Life insurance for returning New Zealanders

Most people who come home have been away long enough for their New Zealand cover to have lapsed, been cancelled or been forgotten. It is worth checking rather than assuming — some policies survive years of overseas residence intact, and a contract underwritten when you were 29 is worth a great deal more than the same cover bought now.

If it has lapsed, the position is less good. Insurers allow reinstatement within a limited window, usually with health questions and sometimes with full underwriting, and after that window the policy is simply over. There is no partial credit for the years you paid. That is why cancelling before leaving, or letting a direct debit fail, causes so much damage.

The overseas cover you accumulated is worth examining before you drop it. Whether it continues to cover a New Zealand resident depends on the policy and the country, and the answer is sometimes yes. Where it does, and where the terms are good, keeping it while you re-establish here costs little and closes the gap.

1. 1Contact your old New Zealand insurer and ask whether the policy is in force, lapsed, or within a reinstatement window.
2. 2Ask your overseas insurer, in writing, whether cover continues now that you live in New Zealand.
3. 3Do not cancel anything until New Zealand cover is issued and in force.
4. 4Gather your overseas medical records — GP summaries, specialist letters, test results — before you apply.
5. 5Apply for life, trauma and income cover while you are healthy and before you settle into a new job with unknown group benefits.
6. 6Deal with health insurance separately and early, because the pre-existing condition rules are stricter than in life insurance.

Health insurance is the harder problem

Life insurance prices your existing conditions into the premium or excludes them specifically. Health insurance in New Zealand generally excludes pre-existing conditions outright, often permanently, and applies stand-down periods before certain benefits become available. Someone returning after ten years with a managed condition will usually find life cover obtainable and health cover restricted.

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

• Whether an old policy is within its reinstatement window, which is measured in months and passes quietly.
• Whether your overseas policy pays in a currency that suits the people who would receive it.
• Whether any condition diagnosed abroad has been described using terminology a New Zealand underwriter will interpret differently.
• Whether income protection can be issued before you have New Zealand earnings, since insurable income is based on what you earn here.
• Whether an employer scheme in a new job will cover you immediately or after a qualifying period.
• Whether ACC classification for your new work is correct, particularly if you are returning to self-employment.

Every New Zealand insurer writes cover for returning New Zealanders 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.

• Establishing what still exists — old policies, overseas policies, employer cover — which usually takes several phone calls people do not make.
• Presenting overseas medical history in a form a New Zealand underwriter can assess without defaulting to caution.
• Sequencing applications so no gap opens between cancelling overseas cover and New Zealand cover starting.
• Sorting income protection once you have local earnings, which often means a two-stage plan.

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.