The cost of $1 million of life insurance

For a household with a mortgage in the hundreds of thousands and children who will not be independent for fifteen years, $1 million is often simply what the calculation produces. It clears the debt, funds childcare and schooling, and replaces enough income for the survivor to make decisions rather than take the first job available.

It is also the point at which the market starts working in your favour on price. Fixed policy fees are spread over twice the cover, and several insurers apply volume discounts above a threshold, so the cost per dollar insured falls.

What changes at this level is the process. Financial underwriting becomes a real step — the insurer will want to see that the sum insured is justified by your income — and medical requirements typically step up too.

Set those against the same insurers’ $500,000 figures on the same data. At 40, Pinnacle Life quoted $35.98 a month for $500,000 and $59.05 for $1 million — 64% more premium for 100% more cover.

The spread, in dollars

On this data the gap between the cheapest and most expensive quote for identical cover is roughly 30%. For a 40-year-old male taking $1 million of cover that is about $234 a year — every year the policy runs. Over a 25-year policy, with premiums rising as you age, that is a substantial sum for an identical promise.

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

• Whether financial underwriting will support $1 million on your income — it usually will for a reasonable earner, but the multiple tightens with age.
• Whether the medical requirements at this level are acceptable to you, since a full medical and bloods is common.
• Whether the premium is sustainable under stepped as you age, given the size of the sum insured.
• Whether the cover should be split across two lives rather than concentrated on one.
• Whether indexation on a sum insured this large produces premium increases you are comfortable with.

Every premium figure on this page is a published market example, not a quote we have generated. Here is exactly what they are.

• Annual figures: MoneyHub’s life insurance comparison, page updated 11 June 2026, for $500,000 of life cover on the profile named in each caption.
• Monthly figures: Quashed Market Scan data, page updated 15 May 2026, for an employed non-smoker with no health issues, across three insurers only.
• Both exclude every discount — healthy-lifestyle, membership, multi-benefit and first-year — and both assume a clean health history with no loading applied.
• Neither reflects policy fee treatment, CPI indexation or the cost of riders, and published rates change between updates.

Your own number comes from an insurer in writing, after underwriting. Treat these figures as the shape of the market rather than as your price.

Every New Zealand insurer writes what life insurance costs in nz 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.

• At $1 million the dollar difference between insurers is large enough that comparison work pays for itself many times over.
• Volume discount thresholds vary, and an insurer that is mid-pack at $500,000 can be competitive at $1 million.
• Financial evidence requirements differ, and an adviser knows which insurer will want what before you apply.
• Where the sum insured is close to an insurer’s limit, splitting across two insurers is a normal solution.

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.