AIA Life Insurance Review
Founded in 1981, AIA New Zealand Limited better known as AIA Life Insurance is the largest life insurer in New Zealand by premiums written and part of the AIA Group, one of the world’s largest life insurers.
AIA offers a wide range of life insurance products including term, health and accidental death and injury benefit policies. You can buy policies through brokers like LifeCovered. The company also offers home loans.
Whether you need cover so the ones you care for have financial protection or you want a plan that that looks after your employees, AIA has options for you.
- New Zealand’s Largest Insurer with 31.1 % market share1.
- Paid $634.1 million in claims 1 Jan 2018 – 31 Dec 2018.
- AA (Very Strong) Credit Rating by Fitch Ratings
- AIA Vitality – Shared-Value Insurance
AIA New Zealand Ltd has more than 1,200 staff, is fully owned by the American-founded Hong Kong based and publicly listed company AIA Group Limited.
The CEO is Nick Stanhope who also led the sale of Sovereign to AIA as part of a multi-billion dollar deal.
AIA New Zealand is based in Takapuna, Auckland with regional offices in Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch. If you need assistance choosing an insurance plan, you can connect with LifeCovered to discuss your budget, your needs, and your risk tolerance.
Year Founded 1981
Customer Service 0800 500 108
Official Website www.aia.co.nz
AIA policies offered through this website are underwritten by AIA New Zealand Limited.
AIA’s vision is to support New Zealanders to live healthier, longer, better lives and encouraging Kiwis to make positive lifestyle changes one small step at a time.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce AIA Vitalty.
It’s about inspiring our nation to live healthy.
Life Insurance, health insurance and income protection is the focus of what AIA NZ does and has been doing since starting business in New Zealand back in 1981.
With a strong product offering to individuals and families, the company is also leading way in the business and rural insurance market, helping Kiwi businesses and farms to continue operating.
About the AIA Group Limited
With a market capitalisation of U$ 120B2 in 2019, AIA is the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group in the world – with a presence in 18 markets across the Asia-Pacific region.
It’s main HQ is based in Hong Kong, with wholly owned branches and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Macau, Brunei, Cambodia, a 97% subsidiary in Sri Lanka, a 49% joint venture in India and a representative office in Myanmar.
American International Assurance Company, Limited (AIA) was founded by Cornelius Vander Starr in 1919 in Shanghai China.
Multi-benefit discounts
| CATEGORY | DISCOUNT RECEIVED |
| Life Category (mandatory) | 0% |
| + One Optional category | 10% |
| + Two Optional categories | 12.5% |
| + Three Optional categories or more | 15% |
AIA Life Insurance
Is designed to protect Kiwis as they do the things they love doing and some policy features include early payouts for terminal illnesses and level premiums for long-term affordability.
Benefits include
Life Cover Benefit
The Life Cover benefit pays out when the person insured dies, whether from illness, accident, natural causes or any other means. The only exclusion is for self-harm (e.g. suicide), and this exclusion only applies during the first 13 months of the policy.
Early Terminal Illness Payout
Early payout of up to 100% of your life cover amount in the event of a terminal illness.
Terminal illness has a meaning which is set out in the policy, but in summary it is an illness which AIA believes at its discretion, after considering medical evidence provided by your doctor and any other evidence required, will result in death within 12 months, irrespective of any treatment you may receive.
Funeral Benefit/Bereavement Support
Funeral benefit of up to $15,000 paid out in advance to cover funeral expenses
Specified Terminal Conditions Benefit
You can apply for a Specified Terminal Conditions Benefit equal to 30% of your Life Cover Benefit, subject to a maximum of $250,000, if you are diagnosed with any of the following incurable terminal conditions:
- Motor Neurone Disease;
- Exocrine Pancreatic Cancer (Stages 3 or 4);
- Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (Stage 4); or
- Distal Oesophageal Cancer (Stage 4).
Payment of this benefit will be treated as a partial payment of the Life Cover Benefit.
Automatic Interim Insurance Cover
When placing an application, you are automatically covered with an interim insurance cover for 60 days.
AIA Income Protection Insurance
Income Protection
If you are unable to work because of illness or injury, this provides a monthly payment to replace a portion of your income. There are three types of cover options: Agreed Value, Indemnity, Loss of Earnings.
Mortgage and Income Protection
If you are is unable to work because of illness or injury, this provides monthly payments to help cover a proportion of their mortgage or rent payments, or a portion of their income.
Advantages with Mortgage and Income Protection
- Tax free monthly benefit
- No ACC offset
- Max 45% of income or
- Max 115% of contractual mortgage/rent payment.
AIA Health Insurance New Zealand
Many health issues Kiwis face are either not accidental or can result in delayed treatment due to long waiting lists and can cost thousands.
The good news is health insurance removes the worry around unexpected medical bills so you can focus on getting the right treatment and start your recovery sooner.
Benefits include:
Cancer Cover
Includes $500,000 extensive cancer cover for every stage: from diagnosis to treatment and recovery
Surgeries
There’s no annual limit on the amount you can claim for surgeries, both cancer and non-cancer related
AIA Business Insurance
The main business income protection insurance options
Start-Up Income Protection
For new business owners who have been trading for three years or less. The monthly benefit covers the business from disruption if you face illness or injury that stops you from working.
Business Continuity
As an established business owner, you can access monthly benefits, should you or a key person in your business face serious illness or injury and be unable to work.
Rural Continuity
Protecting the income of your farm or share milking business in way of monthly benefits if you or a key-person in your business become unable to work due to illness or injury.
Your key benefits are:
- Simple for Start-Ups
With Start-up Income Protection, access up to $9,000 sum assured a month without having to provide detailed financial information. - No ACC offsets
Business Continuity doesn’t have ACC offsets and with Rural Continuity your client can choose to offset or not - Long Term Support
Option to extend Rural Continuity with Business Income Support to help your clients manage long term illness or injury
AIA Corporate Solutions
AIA Corporate Solutions offer companies tailored employee insurance solutions, which could be as low as 1% of payroll.
We can create a competitive employee benefits structure to incentivize existing employees and help recruit top employees, making you an employer of choice, whether you are a small business of 10 people or a firm of 10,000.
Why Employee Benefits
- easy to administer insurance cover for your staff,
- discounted insurance premiums depending on the size of your company,
- cost-effective rates that can be guaranteed for up to 3 years,
- easy application and implementation with non-underwritten cover levels.
AIA Centennial
The company can trace its roots back to 1919 in Shanghai, when American entrepreneur Cornelius Vander Starr began a new insurance business.
In 2019, the Group is celebrating its 100-year journey.
Sovereign Life Insurance
Sovereign Life Insurance was acquired by the AIA Group in July 2018 from the Commonwealth Bank Australia.
As of Monday 5th August 2019, Sovereign Life Insurance has integrated and become a part of AIA NZ.
AIA Vitality
AIA Vitality is set to offer discounts and up to $4,000 a year in rewards for people who eat healthily, exercise, and sleep well.
Vitality is a wellness programme aimed at tackling the four main lifestyle risk factors: physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking, and excess alcohol consumption.
It allows users to measure how healthy they are by recording the information on devices like Fitbits or a Garmin.
On their journey of wellbeing, they will get to know their health, how to improve it and will enjoy rewards for doing so.
Vitality members earn Vitality points through a number of health and fitness related activities. These can include health and nutrition assessments, along with physical activity targets.
AIA NZ Financial Strength Rating
The superior financial strength of AIA New Zealand is recognised in its AA (very strong) Fitch rating.
The solvency margin of AIA New Zealand as of 30 June 2019 is $143.3M made up as shown.
Rating: AA Fitch
Actual Solvency Capital: $260.2 M
Solvency Ratio: 223%
Why financial health and strength matters
The financial strength of a life insurance company matters, because it measures the ability of a life insurance company to meet its future claims.
AIA named in top 20 companies leading transformation
The Group has been named one of only 20 global companies to have achieved the highest-impact business transformations over the last decade.
The report, by strategic consultancy firm, Innosight, was published in the Harvard Business Review3.
“When we introduced AIA Vitality earlier this year we knew that we were going to transform the role we play in our customers’ lives and in society. And Kiwis can easily track their health and be rewarded for making healthier choices. We’ve moved from being a payer of claims, to a partner in the health and wellbeing of our customers”, says Nick Stanhope, CEO of AIA New Zealand.
AIA Insurance FAQ's
Do you need a medical check-up to apply for aia life insurance
Footnotes
- AIA New Zealand has a 31.1% market share of in-force premiums as of June 2021.
- Bloomberg with PwC analysis – Global Top 100 companies by market capitalisation
- Harward Business Review –
The Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade – September 24, 2019