OneChoice vs Asteron Life: Compare life, funeral, income, and other cover

OneChoice vs Asteron Life: which is a better fit for you?

OneChoice fits you if you want a funeral plan you cannot be declined for, or other cover you can apply for in one phone call. Asteron Life fits you if you can pass underwriting and want breadth, cover that stands on its own, or an adviser alongside you at claim time.

Neither model is better in the abstract. Each trades something real for something else.

• Choose for ease of entry and OneChoice wins on one product. Its funeral plan is guaranteed acceptance for New Zealand residents aged 18 to 79, with no medicals and no blood tests.
• Choose for breadth and Asteron Life wins. Its Personal Insurance policy holds eight independently selectable covers, and it also sells business, farming, and workplace cover, none of which OneChoice offers.
• Choose for advice and the gap is structural. OneChoice's own disclosure says neither it nor its staff give financial advice on behalf of the insurer. An Asteron Life policy can only be arranged by a licensed adviser.

There is a real cost to the easier route, and it is not the premium. Answering fewer questions up front does not reduce your duty of disclosure. Non-disclosure means not telling an insurer something that could have changed its decision to insure you, or the terms it would have offered.

Where that surfaces, the remedy an insurer has in law is to avoid or cancel the policy back to the beginning and treat it as though it never existed. New Zealand's current law does not distinguish innocent from deliberate non-disclosure. In practice, insurers sometimes apply the terms they would originally have offered instead.

The Contracts of Insurance Act 2024 softens this to a duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation. Its sections commence by Order in Council, with a backstop of 15 November 2027.

An adviser does not remove that duty. If an adviser fills in the application for you, you still need to read the questions and answers yourself before signing, because the accuracy stays yours. What an adviser adds is a comparison across insurers, an affordability check, and a statutory duty to put your interests first.

OneChoice and Asteron Life side by side

OneChoice is the narrower company and Asteron Life is the broader one. OneChoice sells three product lines with published bands for ages and cover amounts. Asteron Life sells across personal, business, and workplace insurance, and sets each policy's figures individually.

OneChoice publishes its bands because it sells the same shelf product to everyone. Asteron Life records your sum insured, stand-down period, benefit period, and premium structure on a customer-specific policy schedule that is not part of the public wording. That is a consequence of the adviser model, not a gap in the product.

Some Asteron Life figures are published, in its short brochures rather than its policy wording. Mortgage and Living Cover caps Agreed Value Plus at 45% of income to $7,500 a month, or 115% of mortgage repayments to $7,500 a month.

Farmers Disability Cover runs to 35% of farm turnover, capped at $10,000 a month. Free Kids Cover is $50,000 per child, increasable to $200,000.

OneChoice vs Asteron Life cost

Neither company publishes a price list, because both price each policy individually. OneChoice quotes over the phone after health and lifestyle questions. Asteron Life quotes through an adviser after underwriting. The figures below are real Asteron Life figures, chosen to match OneChoice's product set.

For how insurers set premiums more generally, see Policywise's life insurance cost page.

Can Policywise give you a OneChoice quote? No. Policywise's public disclosure lists the providers it advises on. Asteron Life appears there for life and disability policies, and OneChoice, Greenstone Financial Services, and Pinnacle Life appear nowhere on that list. You can request that figure from OneChoice direct.

Are Asteron Life premiums stepped or level? Both, depending on the product and what you choose. Asteron Life Personal Insurance premiums can be stepped or level.

Stepped premiums are recalculated at each policy anniversary on your age, sex, occupation, smoking status, cover amount, and any loadings. Level premiums are fixed until the level term expires, then convert to stepped. Level Life Cover rates are never repriced for changes in claims costs.

For how life insurance premium increase with age works more generally, see Policywise's page on it.

The funeral range works differently. Asteron Life's funeral insurance uses level premiums, which stay the same as you age unless you change your sum insured. Most products in the range carry fully guaranteed premiums, which will not increase except for changes in tax or market conditions.

Asteron Life publishes five levers that can lower what you pay, led by a premium freeze and declining the inflation adjustment, each on the covers that qualify for it:

• Premium freeze. This applies to stepped Life, Trauma Recovery, Cancer, and TPD Cover. It holds your premium at its current level, and reduces your cover amount instead of letting the premium rise.
• Declining the inflation adjustment. The annual sum-insured increase, the greater of the CPI indexation factor and 2%, can be declined. It applies across Life, Accidental Death, Trauma Recovery, Cancer, TPD, Income Protection, Workability, and Mortgage and Living Cover.
• Premium holiday. Up to 6 months of waived premiums, once in the life of the policy. It applies to unemployment, bankruptcy, or financial hardship, after at least 6 months of continuous cover. Claims stay payable during it.
• Premium and cover suspension. Three to 12 months on Income Protection, Workability, and Mortgage and Living Cover. No premium is payable, and no claim is payable either.
• The mental health discount. This caps the benefit period for a mental-illness disability claim at 24 months. In exchange, the premium is lower on Income Protection or Mortgage and Living Cover.

A premium holiday of up to 6 months is also available on the funeral range, for eligible customers facing unemployment or financial hardship. Claims remain payable during it, and the missed premiums do not have to be repaid if you claim. There is no refund of premiums already paid if a funeral policy lapses or is cancelled.

Talk to a Policywise adviser for a personalised Asteron Life quote, and for a review of which of these levers and premium structures would actually lower your premium.

On the OneChoice side, the funeral product's premiums are level with no annual increase, and no further premiums are payable after age 85.

For OneChoice life insurance and income protection, the company does not publish whether premiums are stepped or level, or whether they are guaranteed or reviewable. Those terms sit only inside its 32-page policy documents, which are outside the scope of this comparison. Neither does OneChoice publish any multi-policy discount, or any CPI indexation option on life, serious illness, or TPD cover.

How you buy: direct, or through an adviser

OneChoice sells direct only, through its distributor's own staff. Asteron Life cannot be bought directly at all: its own FAQ says you can only buy Asteron Life products through a financial adviser. That decides what you are told before you buy, not only how you buy.

Can I buy an Asteron Life cover without an adviser? No. The advisers who sell Asteron Life products are not Asteron Life employees, and they generally sell a range of different insurers' products. Asteron Life's own adviser page gives the reason. Anyone giving regulated financial advice to retail customers must be licensed as a Financial Advice Provider, or working on behalf of one.

The licensing on each side reflects the model. Greenstone Financial Services NZ, trading as OneChoice, holds its own licence from the Financial Markets Authority to provide a financial advice service. It engages its staff as Nominated Representatives, advising on its own behalf.

Its disclosure states plainly that neither it nor its staff provide financial advice on behalf of the insurer. The same structure appears on another Greenstone-owned brand's disclosure page.

Asteron Life Limited holds an FMA Financial Institutions licence, granted on 31 March 2025 and currently active. The FMA's licensed-provider register lists no Financial Advice Provider licence for it, unlike Pinnacle Life, which does hold one. That is consistent with distributing entirely through third-party advisers.

An adviser giving regulated financial advice carries statutory duties. Where there is a conflict of interest, they must give priority to your interests, and they must at all times exercise care, diligence, and skill.

The FMA sets out an adviser's job in three parts: understanding your needs, working out what you can afford, and finding options to suit your situation. Many advisers work with more than one insurance company. On a switch, they should tell you about any reduction in cover for pre-existing conditions compared with your existing policy.

You can check any adviser's licensing on the Financial Service Providers Register. For more on vetting one, see Policywise's how to find an insurance broker page.

Both models are paid by the insurer rather than by you, and both figures belong in a fair comparison. Pinnacle Life pays the OneChoice distributor a commission of up to 76.63% of each premium, level throughout the life of the policy. OneChoice staff commission is capped at 5% of first-year premiums. The disclosure does not say whether or how that commission affects the premium you pay.

Policywise publishes its own range across its whole panel. It is 10% to 230% of the first year's premium upfront, and 5% to 25% of subsequent years' premiums ongoing. The insurer pays that, not you, and there is no Asteron-specific figure.

How OneChoice and Asteron Life compare as companies

Asteron Life Limited is a licensed New Zealand insurer that underwrites its own policies. OneChoice is a trading name of a distributor, Greenstone Financial Services NZ, and its cover is issued by Pinnacle Life Limited. That chain decides who you claim against.

The two solvency figures are like-for-like. Both are reported under the Reserve Bank's Interim Solvency Standard, as amended by the Interim Solvency Standard Amendment Standard 2024. That amendment came into force on 1 March 2025. It applies to every insurer regulated under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010.

The two ratings are not like-for-like. A.M. Best and Fitch use different scales, so the letters cannot be ranked against each other. Fitch's own definition of Asteron Life's grade is that an A+ insurer has a strong capacity to meet policyholder and contractual obligations.

What each company publishes is itself a difference. Asteron Life publishes a rating, a dated solvency ratio, and annual claims figures split across life, lump sum, and income protection.

On the OneChoice side, the figures are Pinnacle Life's and brand-wide rather than OneChoice-specific. OneChoice's own domain publishes no claims decline rate, no in-force premium total, and no policyholder count.

Does Asteron Life pay claims quickly? Its published commitment is a status update within 5 to 7 working days. That covers life, trauma, cancer, TPD, Kids Cover, and accidental death claims. Income Protection and Mortgage and Living claims start processing within 24 hours, with a status update within 10 working days, and payment after acceptance typically takes two days.

Its own forms differ on the initial acknowledgement, a different commitment from the status-update timeframes above. The income protection claim page promises an acknowledgement within 2 working days, and the general claim-enquiry form promises 5. It's safer to use the longer figure as your expectation of that first response.

On the other side, Pinnacle Life aims to pay most claims within 7 to 10 days of receiving all required documentation. A OneChoice funeral claim is assessed and processed within 1 to 2 business days, once all the paperwork is in. If it is delayed, you get an update every 10 days. You lodge by calling 0800 005 806 or emailing the claims team, and a dedicated claims agent is assigned to guide you through it.

The acceptance figures are not comparable either, and the reason is the denominator. Asteron Life states its FY25 period and splits the rate by product line, so 99.90% on life and 95.61% on income protection can be read separately. Pinnacle Life's 94.4% is cumulative and brand-wide, with no denominator stated and no breakdown.

At claim time, the models differ on who stands beside you. An Asteron Life claim can be lodged either way. Its claims page repeats one instruction across every claim type: contact the claims team on 0800 737 101 or talk to your adviser.

So the adviser is a parallel route rather than a compulsory one. Asteron Life's own adviser page describes that support as making a real difference through the claim process.

Policywise goes further for its own clients. It commits to explain what the policy covers, guide the documentation, liaise with the insurer, and lodge claims. That support runs for the life of the policy. Unlike Asteron's optional adviser route, a OneChoice policy bought direct has no separate, independent adviser in the claims process.

Key facts about OneChoice: who holds the licence and who underwrites the cover

Pinnacle Life Limited holds the Reserve Bank insurer licence and underwrites every OneChoice policy; Greenstone Financial Services NZ Limited, trading as OneChoice, distributes and promotes the cover on Pinnacle Life's behalf and does not underwrite it.

Pinnacle Life is reinsured by Hannover Life Re of Australasia, and all policy payments run through Pinnacle Life's Rimu Statutory Fund.

Three separate companies sit behind a OneChoice policy, and each has a different job:

• Greenstone Financial Services NZ Limited, company number 7015673, incorporated 11 September 2018, registered on the Financial Service Providers Register as FSP646129 since 1 December 2018. It trades as both One Choice and New Zealand Seniors Insurance Agency.
• Pinnacle Life Limited, company number 4187258, incorporated 20 December 2012, FSP273205 since 25 February 2013. It issues the policy and decides liability on a claim. Pinnacle Life dates its own trading history to 1998, which is brand heritage rather than the legal entity's age.
• Hannover Life Re of Australasia Ltd, the reinsurer standing behind Pinnacle Life.

Pinnacle Life holds a Reserve Bank insurer licence, an FMA Financial Advice Provider licence, and an FMA Financial Institution licence effective 31 March 2025.

On financial strength, A.M. Best rates Pinnacle Life Limited "B+" (Good) for financial strength with a bbb- issuer credit rating and a stable outlook, as at 15 April 2026. Its solvency at 30 June 2026 was actual solvency capital of $78.310m against an adjusted prescribed capital requirement of $69.530m. That is a margin of $8.78m and an adjusted solvency ratio of 112.6%.

If you're checking claims performance, Pinnacle Life publishes a single cumulative claims figure covering its whole book rather than OneChoice specifically: 94.4% of claims made on its policies paid, as at 25 May 2026. The same page gives 3,272 claims paid, more than 54,000 customers, $115.5m paid out, and 58% of claims relating to cancer or heart conditions.

No numeric denominator is given for the percentage. OneChoice's own pages add no claims decline rate, in-force premium total, or policyholder count. That is a difference in disclosure, not evidence of a thinner business.

If you have a complaint, Pinnacle Life confirms receipt within 1 working day and aims to give an outcome within 5 working days where it can. If you cannot agree, it issues a letter enabling you to take the matter to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman. You have 3 months from the issue date to file.

Regulatory record. No enforcement finding against Pinnacle Life, Greenstone Financial Services NZ, or OneChoice was found in the searches run for this article.

Three searches were run. The first covered all 99 cases across all seven pages of the FMA's enforcement-case register. The second queried the Commerce Commission's case register separately for each entity name. The third covered the Reserve Bank's enforcement register. No wider search was run, so this is the scope of the finding rather than a claim about every record in existence.

One entry needs explaining rather than ignoring. A predecessor entity named "Pinnacle Life Insurance Partnership" appears on the Reserve Bank's routine list of cancelled insurance licences, cancelled 11 July 2013 with no reason stated. That is a different legal entity from today's Pinnacle Life Limited, and a cancelled-licence listing is not an enforcement action.

Key facts about Asteron Life: who owns it and who underwrites the cover

Asteron Life Limited underwrites its own policies, and is ultimately owned by Nippon Life Insurance Company as part of the Acenda Group. It was incorporated on 30 January 1904, and its New Zealand insurer licence took effect on 17 May 2013.

Who owns Asteron Life? Asteron Life New Zealand is part of the Acenda Group, which is ultimately owned by Nippon Life Insurance. Nippon Life is one of the world's leading life insurers, and the largest private asset owner in Japan. The Companies Office record names the same ultimate owner, a Japanese entity registered under number 1200-05-007273.

Asteron Life also traces its own brand history to 1878, and a former identity as Royal and Sun Alliance. That is heritage again, rather than the age of the legal entity. On the register it is company number 18153 and FSP25081, registered since 25 November 2010.

What happens to my Asteron Life policy if the company is sold? Asteron Life's answer is that nothing changes for existing customers. The business will rebrand to Acenda Life, phased from 2027 and subject to regulatory approval. Asteron Life's own statement is that nothing changes today. There is no immediate impact on policies, cover, benefits, premiums, claims rights, or the way customers are supported.

Your policy is a contract with a licensed New Zealand insurer. That insurer remains prudentially regulated under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010, whatever name sits above the door.

Fitch Australia Pty Ltd rates Asteron Life Limited "A+" (Strong), which Fitch defines as a strong capacity to meet policyholder and contractual obligations. Asteron Life publishes no outlook and no affirmation date alongside it.

Its solvency at 30 June 2026 was solvency capital of $718.93m against an adjusted prescribed capital requirement of $671.05m. That is a margin of $47.88m and an adjusted solvency ratio of 107%, and Statutory Fund 1 reports the same ratio.

In FY25, the year to 30 June 2025, Asteron Life paid $117.9m in claims. Its combined acceptance rate was 97.78%. By product line, that was $46.6m and 99.90% on life, and $43.7m and 97.84% on lump sum and trauma. Income protection was $27.6m and 95.61%.

On complaints, Asteron Life acknowledges within 5 business days, and responds within 10 once it has complete information. It updates every 20 business days if the matter is extended, and issues a deadlock letter if it is unresolved within 2 months.

You then have 3 months to refer it to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman. Asteron Life states it will abide by the Ombudsman's decision, at no charge to you.

Regulatory record. No enforcement finding against Asteron Life was found within the same search scope described for the OneChoice side. That scope was the FMA's full enforcement-case register, the Commerce Commission's case register, and the Reserve Bank's enforcement register.

A 2018 Financial Markets Conduct exemption notice named Asteron Retirement Investment Limited and Asteron Life Limited. It expired on 30 October 2023, and a routine exemption is not an enforcement action.

There is one licence Asteron Life does not hold. The FMA's licensed-provider register shows its Financial Institutions licence but lists no Financial Advice Provider licence, which fits a company that distributes entirely through independent advisers.

For a fuller review of Asteron Life's products, benefits, and standing, see Policywise's dedicated Asteron Life insurance review.

OneChoice vs Asteron Life: how their life, trauma, and disability cover compare

Asteron Life is broader on all three. Its Trauma Recovery, Cancer, and TPD Cover can each be taken on their own, while OneChoice offers serious illness and TPD only as add-ons to its life insurance. That is the structural difference behind every figure below.

Whether a cover can stand on its own is the first thing to check in this table. On Asteron Life, any one of the eight Personal Insurance covers can be taken alone. The lump-sum covers can also be written two ways.

Accelerated means a claim reduces your Life Cover. Stand alone means it does not, subject to surviving 14 days from diagnosis or surgery. On OneChoice, serious illness and TPD cannot exist without life insurance at all.

Life cover: how much you can get, and who can apply

OneChoice life cover runs from $100,000 to $2 million for New Zealand residents aged 16 to 70, with no fixed expiry age. Asteron Life publishes no band at all: your sum insured, entry age, and cover term are agreed and recorded on your policy schedule.

On the OneChoice side, the published detail is unusually complete for a direct-sold product:

• Sum insured and underwriting. $100,000 to $2 million depending on age and underwriting outcome, and up to $2 million is available with no medicals or blood tests.
• Cover duration. As long as you keep paying premiums, cover continues until you end it, or until a term expires if one applies.
• Terminal illness. OneChoice life insurance pays 100% of the benefit on a terminal illness diagnosis.
• Funeral money built in. It also pays a $10,000 advance to help with funeral or tangi costs, deducted from the final life benefit if it is paid.
• Increasing cover later. A life-event increase of up to $250,000 per event is available without answering underwriting questions. OneChoice does not publish whether that increase reaches the serious illness or TPD add-ons.

Asteron Life's Life Cover sits inside its Personal Insurance policy and pays the sum insured on death, with a terminal illness benefit attached. Because every figure is agreed at application, Asteron Life's consumer pages state no entry-age range, no sum-insured band, and no expiry age. They refer you to the insurer or your adviser instead. That is the adviser model working as intended: the amount is set against your actual income, debts, and dependants rather than a shelf band.

Two Asteron Life mechanisms let you add cover later without fresh medical evidence. A special events increase applies on a listed life event before age 60. Four caps apply, and the lowest of them wins: 75% of the start-date sum insured, $300,000, five times a salary increase, or the loan amount.

A special events conversion adds accelerated Trauma or modified TPD cover to your Life Cover on a special event before age 50. It is capped at the lesser of 50% of your original Life Cover or $50,000.

Asteron Life also guarantees to assess a claim on the more favourable of the original or current wording, with a pre-existing-condition carve-out. The policy carries a 17-day free-look period.

Both sides of this comparison are covered in more depth on their own pages. For the full Asteron Life range of life cover benefits, sums insured, and options, see the Policywise Asteron Life insurance review.

Trauma and serious illness cover: add-on or standalone

OneChoice serious illness cover is an add-on to life insurance covering four conditions. Asteron Life has two separate lump-sum covers, Trauma Recovery Cover and Cancer Cover, each selectable on its own; Trauma Recovery Cover alone names 59 unique trauma conditions, and Cancer Cover's trigger is defined inside that same list.

Policywise's trauma insurance guide covers how this cover type works more generally.

OneChoice Serious Illness Insurance covers heart attack, stroke, cancer, and coronary artery bypass surgery. The sum insured runs from $50,000 to $500,000 depending on age and underwriting outcome, and it is available to applicants aged 16 to 59. OneChoice does not publish the age at which that cover ceases. Its own FAQ confirms a ceasing age exists, and refers you to the policy document for the list.

Asteron Life approaches the same risk with two covers instead of one:

• Trauma Recovery Cover pays a lump sum on a covered trauma condition. The section 13 list in the current policy wording names 60 medical-event line items across 14 categories. Of those, 59 are unique conditions, because pulmonary hypertension is listed under both heart and respiratory conditions.
• Cancer Cover is a separate, independently selectable cover rather than a sub-benefit of trauma cover.
• Early-stage cancer benefits sit on both, paying the greater of $10,000 or 20% of the relevant sum insured, capped at $100,000 and paid once.
• Partial payments of the same amount are available for a further 21 conditions under Trauma Recovery Cover and the Continuous Trauma Benefit.
• Deferred cover start dates apply to Asteron Life's cancer and most heart conditions. For those, the clock runs 3 months from the later of application, a sum-insured increase, or reinstatement. Signs, symptoms, or a diagnosis before then are not covered.

For a cancer or serious-illness diagnosis, the practical difference is what a four-condition list leaves out. That list names only heart attack, stroke, cancer, and bypass surgery. Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, major organ transplant, and severe burns all fall outside it.

Asteron Life's standalone Cancer Cover and its early-stage cancer benefits also mean a lower-stage diagnosis can pay something, where OneChoice publishes no partial tier at all.

For the condition lists, benefit tiers, and claim mechanics in full, see the Policywise Asteron Life trauma insurance page.

TPD and disability cover: what each one offers

OneChoice offers TPD only as an add-on to life insurance, from $50,000 to $1 million, ending at age 65. Asteron Life's TPD Cover is independently selectable, with one of three disability definitions recorded on your schedule and several built-in benefits OneChoice does not publish.

OneChoice publishes three TPD terms. The sum insured band is $50,000 to $1,000,000, by age and underwriting outcome. Cover runs until you are 65, and you apply by phone questions with no medicals or blood tests. It does not publish a minimum entry age for the TPD add-on on any of its product pages.

Asteron Life records one TPD type per schedule, and the definition you hold changes what you have to prove:

• Modified TPD. Loss of limbs or sight, or being unable to perform at least two activities of daily living unaided, or significant cognitive impairment.
• Own occupation TPD. Unable to work in your usual occupation for at least 3 continuous months, and unlikely ever to work in it again.
• Any occupation TPD. Unlikely ever to work in any occupation reasonably suited to your education, training, or experience. That occupation must pay more than 25% of your last 12 months' earnings. The test falls back to the modified one otherwise.

A claim defaults to the modified test if you had permanently retired before the event, or after the policy anniversary following your 65th birthday.

Three Asteron Life TPD benefits have no published OneChoice counterpart:

• TPD Life Cover buy-back. This restores your Life Cover up to the amount paid. It becomes available 12 months after an accelerated TPD claim paid before age 65. The application window is 60 days, and it can be used once.
• Single loss of limb or eye benefit. This pays a minimum of $10,000. The maximum is the lesser of 25% of the TPD sum insured or $250,000, paid once, and it reduces the TPD sum insured.
• TPD fast-track benefit. This waives the three-month incapacity requirement on own or any occupation TPD. It applies where a specialist gives an unequivocal diagnosis of one of 13 listed conditions. Those include Alzheimer's disease, blindness, deafness, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and major head trauma.

OneChoice and Asteron Life cover for lost income

OneChoice sells one monthly income product. Asteron Life sells two, Income Protection Cover and Workability Cover, which sit on opposite sides of the ACC line. OneChoice pays up to 75% of your pre-tax income to a maximum of $15,000 a month. Policywise compares the two cover types more broadly in income protection vs TPD.

The honest mapping is two covers against one, not a row-for-row match:

• OneChoice Income Protection Insurance. One product, open to New Zealand residents aged 16 to 60. You must work at least 15 hours a week as an employee, sole trader, or self-employed person. Cover ends on the policy anniversary after your 65th birthday.
• Asteron Life Income Protection Cover. A monthly benefit on a loss-of-earnings basis. It adds a rehabilitation and retraining support benefit of up to 18 times the monthly benefit per claim.
• Asteron Life Workability Cover. A separate cover that pays when you cannot work through sickness or injury not covered by ACC. It has short-term and long-term support benefits, and its own waiting period

Both Asteron Life covers are independently selectable, each with its own waiting period, benefit period, and sum insured on the schedule.

For the benefit structures, options, and claim detail in full, see the Policywise Asteron Life income protection page.

What each one pays, and for how long

OneChoice pays up to 75% of monthly pre-tax income, capped at $15,000, for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or 5 years. Asteron Life's benefit, benefit period, and basis are all set on your schedule rather than published as one figure.

OneChoice also pays a rehabilitation benefit if you actively take part in a rehabilitation programme. It is up to 50% of your income benefit each month, to a maximum of $3,000, for up to 6 months.

Asteron Life's income support benefit has two bases, and which one you hold changes the arithmetic at claim time:

• Loss of Earnings pays the lesser of your monthly benefit and 75% of the gap between your pre-disability income and your income while disabled.
• Loss of Earnings Plus pays the greater of your monthly benefit less other income, and 75% of your pre-disability income less other income, capped at your monthly benefit.

A Mortgage and Living Cover benefit is not counted as other income in that calculation. Asteron Life's own brochure publishes four benefit payment periods: 2 years, 5 years, to age 65, or to age 70. It notes that most people choose a waiting period between 30 and 90 days. Your policy schedule governs, not the brochure.

Both companies' income protection benefits are indemnity-style, in contrast to Asteron Life's Mortgage and Living Cover, which is an Agreed Value type. Asteron Life markets the Loss of Earnings Plus basis to people with fluctuating income, such as small-business owners.

Stand-down periods and how a claim is assessed

OneChoice lets you choose a 30-day or 90-day stand-down, and reduces its benefit by ACC and other payments. Asteron Life's Workability Cover pays nothing at all for any period you are eligible for ACC weekly compensation, which is an exclusion rather than an offset.

Both companies' own documents use the words "waiting period" for what New Zealanders usually call a stand-down period. Policywise has a fuller income protection waiting period explained page on how that period works. Asteron Life's Workability Cover offers a choice of 30, 45, 60, 75, or 90 days.

ACC is the boundary here, and three mechanisms need separating out:

• ACC itself usually pays up to 80% of the income you earned before your injury. That is calculated on the month before injury for the first four weeks, and the year before after that. It covers accidents, not illness: it does not cover illness, sickness, contagious disease, or age-related health conditions. OneChoice tells its own readers the same thing.
• OneChoice offsets. Its income benefit may be reduced by other payments you receive for the same sickness or injury. Those include paid sick leave, other insurance, ACC, and other government payments.
• Asteron Life. ACC support counts as other income in the Loss of Earnings Plus calculation, reducing the benefit. Workability Cover goes further and does not pay at all while you are eligible for ACC weekly compensation. For any injury claim across the monthly disability covers, you must apply for your ACC entitlement before Asteron Life assesses the claim.

Neither company pays an ACC top-up, where the insurer covers only the shortfall on top of what ACC pays. If that distinction is new to you, Policywise explains it in ACC vs income protection.

How a monthly claim is actually assessed is where the paperwork sits. Asteron Life's wording requires a completed claim form, medical reports and clinical evidence, and the financial information it requests.

A monthly disability claim needs a fresh claim form each month, and Asteron Life may require an independent specialist examination or an accountant's audit of your income and expenses. Failing to supply requested information within 60 days may pause payments, and within 120 days may end the claim.

Asteron Life starts processing an income protection claim within 24 hours and gives a status update within 10 working days, with payment after acceptance typically taking two days. You lodge it by calling the claims team on 0800 737 101, or through your adviser.

On a OneChoice claim, you call or email the claims team, and a dedicated claims agent takes you through the process, with liability decided by Pinnacle Life.

A monthly income claim is the one most likely to need chasing. Policywise liaises with the insurer, manages the documentation, and lodges claims for its own clients, for the life of the policy. A policy bought direct leaves that work with you.

OneChoice vs Asteron Life funeral cover

For funeral money, the better route turns on your age and your health. OneChoice Funeral Insurance is guaranteed acceptance from 18 to 79 with a 12-month stand-down. Asteron Life's Guaranteed Life and Funeral Cover is simple issue from 50, with level premiums.

Four cells on the Asteron Life side read "not published", and that is a finding rather than a blank. Asteron Life publishes no policy wording for its funeral range. So the stand-down length, the sum insured range, and the treatment of a death inside the stand-down are not public.

The range also does not appear in Asteron Life's own product index. If you are comparing on those terms, you would need the wording from an adviser.

What funeral insurance offers, and where it falls short. It offers money fast, with no health questions, at an age when other cover is hard to get or expensive. Where it falls short is arithmetic.

The Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman's position is that the total premiums payable over the life of a funeral policy have the potential to exceed the cover amount. Providers must warn about this in their policy, website, and advertising material.

The Ombudsman's own case study shows how. A funeral policy arranged in May 2010 with a $20,000 sum insured had accumulated premiums exceeding $20,000 by 2020. The insurer initially said premiums would continue to age 90.

After IFSO became involved, it cancelled the policy and fully refunded every premium paid. IFSO notes the risk of premiums overtaking the sum insured rises with age, because funeral sums insured are relatively low.

Paying more in premiums than the policy will pay out is not certain, and it does not happen to everyone. It depends on the age you start, the sum insured you choose, and how long you live. It is a real possibility worth modelling before you buy, not a hidden flaw in one company's product.

It also helps to know what a funeral actually costs. The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand puts a moderate funeral with around 50 attendees at about $11,700 for a cremation and $14,300 for a burial. It warns that advertised figures of $30,000 or more are not representative of its own data.

Funeral insurance is also not the only way to meet those costs. Four other sources exist, and most people have access to at least one:

• The deceased's own money. The Administration Act 1969 sets a prescribed amount. Below it, banks, insurers, and others may release a deceased person's money without a grant of probate or administration. That amount rose from $15,000 to $40,000 on 24 September 2025.
• ACC's funeral grant, where the death is accident-related: up to $8,236.40 from 1 July 2026, after a 3.08% increase based on the March 2026 Consumer Price Index. The amount changes every year.
• Work and Income's Funeral Grant, a maximum of $2,697.43, means-tested against the assets of both the applicant and the deceased. It is open to someone arranging a funeral for a partner, a parent or guardian, a child under 18, or an adult single person. It does not have to be repaid.
• KiwiSaver. A deceased member's KiwiSaver savings become part of their estate, and whoever manages the estate contacts the provider to have the funds paid into it. See Policywise's what is KiwiSaver page for how it works.

Set against a cremation at around $11,700, a $40,000 release threshold plus an ACC grant can cover a funeral outright. That holds for an accidental death in a household with savings.

Funeral insurance earns its place where those sources are thin, or where you want the money ring-fenced and paid quickly without touching the estate. A Policywise adviser can work out which of those applies to you before you commit to a premium. The wider view sits on the Policywise funeral insurance page.

What OneChoice funeral insurance covers, and the most you can get

OneChoice Funeral Insurance pays a fixed benefit of $3,000 to $30,000, with guaranteed acceptance for New Zealand residents aged 18 to 79. The most you can hold is $30,000, and accidental death triggers a triple payout of up to $90,000.

The terms that decide whether it suits you are these:

• No health questions. No blood tests and no medicals are required to apply.
• A 12-month stand-down. In the first 12 months, cover is for accidental serious injury and accidental death only. Death from any other cause is not covered in that window.
• Terminal illness, after the stand-down. You get 100% of the benefit on a diagnosis of 12 months or less to live. That is available only once the first 12 months have passed.
• Level premiums. They do not rise each year, and no further premiums are payable after age 85.
• No published indexation, but two later uplifts. OneChoice does not publish whether the benefit is adjusted for inflation; it is a fixed amount chosen at application. A 25% bonus is added to your cover at age 85 at no extra cost. At 100, the policy ends with a guaranteed payout of 125% of the benefit amount.

Funeral insurance is not the only OneChoice plan that puts money toward end-of-life costs. OneChoice Life Insurance carries a $10,000 advance funeral payout, paid to help with funeral or tangi costs and then deducted from the final life benefit.

The same policy pays 100% of its benefit on a terminal illness diagnosis, and covers death by any cause from day one in most cases, though suicide is usually excluded for the first 13 months. So someone who can pass OneChoice's phone health questions has a second route to funeral money, at a sum insured far above $30,000.

What Asteron Life's funeral range covers, and who can apply

Asteron Life's Guaranteed Life and Funeral Cover is a range of products for people aged 50 to 79, issued without detailed medical information. Asteron Life calls them funeral insurance on its own site, and the premiums are level, with most products fully guaranteed.

What Asteron Life does publish about the range is this. You can take out a policy for yourself or for another person who meets the eligibility criteria and is aged 50 to 79 No detailed medical information is needed to get cover, so this is a simple issue rather than the full underwriting that applies to Personal Insurance.

Premiums are level and stay the same as you age unless you change your sum insured, and most products in the range carry fully guaranteed premiums.

Cover can continue past age 90, and a premium holiday of up to 6 months is available on hardship grounds. There is no refund of premiums already paid if the policy lapses or is cancelled.

What it does not publish is the stand-down length, the minimum and maximum sum insured, and what happens if the insured dies inside the stand-down. Asteron Life's funeral page refers you to the policy wording for those terms, and no wording for this range is published anywhere on its site.

The range is also absent from Asteron Life's own insurance product index, which lists life, trauma, disability, income protection, and business cover. You would need the wording from an adviser to compare those three terms against OneChoice's published ones.

One related product is worth separating out. Asteron Life provides and underwrites AA Life Funeral Cover, and that product does have public terms.

It covers ages 50 to 79 on guaranteed acceptance with no medical questions, for $5,000 to $30,000 of cover. There is a 24-month stand-down for natural causes, with all premiums refunded on a natural-causes death inside it. Accidental death is covered from day one, and premiums run until the anniversary after the insured's 90th birthday.

That is a different product under a different brand. Nothing establishes that it shares terms with Asteron Life's own-branded range, so its 24-month stand-down should not be read across.

Asteron Life plans that carry funeral or bereavement money. Asteron Life has four distinct mechanisms besides the standalone range, and they work differently from one another. Three of them come out of your Life Cover rather than on top of it:

• Funeral advancement benefit. This is an advance that reduces Life Cover. On death, Asteron Life advances part of your Life Cover sum insured. For a sole policy owner the cap is $15,000, and $25,000 where there is a surviving policy owner. It pays the lesser of that cap and your sum insured. Your Life Cover reduces by the amount paid.
• Repatriation benefit. This is also an advance that reduces Life Cover. It reimburses the direct costs of returning the insured's remains to New Zealand or their home country. It uses the same $15,000 and $25,000 caps, and it also reduces Life Cover. A sole policy owner has a combined $15,000 cap across funeral advancement and repatriation.
• Funeral conversion benefit. This permanently converts up to $30,000 of your Life Cover sum insured into a level-premium Funeral benefit. It is triggered either when a level-premium term expires, or on the first anniversary after the later of 10 years from commencement and your 65th birthday.
• The optional Funeral benefit. This is the only one that pays on top. It pays its own sum insured on death or terminal illness, capped at $30,000 per insured person across all Asteron Life policies. It does not reduce your Life Cover. Its premiums do not increase with age and cease at the policy anniversary after age 90.

Funeral money also appears inside Asteron Life's monthly and business covers. Income Protection Cover and Mortgage and Living Cover carry a funeral assistance benefit reimbursing direct funeral costs up to three times the monthly benefit on the insured's death.

Business Expenses Cover reimburses the same kinds of costs, up to four times the monthly benefit. Each cost is reimbursed once across all Asteron Life policies carrying funeral benefits.

The group Employee Insurance Life Cover has its own funeral advancement benefit. It pays the lesser of $15,000 and the Life Cover sum insured, again reducing that sum insured.

Other cover Asteron Life offers

Asteron Life sells four other covers beyond life, trauma, TPD, and income: Accidental Death Cover, Mortgage and Living Cover, a six-cover Business Insurance policy, and a group Employee Insurance policy for employers. OneChoice publishes none of these as products, and Asteron Life sells no health insurance.

Neither company's cover should be confused with health insurance, which pays specific medical treatment costs rather than a lump sum or income benefit; Policywise sets out the difference between life insurance and health insurance.

Accidental Death Cover pays the entire sum insured where death results solely from an accident with a visible injury, within 90 days of the accident. It does not pay where death results from, or is contributed to by, terminal illness or sickness; an intentional self-inflicted act is excluded within the same 13-month window as Life Cover. It is summarised alongside the rest of the range on the Policywise Asteron Life insurance review.

Mortgage and Living Cover is a monthly benefit built around housing costs rather than income alone. Its living support benefit comes in two types, Agreed Value and Agreed Value Plus, the second of which has no other-income offset.

Its homemaker support benefit covers someone engaged full-time in normal domestic duties in their own home for more than 12 months. It pays the lesser of $2,500 and the monthly benefit if they cannot perform at least three normal domestic duties. It is not payable at the same time as the living support benefit.

Asteron Life's own brochure publishes selectable waiting periods of 14, 30, 60, 90, 180, 365, or 730 days. Benefit periods run 2 years, 5 years, or to age 65 or 70. Agreed Value Plus is capped at 45% of income to $7,500 a month, or 115% of mortgage repayments to $7,500 a month.

Policywise compares it against other insurers on its mortgage protection insurance page.

Business Insurance bundles up to six independently selectable covers in one policy. They are Life Cover, Trauma Recovery Cover, TPD Cover, Business Disability Cover, Farmers Disability Cover, and Business Expenses Cover.

• Business Disability Cover pays a monthly benefit to a key person. It applies where sickness or injury alone stops them performing their usual occupation for more than 10 hours a week, or their important income-producing duties. For an injury claim the insured must first apply for any ACC entitlement, and cover ends at the earliest of several triggers including the insured turning 70.
• Farmers Disability Cover tests inability to perform the usual farming occupation for more than 10 hours a week. The agreed monthly benefit can be up to 35% of the farm's turnover, capped at $10,000 a month, and cover ends at age 70.
• Business Expenses Cover reimburses a business's fixed running costs for up to 12 months at a time. It pays the full monthly benefit for the first 3 months. After that it pays the lesser of the monthly benefit and the allowable expenses actually incurred. Stand-down periods of 14, 30, 60, or 90 days are selectable.

Policywise names Asteron Life among the insurers it compares on its business insurance, farmers insurance, and key person insurance pages.

Employee Insurance is Asteron Life's group product, and workplace cover is within the scope of advice Policywise gives. It is a single employer-sponsored policy in which the employer is the policy owner and employees are the insured members. It bundles up to four independently selectable covers chosen by the employer: Life Cover, TPD Cover, Trauma Cover, and Income Protection Cover. Sums insured are set per member on the schedule.

An automatic acceptance level is the maximum cover per member without medical or financial underwriting, offered only where the scheme has 10 or more members at each annual renewal.

And when you leave the scheme, cover ends on the earliest of several triggers. A 60-day extended cover period with no premium then bridges you to any cover continuation option. That option is the mechanism for taking individual cover with you.

Asteron Life has no page on Policywise's group insurance line, which names AIA, nib, Partners Life, Southern Cross, and UniMed. If workplace cover is what you are weighing, talk to a Policywise adviser rather than reading across from a page about a different insurer.

Pre-existing conditions, health questions and underwriting

Neither company excludes pre-existing conditions as a matter of course. Asteron Life asks full health questions and may exclude a condition or raise the premium instead of declining. OneChoice asks phone health questions on everything except funeral cover, which asks none at all.

The two companies part ways on how that risk is handled. Asteron Life's underwriters can exclude a specific condition or raise the premium rather than decline outright, while OneChoice's phone-based health questions apply to everything except its guaranteed-acceptance funeral cover, which asks nothing because it decides nothing about existing conditions. Policywise covers the general mechanics in detail for life insurance with pre-existing conditions.

OneChoice: guaranteed acceptance and the 12-month stand-down

OneChoice underwriting differs by product, so there is no single answer. Funeral insurance is guaranteed acceptance with no health questions at all, and the risk sits in its 12-month stand-down. Life, serious illness, TPD, and income protection all ask phone health questions.

• Funeral insurance. No health questions, no blood tests, no medicals, and guaranteed acceptance for New Zealand residents aged 18 to 79. Because nothing is asked, there is no pre-existing-condition mechanism at all, and the insurer's protection is the 12-month stand-down.
• Life insurance. Underwritten by phone with no medicals or blood tests, but underwriting does happen. You can expect to be asked about current or past illnesses and the treatments you have had, and about diabetes, smoking, and dangerous activities.
• Serious illness and TPD cover. Both are applied for by phone questions, with no medicals, forms, or blood tests.
• Income protection. A single phone call covering age, sex at birth, residency, occupation, smoking status, and medical history, with no medical exams or blood tests.

On pre-existing conditions, OneChoice's income protection FAQ is the clearest statement it publishes. A condition diagnosed before the policy started is treated as pre-existing and is not covered. One diagnosed after cover begins is covered. It illustrates the point with mental health.

For life insurance, the only OneChoice page addressing the question is an opinion-style article, not an FAQ or policy page. It says an existing condition may mean a higher premium, or a policy that excludes particular health conditions.

Asteron Life: what the application asks

Asteron Life Personal Insurance is individually underwritten, and cover is subject to its acceptance and approval of a complete application. The application asks about age, gender, smoking status, and medical history, plus income, occupation, and lifestyle for some covers.

Asteron Life describes its own underwriting plainly. It usually accepts straightforward applications on standard terms. Where occupation, medical history, or lifestyle presents more risk, the underwriting team may apply special terms. Those can mean exclusions, adjusted premiums, or extended wait periods, and an application may instead be deferred for a period.

Does Asteron Life cover pre-existing conditions? In many cases, yes. Its own FAQ says it can often still offer cover where you have an existing condition. It may exclude that condition from the policy, or increase the premium so the condition can be included.

There is no blanket pre-existing-conditions exclusion in the Personal Insurance wording. A defined 'pre-existing condition' is operative in exactly three places. It is carved out of the upgrade guarantee. It bars payment on a claim after reinstatement following a premium or cover suspension. And it interacts with the deferred cover start dates on listed medical events.

Two definitions are worth knowing before you fill in an application. A pre-existing condition is a sickness or injury whose symptoms would cause a reasonable and prudent person to seek diagnosis, care, or treatment. It also covers one where medical advice or treatment was recommended or received.

A deferred cover start date sets a clock on a listed medical event. It runs 3 months from the later of Asteron Life receiving your application, a sum-insured increase, or reinstatement. Signs, symptoms, or a diagnosis before then are not covered.

Asteron Life's funeral range is the exception on this side. It is a simple issue and asks for no detailed medical information, so the underwritten framing above does not extend to it.

Immediate cover and stand-down periods

OneChoice offers free interim accidental death cover of up to $500,000 for up to 30 days while it assesses a life application. Asteron Life publishes no interim cover at all. Asteron Life Cover has no general stand-down on death, while OneChoice funeral cover has a 12-month one.

OneChoice's "death by any cause from day 1 in most cases" wording resolves to a standard exclusion: suicide is usually excluded for the first 13 months. The same page flags war, civil unrest, and dangerous activities as circumstances where stipulations can apply. It tells you to check your own policy document and schedule, because policies differ.

Asteron Life Cover's only time-limited exclusion on death is an intentional self-inflicted act, sane or insane, within 13 months of commencement, a sum-insured increase, or the most recent reinstatement. There is a carve-out where the cover replaces death cover that has been continuously in place for more than 13 months. Full death cover otherwise works from day one, and Accidental Death Cover carries the same 13-month window.

The existence of OneChoice's interim cover tells you something useful: an application can be declined, which is why the interim cover exists at all. Asteron Life's absence of interim cover is an asymmetry rather than an oversight, confirmed across its website, its FAQs, its glossary, and its own policy wording.

Both of these models leave the duty of disclosure with you. If an insurer later finds you did not disclose all your medical conditions or lifestyle choices, it can change the terms of your cover or cancel benefits.

Life and income protection applicants also have to disclose anything that happens between completing the application and the cover starting. Where non-disclosure surfaces at claim time, insurers sometimes apply the terms they would originally have offered rather than cancelling outright. That can mean a reduced cover amount, a higher premium, or an added exclusion.

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OneChoice vs Partners Life

OneChoice vs AIA

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