OneChoice vs Chubb: Compare life, funeral, income, and other cover

OneChoice vs Chubb: which is a better fit for you?

OneChoice is the better fit if you want funeral cover before age 50, or cover with no medical exams or blood tests. Chubb Life is the better fit if you want breadth, higher limits, or an adviser who can hold it against other insurers. Only Chubb Life can be compared that way.

The decision usually turns on three things:

• Your age and health. No OneChoice product needs a medical or a blood test. Chubb medically underwrites its Life & Living Life Cover; only its funeral cover is guaranteed acceptance, which chubb.com gives as age 50 rather than 18, though its policy wording states no entry age at all.
• How much cover you need. OneChoice caps life cover at $2 million. Chubb's Assurance Extra Life Cover has no maximum from age 16.
• Whether you want advice. A OneChoice quote comes only from OneChoice, which states it will not compare its products with anything else.

OneChoice and Chubb Life side by side

OneChoice sells three products: funeral insurance, life insurance, and income protection [OneChoice, 2026e]. Serious illness and total and permanent disability cover are add-ons to its life policy only. Chubb Life sells a funeral policy, three Life & Living covers, and eight Assurance Extra covers, plus a premium-waiver rider (Premium Cover).

The two funeral policies are close. Neither builds a cash value. If funeral cover is all you need, the choice between them is closer than the rest of this comparison suggests.

OneChoice vs Chubb cost

Neither insurer publishes a price. Both quote individually, so the only way to compare OneChoice against Chubb Life on cost is to get a quote from each. What they do publish is premium structure, and that is where the two differ at the far end of a policy's life.

On funeral cover, both hold premiums flat against the life assured's age:

• OneChoice advertises "Level premiums with no annual increase." Its page also states, "Your premiums won't go up every year¹," a claim it footnotes but never explains. Premiums stop at 85, and a 25% Bonus Cover is added free at the same point. At 100 OneChoice pays 125% of the benefit and ends the policy.
• Chubb Life caps premiums so rates do not rise with age, but may reprice the whole product class on 30 days' written notice. Premiums and cover both cease at 90, and the wording states total premiums paid may exceed the benefit.

Chubb takes 20% off funeral cover applied for with a partner or family member. OneChoice publishes no multi-policy discount on its disclosure page.

For a figure you can use, talk to a Policywise adviser. Policywise can quote Chubb Life alongside the other insurers on its panel, which you can set against a OneChoice quote.

How you buy: direct, or through an adviser

Chubb Life cover can be bought direct online or arranged through an adviser, including an independent one (Policywise's guide to how to find an insurance broker explains how). OneChoice is direct only, and its own disclosure says its staff will not compare its products with anything else in the market. That decides whether you can compare at all.

Chubb's funeral cover and its Life & Living range are self-serve, with an instant online quote tool. Assurance Extra is arranged through an adviser.

Chubb names independent financial advisers first among its channels. OneChoice staff are in-house representatives who "cannot provide you with financial advice about financial products and services offered by other providers."

So no independent adviser, including Policywise, can set a OneChoice quote against anything else. Only OneChoice itself can quote it, and it says it won't compare.

Funeral cover: OneChoice Funeral Insurance vs Chubb Life Funeral Cover

OneChoice Funeral Insurance and Chubb Life Funeral Cover are both standalone policies with guaranteed acceptance, no health questions, and a $30,000 maximum.

Each manages its risk with a timed restriction instead of underwriting. The trigger differs: Chubb's window restricts non-accidental death, while OneChoice's covers accidental serious injury as well as accidental death. The differences also sit in the length of that restriction and the age limits.

Chubb Life Funeral Cover is its own product rather than a benefit attached to another policy, and its wording carries no pre-existing-conditions exclusion. Claim turnaround measures different stages: Chubb usually pays within 48 hours of approving a claim, while OneChoice assesses and processes most claims within one to two business days of receiving the paperwork.

For the product in the round, see Policywise's guide to funeral insurance in New Zealand.

Funeral money also appears inside their other policies, on sharply different terms:

• Chubb Life & Living Life Cover pays up to $25,000 on death, subtracted from the sum insured, except where the Life Cover claim itself would not be accepted.
• Chubb Assurance Extra Life Cover adds up to $20,000 towards repatriation, but only where death occurs overseas.
• Chubb Critical Illness Cover and Expenses Cover carry no funeral benefit at all.
• OneChoice Life Insurance pays a $10,000 funeral or tangi advance while a claim is assessed. It does not publish whether that is deducted.

Does life insurance cover funeral costs in New Zealand? Yes, at least for OneChoice's life policy, which pays a cash lump sum with no restriction on how it's spent. The catch is timing. Chubb aims to assess a life claim within five working days of receiving the forms. OneChoice promises only to process one "as soon as possible."

Two state backstops also exist. Work and Income pays a means-tested Funeral Grant of up to $2,697.43. ACC pays up to $8,236.40, tax-free, where death resulted from a covered injury.

Do you need a will to claim funeral insurance in New Zealand? No. Where a beneficiary is nominated, the insurer pays that person, and Chubb states this holds "even if your will says something different." OneChoice's document list for a funeral claim asks for neither a will nor probate. Without a nomination the payout can fall into the estate, though an estate worth under $40,000 may not need a High Court application.

What each policy pays: Chubb's 24-month window vs OneChoice's 12-month window

Chubb Life Funeral Cover pays only for accidental death in the first 24 months from each cover start date, and refunds 100% of premiums otherwise. OneChoice's equivalent restriction is 12 months, not 24.

After those periods, Chubb pays the full sum insured for death from any cause; OneChoice's sources state only that the restriction applies in the first 12 months, without an equivalent affirmative statement for afterwards.

Three details sit behind that:

• Chubb's window restarts on each increase. Every incremental increase carries a fresh 24-month window from its own start date. OneChoice does not publish an equivalent rule.
• The premium refund is published on one side only. Chubb refunds 100% of premiums where death inside the window was not accidental. The only refund OneChoice publishes anywhere is its 30-day cooling-off refund.
• Neither policy indexes. No inflation or CPI provision appears in Chubb's funeral wording or on OneChoice's funeral pages. A $20,000 benefit bought today is still $20,000 in 2050.

Both pay the nominated beneficiary first, then the surviving policy owner, then the estate (for Chubb, only where the policy owner is the life assured).

Entry age, cessation age and how much cover you can get

OneChoice takes funeral applications from New Zealand residents aged 18 to 79 and covers them to 100. Chubb's website gives an entry age of 50 to 80, and its cover and premiums both cease at the 90th birthday. Both cap cover at $30,000.

The top end is where the two diverge most. OneChoice stops charging premiums at 85 and adds a 25% Bonus Cover free at the same point. The policy owner can also take 75% of the benefit in cash any time after 85.

Chubb's only relief is its Long-Term Care Premium Waiver, which must be applied for. It needs five years in force plus an approved assessment that long-term care is required.

On amounts, OneChoice offers $3,000 to $30,000, and Chubb caps one life assured at $30,000 across all its funeral policies.

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

Outside funeral cover the two ranges are not comparable in depth. OneChoice sells one life policy with two optional add-ons, all underwritten by phone questions. Chubb Life sells life, trauma, and disability cover across two product families, medically underwritten, with higher limits and more built-in benefits.

Life cover: OneChoice vs Chubb

OneChoice Life Insurance covers $100,000 to $2,000,000 with no medicals or blood tests, taking applications from ages 16 to 70. Chubb Life sells life cover under two brands. Life & Living Life Cover goes online from ages 18 to 70. Assurance Extra Life Cover is arranged through an adviser, from age 10.

OneChoice's maximum tapers with age, from $2 million at 18 to 44 down to $500,000 at 60 to 70. A terminal illness diagnosis pays 100% of the benefit, with no prognosis period published. An application also brings free interim accidental death cover of up to $500,000 for 30 days. The serious illness add-on expires at an age OneChoice does not publish; the disability add-on ends at 65.

Chubb does not publish a fixed cover-term figure for Life & Living Life Cover; it is set on the individual policy schedule. It adds a Terminal Illness Benefit and a Life Events Benefit, which allows increases without a health assessment. Assurance Extra Life Cover has no maximum sum insured from age 16.

Inflation-linking is optional at Chubb rather than automatic. Both insurers limit self-harm cover on life policies to the same 13 months.

For the detail on Chubb's life range, read Policywise's Chubb Life Insurance review.

Trauma insurance: OneChoice vs Chubb

OneChoice Serious Illness Insurance is an add-on to its life policy only. It covers four conditions: heart attack, stroke, cancer, and coronary artery bypass surgery. Chubb's Life & Living Critical Illness Cover pays on 47 conditions and can be bought without life cover.

Assurance Extra Trauma Cover covers 47 conditions at its full benefit tier plus a further 16 at a partial tier, and can be accelerated against life cover or bought standalone. Taken standalone, "any Trauma Cover claim paid is independent of any Life Cover."

OneChoice offers $50,000 to $500,000 for ages 16 to 59, and publishes no condition definitions, survival period, or stand-down period. Chubb pays a full benefit on 47 conditions, plus 25% capped at $75,000 on 11 of them diagnosed at an earlier stage.

Chubb also applies a 90-day stand-down (a waiting period before which a claim can't be made) on five conditions, within which a claim is lost permanently rather than deferred.

Policywise's guide to trauma insurance sets both approaches against the market, and its Chubb critical illness review goes further on Chubb's version. For how trauma cover differs from disability cover, see Policywise's guide to critical illness vs disability.

Disability cover under OneChoice vs Chubb

OneChoice total and permanent disability cover is an add-on to its life policy only, paying $50,000 to $1,000,000 and ending at 65. Chubb's equivalent is Assurance Extra Complete Disablement Cover, which can be accelerated against life cover or bought standalone, up to $5,000,000 and ending at 70.

The definitions are where the two part company, and each belongs to its own insurer rather than to the product. OneChoice describes disablement generically: unable to work, unable to look after yourself, loss of limbs, blindness, or mental impairment. Its pages never use the terms "own occupation" or "any occupation."

Chubb publishes a full structure. Its occupational test lets classes 1 to 3 choose an "own occupation" definition at extra premium, while classes 4 and 5 get "any occupation" only. "Own occupation" pays only if you can't do your specific job; "any occupation" pays only if you can't do any job you're suited to. A separate non-occupational test pays regardless of ability to work.

It covers the loss of two limbs or of sight in both eyes, and permanent loss of cognitive function. It also covers an inability to perform two of five listed daily activities without help. Chubb takes applicants aged 16 to 60.

For a wider view, see Policywise's guide to total permanent disability insurance. If you're weighing TPD against income protection specifically, Policywise's guide to income protection vs TPD sets out how they interact.

OneChoice vs Chubb's cover for lost income

OneChoice Income Protection pays up to 75% of monthly pre-tax income, capped at $15,000 a month, for a maximum of five years. Chubb's Assurance Extra Income Cover also pays up to 75%, capped at $25,000 under its Indemnity, Loss of Earnings and LOE Ultra types, and runs to age 65 (70 for classes 1–2).

Indemnity pays based on your income at claim time; Agreed Value pays a pre-set sum regardless, capped at $20,000 and scaling down at higher income bands. The benefit period differs most: five years at OneChoice versus to age 65 at Chubb.

Someone disabled permanently at 40 would be paid until 45 and then nothing from that income-protection benefit, where Chubb's to-age-65 term would run 25 years

ACC splits three ways across these products. OneChoice reduces its benefit by ACC payments and by paid sick leave. Chubb's Income Cover offsets ACC but expressly excludes sick leave. Chubb's Expenses Cover does not reduce the monthly sum insured for ACC at all.

Expenses Cover is a separate Chubb product from Income Cover, though chubb.com also brands it "Income Protection" (see Other cover Chubb offers, below). Policywise's guide to ACC vs income protection explains why the two work together.

If you're weighing a lump sum against ongoing income replacement, Policywise's guide to trauma insurance vs income protection covers that choice.

A further difference affects claim time: OneChoice offers no partial disability benefit, and a claimant may do no paid work at all while payments continue. Chubb pays a Partial Disability Benefit where a claimant returns to work but can earn less than 75% of their previous income. Chubb also rates by occupation class, where OneChoice has no class system.

Policywise is disclosed for Chubb on disability cover including income protection, so it can advise you on and quote it. Its Chubb income protection review has the full picture.

Other cover Chubb offers

If you need cover these four don't offer, Chubb Life has an equivalent that OneChoice doesn't: Expenses Cover, Mortgage Repayment Cover, Redundancy Cover, and Specific Injury Cover.

OneChoice's published range is Life Insurance (with Serious Illness and TPD sold as add-ons), Income Protection, and Funeral Cover, and none of those do what these four do.

Expenses, Mortgage Repayment and Specific Injury Cover sit inside the disability advice line Policywise is disclosed for; Redundancy Cover is sold only as an add-on to one of those, never alone.

• Expenses Cover pays a flat nominated monthly sum rather than a percentage of lost income. Its disability test has a second route: a life assured who performed normal domestic duties as their only job for the 12 months immediately before disability, and is then continuously unable to perform three of them without help, qualifies. That lets a homemaker, someone whose only job in the past year was running the home, qualify even with no income to replace.
• Mortgage Repayment Cover pays up to 115% of monthly mortgage or rent payments on disability. Before the life assured's 55th birthday, it can convert to a lump sum of up to $500,000 without a health assessment. For the standalone version of this cover, see Policywise's guide to mortgage repayment insurance.
• Redundancy Cover pays up to $4,000 a month for six months after a four-week stand-down, and only alongside Income Cover or Mortgage Repayment Cover.
• Specific Injury Cover pays a lump sum by injury group, and also cannot be bought on its own.

Chubb Life's own NZ product page lists no health insurance or KiwiSaver scheme, so neither appears here.

Pre-existing conditions, health questions and underwriting

OneChoice asks no health questions on its funeral cover, and neither does Chubb Life. OneChoice's life, serious illness, TPD, and income protection products are all underwritten by phone health and lifestyle questions, with no medical exam or blood test. Chubb Life medically underwrites its Life & Living Life Cover.

The funeral policies replace underwriting with time. Chubb's Funeral Cover wording carries no pre-existing-conditions exclusion, and its 24-month restriction is a timing rule rather than a health rule. OneChoice guarantees acceptance for residents aged 18 to 79, and its 12-month window does the same job.

Beyond funeral cover the position reverses. OneChoice's life insurance asks by phone about current and past illnesses and treatments, diabetes, smoking, and dangerous activities. Its income protection general FAQ gives a worked example that treats a pre-existing mental-health diagnosis as excluded. Chubb's Life & Living Life Cover page states that "in some cases we can't cover certain pre-existing medical conditions."

Having pre-existing conditions doesn't mean automatic exclusion for every product: both insurers can accept cover on loaded or conditional terms rather than declining outright. Policywise's guide to life insurance and pre-existing conditions explains how insurers typically assess them.

How OneChoice and Chubb Life compare as companies

Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited is a licensed insurer that underwrites its own cover, and it is part of the global Chubb group.

OneChoice is a trading name of Greenstone Financial Services NZ Limited, and its policies are issued by Pinnacle Life Limited. Both New Zealand companies sit under one Australian owner. Which structure you're more comfortable with may come down to how each is licensed and rated, covered next.

OneChoice itself holds no insurance licence; it is a distributor and promoter of products issued by Pinnacle Life Limited. Pinnacle Life Limited holds a Financial Institutions licence as FSP273205 and Chubb Life holds one as FSP27625, both granted on 31 March 2025.

That licence covers conduct, not underwriting authority, which sits separately with the Reserve Bank under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010. Greenstone Financial Services NZ Limited and Pinnacle Life Limited both sit under Greenstone Holdco Pty Ltd in Australia.

Review and comparison aggregators are not a sound basis here. This is what an independent rating agency says, and what each company publishes about itself:

• Financial strength. A.M. Best rates Pinnacle Life B+ (Good) as at 15 April 2026. Chubb Life NZ publishes an A.M. Best financial strength rating of A (Excellent). Both grades sit on the same scale, which puts Chubb Life one full rating category higher (Good to Excellent).
• Claims paid. Chubb Life paid 96% of claims in 2024. OneChoice publishes no claims-paid percentage under its own brand. Pinnacle Life, which issues OneChoice's cover, reports paying 94.4% of claims on its policies as at 25 May 2026. That is a different company measured over a different period, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with Chubb's calendar-year figure.
• Reinsurance. Pinnacle Life states it is reinsured by Hannover Life Re of Australasia. Chubb Life NZ publishes no reinsurer.
• Complaints. Both belong to the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman scheme.

On the Policywise panel, Chubb Life is disclosed for life and disability cover including income protection, but not health insurance or KiwiSaver. OneChoice appears in no column of that panel.

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