1.2 Arkansas Producer Licensing Requirements

Step 1 — Pre-licensing education (REQUIRED in Arkansas)

Arkansas requires state-approved pre-licensing education. Earlier versions of this material stated no pre-licensing was required — that is wrong. Plan for classroom or online study before testing.

Approved courses end with a certificate exam you must pass at 70% or higher; the provider issues a certificate of completion that you carry into the licensing process. Choose an AID-approved provider — a course from an unapproved school does not satisfy the requirement.

Exam Tip: If a question asks the pre-licensing hours for a single line, the answer is 20; for taking Life and Health together, it is 40. Do not confuse pre-licensing hours with the 24-hour continuing education requirement covered in section 1.3 — the exam plants both numbers as distractors.

Pre-licensing education is not the same thing as the exam — it is the gateway to sitting for it. The course teaches the national content (policy types, riders, underwriting, taxation) plus Arkansas-specific law, and the certificate of completion is valid for two years, and PSI asks for it at every attempt. If you let the certificate go stale before you test, you have to repeat the course. Practically, treat the sequence as: finish pre-licensing first, apply through NIPR and complete the background check, then schedule the PSI exam as soon as AID approves you.

There are two common misreads to avoid. First, pre-licensing hours are counted per line, so a producer who already holds a Life license and later wants Health still owes the 20-hour Health course — prior Life education does not carry over. Second, online self-study courses must meet AID-approved minimum seat-time / verification standards; you cannot skim and skip to the certificate exam.

Step 2 — The PSI licensing examination

Arkansas contracts with PSI Services LLC (PSI) to deliver licensing exams. Key logistics:

Exam Trap: The fee is $50 and the limit is 2.5 hours, not the $45 / 2-hour figures that float around older guides. Results print immediately at the test center as a pass/fail (and diagnostic breakdown if you fail).

Each exam blends a national/general portion (insurance concepts) and an Arkansas state-law portion (the material in this chapter), and PSI times each portion separately (about 90 minutes for the general portion, 60 minutes for the state portion). Both portions count toward your 70%. The Life and Health exams each have 100 scored items (70 general + 30 state), plus 10 unscored pretest questions seeded by PSI to validate new items; you cannot tell which are pretest, so treat every question as if it counts.

With roughly 90 seconds per question, flag-and-return on anything that stalls you rather than burning time.

How the score is reported

A 70% scaled score is the pass line. At a test center you receive a printed pass/fail result immediately; a failing report includes a diagnostic breakdown by content area so you know what to restudy. There is no penalty for guessing, so answer every question — a blank is scored exactly like a wrong answer. If you fail, you re-register and pay the $50 fee again, but only inside your 90-day permit period and for at most 3 attempts; after that you wait four weeks and repeat the approval-to-test process.

Scheduling and exam-day rules

1. Register with PSI at candidate.psiexams.com (or by phone) and pay the $50 fee.
2. Choose a test center (Little Rock, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Fayetteville and others) or remote proctoring.
3. Arrive ~30 minutes early for check-in.
4. Bring two valid IDs; one must be government-issued with photo and signature (driver's license, passport, military ID). Names must match your registration.
5. No phones, notes, smartwatches, or personal items at the workstation.

Remote proctoring uses the same exam content; you need a webcam, microphone, stable internet, and a private room. The proctor can fail you for leaving the camera frame or having another person present.

Step 3 — The license application (filed before the exam)

In Arkansas the application comes before the exam: PSI lets you schedule only after AID approves it, and you can print the license from NIPR 24 hours after you pass.

Lines of authority you can hold

Worked example: A candidate completes the 40-hour combined Life + Health pre-licensing course, files a NIPR application, and completes the online background check. After AID approves her, she pays $50 per exam, passes both PSI exams at 78% within the 90-day window, and prints a Life and Accident & Health license from NIPR 24 hours later — two lines of authority on one license number.