Is Ohio National a Good Insurance Company?

If you are searching for Ohio National Life Insurance Company, the most important thing to know upfront is that the company no longer operates under that name. The Ohio National Life Insurance Company officially changed its name to AuguStar Life Insurance Company in October 2023 — a rebrand that followed a 2022 demutualization transaction in which the company became a subsidiary of Constellation Insurance Holdings. Constellation is backed by two of Canada’s largest institutional investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, with combined assets of approximately CA$800 billion. Your existing Ohio National policy is now an AuguStar policy, and all contractual obligations, coverage terms, and guarantees carry forward unchanged. For new product evaluation, the company now operates under the AuguStar brand — AuguStar Life for life insurance and AuguStar Retirement for annuities. The company holds an AM Best A (Excellent) rating, has over $12 billion in total assets, and manages $141 billion in life insurance in force. At Diversified Insurance Brokers, Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA, evaluates AuguStar/Ohio National across both its life insurance and annuity product lines using a live multi-carrier comparison — because a carrier’s history of transformation is relevant context, but the specific product, rate, and contract terms are what actually determine fit.

Company Timeline

The 2018 Annuity Exit and the 2023 Re-Entry

The most confusing part of the Ohio National / AuguStar story for consumers is the annuity timeline. In 2018, Ohio National announced a significant strategic contraction — exiting most annuity markets and reducing the workforce by roughly a quarter. Clients who had been shopping annuities from Ohio National in 2018 or later found the carrier had stepped back from active competition in that space. This withdrawal was driven by the company’s assessment of market conditions and product economics at the time — it was not a financial distress event. The AM Best A (Excellent) rating was maintained through this period, and existing policyholders’ contracts remained fully in force.

The 2023 re-entry under the AuguStar Retirement brand changed that picture. Under Constellation’s ownership and with institutional capital from CDPQ and Ontario Teachers’ backing the balance sheet, AuguStar Retirement launched a new generation of MYGA and FIA products with genuinely competitive structures. The LunarLock MYGA and LunarGuard MYGA are now actively competing in the independent annuity market. The LunarGuard MYGA in particular draws attention for its 12% annual penalty-free withdrawal provision — among the highest free withdrawal allowances available on any MYGA from an A-rated carrier — which makes it relevant for clients who want guaranteed growth but also need access to a meaningful portion of their premium each year without surrender penalties. Our resource on annuity free withdrawal rules covers how the 12% provision compares to the market standard of 10%, and why that difference matters for clients with liquidity needs during the accumulation period. For clients who are transferring a 401(a) or defined benefit plan balance into a MYGA as part of a retirement transition, our resource on how to transfer a 401(a) to an annuity and how to transfer a defined benefit plan to an annuity cover the specific rollover mechanics for those account types.

AuguStar Life Insurance Products

Life insurance has been AuguStar’s core business since the 2018 strategic pivot, and the company’s product depth in this area is substantial. The lineup includes term life, whole life, universal life, indexed universal life, and indexed whole life — covering the full spectrum from temporary income replacement to permanent cash value accumulation. The company carried $141 billion in life insurance in force and approximately 280,000 active life insurance policies as of the most recently reported period. That depth of in-force business reflects genuine market presence across multiple product categories.

For clients evaluating AuguStar life insurance, several riders are worth specific attention: living benefit riders that allow accelerated access to death benefit funds upon diagnosis of terminal or chronic illness, disability riders that waive premiums if the insured becomes disabled, children’s term riders, and guaranteed insurability riders that allow coverage increases without additional underwriting. The disability rider available on life policies is particularly relevant for clients who are also considering standalone disability income coverage — our resource on whether disability insurance payments are taxable covers the tax treatment distinction that often determines whether a rider-based disability benefit or standalone disability income policy serves better for a specific client situation. For business owners evaluating both personal life insurance and business disability coverage, our resource on business overhead disability insurance covers the business continuity protection that commonly runs parallel to personal life insurance decisions, and our resource on buy-sell disability insurance covers the funding mechanism for buy-sell agreements when disability — not death — is the triggering event.

For clients in specific professions where disability income insurance is a parallel planning need, our resources on disability income for accountants and disability income for firefighters cover two occupational categories that interact differently with life insurance underwriting and group benefit structures. For clients who need critical illness coverage alongside or instead of a traditional life policy, our resources on the cancer diagnosis cash benefit rider, critical illness insurance from Assurity, and how to buy critical illness insurance online cover this adjacent protection category. For employees who rely on group life insurance and want to understand what it does and does not provide, our resource on group life insurance covers the planning context that makes individual permanent coverage alongside group coverage the right structure for most working adults.

AuguStar Annuity Products: LunarLock and LunarGuard

AuguStar Retirement’s MYGA lineup is what draws most advisors and consumers to the company in the current annuity market. The LunarLock MYGA is available in three, five, and seven-year terms — both MVA and non-MVA versions — with up to 10% annual penalty-free withdrawal from year two. The LunarGuard MYGA extends the free withdrawal provision to 12% annually — making it the highest free withdrawal allowance in the A-rated MYGA market as of this writing. Rates on five-to-seven-year terms have been competitive with the top of the A-rated MYGA market. Both products carry the AM Best A (Excellent) rating, a minimum $10,000 premium, and standard MYGA consumer protections including principal protection and tax-deferred growth. For clients who are evaluating the AuguStar MYGAs alongside other top-rated options in the market, our resources on the Americo Ultimate One Index 7 and the Ameritas FlexMark Select cover two competing products with different crediting and income structures for comparison. The annuity exclusion ratio resource covers how distributions from non-qualified annuities — including MYGA payouts at maturity — are taxed, which is relevant for any MYGA placed outside a qualified account. For clients comparing the AuguStar MYGA against what their 401(k) or 403(b) will produce in retirement, our resource on how a 401(k) works and how retirement accounts are taxed provides the comparison context for making that decision.

The Constellation Ownership: CDPQ, Ontario Teachers’, and What It Means

Constellation Insurance Holdings — AuguStar’s parent — is backed equally by CDPQ (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, two of Canada’s and North America’s largest long-term institutional investors managing approximately CA$800 billion combined. This institutional ownership structure is meaningfully different from private equity ownership in the traditional sense — CDPQ and Ontario Teachers’ are pension fund-backed institutions with multi-decade investment horizons and obligations to their own pension beneficiaries that align their incentives toward long-duration financial strength rather than short-term extraction. Constellation committed $500 million in additional capital support to the Ohio National Life Group over four years following the 2022 acquisition — a concrete demonstration of backing the balance sheet. Fitch’s upgrade from A- (BBB+) to A in May 2025 explicitly referenced the improved financial profile under Constellation’s ownership, and AM Best affirmed A (Excellent) through the transition. For clients evaluating the ownership structure relative to other institutional-backed carriers, our resource on Is Athene a Good Company covers the Apollo Global Management-backed model for comparison, and our resource on Is American Equity a Good Company covers another institutional-ownership transition case in the annuity space.

For clients who are simultaneously planning their Medicare enrollment alongside annuity and life insurance decisions — particularly those approaching retirement age — our resources on enrolling in Medicare at 65, how Medicare works, and whether Medicare covers nursing home care cover the planning dimensions that run alongside insurance and annuity decisions at this life stage. For clients building a retirement income floor that includes Social Security, our resources on whether working past 65 affects Social Security and how delayed retirement credits boost Social Security cover the claiming strategy context that runs alongside any MYGA or FIA accumulation decision. For clients who also need burial insurance coverage for themselves or parents — a common need in the 55-to-70 bracket — our resources on the best-rated burial insurance companies and the burial insurance calculator cover this adjacent planning need. For small business owners exploring group health alongside individual retirement products, our resources on group health insurance cost for small businesses and group health insurance for accounting firms cover the employer-side planning that often runs alongside owner retirement decisions.