Partners Life: ownership, financial strength, cover and claims

Who owns Partners Life?

Dai-ichi Life Group, a Japanese life insurer. Partners Life's own solvency page says that in 2022 it "became a member of one of the world's leading life insurers, Daiichi Life Group", whose roots go back to 1902 as Japan's first mutual insurance company. Before that it was New Zealand-owned, having been set up in Auckland in 2011.

The company's own account of its start is that "in 2011, we set out to build a company that was different", on the view that most New Zealanders are underinsured. It is based in Takapuna on Auckland's North Shore. The same solvency page describes the parent group as having consolidated ordinary revenues of NZ$124 billion and total assets of NZ$810 billion as at 31 March 2026, with operations in Japan, Australia, the United States and several Asian markets as well as New Zealand.

Why ownership matters to a policyholder: a life policy is a promise that may not be called on for decades, so who stands behind the insurer is part of what you are buying. A large parent is not a guarantee, but it is the reason the rating agency gives for part of the rating below.

What is Partners Life's financial strength rating?

A (Excellent) with a stable outlook, from AM Best, effective 5 February 2026. That is how Partners Life states it on its own solvency and financial strength page, which adds that the rating "reflects A.M. Best's opinion that Partners Life has an excellent ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations". AM Best is an RBNZ-approved rating agency.

Insurance Business reported in January 2025 that the rating "incorporate[s] the benefits of ownership by Dai-Ichi Life Holdings", with AM Best expecting the parent "would provide capital support if necessary". So the A sits partly on Partners Life's own balance sheet and partly on the parent standing behind it.

Two things a rating is not. It is not a judgement on how good the policies are, how claims are handled or what they cost; it is an opinion on the insurer's ability to pay. And it is not ours: this site publishes no rating, score or ranking of any insurer. We report AM Best's because it is a published fact that a reader comparing insurers will want, and we link the page it came from.

Partners Life Limited has been on the Reserve Bank's Register of Licensed Insurers since 3 September 2013, which means it is supervised under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010 and must disclose its solvency margin from its latest return, which it does on the page linked below. See all licensed life insurers.

What cover does Partners Life sell?

Six personal products, as its own site lists them: Life Cover, Trauma Cover, Monthly Disability Cover, Total and Permanent Disability Cover, Specific Injury Cover and Private Medical Cover. The names are Partners Life's own; our general explainers use the generic terms.

• Life Cover pays a lump sum on death or terminal illness. Our explainer: life insurance.
• Trauma Cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a listed condition. See trauma insurance.
• Monthly Disability Cover is Partners Life's name for a monthly benefit while you cannot work, the kind of cover we describe under income protection.
• Total and Permanent Disability Cover pays a lump sum if you are unlikely ever to work again. See TPD insurance.
• Specific Injury Cover pays a set amount for listed injuries such as fractures.
• Private Medical Cover is health insurance: it pays for treatment rather than paying you.

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 any figure we printed 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 Partners Life cover?

Mainly through a financial adviser. Insurance Business describes Partners Life as distributing its policies "mainly through independent financial advisers", alongside an exclusive ten-year distribution arrangement with Bank of New Zealand. In practice that means the person recommending a Partners Life policy to you 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 Partners Life say about claims?

That the large majority are paid, and that the ones that are not usually fall into five reasons. Its own page on the subject refers to 95% of claims assessed over the past year being accepted, and sets out why the rest were not: recovering before the waiting period ended, not meeting the policy's medical definition, information not disclosed at application, treatment not medically necessary (medical cover), and conditions excluded under the policy.

That figure is Partners Life's own, for the period it describes, and we have not verified it independently; it is here because the company published it and readers searching for the insurer ask about it. The five reasons, though, are the same five that explain most declined claims at any insurer, which is why what to do if a claim is declined is worth reading before you buy rather than after.

Partners Life and Fidelity Life: the 2026 deal

On 4 September 2026 Partners Group Holdings, Partners Life's parent and a subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life, announced it would buy Fidelity Life Assurance Company. 1News reported the price as $630 million. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals, and both companies said they 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: a policy is a contract with the licensed entity that issued it, and that entity stays on the register. What might change later, after completion, is who ultimately owns that entity. We will update this page when the deal completes or falls over.

Questions to put to an adviser about Partners Life

• Which of the six products are you recommending, and why that combination for me?
• Is the quote on stepped or level premiums, and what does the premium look like in ten years on each?
• What is the definition of disability in the Monthly Disability and TPD cover: own occupation or any occupation?
• What did you disclose on my behalf, and can I see the application before it is submitted?
• How are you paid for placing this policy, and would you be paid differently by another insurer?