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Fidelity Life vs Asteron Life
Both are adviser-distributed insurers with the core risk range. The comparison worth running is about how each will underwrite you, not about which brochure reads better.
Last reviewed 4 September 2026 · Written and checked by the Best Life Insurance editorial team · How we get paid
In short
- Both operate across life, trauma, TPD and income protection through advisers.
- Evidence limits — the cover you can apply for before blood tests or a medical are required — differ and are knowable in advance.
- Underwriting appetite is different from evidence limits: appetite is how your history is treated, and it is not published.
- A loading or exclusion at one insurer is a decision by that insurer and its reinsurer, not a verdict on your insurability.
- Pre-assessment across insurers avoids creating a formal decline that you must disclose forever afterwards.
- Definitions and offsets decide claims, and neither shows up in a premium comparison.
What this is, plainly
Fidelity Life and Asteron Life both write the core personal risk range in New Zealand and distribute through Registered Financial Service Providers. On the products themselves the shapes are similar, which means the useful comparison is about process and wording.
Two things sit under the heading of underwriting and they are often confused. Evidence limits are the sums insured someone of your age can apply for before blood tests, a medical examination or financial evidence are required. Those are set out for advisers and are knowable before you apply. Appetite is how an insurer and its reinsurer treat your particular history — whether a treated condition attracts standard rates, a loading or an exclusion — and that is not published anywhere and changes over time.
The practical consequence is that the order in which you apply matters. A formal application producing a decline or non-standard terms is disclosable on every future application to any insurer, and cannot be undone.
The six things that actually differ
Compare these six, and settle the underwriting question before any formal application is lodged.
| What differs | What to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence limits | At my age, what sum insured can I apply for at each insurer before tests, a medical or financial evidence are required? | Knowable in advance, and it determines how quickly cover can be put in force. |
| Underwriting route | Will the insurer request GP notes, and does it accept a tele-underwriting interview instead of a paper application? | It changes the timeline and how well a complicated history can be explained. |
| Terminal illness | 12 months’ or 24 months’ certified life expectancy, and does the payment reduce the death benefit? | The 24-month threshold pays earlier and is materially easier to meet. |
| Trauma partials | Are severity-based partial payments made for early-stage diagnoses, and is the main sum insured reduced permanently? | It decides what an early diagnosis is worth, which is the most common trauma claim scenario people plan for. |
| Income protection basis | Agreed value or indemnity for my income type, and how is income assessed at claim under indemnity? | For anyone with fluctuating earnings, this is the difference between a policy that works and one that disappoints. |
| Pass-back | Do later wording improvements apply to my policy once it is in force? | On a long contract, this is one of the few features that improves with time rather than ageing. |
Not sure what cover you actually need?
That is the question an adviser is there to answer. Tell us your situation and a licensed New Zealand adviser will compare the market and come back with a written recommendation — including where you can cut cover you do not need.
No cost to you and no obligation. General information only — not personalised financial advice.
What to watch for
These are the details that decide whether the cover does what you expected. Read them before you compare on price.
- That applying to several insurers in sequence, hoping for a better answer, collects declines you must disclose forever.
- Whether a pre-assessment has been run before any formal application is lodged.
- Whether the quotes use matched sums insured, structures, waiting periods and benefit periods.
- Whether an exclusion offered by one insurer is worded narrowly or broadly — the text matters more than the label.
- Whether either insurer will review an exclusion after a period of stability.
Where an adviser makes a difference
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.
- Pre-assessment across insurers, before any application exists, is the single highest-value thing an adviser does.
- Where an exclusion is offered, an adviser can negotiate its wording rather than accepting the first draft.
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.
What happens if you get in touch
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
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
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
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
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.
Frequently asked questions
What are evidence limits and do Fidelity Life and Asteron Life set them differently?
Evidence limits are the sums insured you can apply for at your age before blood tests, a medical examination or financial evidence are required. They differ between insurers, they are published to advisers, and they are knowable before you apply — unlike underwriting appetite, which is not published and changes as reinsurance treaties are renegotiated.
If Fidelity Life loads my application, will Asteron Life do the same?
Not necessarily. Insurers reinsure their risk and their reinsurers take different views of the same condition, so a loading at one is not a verdict on your insurability. The safe way to test it is a pre-assessment through an adviser, which puts an anonymised summary of your history to several insurers without creating a formal application record.
Does applying to both insurers at once improve my chances?
It does the opposite. Each application is a separate underwriting decision, and each unfavourable result — a decline, a loading, an exclusion — becomes a disclosable event on every future application to any insurer. Pre-assess across insurers first, then make one application to whichever is most likely to accept you on the best terms.
Will either insurer ask my GP for notes?
Either may, depending on your age, the sum insured and what your application discloses. It is a normal part of underwriting rather than a sign of suspicion, and it is one reason to disclose fully at application: an insurer that finds something in the notes you did not mention has a non-disclosure issue, and that is the leading avoidable cause of a declined claim.
Can an exclusion be removed later?
Sometimes. Where an exclusion relates to a condition that has been stable for years, an insurer may agree to review it, though there is no automatic right. Ask at the outset whether the insurer will consider a review and after what period, because that is a genuine point of difference and it is rarely volunteered.