Compare life insurance in Australia

The types of life insurance, and what each one pays

"Life insurance" in Australia is really a family of covers. Four are sold as personal insurance, on their own or bundled together, and a fifth, funeral insurance, is sold separately. Each pays on a different event and in a different way, so the first step in comparing is working out which of them you need.

Most people start with life cover and TPD, because both are included by default in most super funds. Trauma and income protection fill the gap between "I'm fine" and "I can never work again": the years of illness or injury you recover from, which are far more common than permanent disability.

Direct, through an adviser, or through super

You can buy the same kinds of cover three ways, and the channel changes the price, the definitions, the help you get and who pays. Moneysmart's claims comparison tool reports insurers' claim acceptance rates and claim times separately for each channel, because results differ between them.

Plenty of households combine them: default life and TPD cover in super as a base, a retail policy on top for the amount super doesn't cover, and trauma held outside super because it can't be held inside it.

How often life insurers pay claims

Most life insurance claims are paid, but the rate varies with the cover type and how the policy was sold. APRA's latest figures, for the 12 months to 31 December 2025, show TPD claims are the least likely of the main covers to be admitted in every channel, and policies bought direct had lower admittance rates than advised policies for death, TPD, trauma and income protection cover.

Moneysmart's life insurance claims comparison tool shows the same data for each insurer, including claim times and disputes, so you can check the insurer behind a quote before you buy. Its times are the insurer's decision time and don't include the time a super fund trustee takes.

Australia's largest life insurers, and who issues the cover banks and health funds sell

Most life insurance sold under a bank, health fund or retail brand is issued by one of a handful of life insurers, and the issuer is the company that assesses and pays your claim. On APRA's latest insurer-level figures, for financial years ended in the 12 months to June 2023, the four largest life insurers by net policy revenue were TAL Life, AIA Australia, MLC and Zurich Australia. Hannover Life Re of Australasia and NobleOak issue the cover sold under several direct brands.

Size isn't a quality measure. A large insurer can still have a lower claims admittance rate for the cover and channel you're buying, so check the issuer named on the PDS against Moneysmart's life insurance claims comparison tool and the APRA figures above. The table below shows who issues the cover each brand sells, read from the brand's own page or PDS. For the largest general and health insurers as well, see Australia's biggest insurance companies.

Stepped vs level premiums

Moneysmart now calls stepped premiums variable age-stepped and level premiums variable, to make the point that neither is fixed. A stepped premium is recalculated every year from your age, so it starts cheaper and climbs. A level premium isn't recalculated for age, so it starts higher and climbs more slowly. Either can still rise if the insurer reprices the product, and Moneysmart warns premiums may change annually whichever you choose.

The deciding question is how long you will keep the cover. A family that expects to reduce cover as the mortgage shrinks usually pays less overall on stepped premiums. Someone who wants a fixed amount of cover into their 60s may pay less over the life of the policy on level premiums, provided they keep it.

How much does life insurance cost in Australia?

There's no standard price for life insurance in Australia: the premium is set for the person insured. Moneysmart says insurers set premiums based on your age, health, job and lifestyle, and premiums generally rise as you get older, so the same cover can cost very different amounts for different people.

That's also the honest answer to "how much does a $100,000 term life policy cost per month?" or "how much is a $1 million policy?": it depends on who is insured and how the policy is built. These are the things that move the price, so change one at a time when you compare quotes.

• Age: stepped premiums are recalculated every year for your age.
• Smoking and vaping: smokers are rated separately and pay more.
• Health and family history: conditions can lead to a loading or an exclusion.
• Job and hobbies: manual work and high-risk pastimes can cost more, mainly for TPD and income protection.
• Cover amount and cover types: more cover, and adding TPD, trauma or indexation, adds to the premium.
• Premium structure: stepped premiums start lower and rise faster than level premiums.
• How you buy it: Moneysmart says premiums through super may be lower because funds buy cover in bulk, though default cover may not match your needs.

Underwriting, pre-existing conditions and what to disclose

Underwriting is how the insurer decides whether to cover you, on what terms and at what price. Moneysmart lists what insurers usually ask about: your age and job, your medical history and family health history, smoking and lifestyle, and high-risk hobbies or sports. Depending on the answers, you may be accepted at the standard rate, accepted with a loading (a percentage added to the premium), accepted with an exclusion for a specific condition, or declined.

Since 5 October 2021 you have a legal duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation when you apply, renew or change a consumer policy. It replaced the older duty of disclosure. Answer each question carefully and completely; a careless or wrong answer can let the insurer change the cover, cancel it or refuse a claim years later.

Two protections in the Life Insurance Code of Practice are worth knowing. If you have or have had a mental health condition, subscribing insurers commit not to decline you before you have had the chance to explain its history, severity and type, and new products shouldn't carry a blanket mental health exclusion in their general terms. And the Code includes a moratorium limiting how insurers can use genetic test results. The Australian Government announced in September 2024 that it would ban the use of genetic test results in life insurance underwriting; the Council of Australian Life Insurers reports the legislation passed the Senate in April 2026.

Policies that ask few or no health questions aren't a shortcut around this. Moneysmart warns that when an insurer doesn't ask about your medical history, the policy may have more exclusions or narrower definitions, often a blanket exclusion for pre-existing conditions.

How much life cover do you need?

There's no right multiple of salary. Moneysmart's method is a subtraction you can do on one page, and our life insurance calculator runs it for life and TPD cover side by side. Work it out before you get quotes, so you compare the same cover amount everywhere.

1. Debts to clear: the mortgage, car loans, personal loans and credit cards.
2. Future costs: childcare and school fees until the youngest is independent, and any care for someone who relies on you.
3. Income to replace: the living costs your income currently pays, for the number of years your family would need support.
4. One-off costs: a funeral (Moneysmart puts funerals at $8,000 to around $20,000), legal costs and a buffer.
5. Less what they'd receive: super (including insurance already in it), savings, investments that could be sold, paid leave owed to you and realistic family support.
6. The gap is your cover amount. Repeat for TPD, adding medical, rehabilitation and home modification costs, because you would still be alive and need looking after. A TPD payout from super can also be taxed if you're under 60; the TPD payout calculator estimates it.

Life insurance for couples: joint or separate policies

Couples can usually insure each other in one of two ways: two separate policies, each owned by the person insured, or one policy that covers both of you, which direct insurers often call a joint plan. Both work, but they behave differently when something changes, so read the PDS for how the joint version works before you choose it for the discount or the convenience.

In one current direct PDS, Real Insurance's Term Life Cover (1 July 2023), a joint plan is issued to one of you as the policyowner, each person has their own cover, and ownership can't be transferred. If the policyowner dies, the insurer issues the surviving partner a new single policy on the same terms. Separate policies keep each person's cover, premiums and ownership independent, which is simpler if your circumstances or your relationship change. Whichever you choose, work out each person's cover amount separately: the partner who earns less may still need cover for childcare and household costs.

How to compare life insurance quotes

Price is the easiest thing to compare and the least useful on its own. Two quotes for the same sum insured can hide very different definitions, exclusions and premium paths. Work through these checks with the PDS and target market determination open.

• Same cover, same structure. Compare quotes on the same sum insured, the same cover types and the same premium structure (stepped with stepped, level with level).
• Definitions. For TPD, is it own occupation or any occupation? For trauma, how are cancer, heart attack and stroke defined, and is there a partial payment for less severe conditions?
• Exclusions and loadings. What does the policy exclude, including pre-existing conditions, and has a loading been added for your health, job or hobbies?
• Future cost. Ask for a projection of the premium at 5, 10 and 20 years. Ask whether the cover indexes each year; the Life Code says insurers will tell you that you can opt out of indexation increases.
• Claims record. Moneysmart's life insurance claims comparison tool shows each insurer's claim acceptance rate, how long claims take and how many disputes are lodged, by cover type and sales channel.
• Linked or stand-alone. If TPD or trauma is linked to life cover, a claim on one reduces the other.
• Code of Practice. Check whether the insurer subscribes to the Life Insurance Code of Practice. The Council of Australian Life Insurers publishes the current list.
• Cooling-off. Under the Life Code you get a cooling-off period of at least 30 days to change your mind for a full refund, on policies designed to last more than three months.

Life insurance and tax

When you hold cover personally, outside super, the ATO says life, trauma and critical care insurance premiums are not tax deductible, because they pay a capital sum. TPD premiums follow the same logic. Income protection premiums are the exception: they are generally deductible because they insure your income, and the payments are taxable. See is income protection tax deductible for the detail.

Inside super, premiums come out of your balance, and payouts are taxed as super benefits. A death benefit paid as a lump sum to a dependant under tax law, such as a spouse or a child under 18, is tax-free; paid to a non-dependant such as an independent adult child, its taxable component is taxed at up to 15% or 30% plus the Medicare levy. A TPD lump sum from super can be taxed at up to 22% if you are under 60. That's why the amount your family receives from cover in super can be less than the sum insured. Life insurance through super explains the rules.

Making a claim

Contact whoever you bought the cover from: the insurer, your adviser or broker, your super fund, or your employer if it's a workplace policy. Moneysmart lists what you may need: medical reports and test results, details of the work you did and your hours, payslips and tax returns or financial statements, and a death certificate or a medical report listing the cause of death.

Insurers that subscribe to the Life Code commit to deciding income-related claims within two months, and lump sum claims such as death, TPD and trauma within six months, of receiving the claim or of the end of any waiting period, unless circumstances beyond their control apply. If you need money urgently while a claim is assessed, ask about an advance payment. If you disagree with the outcome, complain to the insurer or fund, and then to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which is free.