Life insurers licensed in New Zealand
These 7companies appear on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Register of Licensed Insurers and sell personal life or health cover according to their own websites. The list is alphabetical and that is the only order it will ever be in. We rate nothing and recommend nobody.
Updated 2026-09-16 · last checked against the RBNZ register and each insurer's own site on that date
The register does not sort insurers into life and general. Being on it proves one thing: that the company is licensed under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010. The cover listed against each company below was read from that company’s own website, not from the register.
The names look unfamiliar because the register uses the Companies Act name. As the register page itself puts it: “The name of the licensed insurer reflects the legal company name recorded with the Companies Office under the Companies Act 1993. Trading names and/or brands are not included.”
AIA New Zealand Limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life Insurance, Trauma Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, Total Permanent Disability Insurance, Cancer Insurance, Health Insurance.
Asteron Life Limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life Insurance, Accidental Death Insurance, Trauma Insurance, Cancer Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, Workability Insurance, Mortgage and Living Insurance, Total and Permanent Disablement Cover.
Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life & Living Insurance (Life Cover, Critical Illness Cover), Assurance Extra, Income Protection, Funeral Cover, Premium Cover.
Southern Cross Life Insurance and Southern Cross Life & Living Insurance policies are underwritten and administered by this company, according to the southerncrosslife.co.nz footer read on 2026-09-16.
Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life cover, Income protection cover, Monthly mortgage repayment cover, Total and permanent disability cover, Survivor's income cover, Trauma cover, Trauma multi cover, Specific injury cover.
nib nz limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life Insurance Cover, Serious Illness Trauma Cover, Income Protection Illness Cover.
A separate entity, nib New Zealand Insurance Limited, appears in the register's cancellation notices. It is not the same company as nib nz limited.
Partners Life Limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life Cover, Trauma Cover, Monthly Disability Cover, Total and Permanent Disability Cover, Specific Injury Cover, Private Medical Cover.
Resolution Life New Zealand Limited
Personal cover listed on its own site: Life Insurance, Income Protection, Trauma Cover, Disability Cover.
Resolution Life New Zealand Limited and Resolution Life Australasia Limited are both on the register. Both companies' sites and asteronlife.co.nz carried a notice on 2026-09-16 about a statutory fund restructure and a proposed transfer to Asteron Life.
Names people search for that are not licensed insurers
Saying so is more useful than quietly leaving them out.
| Name | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| Cigna | No entity containing “Cigna” is on the RBNZ register. The licensed entity is Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited. |
| Westpac Life | No Westpac entity appears on the register of licensed insurers at all. |
| Southern Cross | Three Southern Cross entities are licensed — Southern Cross Medical Care Society, Southern Cross Benefits Limited and Southern Cross Pet Insurance Limited — but the life products sold under the Southern Cross name are underwritten by Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited, according to the southerncrosslife.co.nz footer. |
| AA Life | A brand, not a registered entity. We could not source who underwrites it, so we do not say. AA Insurance Limited is a general insurer. |
What this list is not
- Not a ranking. There is no best, no top, no verdict and no score anywhere on this site, and there never will be.
- Not complete.Several further companies on the register write life business — Pinnacle Life, Momentum Life, Co-operative Life, Booster Assurance, Southsure Assurance, Medical Life Assurance Society, PPS Mutual, American Income Life and Hallmark Life among them. They are not listed because we have not read their own websites, and we will not publish a product list we have not seen.
- Not a comparison. Comparing policies means comparing wordings, definitions and exclusions, which is what an adviser does with your circumstances in front of them.
- Not paid for. No insurer pays us anything for anything, and none of these links is an affiliate link.
Sources
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Register of Licensed Insurers
- AIA New Zealand Limited — product page read
- Asteron Life Limited — product page read
- Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited — product page read
- Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited — product page read
- nib nz limited — product page read
- Partners Life Limited — product page read
- Resolution Life New Zealand Limited — product page read
Read on 2026-09-16. If a source and this page disagree, the source is right.
Is something here wrong or out of date? Insurers restructure, and one on this list is in the middle of a proposed transfer. Tell us and we will re-read the source and fix it.