Life insurance in Wellington

Why this depends on you, not the city

NZ life insurance premiums are priced on individual underwriting (age, sex, smoker status, occupation, health history, sum-insured) — not on which city you live in. We don't publish hardcoded Wellington premium tables because real prices come from each insurer's quote engine at quote time. Wellington households tend to size cover around their specific mortgage and income, not a Wellington-average figure.

What to think about when sizing cover

• Discharge the mortgage. Most Wellington buyers start by sizing life cover to clear the outstanding mortgage on death.
• Replace income through dependent years. A common rule of thumb is 10-15 years of net household income on top of mortgage discharge — for the years children are dependent or the surviving partner is rebuilding.
• Outstanding personal debt. Credit cards, personal loans, BNPL — should be included.
• Funeral + transition costs. Add a buffer for funeral plus immediate post-death cash flow.

What to look for in the wording

• Stepped vs level premium. Stepped is cheaper at signup but rises with age; level is flatter. See our topic comparison.
• Future insurability. Lets you increase cover at future life events without fresh medicals. Material if your risk profile worsens. See topic page.
• Inbuilt benefits. Terminal illness advance, funeral cost advance, grief counselling — what comes free vs what costs extra. See topic page.
• Suicide exclusion. Standard 12-13 month exclusion on most NZ policies. See topic page.
• Entry-age cap + renewal age. Vary by insurer; check the upper bound.

Where to compare

For a clause-level match against your situation, use our /find-my-policy widget — pick 1-3 scenarios that apply to you and we rank the policies on aggregate clause-match score. For verbatim wording text from each insurer, see our /topics family.