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

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

OneChoice fits better if you cannot pass underwriting, want funeral cover with no health questions, or want to apply over the phone in one call. nib fits better if you want breadth, higher limits, or an adviser who can review your cover against other insurers.

The decision usually turns on three things:

• Your age and health. No OneChoice product needs a medical or a blood test. You answer health and lifestyle questions over the phone, at any benefit amount. nib underwrites its Ultimate range individually, and publishes no guaranteed-acceptance product within it. Its Easy Health plan accepts without health questions but applies a three-year pre-existing-condition stand-down.
• How much cover you need. OneChoice caps life cover at $2 million for applicants aged 18 to 44, tapering with age to $500,000 at 60 to 70, and caps Serious Illness cover at $500,000. nib's Ultimate Life wording publishes no maximum, leaving the amount insured to your policy schedule.
• Whether you want advice. OneChoice's own disclosure says its staff will not compare its products against anything else in the market. nib advises only on nib products, and refers anyone wanting a comparison to an independent adviser.

OneChoice and nib side by side

OneChoice sells three products: life insurance with optional Serious Illness and TPD cover, income protection, and funeral insurance. nib sells six Ultimate Life & Living covers through advisers, three health plans, and a simpler Life & Living range direct to the public.

OneChoice vs nib cost

Neither OneChoice nor nib publishes a premium, and both price individually, so a real cost comparison means getting a quote from each. What they do publish is premium structure, and it differs by product. OneChoice holds funeral premiums level against your ageing while stepping its life premiums up every year.

• OneChoice funeral cover advertises level premiums with no annual increase. That is level against your own ageing only. OneChoice's Key Fact Sheet, published until at least May 2024, reserves the company's right to reprice, provided the change applies to every OneChoice Funeral Cover policyholder.
• OneChoice life, Serious Illness, and TPD cover carries a stepped premium, which rises on each policy anniversary. That comes from OneChoice's own Key Fact Sheet, which the company published until at least May 2024 and no longer lists.
• nib's Ultimate Life & Living suite is rate-for-age, reviewed at each policy anniversary on your current age, with no surrender or cash value.

Three other levers move the price:

• Discounts: nib takes 10% off for two eligible Ultimate covers, 12.5% for three, and 15% for four. A separate 10% comes off health premiums where a health policy is applied for alongside an Ultimate Life & Living policy. Neither applies to the policy fee. No OneChoice page, FAQ, or Key Fact Sheet checked mentions a discount of any kind.
• Policy fees: nib charges a policy fee as a separate component of the premium and does not publish the amount. No OneChoice document checked mentions a policy or administration fee, which is an absence of mention rather than a confirmed nil.
• Excess: On nib's Easy Health plan, raising the excess (the amount you pay per claim before the insurer contributes) cuts the premium by a published 0% to 60%. OneChoice has no equivalent lever, because it sells no health cover.

OneChoice offers fortnightly, monthly, or annual payments, and nib health premiums run to six frequencies, from weekly to yearly. Neither publishes a premium example, and OneChoice's online calculator returns a cover amount rather than a price.

For a figure you can act on, talk to a Policywise adviser. Policywise can quote nib alongside the other insurers on its panel, and you can set that against a OneChoice quote you get direct.

How you buy: direct, or through an adviser

OneChoice publishes no adviser or group channel. It sells direct only. nib sells both ways. Its six-product Ultimate Life & Living suite goes through advisers. Its health cover and a simpler direct Life & Living range are sold straight to the public.

Policywise is disclosed for nib across health, life, and disability cover, and OneChoice appears nowhere on Policywise's panel. OneChoice's staff can advise only on whether OneChoice products suit you, not on how they compare with anyone else's.

The Financial Markets Authority sets out what an adviser owes you: suitable advice, disclosed conflicts including commissions, and clear fee disclosure nib says the same from the other side, recommending an independent adviser to anyone who wants its products compared.

Funeral cover: OneChoice's funeral policy vs nib's funeral and bereavement benefits

OneChoice sells a standalone funeral policy. nib does not. OneChoice's funeral cover is a product you buy on its own, with no health questions and no medicals. nib's funeral money only reaches you as a benefit attached to a health or life policy you already hold. For the product in the round, including the alternatives to buying a funeral policy at all, see Policywise's guide to funeral insurance in New Zealand.

What OneChoice's funeral policy pays, and its accidental-only window

OneChoice Funeral Insurance pays $3,000 to $30,000 on death, with guaranteed acceptance for New Zealand residents aged 18 to 79. For the first 12 months it covers accidental death and accidental serious injury only. A death from anything else inside that window pays nothing.

It also returns nothing. OneChoice's own Key Fact Sheet (document H8014_6/23), which the company published until at least May 2024, states there is no investment or savings component, so no premiums come back when the policy ends. The only refunds are the 30-day money-back guarantee and the unused pro-rata share of an annual premium already paid.

After 12 months, the policy covers death from any cause, and terminal illness where life expectancy is 12 months or less. The rest of what it carries:

• Accidental death pays double on top. The Accidental Death Benefit is twice the Funeral Insurance Benefit and is paid in addition to it. An accidental death therefore pays three times the cover amount, up to $90,000. Death must occur within 90 days of the accident.
• Accidental serious injury pays three times the benefit, from $9,000 to $90,000, ending at the policy anniversary after your 75th birthday.
• Premiums stop at 85, and a free 25% Bonus Cover is added at the same point.
• After 85, you can cash out 75% of the benefit and end cover, excluding the Bonus Cover. At 100 the policy ends and pays the benefit plus the 25% Bonus Cover.
• Total premiums may exceed the cover amount over the life of the policy, as OneChoice itself discloses.

nib plans with funeral and bereavement support benefits

nib's funeral money is a benefit inside other policies, never a policy of its own. The Funeral Support Benefit pays $5,000 on Easy Health and Ultimate Health, and $10,000 on Ultimate Health Max. It covers an insured person who dies aged 16 to 64 from any cause.

That benefit sits in base cover rather than an optional module, and is paid per deceased insured person rather than per policy. It carries no excess and has no stated stand-down period (the wait before a condition is covered). There is no accidental-only window of the kind OneChoice applies.

Two further sources of nib funeral money sit outside the health plans:

• Ultimate Life Insurance pays a Bereavement Assistance Benefit of the lesser of $25,000 or the amount insured. It reduces the Life amount insured by what it pays, and nib can recover it if the main Life Cover claim is later declined.
• nib's direct Life & Living range includes a complimentary $15,000 Funeral Expenses benefit with whichever of its covers you hold. For the full picture on the health plans carrying the Funeral Support Benefit, see Policywise's nib health insurance review.

What age can you get funeral insurance in NZ?

You can take out OneChoice Funeral Insurance from age 18 to 79, with guaranteed acceptance and no health questions. Premiums stop at 85, and cover is renewed to your 100th birthday while premiums are paid. nib's health-plan Funeral Support Benefit instead pays for an insured person who dies aged 16 to 64.

The nib plans carrying funeral or bereavement money have their own age rules:

• The three health plans need a policyowner aged 16 or over. nib publishes no maximum entry age and no cessation age for any of them.
• Ultimate Life Insurance takes applicants aged 16 to 70, with no expiry age once cover starts.
• The direct Life & Living range takes applicants aged 18 to 70 for Life cover.

OneChoice accepts new buyers up to 79. nib's health plans publish no entry-age ceiling at all, so there is no second number to set against OneChoice's 79, but their funeral benefit stops once the insured person passes 64.

Does life insurance cover funeral costs?

Yes. Both OneChoice and nib life insurance advance money toward funeral costs, at different sizes, via the same mechanic. A OneChoice life policy advances $10,000 towards funeral costs and deducts it from the final life payout. nib's Ultimate Life Insurance pays the lesser of $25,000 or the amount insured, and reduces the amount insured by what it pays.

nib's version is 2.5 times larger, and it is recoverable if the main claim is later declined. Both are advances rather than extra money. Full detail on the nib side is in Policywise's nib Ultimate Life insurance review.

Two state backstops also exist, and their size differs sharply. The Work and Income grant is modest. ACC's payout covers far more of the bill where it applies:

• Work and Income pays a Funeral Grant of up to $2,697.43, income-tested where the deceased was your partner or child.
• ACC pays up to $8,236.40 tax-free where death resulted from a covered injury.

The average New Zealand funeral costs $13,000, according to the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand. The same report puts a no-service cremation at around $4,700. A $10,000 advance covers most of an average funeral. A $2,697.43 grant does not.

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

OneChoice offers one life policy, with Serious Illness and TPD sold only as optional extras attached to it. nib's Ultimate Trauma and Ultimate TPD can each be taken accelerated (paid from, and reducing, your life cover amount) or standalone. nib also sells Ultimate Mortgage Protection, which OneChoice has no equivalent for. Policywise's guide to income protection and TPD cover compares the two covers directly.

Life cover: OneChoice vs nib

OneChoice Life Insurance covers $100,000 to $2 million. The maximum tapers by age, from $2 million at 18 to 44 down to $500,000 at 60 to 70, so check which band applies to you. nib Ultimate Life Insurance publishes no maximum, leaving the amount insured to your schedule. Both take applicants aged 16 to 70.

Where they part company:

• Cessation: OneChoice publishes no cessation age, and cover runs while premiums are paid. nib states Ultimate Life has no expiry age.
• Terminal illness: OneChoice pays 100% of the benefit on a terminal diagnosis. nib pays the full amount insured where death is likely within 12 months. Its Terminal Condition Benefit covers the 12-to-24-month window at the lesser of 30% or $250,000, and reduces the amount insured.
• Indexation: OneChoice increases cover automatically by 5% each year to age 75, or 2% where the policy carries a fixed term. nib offers Inflation Adjustment of 1% to 10% at its discretion, a fixed 5% Increasing Adjustment, or none.

Trauma insurance: OneChoice vs nib

OneChoice Serious Illness Insurance pays on four conditions: heart attack, stroke, cancer, and coronary artery bypass surgery. It is an add-on to OneChoice Life only and cannot be bought alone. nib Ultimate Trauma Insurance lists 51 full and 18 partial trauma conditions, and sells accelerated or standalone. If the condition behind your claim sits outside OneChoice's four, nib's longer list is the one that pays.

The structure compounds that gap:

• Partial payments: OneChoice publishes none. nib pays a Partial Trauma Benefit of the lesser of 25% of the amount insured or $100,000. An optional Early Cancer Benefit is paid in addition to the main benefit.
• Buy-backs: OneChoice publishes none. nib offers a Life Cover Buy-back on accelerated cover, and a deferred trauma buy-back 12 months after a claim. An immediate multiple-claim buy-back is capped at four times the original amount insured.
• Children: OneChoice publishes nothing. nib's Children's Trauma Benefit covers ages three months to 20 years, paying $50,000 full or $12,500 partial.
• Entry age: OneChoice takes applicants aged 16 to 59, with cover from $50,000 to $500,000. nib takes 16 to 70.
• Stand-down: OneChoice publishes none. nib applies a 90-day stand-down period to marked conditions, including cancer, heart attack, and stroke, and standalone claims also require surviving 14 days after diagnosis.

For the nib product in full, see Policywise's nib Ultimate Trauma insurance review. To see how both sit against the wider market, compare trauma insurance plans.

Disability cover under OneChoice vs nib

OneChoice TPD Insurance covers $50,000 to $1 million, attaches to OneChoice Life only, and ends at 65. nib Ultimate TPD Insurance sells accelerated or standalone with an entry age of 16 to 60. nib also sells Ultimate Mortgage Protection, a disability-income product rather than a life-cover accelerator. Which structure suits you depends on whether you want TPD attached to life cover or sold alone.

OneChoice does not publish its disability test. Its product page gives illustrative examples only, and states no entry age as a policy term. A 16–59 figure appears elsewhere on its site, on a Choice Reads page framed as general industry commentary rather than a confirmed OneChoice term. nib publishes its test in full:

• Under 65, the test is the occupation type on your schedule, Own, Any, or No Occupation, plus 90 consecutive days unable to work.
• From 65, the occupation test drops away, and the benefit turns on activities of daily living, or blindness, or loss of two limbs.
• A Fast Track Benefit waives the 90-day requirement for 16 listed conditions, including motor neurone disease, dementia, and paralysis.
• Ultimate Mortgage Protection pays its partial benefit on a working-hours ratio rather than an income ratio. If covering your home loan is the point, compare mortgage protection insurance against standard TPD cover before you choose.

OneChoice vs nib's cover for lost income

OneChoice Income Protection pays the lesser of your monthly amount insured or 75% of pre-tax income, capped at $15,000 a month. nib Ultimate Income Protection insures up to $30,000 a month, on either an Agreed Value or an Indemnity basis. Both reduce what they pay by ACC.

ACC is the reason this cover exists. ACC does not cover illness, only injury. Where it does pay, it covers 80% of pre-injury average weekly earnings, and weekly compensation usually starts on day eight.

Policywise's guide to ACC vs income protection covers how the two fit together.

The offsets split three ways:

• OneChoice reduces its benefit by paid sick leave, other insurance, ACC, and any other government agency payment.
• nib Ultimate Income Protection counts ACC payments received or due as Other Income. It excludes sick-leave entitlements and passive income such as rent, interest, and dividends.
• nib Ultimate Mortgage Protection applies no other-income offset at all, so ACC payments and earnings are not deducted.

The menus differ as much as the offsets:

• Stand-down periods: OneChoice offers 30 or 90 days. nib offers 4, 8, 13, 26, 52, or 104 weeks, depending on occupation class (nib's risk categories for your job, which also set which wait and benefit periods you can choose).
• Benefit periods: OneChoice offers six months, one year, two years, or five years. nib offers two years, five years, to 65, or to 70, the last for occupation classes 1 and 2 only.
• Entry age: OneChoice takes 16 to 60, working at least 15 hours a week, including sole traders and the self-employed. The policy expires on the policy anniversary after your 65th birthday. nib takes 16 to 60 in occupation classes 1 and 2, and 16 to 55 in classes 3 and 4 .
• Agreed Value or Indemnity: nib's Agreed Value fixes the figure at inception with no recalculation. Indemnity pays the lesser of the amount insured or 75% of pre-disability income. That is recalculated at claim time against any continuous 12 months you choose from the last 36.
• Extras: OneChoice treats a recurrence within six months as a continuation with no second stand-down, and waives premiums for three months on redundancy. nib adds a Bereavement Support Benefit of three times the monthly amount insured. An option has nib paying your KiwiSaver contributions while a Total Disability Benefit runs.

OneChoice publishes no occupation-class system and no premium structure for this product. For the nib side in full, see Policywise's nib income protection insurance review.

Other cover nib offers

nib sells four things OneChoice does not: health insurance, group health cover for employers, mortgage protection, and a simpler life range bought direct. OneChoice sells no health cover of any kind, a gap covered in Policywise's guide to the difference between life and health insurance.

nib's health range runs three tiers. Easy Health covers $300,000 surgical and $200,000 non-surgical a year, while Ultimate Health and Ultimate Health Max both cover $600,000 surgical and $300,000 non-surgical. The key points beyond those limits:

• Non-Pharmac cover divides the tiers. Easy Health and Ultimate Health carry a $20,000 Non-PHARMAC Cancer Treatment Benefit. Ultimate Health Max splits non-Pharmac medicines into separate in-hospital and at-home benefits, drawing on the main pool instead of a sub-limit.
• Group cover exists. nib Premier Health Business covers businesses with 15 or more employees, at $300,000 surgical and $200,000 non-surgical per person per policy year.
• Wellness programmes come free. nib runs Health Management Programmes for eligible members aged 18 to 80 with hospital cover, covering heart health, cancer care, and joint pain, among others. For details on each, see Policywise's nib health insurance review, the nib Ultimate Health Max comparison, and the nib Easy Health comparison.

One nib line sits closer to OneChoice than the Ultimate suite does. nib's direct Life & Living range carries Life cover, Serious Illness Trauma cover, and Income Protection Illness cover. Trauma caps at $1 million and income cover at 55% of gross income, up to $6,000 a month.

Its income protection illness cover needs 25 hours a week with a single employer, and its fact sheet makes no mention of a self-employed or sole-trader provision. Check that against your own employment status before relying on it.

Pre-existing conditions, health questions and underwriting

OneChoice publishes no pre-existing-condition wording at all, while nib's treatment splits by product: individually underwritten exclusions on the Ultimate range, an automatic three-year stand-down on Easy Health, and full medical underwriting at application on Ultimate Health and Ultimate Health Max. nib's treatment changes by product but doesn't rule out cover outright; OneChoice's own position isn't published.

OneChoice's process instead is phone health and lifestyle questions, with no medical and no blood test, at any benefit amount. OneChoice's Key Fact Sheets spelled out suicide, self-harm, and motorsport exclusions.

Its Funeral Key Fact Sheet's Accidental Serious Injury Benefit carried a longer list, covering intentional self-harm, criminal acts, drug and alcohol intoxication, professional sport, motorsport, flying other than as a passenger, and war or civil unrest. Neither Key Fact Sheet said anything about pre-existing conditions as a category. Its funeral policy asks no health questions at all.

nib publishes its position, and it differs by product line:

• The six Ultimate Life & Living covers share one broad definition across their wordings. nib applies it as individually underwritten personal exclusions on your schedule, not a blanket policy-wide exclusion.
• Easy Health applies an automatic three-year stand-down on pre-existing conditions, after which they are covered, except for a permanently excluded list. Medical history is asked at claim rather than at application.
• Ultimate Health and Ultimate Health Max use full medical underwriting at application instead, with no automatic time-based clearance.
• Newborns added within four months of birth have pre-existing conditions covered on all three health plans, though congenital conditions stay excluded.

Policywise's guide to life insurance and pre-existing conditions covers what to disclose and when.

How OneChoice and nib compare as companies

nib underwrites its own cover. OneChoice underwrites nothing: it is a trading name of Greenstone Financial Services NZ Limited, and the policies are issued by Pinnacle Life Limited. nib nz limited holds its own Reserve Bank insurer licence, effective June 2013, and underwrites both its health and its life ranges.

Who stands behind a claim differs accordingly:

• Financial strength: Pinnacle Life holds a B+ (Good) financial strength rating from A.M. Best, with a bbb- issuer credit rating. nib nz limited holds an A (Strong) rating from S&P Global Ratings Australia, shown independently on the Reserve Bank register.
• Licences: Pinnacle Life holds the insurer licence and reported a solvency margin of $8.78 million at 30 June 2026. Greenstone holds a financial advice licence, not an insurer licence. nib nz limited holds FMA licence FSP42705 alongside its insurer licence.
• Ownership: nib nz limited sits under nib nz holdings limited and ultimately nib holdings limited, listed on the ASX. It entered New Zealand in 2012 by buying Tower Medical Insurance, and acquired Kiwi Insurance in 2022, which brought the life and living range.
• Complaints: nib's external dispute scheme is the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman, a free, independent route if you're not satisfied with how nib has handled your complaint.

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