Partners Life vs AA Life

Partners Life is a licensed New Zealand life insurer distributing the full personal risk range through Registered Financial Service Providers. AA Life sells life and related cover under a brand most New Zealanders already know, and affinity brands of this kind generally do not carry the insurance risk themselves — a licensed insurer underwrites the policy, holds the capital and assesses the claims.

That is a normal structure and not a criticism. But it means the service culture you associate with the brand is not necessarily the culture of the company that will assess your claim, and the first question is which company that is.

The second structural feature is the application. Shorter applications with fewer medical questions get you covered faster; what is generally traded for that speed is breadth, in the form of a general pre-existing condition exclusion you discover at claim rather than at application.

Six comparisons. The first two are about who and how, the rest about what the policy actually says.

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

• Whether a general pre-existing condition exclusion applies and how far back it looks.
• Whether the affinity product is guaranteed renewable or whether renewal can be declined.
• Whether the maximum sum insured available is enough for the mortgage and the family.
• Whether the price advantage you assume from buying direct actually exists on your profile.
• That a short application does not reduce your duty of disclosure.

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 test whether full underwriting would produce standard terms for your history, which usually beats a general exclusion.
• Where a simplified product caps the sum insured below what you need, an adviser can arrange the amount you actually require.

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.