Ohio Life Study Guide

Ohio’s life law is the national pattern nudged a few degrees off in half a dozen places, and the exam lives in the gap. The grace period is measured in months rather than days. The incontestability exceptions name aeronautics. The free look you are certain exists mostly does not. Learn Ohio life law as a set of near-misses against what your national course taught and it stays organized.

The standard provisions — and a grace measured in months

ORC 3915.05 lists what every Ohio life policy must contain. Start with incontestability: not more than two years from the policy’s date (ORC 3915.05(C)). Conventional. The exceptions are not. Ohio names four: nonpayment of premiums, conditions relating to naval or military service in time of war, and aeronautics — and then, at the company’s option, provisions for total and permanent disability and provisions granting additional insurance against death by accident or accidental means. Aeronautics is the giveaway word no national outline prepares you for; the fourth exception is the one candidates forget exists, and a stem offering “accidental death benefit rider” is fishing for it.

Then the grace period, and read the words rather than the concept: “a grace of one month” for any premium after the first (ORC 3915.05(B)). Not thirty days. A calendar month — so a policy dated in February gets 28 days, and the exam knows it. Two further details ride along. The grace may carry an interest charge, which most states’ provisions never mention. And the deduction of an overdue premium from the death settlement is permissive: the policy may so provide, not must.

The free-look matrix — four periods, and none belongs to plain life

There is no mandated free look on an ordinary, non-replacement individual life policy in Ohio. The ten days everyone remembers come from the life disclosure rule, OAC 3901-6-03(E)(1)(b), where they are a condition on when the Buyer’s Guide may be delivered — not a right to return anything.

Do not over-correct into “Ohio has no free look,” because four exist. A replacement transaction gets 30 days from delivery to return the life policy or annuity for an unconditional full refund of all premiums, including policy fees and charges (OAC 3901-6-05(G)(1)(d)). Variable life gets 10 days from receipt (OAC 3901-6-08(E)(3)(a)(v)). Long-term care gets 30 days from delivery, borrowing the individual sickness and accident procedures (ORC 3923.44 → 3923.31). And an annuity gets 15 days — but only if the Buyer’s Guide and the disclosure document were not delivered at or before application (OAC 3901-6-14(E)(4)), running concurrently with any other free look. That last one is really a rule about producer conduct: do the disclosure properly and no fifteen-day right ever arises.

Reinstatement, nonforfeiture, and the clocks that carry money

Reinstatement is three years from the date of default (ORC 3915.05(J)), on evidence of insurability satisfactory to the company plus arrears of premiums with interest. Note the absence: Chapter 3915 fixes no percentage cap on that interest, omitting the “not exceeding six per cent” ceiling many states carry.

Nonforfeiture requires a paid-up nonforfeiture benefit elected on notice within sixty days of default, and a cash surrender value after three full years’ premiums on an ordinary policy — five on an industrial one (ORC 3915.071(B)(1), (B)(3)).

Most states teach prompt payment of a death claim as a principle. ORC 3915.05(K) gives you a number: settlement on receipt of due proof of death, or not later than two months after that proof. And ORC 3915.052 makes interest run from the date of death — not from the date proof was filed — 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.

One more absence: no ORC section imposes a suicide clause on ordinary life at all. A two-year clause there is a product norm, not Ohio law. The only fixed Ohio suicide period is in the variable life rule — two years from the issue date, and two years from any increase in death benefit (OAC 3901-6-08(E)(5)(a)).

Annuities, variable products, and settlements

Ohio adopted the NAIC best-interest standard effective 2/14/2021, with the producer’s four obligations at OAC 3901-6-13(F)(1) and a one-time four-credit training course before you sell any annuity (OAC 3901-6-13(G)(2)(a)). Keep the licensing line straight alongside it: fixed annuities need only the Life line, while variable products require the variable-products line of authority (ORC 3905.06(B)(6)) plus FINRA registration, because they are securities.

Ohio regulates viatical and life settlements under Chapter 3916. The viator’s rescission window is fifteen CALENDAR days after receipt of the proceeds — the statute says calendar (ORC 3916.08). Death inside that window is treated as a rescission subject to repayment, and ownership reverts to the viator or the estate.