AIA vs AA Life

AIA is a licensed New Zealand life insurer with the full personal risk range, sold through advisers and, at simpler tiers, more directly. AA Life sells life and related cover under a familiar consumer brand, underwritten by a licensed insurer behind it.

Someone comparing these two is usually looking for a straightforward purchase. Both can provide one. The thing to check is what kind of contract the easy purchase produces, because there are two quite different models sitting under the same convenience.

In one, you answer detailed questions and an underwriter decides in writing what is covered and what is not, before you pay anything. In the other, you answer few questions and a general pre-existing condition exclusion sits in the wording, to be applied when you claim. Both are legitimate. Only one tells you where you stand in advance.

Six comparisons, starting with the one that decides what you actually own.

These are the details that decide whether the cover does what you expected. Read them before you compare on price.

• Whether the words simplified, guaranteed acceptance and underwritten are being used precisely in the material you have been given.
• How far back a general pre-existing condition exclusion looks.
• Whether the sum insured available covers the mortgage plus income replacement.
• Whether level premiums are available at all on either route.
• That your duty of disclosure is identical however short the form is.

Every New Zealand insurer writes life and living cover to its own wording, and the words are where the money is. Two policies that look identical on price can pay very differently when it matters. Closing that gap is the entire job of an adviser.

• An adviser quotes both insurers on matched terms — same sum insured, same structure, same waiting and benefit periods — which is the only way the numbers mean anything.
• Where a health history is not straightforward, an adviser can pre-assess it anonymously with both insurers before any formal application exists, so an unfavourable answer never lands on your record.
• Policy fees and multi-benefit discounts mean the cheaper per-benefit rate is often not the cheaper household total. An adviser models the total.
• An adviser can run one fully underwritten quote alongside the simplified product so you can see whether standard terms are available to you.
• Where full underwriting would accept a condition outright, that is almost always better than a general exclusion you never see applied until you claim.

There are three ways to buy life cover in New Zealand, and they are not equivalent. You can buy direct from one insurer, which means you see one product range and one underwriting appetite. You can buy through your bank, which usually means a single insurer’s product sold under the bank’s brand, often with narrower definitions. Or you can go through an adviser, who quotes several insurers at once and is required to put your interests first.

The premium you pay is the same either way. Insurers build adviser commission into their pricing whether or not an adviser is involved, so going direct does not get you a discount — it just removes the person whose job is to argue your corner at application and at claim time.

• An adviser can see which insurer is currently taking your health history on standard terms, and which one will load or exclude it.
• An adviser can structure cover across two insurers if that produces a better outcome than putting everything with one.
• An adviser handles the underwriting back-and-forth, and is the person who chases the claim when a family is least able to.
• An adviser has to document why the recommendation suits you, which is a written record you can hold them to.

We are a referral service, not an insurer. We do not quote premiums and we do not sell policies. What we do is put you in front of one licensed New Zealand adviser who can compare the market properly.

1. 1

   You tell us what you are looking at

   The form takes about a minute. Nobody asks for your medical history on a web form — that conversation happens with the adviser, properly, and only once you have decided to proceed.

2. 2

   An adviser calls you

   A licensed New Zealand adviser talks through your situation: who depends on you, what you owe, what you already have in place, and what you are actually worried about.

3. 3

   They compare the market

   The adviser quotes across the major insurers, checks which of them will take your health history on the best terms, and puts the options side by side in writing.

4. 4

   You decide, in your own time

   There is no obligation and no cost to you. If the answer is that you already have enough cover, a good adviser will tell you that.