- The OHLH exam is PSI's Series 11-35, 150 scored questions in 150 minutes, passing score 70%.
- The exam costs $49, and candidates need 20 hours of Life plus 20 hours of Accident and Health prelicensing education.
- Education certificates expire in 180 days, so timing your registration matters.
- Insurance Regulation is the heaviest domain at 10% of the exam.
What the OHLH Certification Actually Is
The OHLH Certification refers to the Ohio Life & Health Insurance Agent Exam - the licensing exam that the Ohio Department of Insurance requires before anyone can legally sell life, accident, and health insurance products in Ohio. It is administered through PSI as Series 11-35, formally titled the Life, Accident and Health Producer Combined Exam. If you've searched terms like what is OHLH, OHLH meaning, or what does OHLH stand for, this is the credential those questions are pointing to in an Ohio context.
This is not a voluntary certificate you add to a resume for prestige - it's a state-mandated license. Without passing this exam and completing the associated background and education requirements, you cannot be appointed by an insurance carrier to sell life or health products in Ohio. For a deeper breakdown of the terminology itself, see what is OHLH certification and what does OHLH mean.
How the Exam Is Structured
Series 11-35 is a 150-question, multiple-choice exam administered by PSI, with a 150-minute time limit. That works out to roughly one minute per question, which is a manageable pace if you know the material - but it leaves little room for guessing your way through unfamiliar terminology. A score of 70% is required to pass.
The exam fee is $49 per attempt, paid directly through PSI's scheduling system. If you don't pass on the first try, you'll need to pay again to retake it, which is one more reason to walk in prepared rather than treat the first attempt as a practice run. For a full cost breakdown including prelicensing course fees and fingerprinting, read OHLH Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
All 150 questions are scored - there's no separate unscored pretest section candidates need to account for. Questions are drawn from the 16 content domains defined by the Ohio Department of Insurance, and every domain is fair game regardless of how small its weighting looks on paper. For details on exactly how the passing threshold is calculated and what it means for your margin of error, see OHLH Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
Key Takeaway
At 150 questions in 150 minutes, treat your first pass through the exam as a triage pass: answer what you know immediately, flag anything uncertain, and come back with remaining time rather than stalling on one hard question.
The 16 Domains You Must Master
The exam blueprint spans 16 domains covering life insurance, annuities, accident and health products, and the regulatory framework around all of them. Weightings range from 2% to 10%, and every domain shows up in the scored question pool. A full walkthrough of each area lives in OHLH Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 16 Content Areas, but here's the landscape:
Domain 1: Insurance Regulation (10%)
This is the single largest domain on the exam, and it covers how the Ohio Department of Insurance oversees producers, licensing rules, and market conduct.
- Producer licensing, appointments, and continuing education obligations
- Unfair trade practices and penalties for violations
- Ohio-specific statutory definitions producers are expected to know cold
Domain 5: Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders (9%)
The second-heaviest domain tests your ability to explain policy mechanics to a client accurately.
- Nonforfeiture options, settlement options, and beneficiary designations
- Common riders - waiver of premium, accidental death, guaranteed insurability
- Grace periods, reinstatement, and incontestability clauses
Domain 3: Life Insurance Basics (8%) & Domain 15: Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals (8%)
These two tied domains reward candidates who understand both foundational life insurance concepts and Ohio's specific consumer protections for older or vulnerable policyholders.
- Types of life insurance (term, whole, universal, variable)
- Long-term care disclosure rules and suitability standards for senior sales
- Replacement regulations designed to prevent inappropriate policy churning
The remaining domains - General Insurance, Life Insurance Policies, Annuities, Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities, Accident and Health Insurance Basics, Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy General Provisions, Disability Income and Related Insurance, Medical Plans, Health Insuring Corporations (HICs), Group Accident and Health Insurance, Dental Care Plans, and Federal Tax Considerations for Accident and Health Insurance - round out the blueprint at weights between 2% and 8%. Even the smallest domain, Dental Care Plans at 2%, still translates into a handful of guaranteed questions.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Insurance Regulation | 10% |
| Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders | 9% |
| Life Insurance Basics | 8% |
| Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities | 8% |
| Accident and Health Insurance Basics | 8% |
| Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals | 8% |
| Life Insurance Policies | 7% |
| Medical Plans | 6% |
| General Insurance | 5% |
| Annuities | 5% |
| Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy General Provisions | 5% |
| Disability Income and Related Insurance | 5% |
| Health Insuring Corporations (HICs) | 5% |
| Group Accident and Health Insurance | 5% |
| Federal Tax Considerations for Accident and Health Insurance | 4% |
| Dental Care Plans | 2% |
If you're trying to gauge how tough this blueprint actually is compared to what people assume going in, How Hard Is the OHLH Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 walks through where most candidates lose points.
Licensing Requirements Before You Test
Passing the exam is only one piece of becoming licensed. Resident applicants must also complete approved prelicensing education: 20 hours covering Life insurance and 20 hours covering Accident and Health insurance. These are separate 20-hour blocks, not a combined 20-hour course, so budget time for both.
Each prelicensing completion certificate is valid for 180 days. That window matters - if you finish your coursework and then delay scheduling the exam for six months, your certificate can expire before you've even sat for Series 11-35, forcing you to redo the coursework. Plan your exam date while the certificate is still fresh.
Applicants also need to clear BCI and FBI fingerprint-based background checks as part of the licensing process. This is a standard state and federal criminal history review, separate from the exam itself, and it's worth scheduling early since fingerprinting appointments and processing can take time. A complete rundown of every prerequisite - education, background checks, and application steps - is covered in OHLH Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Registration and Fee Mechanics
Exam registration runs through PSI, the third-party administrator for the Ohio Department of Insurance. The $49 exam fee is paid at scheduling, and you'll select an available testing date and location (or remote option, depending on PSI's current offerings) through their system. For a look at how PSI's testing windows and blackout periods work throughout the year, see OHLH Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.
Because the fee is charged per attempt, failing and rescheduling means paying $49 again. This is a strong argument for using structured practice questions before your scheduled date rather than treating the actual exam as your first real test run - you can build that familiarity using resources like our OHLH practice test platform ahead of time.
Who Hires OHLH-Licensed Producers
Once licensed, producers typically work for or with:
- Life and health insurance carriers appointing agents to sell their products in Ohio
- Independent insurance agencies representing multiple carriers
- Financial services firms that bundle insurance products with retirement or investment planning
- Employee benefits brokers handling group accident and health placements for employers
Because the license covers both life insurance and accident and health lines, license holders are qualified to discuss a broad product shelf - term and permanent life policies, annuities, individual health plans, disability income products, and group benefits - without needing a second, separate line of authority. For a broader look at how this license translates into day-to-day roles and career paths, see OHLH Jobs and the ROI discussion in Is the OHLH Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026.
Building a Study Plan Around Domain Weights
Rather than studying every domain equally, allocate your prep time proportional to exam weight - but don't ignore the small domains entirely, since they still contribute scored questions. A practical way to sequence this over several weeks:
Regulation and Foundations
- Insurance Regulation (10%) - the heaviest domain, tackle it first while motivation is high
- General Insurance (5%) and Life Insurance Basics (8%) for foundational vocabulary
Life Products and Tax Rules
- Life Insurance Policies (7%) and Policy Provisions, Options and Riders (9%)
- Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities (8%) and Annuities (5%)
Accident and Health Core
- Accident and Health Insurance Basics (8%) and Medical Plans (6%)
- Disability Income (5%), Group Accident and Health (5%), and HICs (5%)
Specialty Domains and Full Review
- Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals (8%)
- Dental Care Plans (2%) and Federal Tax Considerations for Accident and Health (4%)
- Full-length timed practice runs at 150 questions / 150 minutes
Spacing your review sessions and revisiting weaker domains a few days after first covering them (rather than cramming each once) tends to help retention stick - particularly for dense areas like Policy Provisions, Options and Riders, where rider names and clause distinctions blur together if reviewed only once. For a day-by-day framework built specifically around this blueprint, see OHLH Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, and keep a condensed reference like OHLH Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts handy for last-minute review.
Key Takeaway
Front-load Insurance Regulation and the other high-weight domains early in your study plan, then use full-length timed drills through practice exams in your final week to simulate the real 150-question, 150-minute format.
Keeping Your License Active After You Pass
Passing Series 11-35 isn't the finish line - it's the entry point. Ohio producer licenses renew every two years, and renewal requires 24 hours of continuing education, including 3 hours specifically on ethics. Missing this cycle can lapse your license, so most active producers track their CE hours well before the renewal deadline rather than scrambling at the end.
This renewal cadence is worth planning for from day one, since it affects how you budget ongoing costs and time as a licensed producer - not just the upfront exam fee and prelicensing coursework. For candidates weighing whether the license pays off long-term, OHLH Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and OHLH Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows provide additional context on outcomes tied to this credential.
Frequently Asked Questions
It's the Ohio Life & Health Insurance Agent Exam, administered by PSI as Series 11-35 on behalf of the Ohio Department of Insurance. Passing it, alongside meeting education and background check requirements, is required to become a licensed life and health insurance producer in Ohio.
The exam has 150 scored multiple-choice questions with a 150-minute time limit, and a score of 70% is required to pass.
The exam fee is $49 per attempt through PSI. This is separate from prelicensing education course costs and fingerprint-based background check fees.
Yes. Resident applicants complete 20 hours of approved prelicensing education for Life and a separate 20 hours for Accident and Health, and each completion certificate is valid for 180 days.
No. Producer licenses renew every two years, and renewal requires 24 hours of continuing education, including 3 hours of ethics coursework.