Life insurance cost at 70 and over

Two very different situations get grouped together at this age. The first is someone who has held cover for decades and is deciding whether to keep paying for it. The second is someone with no cover, looking to buy for the first time. The answers are almost opposite.

If you already hold a policy, it was underwritten on your health years ago and it is very unlikely you could replace it on the same terms. Even where the premium has become uncomfortable, reducing the sum insured and keeping the policy generally beats cancelling it.

If you are buying for the first time after 70, the market is narrow. Some insurers still write fully underwritten cover with maximum entry ages that vary, and there are products sold with no health questions at all — which typically limit the sum insured, apply a stand-down before non-accidental death is covered, and cost more per dollar of cover.

The purpose changes, and the product should change with it. Income replacement is rarely the point once there is no income to replace.

That last line deserves saying plainly. When premiums are high relative to the sum insured, the total you pay over the life of the policy can approach the amount that would eventually be paid out. If the goal is simply to leave something behind and you are in good health, setting the money aside may leave your family better off than insuring it.

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

• Maximum entry ages, which differ between insurers and cut off earlier than most people expect.
• Stand-down periods on no-health-questions products — typically non-accidental death is not covered in the first years.
• Whether the premium continues to rise with age, and whether there is an age at which it stops.
• Whether total premiums payable could exceed the sum insured over a normal life expectancy.
• Whether the policy expires at a set age, leaving nothing after years of payments.
• Whether the cover is owned in a way that lets the money reach the right person without waiting on probate.

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.

• Which insurers still write new cover at your age changes, and it is not something published tables track.
• For estate equalisation and business succession, policy ownership matters as much as the sum insured, and it should be arranged alongside your will and your accountant.
• An adviser can tell you when the honest answer is to keep an existing policy, reduce it, or not to buy at all.
• Where health is already an issue, knowing which insurer will consider the application avoids a string of declines on your record.

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.