How much guaranteed acceptance life cover can you buy?
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.
Guaranteed acceptance life cover in New Zealand starts at $50,000 and, for a new Momentum Life Quick Life policy, tops out at $300,000. Momentum's Funeral Insurance pays a fixed benefit of $3,000 to $30,000. The $500,000 figure is not an amount you can start with: it is the ceiling that Quick Life's yearly 3% increases can reach.
Quick Life is Momentum Life's guaranteed acceptance life cover: a lump sum of $50,000 to $300,000 per person, with no health questions, for people aged 18 to 65 (Momentum Life: Quick Life policy wording, November 2025). Each year the cover rises by 3% until the person turns 75 or reaches $500,000, whichever comes first, unless the owner opts out. For the first two years it does not pay for a pre-existing condition or suicide. Funeral Insurance is a separate product, for ages 40 to 75, and in its first 24 months it pays only for accidental death. Both are issued by Momentum Life Limited.
Cover limits at a glance
These are the no-health-question products we found with published limits, from each insurer's own pages and documents, retrieved 17 to 20 October 2026. Terms change, so check the current wording before you apply.
| Product | Issuer | Ages | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Life (life cover) | Momentum Life | 18 to 65 | $50,000 to $300,000 per person at the start |
| QuickCover Life (life cover) | Greenwich Life (Autosure) | 21 to 60, cover may run to 65 | $50,000 to $200,000 |
| Funeral Insurance | Momentum Life | 40 to 75 | $3,000 to $30,000 |
| Funeral insurance | NZ Seniors and OneChoice (Pinnacle Life) | 18 to 79 | $3,000 to $30,000 |
| Funeral Cover | Chubb Life | 50 to 80 | Up to $30,000 (minimum not published) |
| The Funeral Plan | Greenwich Life (Autosure) | 30 to 70 | $5,000 to $20,000 on its web page |
| Funeral cover | Unity (underwritten by Pinnacle Life) | 18 to 75 | $5,000, $7,500, $10,000 or $15,000, depending on cover type |
Only two of these are life cover at a family-sized amount, and they stop at $300,000 and $200,000. The rest are funeral products. For how the two types differ, read the guaranteed acceptance hub.
How much Quick Life cover can you start with?
Quick Life offers $50,000 to $300,000 per life insured. A person can be covered on a joint policy with a partner, and each person then has their own limit. The wording says "the maximum we'll pay for 1 person ... is $300,000, plus any automatic increases ... up to a total cap of $500,000" (Quick Life policy wording, p9).
Three points often get missed:
- $300,000 is the starting maximum. There is no way to apply for $500,000 as an initial amount.
- The limit is across all of a person's Momentum cover. If the same person holds more than one Momentum Life policy, the limit applies to the policies combined, and a claim over the limit is reduced starting with the newest policy, with the extra premiums refunded. The wording does not say whether Funeral Insurance counts toward the Quick Life limit, so ask Momentum before relying on holding both at the maximum.
- Momentum can change the maximum, and it says it will not notify you. A change would not alter existing cover but could change what you can increase to later.
If you need more than $300,000, read our page on life insurance with no medical exam up to $500,000, which looks at that search from the other direction.
How the 3% yearly increase works
Quick Life raises the benefit by 3% on each policy anniversary until the person turns 75 or the benefit reaches $500,000 per life insured, whichever comes first. The increase is applied unless you tell Momentum you do not want it that year, and opting out of one year does not stop later increases. Your premium rises with the benefit. Automatic increases do not restart the two-year pre-existing condition and suicide exclusion; a request to increase your cover yourself does, for the increase only (Quick Life policy wording, p10, p12).
This table is arithmetic, not a Momentum schedule. It compounds 3% a year with no opt-outs and rounds to the nearest $1,000. Momentum's own rounding is not stated, so your schedule may differ slightly.
| Starting cover | After 5 increases | After 10 | After 15 | After 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $58,000 | $67,000 | $78,000 | $90,000 |
| $100,000 | $116,000 | $134,000 | $156,000 | $181,000 |
| $200,000 | $232,000 | $269,000 | $312,000 | $361,000 |
| $300,000 | $348,000 | $403,000 | $467,000 | $500,000 (the cap) |
Two things limit the table in real life. First, the cap: $300,000 compounding at 3% would pass $500,000 at about the 18th increase, so the increases stop there. Second, age: increases stop at 75, so someone who starts at 60 can receive at most about 15 of them, and someone who starts at 65 about 10. A $100,000 policy taken at 60 would be near $156,000 by 75 on these assumptions.
At 75 the policy changes shape. Momentum's wording says $20,000 of the benefit becomes free, and the policy owner can elect a free $20,000 funeral benefit or continue Quick Life with the free component. The wording does not say which premium continues, so do not assume the cover costs nothing after 75.
How much funeral cover can you buy?
Momentum Funeral Insurance pays a fixed benefit of $3,000 to $30,000, and accidental death pays three times the benefit ($9,000 to $90,000) where death happens within 90 days of the accident. No more than $30,000 can be paid per life insured across all of Momentum's funeral policies, and any excess is cut from the newest policy with its premiums refunded (Funeral Insurance policy wording, 17 August 2023, p6).
The amount is a fixed benefit towards costs, not the cost itself. The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand's 2026 report gives an average of $11,700 for a full cremation funeral with 50 attendees and $14,300 for the same funeral with a burial (FDANZ, 2026 New Zealand Funeral Industry Trends Report). The funeral cover amount calculator helps you pick a figure. In the first 24 months this policy pays only for accidental death; any other death returns all premiums paid for that person and no benefit. Total premiums can end up larger than the benefit, and the benefit may not cover the whole funeral.
Why the limits are lower than for health-question cover
Momentum's wording does not explain its limits. What is visible is the trade. Cover that asks about your health can go much higher: Chubb says there is no maximum sum from age 16 on its Assurance Extra Life Cover, AIA Essentials goes to $1,000,000 for ages 16 to 60, and Fidelity needs only an application form up to $500,000 at every age band, though disclosed conditions trigger more evidence (insurer documents, retrieved 20 October 2026). Quick Life gives up that range in return for accepting you without a health check.
Price follows a similar pattern. QuoteHub's Premium Index, which prices life cover from published rate cards as at 8 September 2026, gives a monthly cost band of roughly $40 to $50 for $500,000 for a non-smoking 40-year-old man across the insurers that priced it, rounded outward, and about $70 to $80 for $1,000,000. Those are indicative stepped rates for cover with health questions, not Quick Life prices. See guaranteed acceptance cost and the Premium Index method.
Working out how much you need
A cover amount is only useful if it matches a purpose. A simple way to start is to add three things: debts that would fall on someone else, the funeral, and the income gap your family would face for a set number of years. Here is a made-up example, not a recommendation: a $150,000 mortgage balance, $20,000 of other debt, a $12,000 funeral and three years of a $30,000 shortfall come to $272,000. That sits inside Quick Life's $300,000 starting limit. If the same sum came to $700,000, Quick Life could not provide it on its own, and an adviser could look at larger cover.
Our guide on how much life insurance you need goes through the method in more detail. If you are comparing a guaranteed acceptance policy with one that asks health questions, read guaranteed acceptance versus full medical.
What to check before you choose an amount
- The first two years. Quick Life does not pay for a pre-existing condition or suicide in the first two years; premiums are refunded if the death is from a pre-existing condition and no claim is payable. Funeral Insurance pays only for accidental death in the first 24 months.
- Age. Quick Life is for 18 to 65 and Funeral Insurance for 40 to 75. Neither accepts new applicants over 75.
- Residency. Quick Life asks for a New Zealand or Australian citizen, a permanent resident visa holder, or a work visa holder who has been in New Zealand for 6 months or more.
- Momentum's financial strength. Momentum Life holds an A.M. Best rating of B (Fair), affirmed on 11 February 2026, which Momentum's own table places in the "Vulnerable" range. A rating is an opinion, not a recommendation; see Momentum's financial strength page.
- Free look. Quick Life gives 30 days from the policy start date for a full refund if no claim has been made.
Where to get advice
The buttons on this page open Momentum Life's online application for Quick Life or Funeral Insurance. 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 other insurers on your own details. Advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931).
Adviser's view
Guaranteed acceptance cover is a modest-sized product: $300,000 is the most Quick Life will start you on, and funeral cover stops at $30,000. The $500,000 figure is a ceiling that yearly 3% increases can reach, not an amount you can buy on day one. If your debts and dependants need more than $300,000, ask a licensed adviser what cover with health questions would allow.
Compare life cover with a licensed NZ adviser · free, no obligation.
Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Guaranteed Life Insurance Cover Amounts NZ. www.quotehub.co.nz/guaranteed-acceptance/guaranteed-life-insurance-cover-amounts-nz. Updated 2026-10-20.
References
- Momentum Life: Quick Life Insurance Policy Wording (PDF, November 2025)
- Momentum Life: Funeral Insurance Policy Wording (PDF, issue date 17 August 2023)
- Momentum Life: Financial Strength
- Momentum Life: Quick Life
- Greenwich Life: QuickCover Life
- Greenwich Life: The Funeral Plan
- NZ Seniors: Funeral insurance
- Chubb: Funeral cover
- Unity: Funeral insurance
- Chubb: Assurance Extra Life Cover brochure (PDF)
- AIA: Life insurance
- Chubb: Essential underwriting guide (PDF, May 2025)
- Fidelity Life: Underwriting guide (PDF, October 2025)
- FDANZ: 2026 New Zealand Funeral Industry Trends Report (PDF)
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