Data release
Life premiums rose 2.7%. Per policy, the rise was bigger.
Source: Financial Services Council
Insurers took $3.31 billion across 4 million policies, and policy numbers fell. A bigger pot shared between fewer covers means the increase carried by each one is larger than the 2.7% headline, on an average cover of $827.50 a year.
By Henry Smith · Premiums · 2026-06-08
What this means for you If you hold a New Zealand life, trauma or income protection policy and your renewal came in above the 2.7% industry premium rise, that is the market moving rather than your insurer singling you out, because the same premium pool is now shared across fewer policies. Age-based increases sit on top of that, and they get steeper past 50. If your cover is mainly income protection, note that the whole private market takes in far less than ACC, the state accident scheme, pays out to replace lost income, and ACC only covers you when the cause is injury rather than illness.
If your life insurance renewal came in this year with a rise bigger than 2.7%, the industry's own figures say that is the market moving rather than your insurer singling you out. New Zealand's insurers collected $3.31 billion in premiums in the year to 31 March 2026, up 2.7%, spread across 4 million policies, and the number of policies fell (Financial Services Council, 8 June 2026). A bigger pot divided between fewer policies means the rise carried by each one is larger than 2.7%. If policy numbers fell 2%, a modest drop, the rise per policy was 4.8%, close to double the number the industry announced.
The same two figures say something else the release never states. The average New Zealand life insurance policy now carries $827.50 of premium a year, or $68.96 a month.
Why your renewal rose by more than 2.7%
The Financial Services Council is the industry body for the country's life insurers, and it collects these figures from its members. Premium grew, it reported, "even as cover numbers continued to fall across several key products". A "cover" is one policy, not one person.
Two facts in the same breath, with no conclusion drawn from putting them together. Picture one pot of money shared out between fewer people. The pot grew 2.7%. The number of shares shrank. Each share had to grow by more than 2.7%. How much more turns on how far policy numbers fell, which is the one number the release does not give.
| If cover numbers fell by | Then premium per cover rose by |
|---|---|
| 0% (flat) | 2.7% |
| 0.5% | 3.2% |
| 1% | 3.7% |
| 2% | 4.8% |
| 3% | 5.9% |
| 5% | 8.1% |
Our calculation from the FSC's published 2.7% premium growth. The left column is a range of what-ifs, not FSC data.
Because the FSC says cover numbers "continued to fall", the top row is out and every row below it is live. A 2% fall would be unremarkable in a year of cost-of-living pressure. It would also put the average policyholder's increase at close to double the figure that gets quoted.
That gap matters. 2.7% sounds like inflation, and 2.7% is the number that travels. The number people actually pay is the other one.
What one policy costs
The $827.50 is our sum, not the FSC's. It published both ingredients, the premium total and the policy count, and never divided one by the other. As far as we can find, nobody else has either.
Two caveats come with it. It averages every product together, so a cheap life-only policy sits in the same pot as a much pricier income protection policy. And it is an average per policy, not per person: someone holding life, trauma and income protection cover is paying three of those averages rather than one.
It is still the only per-policy figure we can find for New Zealand that comes from a whole-of-industry data set rather than a comparison site's quotes, which is what makes it worth stating despite the mixing.
Where the premium goes
The release names three products. Term life and accidental death cover pays a lump sum if you die. Trauma cover pays a lump sum if you are diagnosed with something serious, such as cancer or a heart attack. Income protection replaces part of your pay if illness or injury stops you working. The three do not add up to the total.
| Product | Annual premium | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Term and accidental death | $1.64b | 49.5% |
| Trauma | $672m | 20.3% |
| Income protection | $539m | 16.3% |
| Not itemised in the release | $459m | 13.9% |
| Total | $3.31b | 100% |
Premium figures from the same FSC release. Shares and the unnamed remainder are our calculation.
Income protection is the smallest of the three named products, and it is worth holding that next to what it competes with. ACC, the state accident scheme every worker pays a levy into, paid $2,855 million in weekly compensation in the year to 30 June 2025, the money it pays people who cannot work because of an injury (ACC, Annual Report 2025). The entire private income protection market takes in under a fifth of that.
For anyone whose main cover is income protection, that is the shape of the system being bought into. Most of this country's income risk sits with ACC rather than with insurers, and ACC pays only when the cause is injury. Illness is where the private market is on its own.
Does 4 million policies mean most of us are covered?
No, and the FSC does not claim it does. Four million policies sounds like most of the country. Policies are not people, though, and one person holding life, trauma and income protection cover counts three times in that total.
How many people it leaves depends on how many covers the average insured person holds, which the release does not publish. At two each, 4 million covers is roughly 2 million people. At three each, closer to 1.3 million. Somewhere between a quarter and half of New Zealand adults is as precise as this data lets anyone be. Either way, the share of the country holding no cover at all is far bigger than a count of policies makes it look.
How solid are these numbers?
Solid enough to quote, but not audited, and worth knowing where they come from. The FSC is an industry association, not a regulator and not a statistics agency. The insurers supplying the data are the same insurers being reported on, and the wording around the figures is written by a body whose job is to speak for them. That does not make the numbers wrong. It does mean this is the industry describing itself. We read its published summary and did not obtain the underlying "Spotlight on Life Insurance" data set, so every FSC figure here is as summarised on that page.
Our $827.50 assumes "4 million covers" is a real count rather than a rounded one, and the FSC writes it as "4m". If the true number sits between 3.95 and 4.05 million, the average lands between $817 and $838. We have used the figure as stated, and we are flagging the rounding rather than claiming a precision the source does not support.
The bigger gap is the change in policy numbers. The FSC did not publish it, so the rise per policy cannot be given as a single number. The table above is a set of what-ifs, not a measurement. If that figure is published, one line of arithmetic settles it, and we will update this page.
The ACC comparison also spans different periods, with ACC's year ending 30 June 2025 and the FSC's on 31 March 2026, and money coming in as premium is not the same kind of number as money going out as claims. Treat it as a sense of scale and nothing more.
So what does this mean for my policy?
If your renewal came in above 2.7% this year, that is the market rather than a personal repricing, and it is happening across the industry rather than at one insurer.
Two separate forces push the price up, and it helps to know which is which. The first is your age: most policies are built to cost more every year, and the steps get steeper past 50. The second is the insurer lifting prices for everyone on that product at once, which is what these figures capture. Our guides to how much life insurance costs in New Zealand and what drives life insurance premiums explain how to tell the two apart on a renewal letter.
What this means for your cover
What moves a renewal price, and what a review can and cannot change about it. Health insurance in New Zealand
Sources
Every source below was read and checked on 21 August 2026.
- Life insurance cover softens as premium pressure builds, Financial Services Council, 8 June 2026
- ACC Annual Report 2025 (PDF)
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Explore related pages: Life Insurance, Income Protection, Health Insurance, Trauma Insurance, Referral.