Who regulates your policy in Ohio
Insurance is regulated state by state, so your policy is governed by Ohio law and overseen by the Ohio Department of Insurance — not by a federal agency. It licenses the agent who sells to you and handles complaints if something goes wrong.
Two things worth doing before you sign: verify your agent's license is active in Ohio, and keep the consumer line (800-686-1526) on hand. Both are free, and an agent not licensed in your state is a hard stop.
Your window to cancel in Ohio
Ohio has no flat statutory free-look period for life insurance. Ohio Admin. Code 3901-6-03(E) only recognizes a 10-day unconditional refund provision as an optional alternative that changes when disclosure documents must be delivered -- it does not require insurers to include one.
Because the rule is not a single fixed number here, the period that applies to you is whatever your specific policy states. Find that clause in the contract before you sign, rather than assuming a standard period exists.
If a carrier fails in Ohio
If your carrier became insolvent, the Ohio Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association is the backstop. In Ohio it covers a death benefit up to $300,000 and cash surrender value up to $100,000. Those are separate ceilings, so an IUL's accumulated cash value is protected independently of the death benefit.
This protection is not a reason to skip carrier due diligence. It caps what you would recover, and a policy designed above that cap leaves the excess exposed.
What Ohio adds to the cost
Ohio levies a state premium tax of 1.4% on life insurance premiums. That sits below the 2% median of the 50 states covered here. You do not pay it as a separate line item — carriers price it into the premium, which is part of why the same policy design can cost differently across state lines.