Momentum Life vs Partners Life: Compare cover and benefits

Momentum Life vs Partners Life: which is a better fit for you?

Momentum Life suits someone who wants guaranteed-acceptance cover with no health questions, accepting a stand-down before full cover applies. Partners Life's PL Journey Plan suits someone willing to answer health questions in exchange for cover from day one and an uncapped sum insured from $1,000.

Within Momentum Life, the three products differ too. Funeral Insurance and Quick Life ask no health questions, but a death from illness in the first 24 months refunds premiums rather than paying the benefit.

For Quick Life, that applies only if the cause is a pre-existing condition or suicide. New illnesses are covered from day one. Platinum Life instead asks health and lifestyle questions and pays in full from day one, subject only to a timed suicide exclusion. Partners Life's PL Journey Plan also offers a terminal illness benefit, which Momentum Life's Funeral Insurance does not.

Three mechanics separate them:

• how you buy
• whether you are underwritten
• what is paid on death

Momentum Life's Funeral Insurance and Platinum Life sell directly, online or by phone, and Quick Life can too, though its own wording also contemplates a policy being arranged through an authorised insurance adviser.

Partners Life is arranged only through an adviser, and every application is assessed individually. That assessment is what buys cover from day one on Partners Life's current PL Journey Plan.

Momentum Life and Partners Life side by side

Momentum Life's three products and Partners Life's PL Journey Plan Life Cover differ on nearly every mechanic that matters, from how you buy to what is paid on a funeral. Momentum Life's own products also differ sharply from one another, so this comparison names the product rather than the insurer.

Entry ages and maximum sums insured for PL Journey Plan Life Cover do not appear in the public benefit sheet or policy document. An adviser confirms them at application.

Funeral insurance vs life insurance: which one actually covers a funeral?

Funeral insurance and life insurance can both pay for a funeral, and they do it differently.

Many standalone funeral policies pay a small fixed sum, quickly, and are built for final expenses. Life cover pays a much larger sum, and Partners Life's current PL Journey Plan releases part of it immediately once a death is notified, before the full claim is assessed.

The bill itself is the starting point. A moderate New Zealand funeral with around 50 people attending costs on average about $11,700 for a cremation and $14,300 for a burial, according to the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand. The professional services fee alone runs $3,000 to $6,500, with a burial plot and interment adding $1,000 to $8,000 on 2024 council figures.

Public help exists, but it is partial. Work and Income's Funeral Grant pays a maximum of $2,697.43, and is not payable where the cost can be met from the estate or another source. ACC pays a funeral grant of up to $8,236.40, but only where the death results from a covered injury.

A funeral-specific benefit pays faster than an estate can typically be settled. Since 24 September 2025, the probate threshold has been $40,000, up from $15,000, so banks and insurers can release smaller estates without a High Court application.

Above that, probate usually takes six to eight weeks. A life policy written for the benefit of a spouse, partner, or children sits outside the estate altogether, under section 75A of the Life Insurance Act 1908. It is not held up by probate at all.

That is where Partners Life's death benefits work as an alternative to a standalone funeral policy. Its PL Journey Plan Bereavement Support Benefit pays the lesser of $25,000 or the sum insured immediately on written notification of death, before the full claim is assessed.

It is an advance against the sum insured rather than an amount paid on top of it. A reader who would otherwise buy standalone funeral cover in the $11,700–$14,300 range may already have that need met inside a life policy that carries this benefit.

Standalone funeral cover still has known drawbacks. The Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme warns that total premiums can exceed the cover amount over the life of a policy, and that many funeral policies pay only for accidental death in the first 12 months.

In one case it published, a complainant paid more than $20,000 in premiums against a $20,000 sum insured over a decade before the insurer cancelled the policy and refunded her.

If you are weighing the two, Policywise's funeral insurance guide covers how these policies work in more detail.

How to choose between Momentum Life and Partners Life

Whether Momentum Life or Partners Life fits depends on three things: whether you can answer health questions, how much cover your household actually needs, and who is allowed to advise you.

Can you answer health questions? If a health condition has made cover hard to get, guaranteed acceptance removes the health-question barrier. The cost is the stand-down, and it is a real cost: a death from any cause other than an accident inside 24 months on Momentum Life Funeral Insurance returns your premiums, not the benefit.

How much cover do you need? A funeral is one expense. A mortgage, dependent children, and years of lost income are others. Policywise's guide to life insurance and income protection explains how to size that need. Momentum Life Funeral Insurance's sum insured caps at $30,000.

Who can advise you? Momentum Life gives advice directly and through its own nominated representatives, who can receive incentives of up to $60 per policy. Under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, a provider using nominated representatives must limit the nature and scope of the advice they give. The Financial Markets Authority puts the consumer point plainly: advice that costs you nothing upfront may come with a limited choice of options from one provider.

Anyone giving regulated financial advice must give priority to your interests, and must take reasonable steps to make sure you understand the limits of the advice. An independent adviser can also do something a single-provider channel typically does not: compare several insurers on the same need.

About 10% of complaints to the IFSO Scheme involve non-disclosure. IFSO Scheme disputes are also rising: in the year to 30 June 2025, the scheme accepted 600 disputes for investigation, up 25%, with 29% concerning health, life or disability insurance.

One more caution if you already hold cover. The FMA treats replacing an insurance policy as a high-risk transaction, because benefits can be lost and future claims declined, and most new life insurance written in New Zealand is replacement business.

Talk to a Policywise adviser before you cancel anything, or see Policywise's guide to reviewing your insurance for what to check first. Policywise advises on Partners Life and seven other insurers, is not able to advise on Momentum Life, and is paid by the insurer rather than by you.

How Momentum Life and Partners Life compare as companies

Partners Life is much the larger company. It has been a licensed insurer since 2013, is owned by Japan's Dai-ichi Life Group, and reports more than 340,000 customers.

Momentum Life has been licensed since 2018, and its ultimate holding company, DCG Invest Limited, is a New Zealand-incorporated company. It underwrites its own policies with reinsurance support from Hannover Re.

Key facts about Momentum Life

Momentum Life Limited is an Auckland-based life insurer, licensed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand since 12 March 2018. It underwrites its own policies rather than distributing another insurer's cover. The Companies Office records its ultimate holding company as DCG Invest Limited, a New Zealand company incorporated in April 2025.

• Who owns Momentum Life. Momentum Life Limited, company number 5807730, was incorporated on 16 September 2015 and is registered at 205 Queen Street, Auckland Central. Two of DCG Invest Limited's directors are named on Momentum Life's own leadership page as shareholders through that company.
• Who underwrites Momentum Life NZ. Momentum Life underwrites its own risk. Its policy wordings name Momentum Life Limited as the underwriter and as the party carrying the insurance risk.
• Licences. Alongside the Reserve Bank insurer licence, Momentum Life holds a full Financial Advice Provider licence from the Financial Markets Authority, authorised on 4 February 2022, and a financial institution licence authorised on 31 March 2025.
• Complaints. Its dispute-resolution scheme is the IFSO Scheme, effective from 24 November 2015.
• How it advises. Momentum Life gives advice directly, through its website, and through nominated representatives.

Momentum Life launched in April 2016 and was issued its life insurance licence in 2018, becoming the underwriter of its own products. It is not one of the insurers Policywise is disclosed to advise on.

Key facts about Partners Life

Partners Life Limited is a New Zealand life, trauma, disability, and medical insurer, licensed by the Reserve Bank since 3 September 2013. It began as a start-up in 2011 and now reports more than 340,000 customers.

• Ownership. Partners Life Limited, company number 3072505, was incorporated on 23 August 2010 and is registered in Takapuna, Auckland. Its sole registered shareholder is Partners Group Holdings Limited, and its ultimate holding company is Daiichi Life Group, Inc. of Japan.
• The acquisition. A wholly owned subsidiary of Daiichi Life Holdings acquired 100% of Partners Group Holdings Limited for NZ$980 million, with Overseas Investment Office consent granted on 27 October 2022.
• Licences. It holds a full Financial Advice Provider licence authorised on 12 July 2022 and a financial institution licence from 31 March 2025, and belongs to the IFSO Scheme.
• Claims stance. Partners Life undertakes to accept a claim where all available evidence has been obtained, and it is still unclear whether the claim should be accepted.
• Continuity features. PL Journey Plan's guaranteed wordings keep your original benefits for as long as you hold the policy, and future improvements are added automatically. A premium holiday of up to six months, or a suspension of up to 12 months, restarts PL Journey Plan cover with no re-underwriting.

Partners Life publishes several company awards on its own site, including ANZIIF Life Insurance Company of the Year for 2022 and 2025. These are self-reported and have not been verified here against the awarding bodies' own records.

Financial strength, solvency and claims paid

Partners Life publishes its claims figures and Momentum Life does not. Partners Life paid 95% of all assessed claims and more than $325 million in the year to 31 March 2025, contributing to over $1.6 billion paid since it launched in 2011. Momentum Life publishes no claims total and no acceptance rate.

On solvency, the two look alike, and the scale behind the ratio does not. Both reported an adjusted solvency ratio of 107% as at 30 June 2026, measured under the same Reserve Bank Interim Solvency Standard 2023. The adjusted prescribed capital requirement is the minimum capital an insurer must hold, and solvency capital is what it actually holds.

Both clear the regulatory minimum by a similar proportion. What differs is size. Partners Life's adjusted prescribed capital requirement is more than 200 times Momentum Life's.

Each insurer also publishes a financial strength rating from A.M. Best, which Partners Life describes as a rating agency approved by the Reserve Bank. Partners Life holds an A (Excellent) rating with a stable outlook, effective 5 February 2026. Momentum Life holds a B (Fair) rating, affirmed 11 February 2026 with a stable outlook.

On the question of whether Momentum Life pays claims, the public record does not say. What Momentum Life does publish is a claims-payment turnaround for Funeral Insurance of usually 24 to 48 hours after approval, alongside its solvency position and rating, rather than a claims-paid figure or acceptance rate. Partners Life publishes no equivalent turnaround figure, so the two cannot be compared on processing speed.

What does Momentum Life offer?

Momentum Life sells three products to New Zealanders, mostly directly online or by phone: Funeral Insurance, Quick Life Insurance, and Platinum Life Insurance. It does not sell trauma, income protection, total and permanent disability, or health insurance.

Quick Life's own wording also contemplates a policy being arranged through an authorised insurance adviser, rather than bought directly. Funeral Insurance and Quick Life ask you no health questions. Platinum Life does, though you'll rarely need medicals or blood tests.

Momentum Life also advertises a 10% cashback on Funeral Insurance premiums after 12 months of continuous cover, for policies bought after 22 April 2022. This is an advertised offer rather than a policy benefit: no cashback term appears in the Funeral Insurance policy wording or in the terms and conditions published on the site.

Momentum Life Funeral Insurance

Momentum Life Funeral Insurance is guaranteed-acceptance cover for New Zealand residents aged 40 to 75, with sums insured from $3,000 to $30,000 per person. You are asked no health questions. In exchange, if you die from any cause other than an accident, nothing is paid in the first 24 months.

• The stand-down. In the first 24 months, a benefit is paid only if you die directly as a result of an accident and death occurs within 90 days of it. If you die from any other cause in that period, all premiums paid are refunded.
• Accidental death, from day one. If you die in an accident within 90 days of it, the policy pays three times the funeral benefit, including during the 24-month stand-down.
• Family cover. One policy can cover up to four people, including a partner, parent, grandparent, sibling, or child, with a $150 annual discount for each extra person. Policywise's guide to life insurance for a family covers how to size cover for a household like this.
• Premiums and benefits. Your premium rate stays the same each year until you turn 89, when payments stop, and cover continues. The sum insured is fixed, with no indexation.
• No terminal illness benefit. The wording pays on death only. There is no terminal illness benefit and no terminal illness definition anywhere in it.

Momentum Life Quick Life and Platinum Life Insurance

Quick Life is guaranteed-acceptance life cover for ages 18 to 65, from $50,000 to $300,000. Platinum Life covers the same age range but asks health and lifestyle questions, and applications can be refused. Platinum Life carries the higher maximum, up to $1 million if you're aged 18 to 54.

Quick Life Insurance

If you're a New Zealand resident aged 18 to 65, acceptance is automatic, with no health questions or medical exams. For the first two years, accidental death and any new condition arising after your policy starts are covered.

Pre-existing conditions and suicide are not covered, and if you die from a pre-existing condition in that window, your premiums are refunded. The benefit is advanced if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 12 months or less.

Your sum insured rises automatically by 3% each year until age 75 or a $500,000 cap, whichever comes first, and your premiums rise each year with age, gender, and smoking status until they are fixed at 75. At 75, $20,000 of your benefit converts to a free standalone funeral benefit.

Platinum Life Insurance

If you're aged 18 to 65, you answer health and lifestyle questions, and your answers feed the premium. Medicals and blood tests are not needed in most cases, but your application can be refused, and free interim accidental death cover applies for up to 30 days while a decision is pending.

There is no general stand-down. The only timed exclusion is for suicide or self-inflicted injury in the first 13 months. Maximum cover is age-banded at $1 million for ages 18 to 54, $750,000 for 55 to 60, and $500,000 for 61 to 65.

Two benefits are added over time: a $10,000 Advance Funeral Payment after 24 months in force, paid while your claim is assessed, and up to $3,000 reimbursed for financial planning advice after three years. One policy covers a maximum of two adult lives.

What does Partners Life offer?

Partners Life offers a full personal-insurance range on a single plan, currently the PL Journey Plan effective 27 October 2025. Alongside Life Cover, it sells trauma, total and permanent disability, income protection, mortgage repayment cover, and private medical cover. Everything is individually underwritten and arranged through an adviser.

Earlier plan generations, including the Partners Protection Plan, remain in force for existing policyholders. The benefit amounts below are those of the current PL Journey Plan, and an existing policyholder's own schedule may differ.

Partners Life's PL Journey Plan Life Cover

Partners Life's current PL Journey Plan Life Cover pays a lump sum on your death, with sums insured starting at $1,000. The maximum is not published. It also pays early if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness, or have an accident a specialist judges unsurvivable. The figures here are from the PL Journey Plan Life Cover benefit sheet effective 27 October 2025.

• Life Cover Benefit: Pays the full sum insured on death from any cause during the cover term, subject to a 13-month suicide exclusion from commencement.
• Terminal Illness Benefit: Advances the full sum insured where you are diagnosed as likely to die within 12 months.
• Terminal Illness Advance Benefit: Pays 30% of the sum insured, capped at $600,000, on named advanced-stage conditions or an incurable illness with a 24-month specialist prognosis where curative treatment has stopped. It reduces the remaining sum insured.
• Non-Survivable Accident Benefit: Pays the sum insured where a specialist confirms you are unlikely to survive longer than three months as a direct result of an accident.
• Keeping cover in step with life: The Special Events Increase Benefit lets you raise the sum insured without further health assessment after a marriage, birth, mortgage increase or salary rise, within set caps and timeframes.
• Premium structure: Four premium review options are available across the plan: yearly stepped, a 5% stepped option guaranteed for 10 years, and level-to-age options that are either guaranteed or non-guaranteed.

Entry ages, cover expiry age and any maximum sum insured are not published for PL Journey Plan Life Cover. An adviser confirms them at application.

Bereavement Support and the funeral-related benefits

The Bereavement Support Benefit is the Partners Life feature that most directly answers a funeral bill. On the PL Journey Plan, it pays the lesser of $25,000 or the sum insured, immediately on written notification of the death of the life assured, before the full claim is assessed.

It is worth separating cover for you from cover for your dependants, because the two work differently.

For the life assured, the PL Journey Plan carries the Bereavement Support Benefit. It is paid once per life assured across all policies, and it reduces the remaining sum insured rather than adding to it.

For a dependent child, the plan carries the Dependent Child Funeral Support Benefit. It pays $2,000 where a dependent child dies under age 10 and $15,000 from age 10 to 20, in addition to the sum insured, and it ends when the youngest dependent child turns 21. It does not pay where the child's death was due to a pre-existing condition.

Four further benefits bear on the costs that follow a death, and all are paid in addition to the sum insured:

• Repatriation Benefit covers returning the body to New Zealand after a death overseas, up to 25% of the sum insured and capped at $20,000.
• Return to Home Benefit covers economy flights home for the life assured and one support person on a terminal illness diagnosis while living or working overseas, capped at $10,000 over the policy's life.
• Financial and Legal Advice Benefit reimburses up to $3,000, claimable within 12 months of the Life Cover payment.
• Counselling Benefit covers up to $2,500 for the life assured, their spouse or partner, and dependent children after the Life Cover Benefit is paid.

These amounts belong to the PL Journey Plan effective 27 October 2025. Partners Life does not publish the equivalent figures for its earlier plan generations, so an existing policyholder should check their own benefit sheet with their adviser rather than assume these apply.

Other cover Partners Life offers

Beyond life cover, Partners Life offers trauma cover in three severity tiers, total and permanent disability cover with three occupation definitions, income protection in four forms, mortgage repayment cover, and private medical cover. All sit on the PL Journey Plan, and all are individually underwritten.

• Partners Life's Trauma Cover is tiered. Trauma Cover pays on 47 conditions at standard triggers, Moderate Trauma Cover on the same 47 at less severe triggers, and Severe Trauma Cover on 38 conditions at advanced diagnostic thresholds. Dependent children are automatically covered at $50,000 at no extra premium. Policywise's Partners Life trauma cover page goes through the conditions in detail.
• Partners Life's TPD cover offers Own Occupation, Any Occupation, and Non-Occupational definitions. A No Wait Benefit waives the standard 90-day stand-down for 20 named conditions.
• Partners Life's income protection comes in four forms on one policy, with payment terms of 12 months, two years, five years, or to the end of the cover term. Replacement is set at 75% of pre-disability income for occupation classes 1 to 4. See Policywise's Partners Life income protection guide for how the four types differ.
• Partners Life's mortgage repayment cover pays a monthly benefit for mortgage repayments on total or partial disability, with the sum insured and stand-down set in the Policy Schedule.
• Partners Life's Private Medical Cover carries a $600,000 surgical limit and a $500,000 non-surgical limit per life assured per policy year, with an excess (the amount you pay before the insurer contributes) you select between $0 and $10,000. Medicines that Pharmac does not subsidise but Medsafe has approved are covered at $25,000 a year as standard, rising to the main limits if you add the Non-Subsidised Drugs Option.

For life cover specifically, Policywise's Partners Life insurance review looks at the life products on their own.

Pre-existing conditions, health questions and underwriting

Momentum Life and Partners Life handle health risk in opposite ways. Momentum Life's Funeral Insurance and Quick Life ask you few or no health questions and manage the risk afterwards, through a stand-down.

Platinum Life instead asks health and lifestyle questions at application, and carries no general stand-down. Partners Life's PL Journey Plan asks health questions upfront and, once you are accepted, covers most causes of death from day one, subject to a 13-month suicide exclusion.

Neither approach is free. Guaranteed acceptance skips the health assessment at application and instead limits what is paid if death occurs early, through a stand-down. Underwriting does the opposite: more questions up front, and far less uncertainty when a claim is made.

Momentum Life

Momentum Life handles health risk three different ways across its three products. Funeral Insurance asks nothing and applies a 24-month any-cause stand-down. Quick Life asks nothing but excludes pre-existing conditions and suicide for two years. Platinum Life asks health and lifestyle questions at application instead.

• Funeral Insurance: The wording contains no pre-existing-condition clause or definition at all. The 24-month any-cause stand-down does that work instead, and a non-accidental death inside it refunds premiums.
• Quick Life: A pre-existing condition is defined as any illness, condition, or symptom you had in the two years before cover started, together with named markers such as very high blood pressure, cholesterol over 7.0, a BMI over 40, or diabetes complications. These are excluded for two years.
• Quick Life's permanent exclusions: The published wording sets out two exclusions that apply at any time: criminal or illegal activity, and a defined list of dangerous occupations and pastimes. The wording also refers to further conditions listed in your individual policy, and that list does not appear in the published document.
• Platinum Life: The policy wording contains no general pre-existing-condition exclusion, and cover relies on what you disclose at application. Its product page nonetheless warns that pre-existing conditions may not be covered and waiting periods may apply. Those two documents do not say the same thing.

Partners Life

Partners Life's PL Journey Plan individually underwrites every application. It requires you to disclose previous claims, your medical history, any symptoms or conditions you already have, treatments and medications, and your financial position, all as material facts. The PL Journey Plan Life Cover benefit sheet carries no general pre-existing-condition exclusion, and the master policy document governs the full terms.

The one benefit-level restriction on this product is the Dependent Child Funeral Support Benefit, which does not pay where the child's death was due to a pre-existing condition.

Having a pre-existing condition does not mean you cannot get cover at all, or that the condition will automatically be excluded from your policy. Across the wider New Zealand market, an insurer may cover some pre-existing conditions if you meet specific criteria.

Others may apply a stand-down or adjust your premium to take the condition into account. Policywise's guide to life insurance and pre-existing conditions sets out how this is usually handled.

New Zealand law does not distinguish deliberate from unintentional non-disclosure, and an insurer's remedy is to avoid the policy back to inception.

Immediate cover and stand-down periods

Stand-down periods vary across these four products. Momentum Life Funeral Insurance's is longest, at 24 months for any cause, and Quick Life's 24 months applies only to pre-existing conditions and suicide. Platinum Life and Partners Life's PL Journey Plan carry no general stand-down, only a timed suicide exclusion.

On Momentum Life Funeral Insurance, nothing beyond an accidental death is paid until that 24-month stand-down ends. On Quick Life, a new illness is paid from day one. Only a pre-existing condition or suicide within the first 24 months is excluded.

Platinum Life's only timed exclusion is for suicide in the first 13 months. Partners Life's PL Journey Plan applies no stand-down to its main Life Cover benefits, beyond a 13-month suicide exclusion.

Accidental-death-only cover during an opening period is Momentum Life Funeral Insurance's trade for skipping health questions. IFSO describes a 12-month accidental-death-only period as common across funeral policies in the market, so Momentum Life's 24 months of Funeral Insurance is longer than that pattern, not shorter.

Two forms of immediate cover exist here, and they are narrower than they sound:

• Momentum Life Platinum Life applicants get free interim accidental death cover for up to 30 days while the application is assessed, capped at the lesser of the sum applied for or $500,000.
• Partners Life's PL Journey Plan Life Cover has no general stand-down once the policy is issued, though a 13-month suicide exclusion applies from commencement and is re-applied to any increase.

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