Life insurance quotes: how to get a useful one

A life insurance quote is arithmetic, not a decision. The insurer takes a small set of inputs — how old you are, whether you smoke, how much cover you want, over what premium structure, and roughly what you do for a living — and reads a price off its rate table. That price assumes you are an average person with an average health history for your age.

Underwriting is the process that tests the assumption. If your health history, family history, build or pastimes fall outside what the rate table assumes, the price changes: a percentage loading, an exclusion for a particular body part or condition, a deferral, or occasionally a decline. Most applications complete at the quoted price. A material minority do not.

That is why the useful question is never “what is the cheapest quote”. It is “which insurer will take my history on the best terms, at a price that is competitive after underwriting”. Those are different questions and they often have different answers.

You can get an indicative figure from almost any insurer’s website in two minutes. Getting a set of figures you can actually compare takes slightly longer and is worth the difference.

1. 1Fix the sum insured first. Comparing $500,000 against one insurer and $600,000 against another tells you nothing.
2. 2Fix the premium structure. A stepped quote will always undercut a level quote at the same age, and they are not the same product.
3. 3Decide whether trauma or TPD is accelerated (deducted from the life sum insured) or standalone, and hold that constant across quotes.
4. 4Note whether each figure includes the policy fee, and whether it includes a first-year discount that disappears at renewal.
5. 5Ask for the same quote at your age today and at 10 and 20 years out, so you can see the shape of the cost, not just the entry price.
6. 6Only then compare. If two quotes differ by 30%, check the definitions before you assume one insurer is simply better value.

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

• Whether the figure quoted is monthly or annual, and whether paying annually attracts a discount.
• Whether a first-year or healthy-lifestyle discount is baked in, and what the premium becomes when it lapses.
• The policy fee, which is charged per policy — so splitting cover across two policies can mean paying it twice.
• Whether indexation is switched on by default, because it increases both the sum insured and the premium every year.
• Whether the quote is on a guaranteed-renewable contract or one where the insurer can decline to renew.
• The insurer’s definition of non-smoker, which differs on vaping, nicotine pouches and how long you must be clear.

Every New Zealand insurer writes life insurance in new zealand 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 quotes the panel at once, so you see the spread rather than one insurer’s opinion of you.
• They know which insurers are currently taking a given health history on standard terms — appetite shifts and is not published.
• They can pre-assess anonymously with an underwriter before a formal application, so a decline never reaches your record.
• They will hold the structure constant across quotes, which is the single most common error in do-it-yourself comparisons.

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.