Pros Explained

• Very few customer complaints: Based on complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Ohio National Life Insurance Company has received a very small number of complaints based on its market share.
• A wide range of life insurance available: In addition to term coverage, Ohio National offers universal life, whole life, indexed universal life, and variable universal life policies. 
• Whole life policies pay dividends: Ohio National offers participating whole life insurance policies, which pay annual dividends to policyholders. Dividends aren’t guaranteed, but Ohio National has paid them every year for over 90 years. 
• Convertible term policies: Ohio National offers two term products that let you choose from any of their available permanent insurance policies at the time of conversion, something of a rarity for convertible policies.

Cons Explained

• Medical exams are required for coverage: Ohio National does not give the option to forego the exam while plenty of its competitors do. 
• Must apply for coverage with an agent: You must work with an agent to get coverage.
• Maximum for term policies is 20 years: If you’re looking for temporary life insurance coverage beyond 20 years, you won’t find it here. Most companies we reviewed let you choose a term length up to 30 years.

Complaint Index

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) tracks complaints against licensed insurance companies and calculates a complaint index for each different type of insurance the company offers. By comparing the index to an industry standard of 1.00, you can get a sense of how many complaints that company has received. For example, if a company has a complaint index of 0.5, it received fewer complaints than expected for a company of its size.

Ohio National life insurance products are issued by The Ohio National Life Insurance Company and Ohio National Life Assurance Corporation. Because each company has a very low incidence of complaints, our NAIC-derived complaint index is only 0.13. This means Ohio National has had far fewer customer complaints than expected for a company with its market share. 

Third-Party Ratings

is one of three key rating agencies that analyzes the strength and creditworthiness of life insurance companies. It assigned a Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) to Ohio National, meaning that AM Best thinks the company has an excellent ability to meet its financial obligations. An A is the third-best rating of 13 ratings in AM Best’s FSR scale. 

Policies Available

Ohio National offers a wide range of policy types.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance is temporary insurance that provides a fixed amount of money to your beneficiaries if you die within the term of the policy. Term life insurance is frequently available for up to 30 years of coverage, though some companies provide coverage for 40-year terms. The premium stays the same each year, and the policy does not accumulate any cash value, unlike permanent (whole or universal) life insurance. 

Ohio National offers two term policies for  10, 15, or 20 years, each with the ability to convert to a permanent policy during the term (conversion privileges vary among policies). If you choose not to convert, you can renew the coverage annually until age 99. However, your premium will increase exponentially as you age—annual renewals are no substitute for long-term coverage. 

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance provides permanent (lifetime) coverage in exchange for a specified premium. It does this by incorporating a cash value account into the policy, which offsets the cost of life insurance as you age. However, this also makes the cost of permanent insurance usually much higher than term. Like term coverage, if you don’t make premium payments, the policy could lapse—meaning your coverage ends and you could face taxes on any cash value that accumulated in excess of your payments.

Ohio National is a mutual life insurance company and offers participating whole life policies. This means policyholders are eligible to receive dividends annually. Though they’re not guaranteed, Ohio National has an excellent record of paying dividends every year.  Ohio National offers a few different iterations of whole life to address different needs, such as affordable premiums or a shorter premium payment period.

Universal Life Insurance

Universal life (UL) insurance is a type of permanent coverage that offers more flexibility than whole life insurance. You can adjust premiums, choose an increasing death benefit, and may have easier access to the cash value. However, you exchange some guarantees for these conveniences. Ohio National offers UL policies to address different needs, including cash value growth and affordability. 

Indexed Universal Life Insurance

Indexed universal life (IUL) is a type of UL in which the cash value of the policy is tied to the performance of a stock market index, subject to caps and floors. So you won’t see a negative return even if the index performs poorly, but you also may not see all market gains credited to your account. 

Ohio National offers an IUL policy with both a fixed account and a choice of four indexed accounts. Two are based on the performance of the S&P 500 index, one is based on the Russell 2000, and the other on the EuroStoxx 50. 

Variable Universal Life Insurance 

Variable universal (VUL) life allows you to invest directly in the stock market via mutual-fund-like sub-accounts. The cash value is invested in your choice of sub-accounts and can gain and lose value according to how the investments in the account perform. Unlike IUL, you can have negative returns in a VUL policy. As a result, VUL policies are considered the riskiest of universal life options. 

Ohio National offers VUL policies through its wealth management platform, ONESCO. There is a wide range of sub-accounts available, including bond and equity funds from familiar names including Fidelity, Janus, Morgan Stanley, and PIMCO. 

Available Riders

Riders are benefits that can be added to an insurance policy to meet specific needs of the policyholder and their family. Most are available for an added cost, but some can be added for free. The list below features most, but not necessarily all of the riders available from Ohio National.

Guaranteed Purchase Option (GPO)

A guaranteed purchase option, also known as a guaranteed insurability rider, allows the policyholder to increase the death benefit during certain option periods without providing evidence of medical insurability—meaning without taking an exam or answering medical questions.  If this rider is purchased, Ohio National allows you to increase the death benefit at specific ages, beginning at 25 and then every three years until age 40. If you have or adopt a child within 90 days, you can accelerate the next option period and increase your coverage sooner.

Children’s Term and Additional Insured Term Riders

These riders allow you to add insurance for someone else onto your own policy. Term coverage for one or more children or one adult can be purchased as policy add-ons.  Both options allow the temporary coverage to be converted to permanent coverage within each rider’s guidelines. Either rider may be added after the policy is issued.

Waiver of Premium

If you select this rider and become totally disabled, premium payments can be waived after an elimination period is satisfied. An elimination period is an amount of time that you have met the requirement for disability before the benefit kicks in.

Accidental Death

If you die as a result of an accident, an additional death benefit would be paid to your designated beneficiaries. This rider is available on term policies.

Accelerated Benefit Riders

An accelerated benefit rider allows you to receive a portion of the death benefit early under certain conditions. Ohio National offers two. One may be exercised if you experience a terminal or chronic illness, while the other is only available for terminal conditions. The definition of “terminal” can differ between companies—Ohio National defines it as a condition, certified by a physician, that is expected to result in death within 12 months.  If this rider is exercised, an administrative fee is charged, and the amount accelerated will reduce the death benefit your beneficiaries will receive. This feature may be added with no charge to some policies even after the policy has been issued.

Paid-Up Additions Rider

Ohio National offers a paid-up additions (PUA) rider on its whole life products. Paid-up additions of life insurance can be purchased with policy dividends. But a PUA rider allows the policyholder to also purchase paid-up additions of life insurance with extra premium payments, which can further enhance the cash value, death benefit, and future dividend payments. 

Overloan Protection Rider

The overloan protection rider protects some policies when the policyholder has taken out loans against the cash value in an amount that could cause it to lapse. Certain conditions must be met to exercise this rider and it’s not available on all policies. 

Preferred Loan Rider

Ohio National offers a rider on certain permanent life insurance products that can reduce the interest rate on loans taken out against the cash value, once qualifying conditions have been met. 

Customer Service 

Ohio National Life Insurance Company customer service is only available from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET by calling 800-366-6654. Or you can email lifecs@ohionational.com. The mailing address is P.O. Box 237 Cincinnati, OH 45201-0237.  To find a financial professional representing Ohio National in your area, you must email fasteam@ohionational.com, and include your contact information and the products that interest you. Current customers who need to file an insurance claim can email claims@ohionational.com or call 877-446-3010, or fax 513-794-4521. 

Our Methodology: How We Review Life Insurance Carriers

We designed a comprehensive ranking methodology based on consumer priorities and life insurance company fundamentals to rank more than 90 insurers across five general categories: financial stability, customer satisfaction, product and feature variety, the overall buying experience, and cost. In order to do this, we collected over 5,000 data points and scored each company based on 55 metrics. We grouped metrics by category to see how insurers performed in each; we then weighted category scores to determine how companies performed overall.

To learn more, read our full Life Insurance Methodology.