Insurance License Hub

Getting an insurance license in Ohio

Ohio licenses through the Ohio Department of Insurance, which calls the licensee an agent. Which license you need depends on what you intend to sell, and the requirements differ sharply between them.

License types

Is a course required?

Ohio requires pre-licensing education for Life, Accident & Health, Property, Casualty, Personal Lines, Surety Bail Bond , at 20 hours.

Twenty hours per line of authority, not twenty in total: a combined exam requires a course completion certificate for each of the two lines it covers. The hours may be classroom, distance learning or self-study. The certificate is valid for 180 calendar days and the exam must be passed inside that window. The Department waives the education for an applicant holding a bachelor or associate degree in insurance, for every major line except Surety Bail Bond, and for named designations per line: CLU, CEBS, ChFC, CIC, CFP, FLMI or LUTCF for Life; RHU, CEBS, REBC or HIA for Accident & Health; CPCU, AAI, ARM or CIC for Property, Casualty and Personal Lines. A waiver is requested before the exam is registered for and lasts 180 days. The statute is what sets the twenty hours and it names the three acceptable deliveries itself: classroom, online and self-study. It also makes the course a condition of being permitted to take the examination rather than a separate step, and offers the same permission for a bachelor's or associate's degree in insurance from an accredited institution or a professional designation approved by the superintendent.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-21 . Ohio Revised Code 3905.04(C)(1)(c)

Ohio requires no pre-licensing course for Public Insurance Adjuster, Public Insurance Adjuster Agent, Title, Variable Life and Variable Annuity Products, Credit, Crop, Funeral Expense, Rental Car, Travel, Reciprocal, Portable Electronics, Self-Service Storage, Title Insurance Marketing Representative, Surplus Lines, Managing General Agent, Reinsurance Intermediary, Third Party Administrator, Temporary Insurance Agent, Viatical Settlement Broker, Viatical Settlement Provider, Registered Viatical Settlement Life Agent, Insurance Navigator Business Entity.

The Department states plainly that public insurance adjuster and title applicants are not required to complete pre-license education and therefore will not have a course completion certificate. A sourced zero, not an absence. Both still sit an examination. The statute says it too: division (C) does not apply with respect to title insurance or any other line of authority designated by the superintendent. The rest of the list is everything else the Department issues, and three separate provisions put them here. Ohio Revised Code 3905.04(B) requires an examination only of the five major lines in 3905.06(B)(1) to (5), of title and of surety bail bond, so the variable line needs none. O.A.C. 3901-5-09(F)(3) covers every limited line in one sentence: "No pre-licensing education, licensing examination or continuing education is required for a limited lines license."And 3905.041(B) exempts the temporary agent from both by name. The remaining instruments, from the managing general agent to the viatical settlement provider, are granted on documents rather than on study.

Read at the Department on 2026-08-21 . Ohio Revised Code 3905.04(B) and (C)(2), 3905.041(B), and Ohio Administrative Code 3901-5-09(F)(3)

Ohio requires pre-licensing education for Insurance Navigator , at 24 hours.

Ohio's second live course requirement, and it is four hours longer than the one a producer takes. The rule names the twelve subjects the twenty-four hours have to cover: compliance with HIPAA, ethics, the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the levels of coverage available under it, eligibility to buy a qualified health plan, means of appeal and dispute resolution, conflict of interest and impartiality, exchange privacy policies, individual eligibility for Medicaid, advanced premium tax credits and cost sharing reductions, publicly funded health care, and employer eligibility for the Small Business Health Options Program. Two things keep it out of the market that sells the producer's twenty hours. Paragraph (G)(1) says an applicant who completes the exchange's own training program and meets its education standards "has met all initial education requirements", and paragraph (C)(2)(c) says the comprehensive examination is met by passing the one the secretary of health and human services administers. So Ohio sets the figure and the federal government supplies the course and the paper. The Department's own pre-licensing education page does not mention any of it, which is why this record sits apart from the twenty-hour one above.

Read at codes.ohio.gov on 2026-08-21 . Ohio Administrative Code 3901-5-13(C)(2)(a), under Ohio Revised Code 3905.471(F)(1)

Fees

Charge Paid to Amount
Initial application, per major or limited line of authority Ten dollars for each line, so the cost of a license scales with how many lines are taken rather than being a flat charge. Non-refundable and non-transferable, and a counter check is not accepted. R.C. 3905.40(C) is the authority and it is drawn as a rule with four exceptions rather than as a list: "Each applicant for licensure as an insurance agent except applicants for licensure as surety bail bond agents, surplus line brokers, portable electronics insurance vendors, and self-service storage facilities shall pay ten dollars for each line of authority requested."The temporary agent and the registered viatical settlement life agent are agent licenses and are in none of the four exceptions, so both carry it. State of Ohio Treasurer $10.00
Biennial renewal, per major or limited line of authority Waived for resident individuals who are compliant with their continuing education, and not a cost of getting a first license. State of Ohio Treasurer $25.00
Portable electronics, ten or fewer Ohio locations A location includes any web site or call center site directed at Ohio residents, so this is not a count of shops. State of Ohio Treasurer $100.00
Portable electronics, eleven or more Ohio locations The alternative to the $100 fee rather than an addition to it, so no cost page may total both. State of Ohio Treasurer $1,000.00
Public insurance adjuster State of Ohio Treasurer $100.00
Public insurance adjuster agent Half the adjuster's fee, and both licenses expire on 31 December every year. State of Ohio Treasurer $50.00
Surety bail bond State of Ohio Treasurer $150.00
Surplus lines Annual, expiring on 31 January, and renewal is conditioned on every surplus lines tax owed to the Treasurer having been paid. State of Ohio Treasurer $100.00
Managing general agent Annual, expiring on the last day of February. State of Ohio Treasurer $20.00
Reinsurance intermediary One fee for the broker capacity and the manager capacity alike. Annual, expiring on 31 December. State of Ohio Treasurer $500.00
Third party administrator Annual, expiring on 30 June. The renewal is $300, which is more than the application. State of Ohio Treasurer $200.00
Viatical settlement broker Annual, expiring on the last day of March. The renewal is $100. State of Ohio Treasurer $200.00
Insurance navigator business entity certification Set by Ohio Revised Code 3905.471(E)(2)(b) rather than by the Department's fee chart, which does not price the navigator at all. The annual renewal is $100 and a late renewal adds $50. State of Ohio Treasurer $200.00
Insurance navigator certification, individual Searched and not published. R.C. 3905.471(D)(5) makes an individual navigator's certification turn on having "paid all fees required by the superintendent" and names no figure, where 3905.471(E)(2)(b) prices the business entity certification at $200 initial and $100 renewal in the statute itself. The Department's own license fee chart prices twenty-odd licenses down to a $10 title marketing representative and does not name the navigator at all. The amount is left unread rather than guessed. State of Ohio Treasurer Not confirmed
Viatical settlement provider license Searched and not published. R.C. 3916.03(A) sends the provider and the broker to the same place for the figure: the application "shall be accompanied by a fee established by the superintendent by rule", and 3916.03(F) does the same for the annual renewal. The Department's fee chart prices the viatical settlement broker at $200 and does not price the provider, so the two are not shown to be the same and the provider's amount is left unread rather than inferred from the broker's. What the section does set is the money the provider must have rather than pay: 3916.03 asks audited financial statements showing a minimum equity of $250,000 in cash or cash equivalents, or a surety bond, letter of credit, deposit or securities totalling $250,000. That is security rather than a payment and no cost page totals it. State of Ohio Treasurer Not confirmed

Every amount above was read at its own source between 2026-08-21 and 2026-09-05. Exam and fingerprint charges go to a vendor, not to the Department, and say so.

Approved courses

Ohio approves the provider rather than the individual course, which is the opposite of how Florida does it. The register lists approved pre-licensing education providers, so an approval here attaches to a company and not to a named course. O.A.C. 3901-5-07 is the rule that regulates them. Nothing on the register reaches a limited line, a navigator or any of the licenses the Department grants on documents, because Ohio requires no approved course for any of those. You can search it at gateway.insurance.ohio.gov .