Passing your Ohio insurance license exam is a pivotal part of becoming a licensed insurance agent in the state of Ohio.

In this guide, we’ll break down the general information that you need to know in order to pass your exam, outline the differences between each examination line, and offer tips on both: how to prepare for your Ohio insurance licensing exam, and on what to do after you pass.

Ohio Insurance Exam Basics

General Information

The state of Ohio uses PSI to administer its insurance agent licensing. This means you can register and book all of your licensing examinations through the PSI website. Your test can be carried out online or in person.

Each major insurance line examination is made up of multiple-choice questions and includes both general and state-specific material.

The general questions test your federal insurance product and agent knowledge, whereas the state-specific questions test you on the Ohio insurance regulations and laws that you will need to know in order to operate as an insurance agent.

Score Explanation

As soon as you finish your insurance exam, you will see a “pass” or “fail” score; a score report will also be emailed to you.

If you failed your exam, your score report will include a diagnostic report that will show you how many questions you answered correctly. This can help you identify your weak points for any future re-examination attempts.

You can request a duplicate score report by emailing PSI at scorereport@psionline.com. Keep in mind that you will need to include your full name, confirmation number, and examinee ID number.

Note: You will need to obtain a score of 70% or higher in order to pass your insurance license exam(s) in Ohio.

Cost

Your Ohio insurance license exam cost will depend on the number of examinations that you take:

Examination	Cost	Time Allowed
General Lines – Life, Accident & Health	$42	150 Minutes
General Lines – Property & Casualty	$42	150 Minutes
Life Agent	$42	120 Minutes

Note: You should focus on one exam at a time. This will likely increase the amount of time and effort you can allocate to each examination and should allow you to feel more prepared when you sit your exam.

Ohio Life and Health Insurance Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by PSI.

We recommend using it as a checklist when working through your pre-license education course. This way, you’ll be absolutely sure that you haven’t missed any topic that you will be tested on later on.

Ohio Life, Accident, and Health Content Outline

150 questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation

II. General Insurance

1. Concepts
2. Insurers
3. Agent and general rules of agency
4. Contracts

III. Life Insurance Basics

1. Insurable interest
2. Personal uses of life insurance
3. Determining amount of personal life insurance
4. Business uses of life insurance
5. Viatical settlements
6. Classes of life insurance policies
7. Premiums
8. Agent responsibilities
9. Individual underwriting by the insurer

IV. Life Insurance Policies

1. Term life insurance
2. Whole life insurance
3. Flexible premium policies
4. Specialized policies
5. Group life insurance
6. Credit life insurance

V. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options, and Riders

1. Standard provisions
2. Beneficiaries
3. Settlement options
4. Nonforfeiture options
5. Policy loan and withdrawal options
6. Dividend options
7. Disability riders
8. Living benefit provisions/riders
9. Riders covering additional insureds
10. Riders affecting the death benefit amount

VI. Annuities

1. Annuity principles and concepts
2. Immediate versus deferred annuities
3. Annuity payment options
4. Fixed Annuities
5. Specialty annuity products
6. Uses of annuities

VII. Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities

1. Taxation of personal life insurance
2. Modified endowment contracts
3. Taxation of non-qualified annuities
4. Taxation of individual retirement plans
5. Rollovers and transfers
6. Section 1035 exchanges

VIII. Accident and Health Insurance Basics

1. Definitions of perils
2. Principal types of losses and benefits
3. Classes of health insurance policies
4. Limited policies
5. Common exclusions from coverage
6. Agent responsibilities in individual health insurance
7. Individual underwriting by the insurer
8. Considerations in replacing accident and health insurance

IX. Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy General Provisions 

1. Standard provisions
2. Optional provisions
3. Other general provisions

X. Disability Income and Related Insurance

1. Qualifying for disability benefits
2. Individual disability income insurance
3. Unique aspects of individual disability underwriting
4. Group disability income insurance
5. Business disability insurance
6. Social Security disability
7. Workers’ compensation

XI. Medical Plans

1. Medical plan concepts
2. Types of providers and plans
3. Cost containment in health care delivery
4. Ohio requirements
5. HIPAA requirements
6. Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts
7. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

XII. Health Insuring Corporations

1. General characteristics
2. HIC services
3. HIC certification and regulation

XIII. Group Accident and Health Insurance

1. Characteristics of group insurance
2. Types of eligible groups
3. Marketing considerations
4. Employer group health insurance
5. Small employer medical plans

XIV. Dental Care Plans

1. Categories of dental treatment
2. Indemnity plans
3. Employer group dental expense

XV. Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals

1. Medicare
2. Part C — Medicare Advantage
3. Part D — Prescription Drug Insurance
4. Medicare supplements
5. Other options for individuals with Medicare
6. Long-term care policies

XVI. Federal Tax Considerations for Accident and Health Insurance

1. Personally-owned health insurance
2. Employer group health insurance
3. Medicare expense coverage for sole proprietors and partners
4. Business disability insurance
5. Medical savings accounts and health savings accounts
6. Health Reimbursement Accounts

Ohio Property and Casualty License Exam

Below you can find the content outline offered by PSI.

You should use this outline as a checklist when working through your pre-license education course in order to ensure that you haven’t missed any topic that you will be tested on later on.

Ohio Property and Casualty Content Outline

150 questions

I. Insurance Regulation

1. Licensing
2. State regulation
3. Federal regulation

II. General Insurance

1. Concepts
2. Insurers
3. Agent and general rules of agency
4. Contracts

III. Property and Casualty Insurance Basics

1. Principles and concepts
2. Policy structure
3. Common policy provisions
4. Ohio laws, regulations, and required provisions

IV. Dwelling Policy

1. Characteristics and purpose
2. Coverage forms — Perils insured against
3. Property coverages
4. General exclusions
5. Conditions and definitions
6. Selected endorsements
7. Personal liability supplement

V. Homeowners Policy

1. Eligibility and definitions
2. Coverage forms
3. Section I — Property coverages
4. Section II — Liability coverages
5. Perils insured against
6. Exclusions
7. Conditions
8. Selected endorsements

VI. Auto Insurance

1. Laws
2. Personal auto policy
3. Commercial auto

VII. Commercial Package Policy

1. Components of a commercial policy
2. Commercial general liability
3. Commercial property
4. Commercial crime
5. Commercial inland marine
6. Equipment breakdown
7. Farm coverage

VIII. Businessowners Policy

1. Characteristics and purpose
2. Businessowners Section I — Property
3. Businessowners Section II — Liability
4. Businessowners Section III — Common Policy Conditions
5. Selected endorsements

IX. Workers’ Compensation Insurance

1. Workers’ compensation laws
2. Workers’ compensation and employers liability insurance policy
3. Selected endorsements and rating factors

X. Other Coverages and Options

1. Umbrella/excess liability policies
2. Speciality liability insurance
3. Surplus lines
4. Surety bonds
5. Aviation insurance
6. Ocean marine insurance
7. National Flood Insurance Program
8. Other policies
9. Residual markets

How to Pass the Ohio Insurance Exam

Passing your Ohio insurance exam ultimately comes down to your mindset and degree of preparation.

We have composed a few helpful exam tips and tricks that should help you perform as well as you can during your exam day.

Get a Pre-License Course

Getting a pre-license course is a great way of getting accustomed to the large amount of information that you will need to learn. It is also a legal requirement in the state of Ohio.

We recommend Kaplan’s course because it offers a variety of helpful features, including:

• Online exam simulations
• Live online training
• Printable study guides
• End of chapter reviews

Make Enough Time to Study

Not leaving enough time to prepare is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you do not pass your exam on your first attempt.

Remember, there are zero questions on your exam that are based on common sense or critical thinking. All questions are purely factual, and so will relate to how well you understand and remember the content that you have learned.

We recommend allocating around one to two weeks to prepare for your exam, as this should allow you to go through all of the material at least twice.

Control Test Anxiety

Even though you cannot control whether you get exam anxiety or not, you can take a few steps when preparing to limit its effect on your performance:

• Establish a consistent pretest routine — Acclimate yourself to exam conditions by following a specific routine on each practice exam at home. This should help you feel less anxious during your exam day.
• Get plenty of sleep — Lack of sleep can exacerbate your anxiety and increase your self-doubt. Make sure you are consistently getting a good night’s sleep in the week leading up to your exam.
• Study effectively — This sounds obvious, but make sure you are actually tailoring your studying to the exam that you are taking. Remember, there are no critical thinking or common sense questions involved.
• Arrive early — If you are planning to sit your exam in person, we recommend you arrive at least 30 minutes before it’s due to start in order to get used to your surroundings and have time to check in with your center’s administrator.

Getting Your Ohio Insurance License

Your next steps will depend on whether you actually passed your exam, as well as on whether you plan to get licensed for any additional lines.

You can apply for your license up to 180 days after you complete your exam, so if you would like to attempt passing additional insurance line exams before filing your licensing application with the Ohio Department of Insurance, you are totally free to do that.

After you have passed your insurance licensing exam, you will need to:

• Complete a fingerprint and background check
• File your licensing application
• Wait for your application to be reviewed

Ohio Department of Insurance Contact Information

Mailing Address:

Ohio Department of Insurance
50 West Town Street
Third Floor – Suite 300
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Phone: (614) 644-2665

Fax: (614) 644-3475

Email: licensing@insurance.ohio.gov

Website: https://www.insurance.ohio.gov

License Search: Ohio Insurance License Search and Lookup