What changed in insurance regulation

New Zealand’s insurance rules sit on two legs, and it helps to keep them apart. Prudential regulation asks whether an insurer can pay its claims in thirty years — capital, solvency, governance. Conduct regulation asks whether it treats customers fairly today — how products are designed, how they are sold, how complaints are handled. Different regulators, different questions.

Prudential supervision is the Reserve Bank’s job, under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010. Every New Zealand life insurer must be licensed by the Reserve Bank and must maintain solvency and disclose a financial strength rating. This is the machinery that stands behind the promise on your policy schedule.

Conduct is the Financial Markets Authority’s job, and this is where most of the recent change has happened. The Conduct of Financial Institutions regime — CoFI — has been in full force since 31 March 2025, which means licensed insurers must operate a fair conduct programme covering how their products are designed, sold and administered. Alongside it sits the financial advice regime, under which anyone giving regulated financial advice must do so under a Financial Advice Provider licence.

Before you take advice

You are entitled to disclosure: the licence the advice is given under, the scope of what the adviser can advise on, which providers they can access, how they are paid, any conflicts of interest, and how to complain. Ask for it in writing. Advisers must also put your interests first — a legal duty, not a marketing statement.

Checking anyone before you engage them

Everyone giving regulated financial advice must be listed on the Financial Service Providers Register, which is a public Companies Office register searchable free at fsp-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz. Search both the individual and the firm, and check which dispute resolution scheme is listed against them.

If something goes wrong

1. 1Complain to the insurer or the adviser firm first, in writing, and ask for their internal complaints process.
2. 2If you are not satisfied with the outcome, escalate to their dispute resolution scheme — IFSO, FSCL, FDRS or the Banking Ombudsman.
3. 3The scheme is independent and free to you. Which one applies is stated in the firm’s disclosure information.
4. 4The scheme investigates and can make decisions binding on the provider, and you retain your other legal rights.

The schemes are busy, which is itself informative. In the year to 30 June 2025 the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman scheme received 4,293 consumer approaches and accepted 600 disputes for investigation, with life, health and disability insurance accounting for 29% of them.

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

• Licensing is not a guarantee of good advice. It is a floor, an audit trail and an escalation route.
• A firm holding a Financial Advice Provider licence is not the same as an adviser being able to access every insurer.
• Disclosure obligations exist at several points in the process, not just at the first meeting.
• Prudential supervision governs solvency, not whether a particular claim is paid — that is contract and conduct.
• Financial strength ratings are published and are a fair proxy for long-term ability to pay.
• Regulation changes. Check the current position rather than relying on a page, including this one.

Every New Zealand insurer writes the complete guide to life insurance 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.

• A licensed adviser must put your interests first and must document why a recommendation suits you.
• That written record is a protection you do not get when buying direct with no advice.
• Advisers must tell you how they are paid, which lets you weigh any conflict for yourself.
• Every licensed adviser belongs to a dispute resolution scheme that costs you nothing to use.

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.