up to $25,000 per policy |
| Workers' comp claims | Excluded from the cap |
| Workers' comp mandate | Required at three or more employees (§11-9-102) |
| Temporary total disability | 66⅔% of average weekly wage, $20/week minimum, maximum at 85% of the state average weekly wage — after a 7-day waiting period (§11-9-501) |
| Workers' comp claim deadline | 2 years from the date of injury (§11-9-702) |
The guaranty fund's shape is the highest-yield item, because Arkansas differs from the states most study material is written around on two counts at once. The cap is $300,000, not the $500,000 common elsewhere — and there is no per-claim deductible at all, where several states subtract $100 or $200 from every covered claim. Then the exception: workers' compensation claims sit outside the cap entirely. A question about an insolvent comp carrier is not answered with $300,000.
Workers' compensation is the other reliable cluster, and the number to hold is the threshold: three or more employees. Many states start at one, several at four or five. Arkansas's three catches out small commercial clients constantly, which is exactly why it gets tested. Pair it with 66⅔%, the 7-day waiting period and the 2-year filing deadline.
Finally, note that Arkansas is a file-and-use state — a genuinely light-touch regime, and the opposite end of the spectrum from prior-approval states. The rate takes effect automatically unless the Commissioner disapproves it. If a question offers 'the Commissioner must approve the rate before use,' that is describing a different state.
Nonresident Licensing, Reciprocity and Waivers
Arkansas is generous to producers who are already licensed somewhere else — considerably more so than its pre-licensing regime would suggest — but the generosity comes with a 90-day clock that catches people who let a prior licence lapse quietly.
The big waiver: §23-64-509. The statute is unusually direct: "An individual who applies for an insurance producer license in this state who was previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state shall not be required to complete any prelicensing education or examination." Both gates fall away — the 20-hour course and the exam. The conditions are that you are currently licensed in that state, or that you apply within 90 days of the cancellation of the prior licence, with a certification of good standing or NAIC database records to prove it.
Moving to Arkansas: another 90 days. Section 23-64-509(b) requires a producer licensed elsewhere who moves here to apply within ninety days after establishing legal residence to become a resident licensee. AID and NIPR publish a dedicated Move to Arkansas form for it. Miss the window and you are an ordinary new applicant — 20 hours a line, and the exam.
Staying put: the nonresident licence. Under §23-64-508 a nonresident licence requires a current resident licence in good standing in your home state, the proper request and fees, either your home-state application or the NAIC Uniform Application — and that "the person's home state awards nonresident producer licenses to residents of this state on the same basis." The nonresident individual application fee is $70, against $15–$20 for a resident. If you later change home state you must file the change of address and new-state certification within 30 days, at no additional fee.
The reciprocity provision itself, §23-64-516, is broader than most: "The Insurance Commissioner shall waive any requirements for a nonresident license applicant with a valid license from his or her home state, except the requirements imposed by §23-64-508, if the applicant's home state awards nonresident licenses to residents of this state on the same basis." Note shall, not may.
CE reciprocity works in your favour too. Section 23-64-516(b) provides that satisfying your home state's continuing education satisfies Arkansas's, where the home state reciprocates. Nonresidents are exempt from Arkansas CE unless their home state has no comparable requirement.
Military applicants get the most generous route of all. AID Rule 20 provides automatic and expedited licensure — "no testing will be required" — for a uniformed service member stationed in Arkansas, a veteran residing here or establishing residency, their spouses including those separated by a deployment assignment, and surviving spouses of members killed in the line of duty, where they hold a licence in good standing in another state with a similar scope of practice. AID may also credit relevant service education, training or credentials toward licensure. Rule 20 additionally grants a full 180-day CE exemption after a return from deployment.
What Arkansas does not offer: designation waivers. If you hold a CLU, CPCU, ChFC, FLMI, CIC, LUTCF, AAI or ARM, several states will credit it against pre-licensing hours or an exam. Arkansas publishes no such waiver. Section 23-64-509 names only prior out-of-state licensure. Rule 31's exemption section names the five-hour laws carry-over, insurance consultants, surplus line brokers, incoming out-of-state licensees, and adjusters holding a current national or state claims-association certification — no designations anywhere. The claims-association certification for adjusters is the closest thing Arkansas has, and it does not reach producers.
Temporary licences exist, and they are narrow. Under §23-64-511 the Commissioner may issue one for no more than 180 days with no examination — but only to the surviving spouse or court-appointed personal representative of a deceased or disabled licensed producer, to a member or employee of a licensed business entity on the death or disability of its designated individual, to the designee of a producer entering active duty with the armed forces or the Arkansas National Guard, or to anyone else the Commissioner considers it in the public interest to license. It is a business-continuity instrument, not a route in for a new producer. Filing is on paper rather than through NIPR — $35 application plus the $22 background fee, mailed to AID's Licensing Division in Little Rock. The Commissioner may limit the authority granted, require a sponsor, and revoke the licence if the public interest requires it.
Renewal, the Birth-Month Term and the CE Penalty Ladder
First, a widely repeated error worth correcting. You will find sources — including older PSI material — describing Arkansas as issuing a permanent producer licence with no renewal. That comes from reading §23-64-507(b) literally: a licence "shall remain in effect unless revoked or suspended" so long as fees are paid and education requirements are met. What the statute means is that there is no re-examination, not that there is no renewal. AID Rule 57 §6 sets a two-year individual term expiring on the last day of the licensee's birth month, and AID publishes a renewal fee schedule. Treat it as a biennial renewal.
The fees. $70 to renew without a continuing education filing, $90 with one — the $20 difference is the CE filing fee itself. Renewing late costs $140, exactly double the base fee, which matches §23-64-507's "penalty in the amount of double the unpaid renewal fee."
The window. Renewal opens 90 days before expiration and runs to the expiration date. Miss it and you may renew late for up to 12 months past expiration — and critically, §23-64-507 allows reinstatement within that year without retaking the examinations. After 12 months you reapply as a new licensee, which in Arkansas means the pre-licensing courses and the exam again.
Business entities are on a different calendar. Agency and business-entity producer licences renew annually, by 1 October, rather than biennially on a birth month. If you own the agency as well as your individual licence, you are managing two cycles.
Continuing education is the part that actually lapses licences. 24 hours per two-year cycle, including at least 3 hours of ethics, under AID Rule 50 and §23-64-304, due on or before your birthday. Rule 50 sets one 24-hour requirement for the producer licence and never multiplies it by line of authority — so carrying Property, Casualty and Personal Lines together does not mean 72 hours. (It does say expressly that a person holding both a producer and an adjuster licence must meet the requirements of both.)
The penalty ladder is automatic and it ends in suspension. Section 23-64-304(d): $25 if you cure within 30 days of the due date, $50 within 60, $100 within 90 — and after 90 days the licence is automatically suspended. Reinstate within one year for a $150 fine; after a year you reapply from scratch. AID's published fee schedule prints the same ladder. The Commissioner may grant an extension for good cause, to a maximum of one calendar year.
Carryover, and the reporting lag that catches people. Excess hours "may be carried forward only to the next biennial period", expiring at the start of the second subsequent period. No course may be repeated for credit within a two-year period, and there is no partial credit. Providers have 10 days after completion to file the roster — so a course finished on your birthday may be reported after your deadline. Finish early enough that the provider's filing window fits inside your compliance window, not after it.
Exemptions. Nonresidents whose home state has a comparable requirement, insurance consultants, and active-duty military are exempt. There is an old age-60 / 15-consecutive-years exemption, but it reaches only those licensed before 1 July 2003 — a closed class that shrinks every year. AID also publishes a Request For Waiver of Late Renewal Penalty (form AID-LI-WAV) if you have a genuine reason.
What It Costs
About $92 in state and vendor charges on a first-time pass: $50 for the single combined exam covering both lines of authority, roughly $20 to file the NIPR application, and about $22 for the criminal background check. Arkansas charging one exam fee for two lines is genuinely unusual and worth appreciating.
The larger cost is the 35 hours of pre-licensing across the Property and Casualty courses, priced by the provider. And then the recurring cost: $70 every two years to renew, or $90 with a CE filing, rising to $140 if you renew late. If you also hold an agency licence, add its annual renewal by 1 October.
If you later move into surplus lines, note the step change: three years of multi-line authority first, a $50,000 surety bond, and a $1,035 application fee.
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum age 18, an Arkansas residence address for resident applicants, and a valid business email for NIPR. Both lines of authority go on one application, one background check and one approval-to-test.
If you have held a producer licence in another state for these same lines, read the reciprocity section before you buy a course — §23-64-509 may waive both the coursework and the exam, provided you are inside its 90-day window.
The CE Requirement Itself
Important CE details: Producers writing workers' compensation should note that Arkansas's mandate begins at three or more employees — lower than many states, and a common source of uninsured-employer questions from small commercial clients.
24 hours per two-year cycle, of which at least 3 must be ethics, due on or before your birthday (AID Rule 50 §4(A)(1); §23-64-304). The rule sets this for the producer licence as a whole and does not scale it with the number of lines you carry.
There is no P&C-specific product training gate in Arkansas of the kind Life carries for annuities and Health carries for long-term care. And to state plainly what is often assumed: Arkansas imposes no state flood training requirement on producers. The only flood content in the state's scheme sits inside the pre-licensing syllabus — half an hour in the Property course, an hour in Personal Lines. Any flood obligation beyond that is federal NFIP, not AID.
The mechanics — the penalty ladder, carryover, the 10-day provider reporting lag, exemptions and the late-renewal waiver form — are all covered in the renewal section above.
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