Best life insurance in Australia

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 (not the entire market, but a large portion of it), to help you pick the best life insurance for your circumstances.

The 3 best life insurers as chosen by finder

Here's who we rated as the best life insurers in 2019.

NobleOak Life Insurance

• 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.

• Top 10 list

  Here's our top 10 list of direct life insurance policies in Australia. Some of the key factors noted include the Financial Strength of the Underwriter (How secure is the insurer) and the Finder Score (how strong is the policy).

  Top 10 direct life insurance policies in Australia

  1. NobleOak: Ranks 1st, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 and Finder Score of 4.73
  2. AAMI: Ranks 2nd, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 and Finder Score of 4.63
  3. Insuranceline: Ranks 3rd, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 83 and Finder Score of 4.53
  4. Woolworths: Ranks 4th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 100 and Finder Score of 4.50
  5. Zurich: Ranks 5th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 93 and Finder Score of 4.45
  6. ANZ: Ranks 6th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 10 and Finder Score of 4.43
  7. Citibank: Ranks 7th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 93 and Finder Score of 4.40
  8. NAB: Ranks 8th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 100 and Finder Score of 4.33
  9. Real Insurance: Ranks 9th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 100 and Finder Score of 4.23
  10. Allianz: Ranks 10th, with a Financial Strength of the Underwriter score of 100 of 100 and Finder Score of 4.20

OnePath OneCare Life Cover

• 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

TAL Life Insurance

• Why we chose TAL

  The numbers don't lie

  TAL's Retail life insurance products scored extremely well against industry averages in Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA) 2019 report on life insurance claims. On average, it had a 98.40% rate of accepted claims better than the retail industry average of 97.50%. The average claim time was 0.9 months compared to the average of 3.5 months.

  Honourable mentions

  • MLC Life Insurance (Retail)
  • ClearView Life Insurance (Direct)

_{To see our full methodology and as well as our score for all policies, continue reading our study below.}

The best life insurance in Australia (full tables)

• Best policy

  Here's the Finder's top 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 Life Insurance - Tailored Cover	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 January 2019. Not all products in the market are covered by the research. Scores are subject to change and will be reviewed by finder over time.

• Best provider based on claims outcomes

  Insurer	Claims accepted rate	Average claim time (months)	Disputes per 100,000 lives insured	Policy cancellation rate
  TAL (Retail product)	98.40%	0.9	9.2	13.50%
  MLC (Retail product)	97.90%	2.4	6	18.00%
  ClearView (Direct product)	97.70%	2.4	3.8	16.60%
  AMP (Retail product)	97.50%	5.4	7	17.00%
  AIA (Retail product)	97.40%	2.3	9.4	15.20%
  Suncorp/Asteron (Retail product)	97.20%	1.9	8.8	15.10%
  OnePath (Retail product)	96.50%	4.3	5.6	16.70%
  Zurich (Retail product)	96.30%	1.4	3.4	14.30%
  Westpac (Retail product)	95.00%	2.2	2.6	15.20%
  Westpac (Direct product)	94.60%	3.1	8.3	13.30%
  OnePath (Direct product)	94.50%	5.4	66.6	18.00%
  Zurich (Direct product)	94.30%	2.4	14.1	16.60%
  CommInsure (Direct product)	93.30%	4.1	22.2	14.20%
  CommInsure (Retail product)	88.50%	2.1	11.5	14.80%
  Suncorp/Asteron (Direct product)	88.00%	3.6	29.4	17.20%
  TAL (Direct product)	72.80%	3.1	18.9	24.50%

  About the data

  • The numbers presented in this table are based on claims data on life insurers and friendly societies reported by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) in 2019.
  • 'Retail' product refers to policies that are sold through an adviser.
  • One brand may sell a seperate product through advisers and directly.

Finding the best life insurers: Our methodology

Choosing the best policy

In January 2019, 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.

Life insurance guides for specific circumstances

Which life insurance brand offers the best rewards program?

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…

What features do the best 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

Receive a quote from these direct brands

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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	Get a refund of 10% of the premiums you've paid (in the first 12 months) with The Real Reward™.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Virgin Life Insurance - Tailored Cover		$1,500,000	65	$3,000	No	80	Protect what matters with a new Virgin Life Insurance policy. If eligible, you can earn 25,000 Velocity Points. Ends 02 September 2019. Min $80/month, min. 6 month policy to earn Points.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Medibank Life Insurance		$1,500,000	65	$100,000	Yes	No expiry age as long as premiums are paid	Get life cover up to $1.5 million. Plus, Medibank health insurance members can save 10% off premiums.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
AAMI Life Insurance		$1,000,000	60	$100,000	Yes	99	Get life cover up to $1 million.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Qantas Life Insurance		$2,000,000	74	$100,000	Yes	99	Join Qantas Life Insurance and earn up to 100,000 Qantas points. T&CS apply including minimum premium and policy hold periods apply to earn points.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
NobleOak Life Insurance		$15,000,000	69	$50,000	Yes	99	Get a quote for up to $15 million in life insurance cover. Plus, get two months free when you combine life insurance with another type of cover. T’s and C’s apply. Ends 29 August 2019.	Get quoteMore info	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
ahm Life Insurance		$1,500,000	65	$100,000	Yes	No expiry age as long as premiums are paid	Get life cover up to $1.5 million. Plus, ahm health members can save 10% off premiums.	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...
nib Value Life Insurance		$1,000,000	65	$100,000	No	80	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...
ANZ Life Insurance		$2,000,000	59	$50,000	Yes	99	Get flexible life insurance up to the sum of $2,000,000.	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...

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_{* The products compared on this page are chosen from a range of offers available to us and are not representative of all the products available in the market. There is no perfect order or perfect ranking system for the products we list on our Site, so we provide you with the functionality to self-select, re-order and compare products. The initial display order is influenced by a range of factors including conversion rates, product costs and commercial arrangements, so please don't interpret the listing order as an endorsement or recommendation from us. We're happy to provide you with the tools you need to make better decisions, but we'd like you to make your own decisions and compare and assess products based on your own preferences, circumstances and needs.}

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Richard Laycock

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Richard Laycock is Finder's insurance editor, and has spent the last five years wrangling insurance product disclosure statements. His musings about insurance have appeared on Money Mag, Yahoo Finance, and Travel Weekly. When he’s not helping people make sense of insurance fine print, he is testing the quality of cocktails in his newfound home of New York. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University and The Missouri School of Journalism and has a Tier 1 Certification in General Advice for Life Insurance.

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