Fidelity Life: what to compare

Fidelity Life is a licensed life insurer operating in New Zealand and New Zealand–owned, which some buyers care about and others do not. Its range covers the core personal risk products: life cover, trauma or critical illness cover, total and permanent disability cover and income protection, along with cover arranged for business purposes. It distributes through Registered Financial Service Providers.

It also appears at or near the cheaper end of some published price comparisons. MoneyHub’s June 2026 table of annual premiums for $500,000 of life cover, quoted before discounts, listed it lowest of the nine insurers shown for the 30, 40 and 45-year-old male non-smoker profiles, and mid-table for the 55-year-old smoker profile. That is worth knowing and worth not over-reading.

A published price is a price for one product at one moment for one profile on standard terms. It says nothing about how a particular insurer will treat a history of high blood pressure, or whether its income protection offset clause suits someone whose main risk is an ACC-covered injury. Those are the questions that decide whether a policy is good value, and they are answered from the wording and from underwriting, not from a table.

If an insurer is quoting sharply for your profile, that is a genuine advantage. It is worth checking that the advantage is real rather than structural before you act on it.

1. 1Confirm the quotes are matched. Same sum insured, same premium structure, same expiry age, same indexation setting, same trauma type — standalone or accelerated — and the same waiting and benefit periods on any income protection.
2. 2Confirm the quote is before or after discounts consistently across every insurer. Healthy-lifestyle, member and first-year discounts are applied differently and can flip a ranking.
3. 3Ask what the stepped rate table does after age 50. Cheap at 40 and steep at 60 is a common pattern, and total cost over the period you will hold the policy is the number that matters.
4. 4Ask whether level premiums are available to the expiry age you want, and what happens at that expiry.
5. 5Then read the wording. A price advantage that comes with a 12-month terminal illness definition against a competitor’s 24-month one is a real trade-off, not a free win.

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

• Whether the trauma cover in the quote is standalone or accelerated, since accelerated trauma reduces life cover when it pays.
• Whether income protection is agreed value or indemnity, and how the offset clause treats ACC payments.
• The maximum expiry ages available for level premiums, and whether the policy ends or converts at expiry.
• The future insurability triggers and dollar limits, which protect you against your own future health.
• Whether the policy fee is charged per policy or per life, which changes the total for a couple insuring together.

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.

• A price advantage at your current age can reverse at 60. An adviser models cumulative cost to the age you will actually hold the cover.
• Where a history produces a loading, an adviser can test the same history with another insurer whose reinsurer takes a different view.
• Advisers see which insurer is currently taking particular occupations for income protection on the best terms — an area where availability, not just price, differs.
• An adviser can structure cover across insurers, which is often better value than putting every benefit with the cheapest life quote.
• The written recommendation an adviser must give you records why the structure suits your circumstances.

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.