What This License Is
The Ohio Life line of authority is one of the major lines listed at ORC 3905.06(B)(1). It covers life insurance and fixed and indexed annuities. What it does not cover is variable life and variable annuity products, which sit at 3905.06(B)(6) as a separate authority — and one with an unusual entry requirement: Ohio asks for no exam and no pre-licensing for variable, but ORC 3905.05 requires you to supply your CRD number, so your FINRA registration stands in for a state exam.
Ohio is one of the states that lets you choose your own exam size. PSI's Ohio catalogue offers a standalone Life exam, Series 11-44 — 100 questions in 2 hours — alongside the combined Series 11-35 Life, Accident and Health exam of 150 questions in 2.5 hours. Both cost $49. The practical difference is upstream of the exam: the combined paper requires two pre-licensing certificates, 40 hours in total, and the test center will turn you away without both.
So the honest way to frame the decision is not "which exam is easier" but "how many 20-hour courses am I willing to sit." If health business is anywhere in your two-year plan, read the Life & Health guide before you commit — adding Accident & Health later means another 20-hour course, another $49 exam and another $10 line of authority, and none of it is discounted for having done it once.
Exam Options & Format
Ohio's Life exam is Series 11-44, "Ohio Life Insurance Agent" — 100 scored questions in 2 hours, delivered by PSI Services LLC at a test center. Ohio adds 1 to 10 unscored experimental items on top of the scored count; they do not affect your score but they do consume your clock. (The bulletin's own sentence also describes those items as "approximately 10% of the number of questions," which cannot be true at the same time as "one to ten" on a 100-question paper. Plan for a handful, not fifteen.)
The passing standard is 70%, and it is a real percentage. Ohio does not scale its scores — the bulletin says plainly that "the minimum passing score is 70%," and none of the language scaled-score states use appears anywhere in the document. Your score is displayed on screen when you finish and emailed to you as a score report; a failing report carries a diagnostic breakdown by content area, which is the most useful retake-planning document you will get.
There is no remote option. The bulletin's cover carries the notice: effective 3/13/2026, remote proctored examinations are no longer available. Every Ohio insurance exam is now taken in person. Any guide, video or course that still describes an at-home Ohio insurance exam was written before March 2026.
Register online at test-takers.psiexams.com/ohins (at least 24 hours ahead), or by phone on (855) 807-3995, or by fax with four business days' notice. Payment is by credit card, company check, money order or cashier's check — personal checks are not accepted. The $49 fee is valid for one year from the date of payment, which sounds generous until you notice that your pre-licensing certificate dies at 180 days. Paying early buys you nothing.
There is no limit on retakes — the bulletin states it affirmatively — but you cannot rebook on the same day you test, because scores have to process overnight. Fail on a Wednesday and you can call Thursday to sit again as early as Friday, subject to seats. The Personal Lines guide owns the full results-and-retake mechanics, including what the diagnostic report actually tells you.
Most Tested Topics on the Ohio Life Exam
The Ohio-specific portion of Series 11-44 lives almost entirely in ORC 3915.05, the standard provisions every Ohio life policy must contain, plus the four Administrative Code rules that govern replacement, variable life, annuity disclosure and annuity suitability. The rows below are verified against the statute or rule cited, and they are where Ohio departs from what a national course teaches:
| Concept | The Ohio rule |
|---|---|
| Incontestability, individual life | Not more than 2 years from the policy's date. Four exceptions, and two of them are Ohio-specific enough to be worth memorising: nonpayment of premiums; violation of conditions relating to naval or military service in time of war; violation of conditions relating to aeronautics; and, at the company's option, provisions for total and permanent disability and provisions granting additional insurance against death by accident or accidental means (ORC 3915.05(C)) |
| Grace period, individual life | "A grace of one month" for any premium after the first — a calendar month, so a February policy gets 28 days, not 30. The policy stays in force, the grace may carry an interest charge, and the policy may provide that an overdue premium is deducted from the death settlement (ORC 3915.05(B)) |
| Reinstatement window, lapsed life policy | 3 years from the date of default, on evidence of insurability satisfactory to the company plus arrears of premiums with interest (ORC 3915.05(J)) |
| Interest chargeable on reinstatement | No percentage is fixed in Chapter 3915 — the rate is whatever the policy states. Ohio omits the "not exceeding six per cent" ceiling many states carry (ORC 3915.05(J)) |
| Free look, ordinary individual life | None is mandated. No section of Chapter 3915 and no rule requires a return period on a plain, non-replacement life sale — the ten days in OAC 3901-6-03 is a condition on when the Buyer's Guide may be delivered, not a free look |
| Free look, replacement transaction | 30 days from delivery to return a life policy or annuity issued as a replacement, for an unconditional full refund of all premiums including policy fees and charges (OAC 3901-6-05(G)(1)(d)) |
| Free look, variable life | 10 days from receipt (OAC 3901-6-08(E)(3)(a)(v)) |
| Free look, annuity — conditional | 15 days, and only if the Buyer's Guide and the disclosure document were not delivered at or before application. It runs concurrently with any other free look (OAC 3901-6-14(E)(4)) |
| Suicide exclusion, variable life | 2 years from the issue date, and two years from any increase in death benefit (OAC 3901-6-08(E)(5)(a)). No ORC section imposes a suicide clause on ordinary life at all |
| Deadline to pay death proceeds | Settlement on receipt of due proof of death, or not later than two months after that proof (ORC 3915.05(K)) |
| Interest on death proceeds | Runs from the date of death to payment, at the greater of the IRC §1274(d) short-term applicable federal rate for the month of death or the rate paid on proceeds left on deposit (ORC 3915.052) |
| Viatical settlement rescission | 15 calendar days — the statute says calendar — after receipt of the proceeds; death inside the window is treated as rescission subject to repayment (ORC 3916.08) |
| Annuity best-interest training | A one-time 4-credit course before you sell, solicit or negotiate any annuity, and it counts inside your 24 CE hours (OAC 3901-6-13(G)(2)(a)) |
Two of these rows account for most of the missed marks. The first is the free-look question, because Ohio has four different periods running at once and none of them belongs to plain life insurance. Read the stem for the product and for the word replacement: an ordinary life sale gets nothing, a replacement gets 30 days, variable life gets 10, and an annuity gets 15 only when the producer botched the disclosure. A candidate who has memorised "10 days for life" from a national course will pick the planted answer every time.
The second is the grace period. Ohio's statute says "a grace of one month," not "thirty days," and the distinction is deliberate — the exam can ask what a policy dated in February gets. It also permits an interest charge during grace, which most states' provisions do not mention, and it makes the death-during-grace deduction permissive rather than automatic: the policy may contain that stipulation.
Worth adding to your notes because it is unusually concrete: Ohio puts a number on the death-claim clock. Most states teach "prompt payment" as a principle; ORC 3915.05(K) gives you two months, and ORC 3915.052 then makes interest run all the way back to the date of death rather than from the date proof was filed.
Applying for Your Ohio License — Every Step
Ohio's application is short. What trips people is the order and the two 180-day clocks, so start with the sequence ODI publishes and do not improvise on it.
1. Request the checklist. ODI's first published step is to request Form INS3010, the initial-application checklist, from the department's forms-request application. It is not strictly a gate, but it is the document ODI will hold you to.
2. Finish the 20 hours and keep the paper. Your certificate is valid 180 calendar days from course completion, and the rule — not the bulletin — starts that clock at completion rather than at issuance. Providers have three calendar days to hand you the certificate, so the two dates are close but not identical.
3. Pass Series 11-44. You cannot apply first. ORC 3905.04(A) requires the exam "prior to application for licensure," and OAC 3901-5-09 says a completed application "can not be submitted until the applicant has passed all required licensing examinations."
4. Get the background check. National WebCheck, BCI and FBI, up to $72.25, with results routed directly to ODI. Give the reason code "Required for Licensure/Permit, Insurance Lic. or ORC 3905.051" and, if the vendor asks for one, agency code BQE445. Results that do not arrive at ODI directly from BCI or FBI are refused, which means a second $72.25 and another wait. The Casualty guide walks the whole fingerprint process, including how to reuse a check when you add a line.
5. Apply through NIPR. ODI routes applicants to NIPR LicenseHub; the fee is $10 per line of authority under ORC 3905.40(C), so a Life-only application is $10. PSI's bulletin also describes applying from the kiosk at the test center immediately after you pass, which is the fastest route if you already have your background check underway. NIPR adds its own transaction fee, which it does not publish on its Ohio pages.
The deadline that catches people: OAC 3901-5-09 gives you 180 calendar days from the date you pass to submit the application. That rule appears nowhere in the candidate bulletin, so a candidate who reads only PSI's document will never learn it exists. Miss it and the passing score is spent.
The two clocks interact badly if you are casual about the background check. BCI results are "usually processed within two business days," but ODI warns they can take four to six weeks. Nothing in ORC 3905.051 or OAC 3901-5-09 forbids getting printed before you pass, and a check is good for twelve months — so getting fingerprinted while you are still studying is permitted and sensible, even though ODI's published sequence lists it after the exam.
What It Costs
Ohio's state money is modest. The exam is $49 per attempt to PSI, the National WebCheck background check runs to a $72.25 maximum, and the license application is $10 for the Life line — about $131 if you pass first time. ODI's fee chart, dated 16 April 2026, and ORC 3905.40(C) agree on the $10.
The real cost is the 20-hour pre-licensing course, which is a private-provider expense and usually the largest line in the budget. Price it before you commit, and remember the certificate expires at 180 days, so buying early can mean buying twice.
Two smaller numbers worth knowing now. Retakes are $49 each with no limit on attempts. And renewal, two years out, is $25 by statute but waived for resident individual agents who have met their CE — so the ongoing cost of holding an Ohio license, done properly, is the CE itself.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be at least 18 (ORC 3905.06(A)(1)(a)), complete 20 hours of ODI-approved Life pre-licensing (ORC 3905.04(C)(1)(c)), pass the Life examination, submit to the ORC 3905.051 criminal records check, and file the application with its fee inside the 180-day window.
Two routes shorten that list, and they are different lists doing different jobs. A professional designation — for Life, that means CLU, ChFC, CFP, CIC, CEBS, FLMI, LUTCF, or a bachelor's or associate's degree in insurance — waives the 20 hours only, on ODI form INS3276. It never waives the exam. Separately, ORC 3905.041(A) waives both the education and the exam for a producer who moves to Ohio and applies within 90 days while licensed and in good standing elsewhere. The Health guide covers the designation waivers in full; the Property & Casualty guide covers the 90-day route.
One disqualifier catches good candidates off guard. Anyone who has surrendered a license, or had one suspended, inactivated, canceled for nonrenewal or revoked, may not use any pre-licensing exemption at all. A CLU who let an Ohio license lapse sits the 20 hours like everyone else.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: 24 hours per two-year renewal period including 3 hours of ethics, all of it finished before you can file the renewal. Ohio waives the $25 renewal fee for resident individual agents who have met the requirement. Before your first annuity sale you also owe a one-time 4-credit best-interest course, and it counts inside the 24 rather than on top of it.
Ohio resident licenses run two years and renew by the last day of your birth month (ORC 3905.06(C)(1)). Riding on that cycle is 24 hours of continuing education including 3 hours of ethics (ORC 3905.481), and all of it must be complete before the renewal can be filed — ODI's system will not take a renewal from a CE-deficient agent.
The renewal fee is $25 under ORC 3905.40(E) and waived under (E)(1) for resident individual agents who have met their CE. That is why NIPR displays $0.00 for an Ohio major-lines renewal. Holding more lines does not multiply the 24 hours.
For a life producer, one product rule matters immediately: before you sell, solicit or negotiate any annuity, you owe a one-time 4-credit best-interest course (OAC 3901-6-13(G)(2)(a)) — and per ODI's specialty-training guidance it counts inside the 24, not on top. Ohio applies this regardless of when you were licensed, and being FINRA-registered does not exempt you. Training completed in another state under a substantially similar standard makes you compliant in Ohio, but earns you no Ohio CE credit for the hours.
The Property & Casualty guide owns renewal in detail — the late and reinstatement tiers, carryover, inactive status, and what happens if you let the birth-month deadline slide.
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