Fidelity Life: ownership, financial strength, cover and claims

Is Fidelity Life a New Zealand company?

Yes. Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited was founded in 1973 by Gordon and Shirley Watson, is headquartered on Fanshawe Street in central Auckland, and describes itself as New Zealand's largest locally owned life insurer. It has no connection to the fund manager Fidelity Investments or to the American life insurers that also use the Fidelity name, which is worth knowing because search results for "Fidelity Life" mix them up.

If you are reading a review of "Fidelity Life" that mentions US states, term-life quotes in dollars per month or an American phone number, it is about a different company. The New Zealand insurer's site is fidelitylife.co.nz, and its licensed entity is the one named at the top of this page.

Who owns Fidelity Life?

Local shareholders, the NZ Superannuation Fund and Ngāi Tahu Holdings, according to its own "Our story" page. Its timeline records a $100 million investment from NZ Super Fund in 2018, and Ngāi Tahu Holdings joining as a shareholder in 2022.

The same timeline sets out how the business grew: it acquired Tower's life insurance policies in 2013, formed a strategic alliance with FMG in 2005, and bought and integrated Westpac Life in 2022. That last one matters if you once held life cover through Westpac: those policies moved to Fidelity Life, so it is now the insurer standing behind them.

Ownership is about to change. See the section on the Partners Life deal below.

What is Fidelity Life's financial strength rating?

A- (Excellent), from AM Best. Fidelity Life's own financial strength page says it "has maintained an A- (Excellent) financial strength rating from A.M. Best since December 1996". On AM Best's scale, reproduced on the same page, A and A- both sit in the Excellent category, described as "an excellent ability to meet their ongoing insurance obligations".

The same page discloses the solvency margin the Reserve Bank requires every licensed insurer to publish. As at 30 June 2026 Fidelity Life reported an adjusted solvency margin of $106.8 million, an adjusted solvency ratio of 113%. In plain terms, it held that much capital above the minimum the solvency standard requires.

A rating is an opinion on an insurer's ability to pay claims, not on whether its policies are good value or how it treats you at claim time. It is AM Best's, not ours: this site publishes no rating, score or ranking of any insurer. Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited has been on the Reserve Bank's Register of Licensed Insurers since 2 August 2013. See all licensed life insurers.

What cover does Fidelity Life sell?

Eight personal products, as its own site lists them: Life cover, Income protection cover, Monthly mortgage repayment cover, Total and permanent disability cover, Survivor's income cover, Trauma cover, Trauma multi cover and Specific injury cover. It also sells business cover (key person, business expenses), rural key person cover and group cover for employers.

• Life cover pays a lump sum on death or terminal illness. Our explainer: life insurance.
• Income protection cover pays a monthly benefit while illness or injury stops you working. See income protection.
• Monthly mortgage repayment cover pays toward the mortgage instead. See mortgage protection and income protection vs mortgage protection.
• Total and permanent disability cover pays a lump sum if you are unlikely ever to work again. See TPD insurance.
• Survivor's income cover pays the family a regular income after a death, rather than one lump sum.
• Trauma cover and Trauma multi cover pay on diagnosis of a listed condition; the multi version is designed to pay more than once. See trauma insurance.
• Specific injury cover pays a set amount for listed injuries.

What it costs is not on this page, and not anywhere on this site. A premium depends on your age, health, occupation, smoking status, the sum insured and whether premiums are stepped or level, so a figure printed here would be about someone else. Why we publish no premium tables explains, and stepped vs level premiums covers the choice that moves the price most over time.

How do you buy Fidelity Life cover?

Through a financial adviser. Fidelity Life's own page on advisers says that while many insurers sell directly to the public, it thinks getting cover right "shouldn't be rushed through in a few minutes", and its site routes people who want a quote to a local adviser. So the person recommending a Fidelity Life policy is usually an adviser, who must be licensed and must tell you how they are paid. How to check a financial adviser shows where to look them up.

What does Fidelity Life say about claims?

That it accepted 93% of new claims in its last financial year. Its "Claims we've paid" page, covering 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, reports 2,279 new customer claims accepted and $247.7 million paid out across all claims, with cancer the largest single cause at 33% of accepted new claims, followed by injuries to bones, muscles and joints (15%) and cardiovascular conditions (14%).

Those figures are Fidelity Life's own, for the year it describes, and we have not verified them independently. They also tell you something useful about why people buy trauma cover: cancer and heart conditions are what most claims are for. The other side, the claims that are not paid, usually comes down to non-disclosure at application, a condition that does not meet the policy definition, or an exclusion. What to do if a claim is declined is worth reading before you buy rather than after.

Fidelity Life and Partners Life: the 2026 deal

On 4 September 2026 Partners Group Holdings, the parent of Partners Life and part of Japan's Dai-ichi Life Group, announced it would buy Fidelity Life. 1News reported the price as $630 million. The deal depends on regulatory approvals, and a joint statement said the two would remain separate businesses and that "customers and advisers will not have to take any action".

If you hold a Fidelity Life policy, nothing changes on the day of an announcement. Your policy is a contract with Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited, and that entity stays on the register. What would change after completion is who owns it: a locally owned insurer would become part of a Japanese group, alongside Partners Life. We will update this page when the deal completes or falls over.

Questions to put to an adviser about Fidelity Life

• Which of the products are you recommending, and why that combination for me?
• Is the quote on stepped or level premiums, and what does it look like in ten years on each?
• For income protection, is it agreed value or indemnity, and what is the definition of disability?
• If I already hold a policy from Westpac Life, is it better to keep it or replace it, and what would I lose by replacing it?
• How are you paid for placing this policy, and would you be paid differently by another insurer?