Top 10 Life Insurance Companies in Australia
Find out who some of the biggest and best life insurers in Australia are and compare your options with Savvy.
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Finding the right life insurance policy is crucial to ensure you and your family are potentially looked after in case you suffer a critical illness, life-changing injury or pass away. As such, it’s worthwhile analysing the top ten insurers who are currently operating in the Australian market to compare policies currently on offer.
By comparing your options with Savvy, you can look at different policies side-by-side and compare their differences. You can fill out a simple online quote form and soon have a range of policies from our panel of insurers to compare. Find out more about the top insurers in Australia and compare quotes with Savvy today.
What are the top ten largest life insurance companies in Australia?
According to data from the Plan For Life Actuaries & Researchers in August 2022, the top ten largest providers of life insurance in Australia by market share are the following:
- TAL Life Limited: 27.7% market share
- AIA Australia Limited: 18.3%
- Zurich: 13.8%
- MLC Limited: 10.6%
- Resolution Group: 7.9%
- BT/Westpac Financial Group: 5.4%
- MetLife Insurance: 5.1%
- QInsure: 3.3%
- Hannover: 3.2%
- ClearView: 1.7%
These ten insurers add up to 97% of the current Australian life insurance market. However, it’s important to not simply choose your insurer based on their size. You should also look at an array of other comparison points, particularly the areas they cover under their policies.
What are some of the best life insurance companies in Australia in 2023?
The best insurer for one person may be entirely different for another, so this will depend on your own personal circumstances. Some of the top insurers currently operating in Australia who our life insurance partners, Compare Club, are partnered with include the following:
TAL
Originally formed in New Zealand in 1869, TAL has grown to become the largest provider of life insurance in Australia. It has gone on to acquire a range of other life insurance businesses, including Lifebroker, Suncorp’s life insurance arm and, most recently, Westpac’s BT Life Insurance.
- Offers life, critical illness, total and permanent disability (TPD) and income protection cover
- No maximum benefit limit for life cover
- In-built critical illness benefit for children between two and 19 years old of up to $10,000
- TAL Health Sense, which offers a discount of up to 15% on certain policies if your BMI is between 19.0 and 28.0
- Life insurance cover available to purchase for anyone between 19 and 75 years old
AIA Australia
AIA is a multinational insurance company which has established its first business in Australia in 1972, known as AIA Australia. It offers a range of different services, including health insurance and retirement and investments. In 2021, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s life insurance arm, CommInsure Life, was absorbed into AIA Australia.
- Offers life, TPD, crisis recovery and income protection core cover
- No maximum benefit limit for life cover ($2 million for home duties)
- Up to $20,000 in complimentary cover if a dependent child becomes terminally ill or passes away
- Offers up to $750,000 or 25% of your sum insured for partial permanent disablement under TPD cover
- Covers those as young as 11 years old up to the age of 100
Zurich
Zurich is a Swiss multinational insurance provider which offers services across more than 215 countries and territories. It offers life and business insurance, as well as a range of investment services, through its Australian business, and also owns OnePath, which is another of the top life insurers on the Australian market.
- Offers death benefit, TPD, trauma and income protection cover
- No maximum benefit limit for life cover
- Zurich Active offers bundled protection with an extended list of covered health conditions and events
- Advance payment of up to $15,000 available while making a claim
- Maximum entry age of 70 for life cover and expiry age of 99 for life cover and TPD
MLC Life Insurance
MLC Life Insurance is an Australian company founded in 1886 which specialises in life insurance and is owned by Nippon Life Insurance Group. Its wider brand, MLC, offers products relating to super, investments, and retirement.
- Offers life, income protection, TPD, critical illness, occupationally acquired infection and child critical illness cover
- $3 million maximum benefit limit for life cover and $5 million for TPD insurance
- Advance payment of up to $20,000 for urgent costs
- Vivo Incentive, which offers a lifetime premium discount of 7.5% for those with a BMI of between 18.5 and 28.5
- Entry age of between 16 and 70 for life cover and expiry age of 100 for life cover and TPD
MetLife
MetLife is a multinational insurance company headquartered in New York. Its Australian arm of operations, MetLife Australia, offers life and business insurance solutions, as well as other types of coverage including loan protection and credit card insurance.
- Offers life, TPD, income protection and trauma cover
- No maximum benefit limit for life cover
- Advance payment of up to $30,000 for funeral expenses
- Cover for up to $5,000 worth of expenses if you have to travel more than 100km to receive treatment under trauma insurance
- Policies able to be purchased up to 73 years old and expire at as high as 130 years.
ClearView
ClearView is an Australian-based and founded company which specialises in providing life insurance and wealth management services, such as super, pension and other investments. It was originally known as NRMA Life, but the insurer no longer offers life cover under its own banner.
- Offers life, income protection, trauma, TPD and child cover
- Up to $20 million in coverage available with life cover
- Flexi linking, which connects life insurance both within and outside super so you can have different owners for each policy
- Advance payment of up to $25,000 for urgent costs
- Entry age as high as 75 for life cover (60 for other types of insurance)
NobleOak
NobleOak is an Australian company specialising in life insurance which is backed by Hannover Life Re. It was originally founded in 1877 as the UAOD Friendly Society of NSW as a mutual organisation, before becoming demutualised in 2011 and rebranding to NobleOak.
- Offers life, income protection, TPD and trauma cover, as well as through SMSFs
- Up to $15 million worth of cover available
- Advance payment of up to $15,000 for urgent costs
- Cover for up to $1,000 worth of grief counselling for the policyholder or their partner if a benefit is paid out
- Those between the ages of 16 and 69 can purchase a policy, with cover extended up to 99 years in some cases
Integrity Life
Integrity Life Australia specialises in retail life insurance for advisers, but they also offer a suite of products to individuals and those looking to buy life cover for themselves. The company is relatively new to the Australian market, having only commenced its life insurance service in 2019.
- Offers life, income, critical illness, and TPD cover to individuals
- No maximum benefit limit for life cover
- Care Support Package, which comes with all cover (aside from income) and offers cover for accommodation, grief support and more
- Advance payment of up to $25,000 for urgent costs
- High maximum entry age of 75 for life cover, with coverage ceasing at 135 years
OnePath
OnePath Life Insurance is a company which has offered policies to Australians for more than 140 years. It also offers products relating to superannuation and further investments. In 2022, the company was purchased by Zurich Australia.
- Offers life, income, critical illness, and TPD cover to individuals
- Maximum benefit limit for life cover dictated by your personal circumstances
- Earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points for each dollar you spend on your premiums
- Advance payment of up to $25,000 for urgent costs
- High maximum entry age of 75 for life cover, TPD and income protection insurance, with life cover expiring at 130 and TPD at 100
NEOS Protection
NEOS Protection is an Australian-based and owned company which offers life insurance policies. Headquartered in Sydney, NEOS’ products are provided by NobleOak and reinsured by a subsidiary of Pacific Life Re, which is operated by American insurer Pacific Life.
- Offers life, TPD, critical illness, income and child cover to individuals
- Maximum life insurance coverage of $5 million
- $10,000 benefit if a dependent child passes away, is diagnosed with a terminal illness or falls critically ill
- Advance payment of up to $25,000 for urgent costs
- High maximum entry age of 75 for life cover, with coverage ceasing at 99 years for life and TPD cover
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Savvy is partnered with Compare Club Australia Pty Ltd (AFS representative number 001279036) of Alternative Media Pty Ltd (AFS License number 486326) to provide readers with a variety of life insurance policies to compare. Savvy earns a commission from Compare Club each time a customer buys a life insurance policy via our website. We don’t arrange for products to be purchased from these brands directly, as all purchases are conducted via Compare Club.
Savvy does not compare all life insurance policies or providers currently operating in the market. Any advice presented above or on other pages is general in nature and doesn’t consider your personal or business objectives, needs or finances. It’s always important to consider whether advice is suitable for you before purchasing an insurance policy.
For any further information on the variety of insurers compared by Compare Club or how their business works, you can read their Financial Services Guide.
