Life cover for a mortgage without medical exams or questions
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.
You can use no-medical life insurance towards a mortgage, but cover is limited. Momentum's Quick Life asks no health questions and covers $50,000 to $300,000 per person at the start, which may leave a gap on a larger home loan. For the first 2 years it also does not pay for death from a pre-existing condition or for suicide, so an underwritten policy may suit a loan better.
Mortgage life insurance is life cover whose payout is meant to repay a home loan. In New Zealand the term covers two different things: a lump sum of life cover that the family may use to clear the debt, and monthly mortgage repayment cover, which is a disability product that pays towards repayments while you cannot work (Fidelity Life underwriting guide). This page is about the first. Quick Life is life cover. It pays its owner or nominated beneficiary, or the estate, not the lender, so using the money for the mortgage is a decision made after payment.
What Quick Life can and cannot do for a loan
Quick Life accepts people aged 18 to 65 without health questions, for $50,000 to $300,000 per person. The benefit rises by 3% a year until 75 or a $500,000 cap per person, and you can skip a year's increase. Premiums are stepped, meaning they are recalculated each anniversary for age, gender and smoking status and generally rise, until 75, then are fixed (Momentum Life: Quick Life Insurance Policy Wording, November 2025). Two limits matter for a home loan.
The ceiling. $300,000 is the starting maximum, not the cap, but the $500,000 cap is reached only after many yearly increases. After the first 3% increase, $300,000 would be $309,000.
The first 2 years. Pre-existing conditions and suicide are excluded. "Pre-existing" means any illness, condition or symptoms in the 2 years before the policy started, including anything you had treatment or advice for, symptoms "even if undiagnosed", and the wording adds very high blood pressure, cholesterol over 7.0, a BMI over 40 and complications related to diabetes. If the person dies of a pre-existing condition in the first 24 months and no claim is payable, premiums are refunded. Accidental death, and illness that first starts after cover begins, are covered from day one.
Funeral Insurance, Momentum's other guaranteed product, is the wrong tool here: it pays $3,000 to $30,000, and in its first 24 months it pays only for accidental death.
A worked example
This is a hypothetical example to show the arithmetic, not an average. It assumes a $650,000 home loan and a $300,000 Quick Life policy on each borrower.
| What happens | Quick Life pays | Gap against a $650,000 loan |
|---|---|---|
| Single borrower dies in an accident in month 10 | $300,000 | $350,000 |
| Single borrower dies in month 10 of an illness they had symptoms of last year | Nothing; premiums refunded | $650,000 |
| Single borrower dies in month 10 of an illness that first started in month 6 | $300,000 | $350,000 |
| Single borrower dies in month 30 of any cause (and no condition listed as permanently excluded applies) | About $318,000 if both yearly 3% increases applied | About $332,000 |
| One of two borrowers on a joint loan dies in month 30 | $300,000 or more on that person's policy | The survivor still owes the rest and services the loan alone |
The month-30 figure is arithmetic from two 3% yearly increases and assumes you did not skip one. The loan balance falls as you repay, which narrows the gap over time, but the table uses the starting balance to keep it simple. Two things to notice. First, for a couple, the benefit is per life: a joint Quick Life policy pays on each person's death, so covering both partners does not double the amount available on one death. Second, the 2-year rule can turn a $350,000 shortfall into the whole debt for a particular kind of death. A few conditions can also be excluded permanently, listed in your policy schedule; Momentum's general wording does not list them.
Will a lender accept it?
We cannot tell you. Whether a lender asks for life cover on a loan, or wants a policy assigned to it, is the lender's own decision. We have not verified any lender's rule, and the Quick Life wording we read does not mention assigning a policy to a lender. It says the owner is usually the life insured, and that ownership can be transferred to someone aged at least 16. Ask your lender in writing what it requires, and ask Momentum whether a policy can be assigned. If a lender wants more than $300,000, Quick Life will not meet that on its own.
Quick Life versus underwritten cover for a mortgage
| Quick Life | Fully underwritten | |
|---|---|---|
| Health questions | None | Yes |
| Cover amount | $50,000 to $300,000 at the start | Much higher amounts, subject to assessment |
| First 2 years | Pre-existing conditions and suicide excluded | Terms set at underwriting; a suicide exclusion of 13 months is typical in the wordings we read |
| Premium shape | Stepped to 75, then fixed | Stepped or level, by insurer |
| Acceptance | Guaranteed if the age and residency rules are met | The insurer decides: standard, loaded, excluded, postponed or declined |
| Price direction | Higher for the same amount if you are healthy | Usually lower if accepted on standard terms |
Fully underwritten cover through an adviser will usually give a healthy person more cover for the money. For scale, indicative monthly costs for $500,000 of stepped life cover at 40, from insurers' published rate cards as at 8 September 2026, non-smoker, occupation class 1, standard rates, are $40 to $50 for a man and $35 to $40 for a woman, each a range across the insurers that priced it. Your own premium depends on underwriting; see Fidelity Life's own page for how its stepped and level options work, and our life insurance quotes page for method. Quick Life starts at up to $300,000, so there is no like-for-like Momentum figure at $500,000.
If the loan is bigger than $300,000
An adviser can lay out the options. Fully underwritten cover for the whole loan is the usual answer for someone who would be accepted. If you cannot get cover that way, Quick Life can provide a first layer, and an adviser can show what else is available. Any additional policy has its own early period, and replacing a policy resets things: the Financial Markets Authority says to keep the old policy running until the new one has started and to watch for new waiting periods and exclusions (FMA). Quick Life's rule is that cancelling and rejoining restarts its 2 years. For the structures, read mortgage life insurance explained, our guide to mortgage life cover with pre-existing conditions and mortgage protection. For sizing, see our no-medical term life page and life insurance with no medical questions.
Who this suits
Quick Life suits a borrower who has been declined or loaded, or who does not want to answer health questions, whose debt is within or near $300,000, and who accepts the first 2 years. It suits less well a borrower with a large loan, a known condition and a short horizon, or a healthy applicant who would be accepted on standard terms. The honest summary: it can reduce the debt your family faces. It does not promise to clear a large mortgage.
How we are paid, and who we are
General information, not advice. Advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a Momentum Life partner, and Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver may receive a commission if you buy through our link; see how we are paid and our disclosure. Momentum Life Limited's A.M. Best financial strength rating is B (Fair), affirmed 11 February 2026, and Momentum's own table puts B in its "Vulnerable" range; see its financial strength page. A rating is an opinion, not a recommendation. The buttons on this page open Momentum's own online application. See the Quick Life page and the guaranteed acceptance hub. Written by the QuoteHub Editorial Team and reviewed by the QuoteHub Adviser Team. Last reviewed 20 October 2026.
Adviser's view
Quick Life can put a real lump sum behind a mortgage with no health questions, but for most home loans it covers only part of the debt, and for the first two years it does not pay for a death from a pre-existing condition. If your loan is larger than $300,000, or you would be accepted on standard terms, price fully underwritten cover first. If health questions would stop you getting cover, Quick Life is a way to start with something, knowing its limits.
Compare life cover with a licensed NZ adviser · free, no obligation.
Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Mortgage Life Insurance No Medical Exam NZ. www.quotehub.co.nz/guaranteed-acceptance/mortgage-life-insurance-no-medical-nz. Updated 2026-10-20.
References
- Momentum Life: Quick Life Insurance Policy Wording (November 2025)
- Momentum Life: Funeral Insurance Policy Wording (17 August 2023)
- Momentum Life: Financial strength
- Fidelity Life: Quick reference underwriting guide (October 2025)
- Fidelity Life: Life cover
- FMA: Insurance
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