Ohio licenses this profession under its own name — Public Insurance Adjuster, under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3951, through the Department of Insurance. The examination is PSI’s Series 11-38: 100 questions in two hours, with a 70% passing standard and no pre-licensing education requirement. Its outline is the most commercially weighted in this family, with the Commercial Package and Businessowners policies together at 34%. PassProfessor’s Ohio Public Insurance Adjuster program is in the works, built on that bulletin and outline.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
Ohio is the state in this family that insists on its own name for the profession: the license is the Public Insurance Adjuster, the statute is Revised Code Chapter 3951, Public Insurance Adjusters, and the certificate the state issues is a certificate of authority. A candidate searching under the national name will still find the license — but the examination, the application, and the license itself all speak Ohio’s language, and this package does the same. PassProfessor’s Ohio Public Insurance Adjuster program is in the works as part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog, built on PSI’s Series 11-38 bulletin and its commercially weighted outline.
Which license is this?
This page covers the Ohio Public Insurance Adjuster license and no other Ohio credential. Ohio licenses insurer-side adjusting work separately, and its producer licenses separately again; the public insurance adjuster is the licensee who acts for the insured, and Chapter 3951 — not the producer chapters — is its home. The distinction matters at the application counter as much as in the examination room: the bulletin’s license-type table gives this license its own row, with no pre-licensing education, no fingerprint requirement, its own $100 certificate fee, and its own examination series, 11-38.
What will the program cover?
Practice in the examination’s own shape. The Ohio Public Adjuster examination (Series 11-38) is a computer-based, multiple-choice examination, and the program in the works practises in that shape throughout: timed sets at the examination’s pace, single-best-answer items, and section sets matched to the published outline’s weights. Candidates should arrive having already made their pacing mistakes in practice.
Written from the primary sources. The program is written from the outline PSI publishes and the adjuster law ODI administers — the same documents the examination is built from. Where this state’s rules differ from the national pattern, and on the Commercial Package and Businessowners blocks, which together outweigh every other coverage area they do, the program teaches this state’s rule and names the difference, rather than teaching a national average.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the item practice, the program carries the licensing route as ODI publishes it — eligibility, the examination, and the a $1,000 surety bond and the certificate-of-authority application ODI decides that complete the application — because a licensing examination is a means to a license, and candidates plan better when the destination is mapped.
Preparation only, with the boundary kept clear. This is preparation for an examination administered by PSI Services LLC for the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI). PassProfessor is not affiliated with either body, no completion of this program is reported to ODI, and nothing in the program substitutes for any step in the licensing process.
Series 11-38 is the most commercial examination in this family: Commercial Package at 18% and Businessowners at 16% together carry a third of the sitting, more than Dwelling, Homeowners, and Auto combined. The program is built to that reality — commercial forms first in study weight, with Insurance Basics at 18% as the foundation block and Adjusting Losses at 15% as the practice block. Candidates whose experience is residential adjusting should read the outline as a warning and budget accordingly.
What are the verified facts of the license?
| Fact of record | Detail |
|---|---|
| License | Public Insurance Adjuster — Ohio’s own license name (Revised Code Chapter 3951, Public Insurance Adjusters); this package uses Ohio’s name throughout |
| Regulator | Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) |
| Examination | Ohio Public Adjuster examination, Series 11-38, administered by PSI Services LLC |
| Format | 100 questions; 2 hours; computer-based at PSI testing locations |
| Passing standard | 70%, per the PSI Ohio candidate bulletin |
| Examination fee | $49 per attempt (third-party fee, paid to PSI) |
| Pre-licensing education | None — the bulletin’s license-type table lists pre-licensing education as None for this license, with examination required |
| Fingerprinting | Not required for this license — the bulletin’s license-type table lists fingerprint/background check as No for Public Insurance Adjuster |
| Certificate fee and term | $100 certificate-of-authority application fee (third-party state fee, per the bulletin table); the license expires every December 31, with a $50 renewal |
How does preparation map to the examination outline?
The published outline for this examination organises the sitting as follows. Preparation in the program in the works is organised on the same sections, in the same proportions.
| Outline section | Weight / character |
|---|---|
| Insurance Regulation | 10% |
| Insurance Basics | 18% |
| Adjusting Losses | 15% |
| Dwelling Policy | 5% |
| Homeowners Policy | 7% |
| Personal Auto Policy | 8% |
| Commercial Package Policy | 18% |
| Businessowners Policy | 16% |
| Other Coverages and Options | 3% |
Insurance Regulation (10%). Regulation items test the licensing machinery itself: who may act as a public adjuster, what the application and renewal require, which acts are prohibited, and what discipline the regulator can impose. Candidates most often underrate this section because its items look familiar from practice; the examination tests the published version, not the remembered one.
Insurance Basics (18%). The basics block tests the vocabulary and architecture of insurance itself: risk, peril and hazard, insurable interest, indemnity, valued policy and agreed-value concepts, underwriting, and the parties to the contract. Study this section from the primary text first and from summaries second; its items are written closely to the source.
Adjusting Losses (15%). The adjustment process block is the practice block: duties after a loss, investigation and documentation, estimating and valuation, the proof of loss, negotiation, the appraisal clause, and settlement options. The efficient method here is worked examples: short scenarios, answered and reviewed, rather than rereading notes.
Dwelling Policy (5%). Dwelling policy items concentrate on the DP forms: which perils each form insures, how Coverage A through E are structured, fair rental value and additional living expense treatment, and the valuation basis the form applies. Preparation for this section should be built from the outline’s own subtopics, worked at examination pace.
Homeowners Policy (7%). Homeowners items work through the HO forms section by section: Section I property coverages and their internal limits, Section II liability, the named-perils against open-perils distinction, and the exclusions and conditions that decide real claims. Candidates most often underrate this section because its items look familiar from practice; the examination tests the published version, not the remembered one.
Personal Auto Policy (8%). Auto items in a property-centred examination test the personal auto policy at the level an adjuster meets it: liability and physical damage parts, uninsured motorists treatment where the outline names it, and the state’s financial responsibility frame. Study this section from the primary text first and from summaries second; its items are written closely to the source.
Commercial Package Policy (18%). Commercial property items cover the commercial package and commercial property forms: causes-of-loss forms, coinsurance at commercial scale, business income and extra expense, equipment breakdown, and the endorsements that move coverage. The efficient method here is worked examples: short scenarios, answered and reviewed, rather than rereading notes.
Businessowners Policy (16%). Businessowners policy items test the BOP as a packaged product: its property and liability sections, eligibility by business class and size, the standard endorsements, and where the package stops and a commercial package policy begins. Preparation for this section should be built from the outline’s own subtopics, worked at examination pace.
Other Coverages and Options (3%). Other coverages is the residual block: inland marine and floaters, flood program mechanics, earthquake and specialty endorsements, and the miscellaneous forms the outline gathers at the margin. Candidates most often underrate this section because its items look familiar from practice; the examination tests the published version, not the remembered one.
Who earns this license?
Ohio’s candidate population skews commercial for the same reason the outline does: the state’s stock of small and mid-sized commercial property — main-street retail, light industrial, rental and mixed-use buildings across its mid-sized cities — generates the losses that public insurance adjusters are retained on. Candidates arrive from commercial restoration, from insurer commercial-lines adjusting, and from independent adjusting firms adding a public license. The December 31 expiry for every licensee gives the population a shared annual rhythm most states do not impose.
What is the route to the license?
ODI’s route, as the bulletin tabulates it, is the cleanest in this family: no pre-licensing education, no fingerprinting, the Series 11-38 examination through PSI, a $1,000 surety bond, and the certificate-of-authority application with its $100 fee. The examination fee is $49, paid to PSI. The license then expires every December 31 and renews at $50 — a calendar term, not a birth-month or anniversary term. The companion guide walks the route and all nine outline sections.
What makes this examination demanding?
One hundred questions in two hours is a standard pace; the demand here is distribution. A residentially trained candidate faces a third of the examination in commercial forms they may rarely have adjusted, while the sections matching their experience — Dwelling at 5%, Homeowners at 7% — are the outline’s smallest. The examination therefore punishes experience-led study plans more than most: the outline, not the candidate’s loss history, has to set the syllabus.
An honest note on format
PassProfessor practice works in the format this examination uses — computer-based, multiple-choice, timed at the examination’s pace. The vendor does not release its examination items, and no provider can offer them. Practice results are a study gauge, not a prediction of a licensing outcome, and the examination decision and the licensing decision both belong to bodies other than PassProfessor.
How should you use this page while the program is in the works?
- Join the notify list today. Enrollment is not open yet, and the notify list is how you hear the moment it is. While you wait, read the exam guide — it walks the licensing route, the outline section by section, the sitting itself, and a preparation plan in full.
- Confirm the license before the syllabus. Read the ‘Which license is this?’ section above twice if your background is insurer-side adjusting or producing; in Ohio, the public adjuster credential is its own license with its own examination route.
- Start the application clock-watching early. The steps around the examination — in this state, a $1,000 surety bond and the certificate-of-authority application ODI decides — have their own lead times, and candidates who start them during preparation do not lose a season to paperwork after a pass.
- Study from the primary documents alongside any preparation. The vendor’s handbook or bulletin and the state’s adjuster law are the examination’s sources, and both are published for candidates.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Ohio Public Insurance Adjuster license? It is the license ODI issues to the adjuster who represents the insured — the policyholder — in a claim, rather than the insurer. Public Insurance Adjuster — Ohio’s own license name (Revised Code Chapter 3951, Public Insurance Adjusters); this package uses Ohio’s name throughout. The holder is retained by the insured, for compensation, to document, evaluate, and negotiate the insured’s claim.
Who regulates public adjusters in Ohio? the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI). The regulator writes or administers the licensing rules, receives the application, and issues the license; the examination vendor administers the test and nothing more.
What examination must Ohio public adjuster candidates pass? The Ohio Public Adjuster examination (Series 11-38), administered by PSI. 100 questions; 2 hours; computer-based at PSI testing locations
What is the passing standard? 70%, per the PSI Ohio candidate bulletin
Is there a pre-licensing education requirement? None — the bulletin’s license-type table lists pre-licensing education as None for this license, with examination required
What else does licensure require besides the examination? Licensure sits alongside a $1,000 surety bond and the certificate-of-authority application ODI decides. The examination is one input into the application; ODI issues the license on the completed file, and no candidate may act as a Ohio public insurance adjuster before it issues.
How is a public adjuster different from an independent adjuster? By client. An independent adjuster adjusts claims on behalf of insurers; a public adjuster is retained by and represents the insured. The licenses, the duties, and in Ohio the licensing treatment are distinct, and preparation for one does not substitute for preparation for the other.
Does passing the examination make me a licensed public insurance adjuster? No. Passing satisfies the examination requirement; the license issues when ODI approves the completed application. Acting as a public adjuster before the license issues is unlicensed practice, however the examination went.
When will the PassProfessor Ohio program open? The program is in the works and enrollment is not open yet. Join the notify list on this page and you will be emailed when enrollment opens; the companion exam guide is available to read now for planning your preparation.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with ODI or PSI? No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) or PSI Services LLC. The regulator owns the license and the vendor administers the examination; this program is preparation only.