Quitting smoking and your insurance rates

This is one of the few places in insurance where a large, certain saving sits waiting to be claimed and is routinely left on the table. Smoker and non-smoker rates are separate tables with a very substantial gap between them, and every insurer has a route from one to the other. What it requires is that you ask, at the right time, with the right declaration.

The reason people do not is simple: nothing prompts them. The insurer has no way of knowing you stopped, and it will not write and ask. Policies run for years at smoker rates after the policyholder has become eligible for something much cheaper.

The process is straightforward and the same at most insurers.

1. 1Find out the clear period your insurer requires. It is stated in your policy documents and differs between companies.
2. 2Diarise the date you become eligible, from the day you last used any nicotine product.
3. 3When you reach it, ask your adviser to submit a non-smoker declaration to the insurer.
4. 4Provide a cotinine test if the insurer requires one. It arranges and pays for it.
5. 5Check the revised premium in writing, and confirm the change applied to every benefit on the policy.

What counts as clear

• The period usually runs from the last use of any nicotine product, not just cigarettes.
• Vaping, pouches, gum and patches are captured by many definitions.
• A single lapse restarts the clock under most wordings.

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

• That the change is never automatic and must be requested.
• That the clear period differs between insurers, so check yours rather than assuming twelve months.
• That the period usually covers all nicotine products, including vaping.
• That a cotinine test may be required, and that a lapse will show.
• That the reassessment should apply to every benefit on the policy, not just life cover.

Every New Zealand insurer writes policies where smoking status has changed 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 find your insurer’s clear period and diarise the eligibility date for you.
• Where you are applying for new cover, an adviser can tell you whether waiting a short time changes the rate basis.
• An adviser handles the declaration and any test the insurer requires.
• If your insurer’s clear period is unusually long, an adviser can compare what a different insurer would offer.

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.