AIA vs nib

AIA operates in New Zealand with the full personal risk range — life, trauma, TPD, income protection and health — and reaches customers through advisers and, for simpler products, more directly. nib operates primarily as a health insurer in New Zealand and also offers life and living or serious-illness cover.

That difference in starting point matters. For many households nib’s health policy is the first insurance relationship they have, and the life cover is offered on top of it. That inverts the order most advisers would work in, because health insurance pays for treatment while life and living cover replaces money — income, debt repayment, the cost of a family carrying on.

There is a real convenience benefit to consolidating and multi-policy discounts are genuine. But the discount is only a saving if both policies would have been your choice independently.

Compare the health policies as health policies, and the risk cover as risk cover. These six do most of the work.

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

• Whether a pre-existing condition excluded on the health policy would also be excluded on the risk cover — the assessments are separate.
• Whether maximum sums insured on life and living cover are enough for your mortgage and family.
• Whether health premiums have been illustrated at 55, 65 and 75 rather than only today.
• Whether the risk cover is guaranteed renewable or reviewable.
• Whether the trauma cover offered is a full trauma product or a narrower serious-illness benefit.

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 quote health and risk cover separately across the market and show what the bundle discount is actually worth.
• Pre-existing condition treatment differs between health and life underwriting, and an adviser knows which insurers handle a given history best on each.

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.