(A) Agents of fraternal benefit societies shall be licensed in the manner provided for agents of insurance companies in Chapter 3905. of the Revised Code, and shall be required to complete continuing education as set forth in section 3905.481 of the Revised Code starting with the twenty-four-month period commencing on the first day of January of 1999. However, no written or other examination shall be required of any person whose application for the original issuance of a license to represent a fraternal benefit society as its agent was filed with the superintendent of insurance prior to January 1, 1997.

(B) The following persons shall not be required to be licensed in accordance with division (A) of this section:

(1) Any regularly salaried officer, employee, or member of a licensed society who devotes substantially all of the person's services to activities other than the solicitation of fraternal insurance contracts from the public, and who receives for the solicitation of any such contracts no commission or other compensation directly dependent upon the amount of business obtained.

The officers, employees, and members described in division (B)(1) of this section also are not subject to examination by the superintendent under Chapter 3905. of the Revised Code.

(2) Any agent or representative of a society who devotes, or intends to devote, less than fifty per cent of the person's time to the solicitation and procurement of insurance contracts for the society. For purposes of division (B)(2) of this section, any person who, in the preceding calendar year, has received a commission or other compensation for soliciting and procuring any of the following contracts on behalf of an individual society is presumed to have devoted, or to have intended to devote, fifty per cent of the person's time to the solicitation and procurement of insurance contracts:

(a) Life insurance contracts that, in the aggregate, exceeded two hundred thousand dollars of coverage for all lives insured for the preceding calendar year;

(b) A permanent life insurance contract offering more than ten thousand dollars of coverage on an individual life;

(c) A term life insurance contract offering more than fifty thousand dollars of coverage on an individual life;

(d) Any insurance contracts other than life that the society may write and that insure the individual lives of more than twenty-five individuals;

(e) Any contract issued on a variable basis, as authorized by division (C) of section 3921.22 of the Revised Code.

(C) Notwithstanding division (B) of this section, any person selling an annuity contract under the authority of division (A)(3) of section 3921.16 of the Revised Code shall be licensed pursuant to Chapter 3905. of the Revised Code.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.124, HB 341, §1, eff. 1/1/2013.

Effective Date: 06-30-1998 .