AR surplus lines broker bonds.
$500 flat.
Before the Arkansas Insurance Department issues a resident surplus lines broker license, the applicant files securities in favor of the State of Arkansas in the penal sum of $50,000 under A.C.A. 23-65-308 — ours is $500 flat, and the price you see is the price at checkout. The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly.
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Three steps. One sitting.
The bond is the easy half of a surplus lines license — the exam and the three-year producer history are the slow parts. Here is the entire bond process:
Apply online
Business details and an effective date. That is the application — the $50,000 penal sum is already set by statute, so there is nothing to size and no financials to assemble.
Pay & e-sign
Licensing bonds like this are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. At most, 1–2 business days.
File with the Insurance Department
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to file with the Licensing Division alongside your surplus lines broker application. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the surplus lines bond actually guarantees
A surplus lines broker places coverage that admitted Arkansas carriers will not write — the hard-to-place, high-hazard, and unusual risks that fall outside the standard market. Because those placements go to non-admitted insurers outside the Department’s solvency oversight and outside guaranty-fund protection, Arkansas licenses the broker tightly instead. A resident applicant must already hold a property, casualty, surety, and marine producer license, must have held it for three years, must be found competent and trustworthy, and must pass a competency examination.
The bond is the financial backstop on that license. Under A.C.A. 23-65-308 the resident applicant files securities acceptable to the Commissioner in favor of the State of Arkansas in the penal sum of $50,000, aggregate liability, conditioned that the broker will conduct business according to the surplus lines subchapter and will promptly remit the taxes the law provides. That tax obligation is the practical heart of it: a surplus lines broker collects a 4% broker’s tax on the business placed and remits it quarterly through the Department, with an annual return due March 1 even in a year with no business written.
Keep it in force and unimpaired. The securities must stay live for as long as the license is in effect, and they cannot be terminated unless at least 60 days’ prior written notice is filed with the Commissioner. The license year runs from the date of issuance to the following January 1, so plan the bond’s effective date around your renewal. Nonresident brokers already licensed as surplus lines brokers in their home state are exempt from both the bond and the examination.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields — no credit section, because this application does not collect credit information.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Arkansas bonds.
Finish your surplus lines filing today.
$500 flat, no credit section, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.