Funeral insurance for couples: joint or separate?
Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.
Momentum Life does not offer a joint-life funeral policy that pays once, when the first partner dies. A couple can be covered as two separate lives on one Funeral Insurance policy, or on two single policies. Each partner must be a New Zealander aged 40 to 75, and each has their own benefit of $3,000 to $30,000.
Momentum's Funeral Insurance wording describes only two set-ups: "Single – You or a Partner/Relative" and "Family – Up to four Lives Insured", with the note that additional persons must be a Partner/Relative (Momentum Life: Funeral Insurance Policy Wording). Nothing in it creates a shared benefit or a first-death payout. So for a couple, "joint" really means "both of us covered", and each person is priced and paid out separately. Each partner has a personal benefit amount, a personal premium rate fixed until their own 89th birthday, and a personal 24-month window in which only an accidental death pays. If a partner dies in that window from anything else, no benefit is paid and all premiums for that person are refunded.
What "joint funeral insurance" can mean
People search the phrase for two different things.
- One shared policy and one payout. A joint-life policy of this kind covers two people and pays once, usually on the first death. Momentum's Funeral Insurance does not work this way.
- Cover for both partners. Each partner has their own benefit, and each benefit is paid when that person dies. This is what Momentum's wording provides, either on one policy or on two.
If you want the first kind, ask a licensed adviser what is on offer, because we have not found a funeral product in New Zealand that we can describe as a first-death joint policy. Our guide to what funeral insurance is explains the basic product.
Two ways a couple can be covered at Momentum
| One policy, two lives | Two single policies | |
|---|---|---|
| Set-up in the wording | "Family – Up to four Lives Insured", each a Partner or Relative of the owner | "Single – You or a Partner/Relative", one policy per person |
| Owner | One Policy Owner, who must be a natural person and a New Zealander | One owner per policy, so each partner can own their own |
| Benefit | Each Life Insured has their own benefit | One benefit per policy |
| Discount | Additional Lives Insured get $150 off each year | The wording does not say whether this applies across two policies |
| After the first death | Momentum issues a new Policy Schedule when a benefit is paid and a Life Insured remains; the policy ends when the last benefit is paid | The surviving partner's policy is untouched |
| Cap | $30,000 per person across all Momentum funeral policies | Same |
The wording does not say who owns a family policy if the owner is the first to die. It says benefits go to the Policy Owner or, if the owner has died, to the nominated beneficiaries, and otherwise to the executor of the owner's estate. Ask Momentum how ownership passes before you pick one policy for both lives. Two separate policies let each person own their own, which avoids the question.
What stays separate for each partner
- Age. Each partner must be aged 40 to 75 when they enter. If one partner is 38 or 77, that partner cannot be covered, and the other can still apply alone.
- Residency. Each must be a "New Zealander" as the wording defines it: living in New Zealand at application and an NZ or Australian citizen, a permanent resident visa holder, or continuously in New Zealand for at least 12 months on a valid temporary work visa.
- The 24-month window. It runs from each person's own cover start. Adding a partner to an existing policy later starts a new 24 months for that partner, and any increase in a benefit starts a new window for the increase.
- Accidental death. A death that is the direct result of an accident, within 90 days of it, pays three times the benefit. A $30,000 benefit pays $90,000, in the wording's own example. This applies from day one.
- The $30,000 cap. It is per person, not per couple, and applies across all Momentum funeral policies on that person. Any excess is cut from the newest policy and its premiums are refunded.
A short example. Partner A is 62 and Partner B is 77. A can take Funeral Insurance, B cannot, because Momentum accepts no new applicants over 75. For B, see our page on funeral insurance over 70.
How other insurers treat couples
This is what the insurers publish, read on 20 October 2026, and conditions apply.
- AA Life Funeral Cover (ages 50 to 79) gives each person 20% off if two people apply within 48 hours of each other (AA Life: Funeral cover).
- Chubb Life Funeral Cover (ages 50 to 80) lists a 20% joint discount (Chubb: Funeral cover).
- Quick Life, Momentum's guaranteed acceptance life cover for ages 18 to 65, can be taken jointly, and its wording takes $50 a year off when a partner joins. Cover is still per person, so a payment on one person leaves the other covered. It is life cover of $50,000 to $300,000, not funeral cover, and its first two years exclude pre-existing conditions and suicide.
The full table of entry ages is on how the options compare.
What it costs, and what it buys
QuoteHub does not publish an exact premium for Momentum or any insurer, so we cannot tell you what two partners would pay. Two things hold whatever the price. Momentum's wording says the policy is not a savings or investment plan, and that total premiums could exceed the benefit depending on how long you keep the cover. It also says the benefit may not cover the cost of a funeral.
For a sense of scale, the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand's 2026 report puts a full funeral for 50 guests at an average of $11,700 for a cremation and $14,300 for a burial (FDANZ, 2026 New Zealand Funeral Industry Trends Report). A couple will need two funerals, so two benefits of $10,000 add up to $20,000 against roughly $23,400 for two average cremations (our arithmetic). Our cost guide shows how to test the sums, and quotes explains how to get like-for-like numbers.
Questions to ask before you apply
- Does one policy for both of us get the $150 discount, and do two separate policies?
- Who owns the policy if the owner dies first, and who pays after that?
- If we add the second partner later, when does that partner's own 24 months start?
- Do we both want the same benefit, or different amounts?
- Is a savings account or a prepaid plan a better fit for one of us? See Is funeral insurance worth it.
Where to get advice
The buttons on this page open Momentum Life's online application, one option among several. Momentum Life's financial strength rating from A.M. Best is B (Fair), which Momentum's own table places in its "Vulnerable" range; see its financial strength page. A rating is an opinion of an insurer's ability to pay claims, not a recommendation. QuoteHub is a Momentum Life partner and Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver may receive a commission if you buy a Momentum policy; see how we are paid. A licensed adviser can compare couples' options on your own details. Advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). Back to the funeral insurance hub, or read the Momentum Funeral Cover page.
Adviser's view
Momentum's Funeral Insurance is not a joint-life policy: each partner is a separate life with their own benefit, their own 24-month wait and their own cut-off ages. The real choice for a couple is one policy with two lives or two separate policies, and that is mostly about who owns and pays. Neither makes the total cost smaller than the benefit by itself.
Talk to a licensed adviser about funeral cover · free, no obligation.
Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Joint Funeral Insurance NZ: Cover for Couples. www.quotehub.co.nz/funeral-insurance/joint-funeral-insurance-nz. Updated 2026-10-20.
References
- Momentum Life: Funeral Insurance Policy Wording (PDF, issue date 17 August 2023)
- Momentum Life: Quick Life Insurance Policy Wording (PDF, November 2025)
- Momentum Life: Financial strength
- AA Life: Funeral cover
- Chubb: Funeral cover
- FDANZ: 2026 New Zealand Funeral Industry Trends Report (PDF)
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