Life insurance when you move overseas

New Zealand policies are generally written on a worldwide basis for life cover, which surprises people. The insurer has priced the risk of insuring you, not the risk of insuring you within New Zealand, and a death overseas is normally covered in the same way as a death in Wellington. What varies is everything around that — the notification requirements, the treatment of specific countries, and how a disability claim would be assessed from a distance.

The exception is disability cover. Income protection depends on medical assessment, occupational evidence and often ongoing review, all of which are harder to do at range. Many policies limit how long a benefit will be paid while you are outside New Zealand, commonly requiring your return after a set period for payments to continue. Trauma and TPD sit somewhere in between, since a diagnosis is easier to verify than an inability to work.

The greater risk is administrative. Policies lapse because a direct debit fails, a credit card expires, or the annual notice goes to an address you left three years ago. A lapsed policy is not a paused policy — it is a cancelled contract, and reinstating one after months of non-payment usually requires health evidence.

1. 1Tell your insurer in writing that you are moving, where to, and for how long. Keep their reply.
2. 2Ask specifically what changes: cover, exclusions, benefit limits and any notification obligations.
3. 3Confirm how premiums will be paid and from which account, and set a reminder to check it every year.
4. 4Update your contact details to an email address you will keep, not a work address you will lose.
5. 5Check whether your income protection has an overseas benefit limit, and how long it runs.
6. 6Review your will and beneficiary nominations against the country you are moving to.

Cover in your new country

Taking out local cover where you settle can make sense, particularly if you will be there a long time and want cover denominated in the local currency. It does not follow that you should drop the New Zealand policy. Local cover will be underwritten on your health at the time and priced in a different market. Holding both for a period, then deciding, is a cheaper mistake than cancelling and finding out.

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

• Whether your policy requires you to notify the insurer of a change of residence, and what happens if you do not.
• Any list of excluded or restricted countries, and whether it applies to residence, travel or both.
• How long income protection will pay while you are outside New Zealand before you must return.
• Whether the currency of the sum insured matters to the people who would receive it.
• Whether tax treatment of a payout differs in your new country of residence — this needs local advice.
• Whether your new employer’s cover overseas duplicates what you already hold, and whether it is portable.

Every New Zealand insurer writes cover held while living overseas 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.

• Knowing which New Zealand insurers are most accommodating on overseas residence, which is a genuine point of difference.
• Getting the insurer’s position in writing before you go, rather than discovering it at claim.
• Managing the practical side — payment method, contact details, annual review — so the policy does not lapse by accident.
• Advising on whether to hold, reduce or suspend cover during an extended absence.

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.