When to review your cover

A policy is a photograph of your life on the day you bought it. The mortgage was that size, the children were that age, your income was that number, and your health was whatever it was. Everything in that photograph changes, and the policy does not change with it — except for indexation, which quietly increases the sum insured and the premium every year whether or not that matches what you need.

The result is predictable. Households end up over-insured on the thing they bought first and uninsured on the thing that has since become the real exposure. Someone with a $600,000 life policy bought at settlement, a mortgage now down to $250,000, two teenagers and no income protection has their money pointed at the wrong risk.

A review fixes the aim. It does not have to mean buying anything, and a good review quite often concludes that you should change nothing except a beneficiary nomination.

A cadence that works

1. 1Every year, when the renewal notice arrives: check the premium, check whether indexation has increased the sum insured, and decide whether you still want it on.
2. 2Every two to three years: a proper review of sums insured against current debt, income and dependants.
3. 3Immediately after any life event in the table above, without waiting for the cycle.
4. 4Before you cancel or replace anything, always.

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

• Indexation increases both cover and premium each year and applies by default at most insurers.
• Cover bought when you were younger and healthier is often better than anything you could buy now.
• Special events or future insurability benefits let you increase cover after a life event without new medical evidence — but they have deadlines.
• Employer group cover is not portable and usually ends with the job, sometimes with a short continuation window.
• Old policies sometimes have wordings no longer sold, which can be more generous than current products.
• A review that starts with a quote for a replacement policy is a sales appointment, not a review.

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.

• An adviser can compare your existing wording against current market wordings, which a comparison site cannot do.
• They will spot a special events benefit you can use before its deadline passes.
• They can restructure — reduce, split, change premium structure — without the risk of re-underwriting.
• They keep a record of the reasoning, which matters if the advice is ever questioned.

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.