- Why the 16 Domains Matter More Than Generic Study Advice
- The 16 OHLH Domains, Weighted and Explained
- The Life Insurance Cluster (Domains 3-7)
- The Accident and Health Cluster (Domains 8-16)
- How to Use Domain Weighting to Plan Study Time
- Exam Format and What Domain-Based Questions Look Like
- Registration, Fees, and Prelicensing Education
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The OHLH (Series 11-35) exam covers 16 content areas across life, accident, and health insurance.
- Insurance Regulation is the largest single domain at 10% of the 150 scored questions.
- You need 70% correct within 150 minutes, and the exam costs $49 through PSI.
- Life and health domains are roughly balanced, so skipping either half is a losing strategy.
Why the 16 Domains Matter More Than Generic Study Advice
Most people preparing for the Ohio Life, Accident and Health Producer Combined Exam (what this site calls OHLH) start by searching for generic test-taking tips. That's backwards. The Ohio Department of Insurance, through its testing vendor PSI, builds this exam around a fixed content outline made up of 16 named domains. Every one of the 150 scored questions on your test maps directly to one of these domains. If you don't know the outline, you're studying blind.
This guide breaks down all 16 domains in the order PSI tests them, explains what each one actually covers, and shows you how the percentage weightings should shape your study calendar. If you haven't yet reviewed the broader exam mechanics, pair this with our OHLH Study Guide 2026 for a full first-attempt game plan, and check OHLH Requirements 2026 if you're still confirming eligibility.
The 16 OHLH Domains, Weighted and Explained
Below are all 16 domains as they appear on the official content outline, along with their approximate share of the 150 scored questions. Weights are approximate percentages of the exam, not a guarantee of exact question counts on any single test form.
| Domain | Weight | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Insurance Regulation | 10% | General/Regulatory |
| 2. General Insurance | 5% | General/Regulatory |
| 3. Life Insurance Basics | 8% | Life |
| 4. Life Insurance Policies | 7% | Life |
| 5. Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders | 9% | Life |
| 6. Annuities | 5% | Life |
| 7. Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities | 8% | Life |
| 8. Accident and Health Insurance Basics | 8% | Health |
| 9. Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy General Provisions | 5% | Health |
| 10. Disability Income and Related Insurance | 5% | Health |
| 11. Medical Plans | 6% | Health |
| 12. Health Insuring Corporations (HICs) | 5% | Health |
| 13. Group Accident and Health Insurance | 5% | Health |
| 14. Dental Care Plans | 2% | Health |
| 15. Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals | 8% | Health |
| 16. Federal Tax Considerations for Accident and Health Insurance | 4% | Health |
Notice that Insurance Regulation alone (Domain 1) outweighs several smaller domains combined. That single domain covers Ohio-specific licensing law, producer conduct, and Department of Insurance authority - content that has nothing to do with life or health product mechanics but still commands the single largest slice of the exam.
The Life Insurance Cluster (Domains 3-7)
Domains 3 through 7 form the life insurance half of the exam. Together they represent a substantial portion of your 150 questions, so treating "life insurance" as one vague topic instead of five distinct domains is a common mistake.
Domain 3: Life Insurance Basics (8%)
Candidates need to understand fundamental concepts: insurable interest, the underwriting process, risk classification, and how premiums relate to mortality tables and cost of insurance.
- Underwriting factors and risk classes
- Insurable interest requirements at policy inception
- Beneficiary designations and their legal effect
Domain 4: Life Insurance Policies (7%)
This domain tests your ability to distinguish policy types - term, whole life, universal life, and variable products - along with their cash value behavior and typical use cases.
- Term vs. permanent policy structures
- Cash value accumulation mechanics
- Variable and universal life features
Domain 5: Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders (9%)
At 9%, this is the second-largest domain overall. Expect detailed questions on nonforfeiture options, settlement options, grace periods, and common riders like waiver of premium and accelerated death benefit.
- Nonforfeiture and reinstatement provisions
- Settlement option calculations and scenarios
- Rider identification and purpose
Domain 6: Annuities (5%)
Annuity questions focus on accumulation vs. payout phases, fixed vs. variable structures, and surrender charge mechanics rather than investment theory.
Domain 7: Federal Tax Considerations for Life Insurance and Annuities (8%)
This domain tests tax treatment of death benefits, cash value growth, policy loans, and annuity distributions under federal rules as they apply to producers in Ohio.
Key Takeaway
Domains 3-7 combined account for a large share of the exam, so allocate proportionally more review time to policy provisions, riders, and tax treatment than to any single product type in isolation.
The Accident and Health Cluster (Domains 8-16)
Domains 8 through 16 cover accident and health insurance - a broader but more evenly distributed set of topics than the life cluster. This is where many candidates lose points simply because there are more distinct domains to track.
Domain 8: Accident and Health Insurance Basics (8%)
Covers foundational concepts: types of health coverage, underwriting for health risks, and basic policy structures before you get into specific product categories.
Domain 9: Individual Accident and Health Insurance Policy General Provisions (5%)
Focuses on mandatory and optional policy provisions required in individual A&H contracts, including grace periods, claims procedures, and reinstatement.
Domain 10: Disability Income and Related Insurance (5%)
Tests understanding of elimination periods, benefit periods, definitions of disability, and how disability income policies differ from other income-replacement products.
Domain 11: Medical Plans (6%)
Covers major medical structures, managed care concepts, and how different plan designs allocate cost-sharing between insurer and insured.
Domain 12: Health Insuring Corporations (HICs) (5%)
This domain is fairly Ohio-specific in terminology - HICs are the state's regulatory category for HMO-type organizations, and candidates should know how they're structured and regulated under Ohio law.
Domain 13: Group Accident and Health Insurance (5%)
Covers group underwriting, eligibility, COBRA-style continuation concepts, and how group contracts differ procedurally from individual policies.
Domain 14: Dental Care Plans (2%)
The smallest domain on the exam. Expect a handful of questions on dental plan structures and typical exclusions - don't over-invest study time here relative to its weight.
Domain 15: Insurance for Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals (8%)
Tied for one of the largest health-side domains. This area covers Medicare basics, Medicare Supplement standardization, and long-term care considerations for senior and special-needs populations.
Domain 16: Federal Tax Considerations for Accident and Health Insurance (4%)
Parallels Domain 7 but for health products - tax treatment of premiums, benefits, and employer-sponsored health plan contributions.
How to Use Domain Weighting to Plan Study Time
Because every domain weight comes directly from the official outline, you can build a study calendar that mirrors the actual test rather than guessing at emphasis. A simple approach: spend roughly one study session per percentage point of weight. Domain 1 (Insurance Regulation, 10%) and Domain 5 (Life Provisions/Riders, 9%) should get noticeably more repetition than Domain 14 (Dental, 2%).
Regulation and Fundamentals
- Domain 1: Insurance Regulation (10%)
- Domain 2: General Insurance (5%)
- Domain 3: Life Insurance Basics (8%)
Life Products and Tax Rules
- Domain 4: Life Insurance Policies (7%)
- Domain 5: Provisions, Options and Riders (9%)
- Domain 6: Annuities (5%)
- Domain 7: Federal Tax Considerations for Life/Annuities (8%)
Health Insurance Core
- Domain 8: A&H Basics (8%)
- Domain 9: Individual A&H Provisions (5%)
- Domain 10: Disability Income (5%)
- Domain 11: Medical Plans (6%)
Specialized Health Topics and Review
- Domain 12: Health Insuring Corporations (5%)
- Domain 13: Group A&H (5%)
- Domain 14: Dental Care Plans (2%)
- Domain 15: Senior/Special Needs Insurance (8%)
- Domain 16: Federal Tax Considerations for A&H (4%)
This weighting-based approach uses spaced repetition principles without treating them as generic advice detached from the exam: you're revisiting high-weight domains (1, 5, 7, 8, 15) across multiple weeks while touching low-weight domains (2, 6, 14, 16) just once or twice. For a deeper walkthrough of pass/fail benchmarks tied to this structure, see OHLH Passing Score 2026.
Exam Format and What Domain-Based Questions Look Like
All 150 scored questions are multiple-choice, delivered through PSI's testing platform, with 150 minutes to complete the exam. Questions are scenario-driven rather than pure definition recall - expect prompts describing a policyholder situation and asking which provision, rider, or regulation applies.
Because the outline is fixed, PSI doesn't randomly weight domains differently between test forms; the percentages in the table above represent the intended distribution across the exam. That means a candidate who has genuinely mastered Domain 1 (Insurance Regulation) and Domain 5 (Life Provisions, Options and Riders) has effectively covered nearly one-fifth of the entire scored exam. If you want a sense of how difficult these scenario questions tend to feel in practice, our How Hard Is the OHLH Exam? guide walks through difficulty by domain type.
Key Takeaway
Study scenarios, not just definitions. A question on Domain 9 (Individual A&H Policy General Provisions) is more likely to describe a claims dispute than to simply ask you to define a term.
Registration, Fees, and Prelicensing Education
Before you can sit for the domain content described above, Ohio resident applicants must complete 20 hours of approved prelicensing education for Life and 20 hours for Accident and Health - 40 hours total if pursuing the combined license. Each completion certificate is valid for only 180 days, so timing your exam date matters as much as knowing the domains. You'll also need to clear BCI and FBI fingerprint-based background checks as part of licensing.
The exam itself costs $49 through PSI and covers all 16 domains in a single combined test - there's no option to test on life domains and health domains separately. Once licensed, producers renew every two years with 24 hours of continuing education, including 3 hours of ethics, so the content areas you learn now stay relevant well beyond exam day.
For exact fee breakdowns including prelicensing course costs, see OHLH Certification Cost 2026. If you're mapping out scheduling around your 180-day certificate window, OHLH Exam Dates 2026 covers testing windows and deadlines in detail.
If you're still early in the process and want a plain-language explanation of the credential itself before diving into domain memorization, start with What Is OHLH? or OHLH Certification. And once you've worked through the outline, run full-length practice questions on our practice test platform to see how these 16 domains actually feel under timed conditions - that combination of outline review plus practice testing on the main site is the fastest way to convert domain knowledge into a passing score, a strategy also detailed in OHLH Cheat Sheet 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are 16 domains total, split between general/regulatory topics, life insurance topics (Domains 3-7), and accident and health topics (Domains 8-16).
Insurance Regulation (Domain 1) is the largest single domain at 10% of the 150 scored questions, followed by Life Insurance Policy Provisions, Options and Riders (Domain 5) at 9%.
Not equally, but proportionally. Domains 3-7 (life) and Domains 8-16 (health) each represent a substantial share of the exam, so neglecting either cluster puts a large percentage of questions at risk.
No domain should be skipped entirely, but Domain 14 (Dental Care Plans) at 2% deserves proportionally less study time than higher-weighted domains like Insurance Regulation or Senior Citizens and Special Needs Individuals.
You need 70% correct across all 150 scored questions combined; there is no requirement to pass each domain individually, so strong performance in high-weight domains can help offset weaker areas in low-weight ones.