Cigna policyholders: where your cover sits now

Brand changes are common in insurance and they generate more worry than they warrant. Cigna’s New Zealand life business became Chubb Life. If your policy documents say Cigna, the licensed insurer now standing behind them is Chubb Life, and that is the company you deal with for servicing, premiums and claims.

The thing to hold on to is that a life insurance policy is a contract. The sum insured, the premium structure, the expiry age, the benefit definitions, and any exclusions or loadings recorded on your schedule are the terms both parties agreed to. A transfer of the business does not entitle the acquiring insurer to reduce a benefit, narrow a definition or reinterpret a clause. You are not on a new policy; you are on your policy, administered by a different name.

What can change is your premium, but only in the ways your wording already allowed — the stepped age-related increase, CPI indexation if it is switched on, and any repricing right the insurer already held over a class of policies. Those would have applied regardless.

A brand change is a decent prompt to do something most people never do: actually read the policy you are paying for. Here is what to look for.

1. 1Find the schedule and the wording. If you cannot, request copies in writing from the insurer. You are entitled to them.
2. 2Check the sum insured against what you owe and who depends on you now. Cover taken out fifteen years ago is rarely the right size today.
3. 3Check the premium structure. If it is stepped, ask for a projection to age 65 and 70. This is where people get ambushed.
4. 4Check any exclusions or loadings. Some are time-limited or reviewable, and a condition that has been stable for years is sometimes worth putting back to the underwriter.
5. 5Check whether the policy has a pass-back clause, which may mean later wording improvements already apply to you.
6. 6Check the benefit definitions against a current wording before you consider replacing anything. Older wordings are sometimes better.

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

• That your contract terms are unchanged, and that any suggestion otherwise should be put in writing.
• That the entity named on your renewal notice may differ from the one on your original schedule — that is expected.
• That premium increases after a brand change are usually the ordinary age-related or indexation increases, not a consequence of the transfer.
• That the dispute resolution scheme you would use is the current insurer’s scheme.
• That replacing an old policy can quietly lose you benefits — legacy wordings occasionally contain terms no longer offered.

Every New Zealand insurer writes new zealand life insurers 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 obtain and read your existing wording and tell you whether it is better or worse than what is available now.
• Where an old exclusion relates to a condition that has been stable for years, an adviser can ask the underwriter to review it.
• An adviser will model your stepped premium forward so you are not surprised at 60.
• If you do decide to move, an adviser pre-assesses across insurers so a decline never lands on your record.
• At claim, an adviser deals with whichever entity now administers the policy, which matters when the paperwork is old.

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.