Best life insurance in Australia

Last updated: 3 January 2019

Looking for life insurance that's been tested and stands above the rest? You've come to the right place.

The "best" life insurance policy depends largely on your personal circumstances. To give you a better idea however, we've done the hard yards. We examined and scored 11 providers and 22 policies, to find the 1) Best Life Insurance Policy and 2) Best Life Insurance Provider.

• Best Life Insurance Policy: NobleOak Life Insurance
• Best Life Insurance Provider: AIA Life Insurance

Compare the best life insurance for 2019

_{Best life insurance policy in table above is based on a comparison of direct life insurance policies . To see our full methodology and as well as our score for all policies, continue reading our study below.}

The best life insurance (full comparison tables)

• Best life insurance policy score in detail

  Here's the best life insurance policy scores:

  • Direct brands
  • Retail brands

  Company	Policy	Financial strength of underwriter	Product score	Flexibility: Future insurability	Flexibility: Product combinations	Level premiums offered?	Upfront medical assessment?	finder score (out of 5)
  NobleOak	NobleOak Premium Life Direct	100	85	69	31	No	Fully underwritten on phone	4.73
  AAMI	AAMI Life Insurance	93	85	65	87	No	Yes (Online)	4.63
  Insuranceline	Insuranceline Life Insurance	83	81	65	82	No	Yes (Online or over phone)	4.53
  Woolworths	Woolworths Life Insurance	100	80	87	52	No	Yes (Over phone)	4.50
  Zurich	Zurich Ezicover	93	78	61	78	No	Yes (Over phone)	4.45
  ANZ	ANZ Life Insurance	100	77	69	31	Yes	Yes (Online)	4.43
  Citibank	Citibank Prime Insurance	93	76	0	82	No	Yes (Over phone)	4.40
  NAB	NAB Essentials Life Insurance	100	73	0	52	No	Yes (Online)	4.33
  Real Insurance	Real Family Life Insurance	100	69	0	31	No	Yes (Over phone)	4.23
  Allianz	Allianz Life Plan	100	68	0	31	No	Yes (Online)	4.20
  Virgin Money	Virgin Money Tailored Life Insurance	83	62	0	52	No	Yes (Online or over phone)	4.08
  	Max score	100	100	100	100			5
  	Average score	95.00	72.00	37.82	55.36			4.40

  Company	Policy	Financial strength of underwriter	Flexibility: Future insurability	Flexibility: Product combinations	Level premiums offered?	Overall product score	Upfront medical assessment?	finder score (out of 5)
  OnePath OneCare	OnePath OneCare	100	97	93	Yes	100	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.98
  TAL Accelerated Protection	TAL Accelerated Protection	83	74	78	Yes	100	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.98
  BT	BT Protection Plans	100	98	79	Yes	98	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.95
  Asteron	Asteron Life Complete	93	93	68	Yes	98	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.95
  Clearview	Clearview LifeSolutions	93	95	52	Yes	97	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.93
  AIA	AIA Priority Protection	93	94	87	Yes	96	Fully underwritten on phone or with an adviser	4.90
  MLC	MLC Insurance	100	84	78	Yes	96	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.95
  AMP	AMP Elevate	100	98	90	Yes	96	Fully underwritten on phone or with an adviser	4.95
  CommInsure	CommInsure Protection	100	88	78	Yes	96	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.9
  Zurich	Zurich Wealth Protection	93	92	99	Yes	93	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.83
  Zurich	Zurich Life Active	93	92	78	Yes	92	Fully underwritten over phone or with an adviser	4.8
  	Max score	100	100	100	Yes
  	Average score	95.27	91.36	80.00	Yes			4.91

  Product feature scores based off OmniLife research in 2018. Not all products in the market are covered by the research. Scores are subject to change.

• Best life insurance provider for claims outcomes in detail

  Financial Services Provider	Brands	Chance of dispute	Average dispute stage reached
  AIA Australia Limited	AIA Priority Protection Citibank Prime Life Insurance	1.3%	2.4
  TAL Life Limited	Insuranceline Life Insurance TAL Lifetime Protection Virgin Money Life Insurance Qantas Life Insurance NIB Life Insurance	1.9%	2.2
  Westpac Life Insurance Services Limited	BT Life Insurance Westpac Life Life Insurance	3.2%	2.5
  OnePath Life Limited	OnePath Life Insurance ANZ Life Insurance	4.3%	2.4
  Zurich Australia Limited	Zurich Life Insurance	4.4%	2.5
  MLC Limited	MLC Life Insurance NAB Essential Life Insurance	5.4%	2.6
  Greenstone Financial Services Pty Ltd	Real Life Insurance Woolworths Life Insurance	7.7%	1.6
  Suncorp Life & Superannuation Limited	Suncorp Life Insurance AAMI Life Insurance	14.2%	2.2
  AMP Financial Planning Pty Limited	AMP Life Insurance	Not available	2.5
  Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited	Comminsure Life Insurance	Not available	2.3
  ClearView Life Assurance Limited	Clearview Life Insurance	Not available	Not available
  Allianz Australia Life Insurance Limited	Allianz Life Insurance	Not available	Not available
  NobleOak Life Limited	NobleOak Life Insurance	Not available	Not available
  	Average	5.2	2.3

  Source: Financial Ombudsman Service Australia (FOS) 2018

How did we find the best life insurers?

Choosing the best policy

In December 2018, we reviewed the products from 22 Australian life insurance brands (11 direct and 11 retail brands) and rated them out of 5. Here's how we came up with those scores.

• Financial strength of underwriter

  Financial strength is the first metric we look at when judging whether a life insurer was worth its salt because you want to know that when it's time to claim, your insurer has the money in the bank. Luckily, of the insurers we graded, none scored lower than 83 out of a possible 100.

  The grading system, provided by Omnium, looks at a number of indicators that inform financial stability such as an insurer's debts and its ratings from agency Standard & Poor's.

• Product score

  The product feature score itself the overall aggregate of how the product rated based on what the product covers, how much is covered in those areas of cover and how important those areas are to have cover.

• Flexibility of cover

  When addressing the concept of "flexibility" in relation to life insurance there were two main components (among others) we assessed: future insurability and product combinations.

  Future insurability

  When considering a life insurance policy you want to know that it can keep up with you as your life changes, which is why having guaranteed future insurability is a must.

  Basically, this feature allows you to increase your policy limits if your circumstances change (eg you have a child), without having to undergo those pesky medicals or providing any evidence in relation to your health. The best contenders for this feature were:

  • OnePath OneCare
  • BT Protection
  • AMP Elevate

  Product combinations

  Variety may be the spice of life but it's also essential when buying a life insurance product. Your needs are not the same as the next customer, which is why being able to pick and choose the coverage that is relevant to your situation is crucial. This is why finding the right combination of life insurance products is so important when choosing a product.

  We combed through the product suites of those brands and scored them based on the variety of options they offer and the ability of that product to be merged with others from the same insurer without additional fees. The clear standout in this category was:

  • Zurich Wealth Protection

• Stepped versus level premiums

  Have you ever thought about stepped or level premiums before? Probably not, but that's okay, why would you? High-level, stepped premiums are premiums that start out low and get higher as you get older (and present more of a risk to the insurer) whereas level premiums stay the same for the life of the policy.

  Whether or not you want to start low and end high or start somewhere in the middle is totally up to you but it's an important consideration when deciding on a life insurer, which is why we value having that choice.

  All retail brands offered level premiums as a choice. The only direct brand was ANZ Life Insurance.

• Medical assessment

  Getting life insurance at the right price in a lot of cases will come down to your medical history and health. How you go about getting your medical assessment done also comes into play. If you're going direct, you're more likely to have your policy partially underwritten on the phone or online, whereas with a retail policy it'll be fully underwritten with an adviser, either on the phone or in person.

  NobleOak was the only direct life insurer to offer fully underwritten cover on the phone.

• Direct vs retail policies

  The difference

  We split up "direct life insurance policies" (policies you buy directly online or over the phone) and "retail policies" (policies that are sold from an adviser) into two categories. This is because they are different products.

  A direct policy is more "off-the-shelf", so you will have less help from an adviser to consider your needs and customise a policy for you compared to a retail policy.

  A retail policy is generally a more complex product but offers more options to tailor cover to your circumstances. You'll also use an adviser when buying an advised policy.

  That's why we looked at just life insurance for direct policies and looked at a combined life insurance and TPD insurance package when it came to retail brands.

Choosing the best provider

We simply looked at who had the lowest chance of a claim dispute using 2018 data from The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) - an Australian external dispute resolution service for when it comes to financial products like insurance. This year's data is missing a few insurers so as it get's updated, we'll update this page too.

The 3 best life insurers as chosen by finder

Here's who we rated as the best life insurers in 2018.

• Why we chose NobleOak

  Stands above the competition

  NobleOak came out on top of our best direct life insurance offerings for its NobleOak Premium Life Direct offering. When compared to 11 other direct products, it ranked first or equal first in coverage in almost 40% of categories.

  High benefit limits and extra features

  What really separates NobleOak Premium Life Direct from the rest of the pack is the maximum sum that you can insure a life for, which is $15,000,000. Unlike a lot of other life insurers, you're also able to apply for a new policy up until 69 years old.

  NobleOak is far ahead of the pack in regards to interim cover and is the only direct policy that comes with a counselling benefit.

  Fully underwritten

  NobleOak is also the only direct policy that's "fully underwritten" over the phone. This means you'll need to answer a full health questionnaire up-front when you apply. Although it sounds like extra work, this requirement will ensure there are no surprises come claim time (versus a policy that just accepts you automatically).

• Where it lacks

  Where this policy falls short is with product combinations, where it ranks tied for last place - so you may need to pay extra fees to add additional cover on. One other downside is that NobleOak Life Insurance products are only available with stepped premiums.

• Honourable mentions

  • AAMI Life Insurance
  • Insuranceline

• Why we chose OnePath

  Stands above the competition with unique features

  OnePath ranked highest for retail policies with its OnePath OneCare policy. Just like with the best direct policy, the 11 best retail life insurance policies were compared, with the OnePath OneCare policy coming out on top or tied for the top spot in roughly 40% of categories.

  Some of the unique features that make OnePath OneCare the best retail life insurance policy is its terminal illness accommodation benefit and premium waiver options to relieve you of paying premiums if you become disabled. These features push OnePath above the competition.

  Strong across all features

  What made the OnePath OneCare really stand out was how well this product scored across the board. Of the cover areas where OnePath OneCare was not in first or equal first, it came in as the second or equal second product in 40% of those categories.

  Flexibility in cover for both death and TPD benefits

  One strength we really liked was OnePath's flexibility in increasing cover when a change in life circumstances occurs, for both death and TPD (Total and permanent disability) cover. This includes:

  • Marriage
  • Change in tax dependency
  • Increasing a mortgage

• Where it lacks

  The issues of this policy are not so much with what it offers but with areas of cover that are lacking in comparison to other similar products such as complimentary child insurance and premiums and cover suspension.

• Honourable mentions

  • TAL Accelerated Protection
  • Asteron Life Complete

AIA Life Insurance topped our list as the best life insurer in regard to claims outcomes. In order to come up with this metric we look at 2018 figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service Australia (FOS) to find out which insurer had the lowest chance of dispute and which insurer settled the dispute before it reached an advanced stage.

Brands such as AIA Priority Protection and Citibank Prime Life Insurance, both of which are backed by AIA Life Insurance, topped our rankings.

Honourable mentions

• TAL Life Limited. TAL brands include Insuranceline Life Insurance, TAL Lifetime, Protection, Virgin Money Life Insurance, Qantas Life Insurance and NIB Life Insurance.
• Westpac Life Insurance Services Limited. Westpac brands include BT Life Insurance and Westpac Life Life Insurance.

Life insurance guides for specific circumstances

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Here are some of the health reward programs and discount schemes available from Australian life insurance brands. Read more…

Life insurance for Seniors (2018)

A guide to getting life insurance as a senior. Read more…

Best* life insurance for pre-existing conditions

Advice on how to get valuable life insurance cover for pre-existing medical conditions ✓ Compare policies online ✓ Read more…

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Name	Product	Maximum cover	Maximum Entry Age	Minimum Sum Insured	Guaranteed Future Insurability	Expiry Age	Short Description
Real Family Life Cover		$1,000,000	64	$100,000	No	No expiry age as long as premiums are paid	First month FREE when you take out Real Family Life Cover. Available for a limited time (T&Cs apply).	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Zurich Ezicover Life Insurance		$1,500,000	69	$50,000	Yes	99	Receive a 10% discount on the second person when two applications are submitted at the same time, and both policies are issued.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Virgin Money Tailored Life Insurance		$1,500,000	65	$3,000	No	80	Choice of cover options and flexible premiums to suit your budget. No lock-in contracts and fast application.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Insuranceline Life Cover		$1,500,000	65	$100,000	Yes	99	Tailored life insurance so you know what you're covered for upfront. Take out a policy and get a $100 bonus gift after holding cover for 2 months. T&Cs apply. Ends 31 March 2019.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Guardian Life Insurance		$1,500,000	64	$100,000	No	No expiry age as long as premiums are paid	Cover up to $1.5 million with Guardian Life Insurance.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
NobleOak Life Insurance		$15,000,000	69	$0	Yes	99	Protect your family with up to $15 million in cover. Plus, get your first month free. T&C's apply.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
nib Value Life Insurance		$1,000,000	65	$100,000	No	No expiry age as long as premiums are paid	Receive one month's premiums off every year if you pay annually upfront. T’s and C’s apply.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...

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What life insurance companies are there in Australia?

At the time of publishing, there were 29 life insurance companies in Australia. Included, is what we've rated as the best.

What other factors can you look at to find the best life insurer?

If you want more information before making your decision, you can also look at things like:

• Market share
• Customer satisfaction
• Financial rating

Top 10 life insurers in Australia for 2018 (by market share)

_{Based on market share for the past 12 months ending in June 2018, Strategic Insight, 15 October 2018. Cost of premiums were taken from our quote engine.}

What's the best life insurance brand in terms of customer satisfaction?

Who has the strongest financial rating?

What features do the best life insurance policies have?

Doing your own research? We asked various members of finder's insurance content team to find out which inclusions were the most important and why.

Richard Laycock - Insurance Editor:

1. A guaranteed future insurability benefit

"A guaranteed future insurability benefit allows you to increase the amount you're insured in the future as your life changes, for example if you get married or have children.

"The real advantage of having this inclusion is that you can increase your cover without having to take a medical reassessment. So if you develop a pre-existing medical condition after you have bought life insurance, you'd still be able to increase your cover.

"There may be some limitations like the not being to make a claim in the first year of increasing your sum insured as well as an age where you can no longer use the benefit".

Maurice Thach - Life Insurance Publisher:

2. Full underwriting (Lifestyle and medical questionnaire)

"If you have a pre-existing medical condition or a dangerous job then you'll want to ensure your cover is fully underwritten. This means your health is checked up-front. While it does take longer, it also means you'll get to know if you're covered when you apply instead of receiving a nasty surprise at claim time.

"Generally, life insurance you buy through an adviser will be fully underwritten. For policies that are direct, only some are fully underwritten".

Zahra Campbell-Avenell - Insurance Publisher:

3. A higher expiry age

"The expiry age is the age you reach where you're no longer covered. A higher expiry age means you'll be able to stay covered for longer meaning there's less chance of outliving your policy. Look for a higher expiry age to ensure the money you pay in premiums doesn't go to waste".

Richard Laycock - Insurance Editor:

4. A clear list of exclusions

"Not understanding what you're not covered for can be detrimental when you actually need to claim. Imagine suffering a major injury, then being knocked back because you didn't realise you weren't covered for the time period for where you worked previously".

Types of life insurance to choose from

Life insurance policies will always include a death benefit (life cover), which will pay a lump sum benefit in the event that you die.

However, you'll also need to decide which of the following extras you would also like to include (e.g. cover for situations like critical illnesses or permanent disability).Your life insurance policy can consist of one or more of the following:

What type of life insurance is best for me?

The graph below shows the different insurance needs based on your life stage. This should only be used as a guide as requirements can change depending on your own situation.

Tip: Review your policy regularly

_{* The offers compared on this page are chosen from a range of products finder.com.au has access to track details from and is not representative of all the products available in the market. Products are displayed in no particular order or ranking. The use of terms "Best" and "Top" are not product ratings and are subject to our disclaimer. You should consider seeking financial advice and consider your personal financial circumstances when comparing products.}

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