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- Top Life Insurance Companies in Australia 2024: Compare the Best
Navigating the life insurance landscape in 2024 demands up-to-date information, especially in Australia. TAL, AIA, Zurich, MLC, and Resolution Life are leading the way, each with unique offerings to suit different needs. This year, these top insurers are pivotal for reliable coverage and comprehensive options. Understanding the distinct advantages of each ensures you secure the best policy for your family’s future in a rapidly changing insurance world.
Published August 7, 2024
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Types of Life Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Your Guide to Buying Life Insurance
- Online Life Insurance Quotes
- Life Insurance Policy Options
- Direct Life Insurance
- Accidental Death insurance
- Keyman Person Insurance
- Top Life Insurance Companies in Australia 2024: Compare the Best
- TPD Insurance
- TPD vs Income Protection
- Compare TPD Insurance Quotes
- Double TPD
- Are TPD Insurance Premiums Tax Deductible?
- TPD vs Trauma Insurance
- Income Protection Insurance Australia
- Your Guide to Protecting Your Income
- Income Protection Insurance Quotes
- Income Protection Policy Options in Australia
- Self-Employed
- Tax Deductible
- Personal Accident Insurance
- Business Expenses
- Living Expenses
- Best Income Protection in 2024
- Compare Trauma Insurance
- Trauma Insurance Quotes
- Guide to Trauma Insurance Policy Options
- Trauma Insurance Guide
- Key Person Insurance
- Capital Protection for Start-Up Businesses in Australia
- Buy Sell Insurance
- Revenue Protection
- Funeral Insurance
- Funeral Insurance Quotes
- Cost of Children
- Life Insurance vs. Funeral Insurance
- How to cover the cost of your funeral
- Seniors Funeral Insurance
- A Guide to Super Life Insurance
- Group vs Individual Life Insurance policies
- Salary Continuance Insurance
- SMSF Life Insurance
- Superannuation and Rollovers
Brands We Compare
- AIA
- ClearView
- MetLife
- MLC Life Insurance
- NEOS
- OnePath
- TAL
- Zurich Life Insurance
10 Top Life Insurance Companies 2024
- TAL Life Limited: Ranks 1st, with a market share of 33.8%.
- AIA Australia Limited: Ranks 2nd, with a market share of 17%.
- Zurich: Ranks 3rd, with a market share of 14.8%.
- MLC Limited: Ranks 4th, with a market share of 10.4%.
- Resolution Group: Ranks 5th, with a market share of 7.0%.
- MetLife Insurance: Ranks 6th, with a market share of 5.4%.
- QInsure: Ranks 7th, with a market share of 3.4%.
- Hannover: Ranks 8th, with a market share of 2.4%.
- ClearView: Ranks 9th, with a market share of 1.9%.
- NobleOak: Enters the list at 10th, with a market share of 2.2%.
Source: Plan For Life Actuaries & Researchers (Data published 12 February 2024)
Tailoring Your Coverage in 2024.
In 2024, selecting the right life insurance is a nuanced decision, balancing policy details, coverage, and financial implications. It’s crucial to find a provider that offers comprehensive coverage, fitting your personal and financial needs.
- Assess Your Financial Needs: Start by evaluating your financial requirements. Consider your family’s lifestyle needs, existing debts, and monthly expenses and what events you want to be protected against. This assessment is a good starting point inchoosing the right coverage amount for future security.
- Understanding Built-in Benefits: Life insurance policies come with various built-in benefits. Key ones include terminal illness benefits, offering early payment on diagnosis of a terminal illness, and final expenses benefits, providing upfront funds to cover immediate financial needs after death. Benefit indexation, which automatically increases your sum insured annually, is also a common feature. Familiarize yourself with these benefits by reviewing the Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) of different insurers.
- Navigating Exclusions and Premiums: Be aware of exclusions, such as specific circ*mstances under which a death benefit won’t be paid. Additionally, consider the cost of premiums, influenced by factors like age, gender, smoking status, and the sum insured. Balancing these elements is key to finding a sufficient and affordable policy.
- Leveraging Discounts and Rewards: In 2024, insurers frequently offer various discounts and rewards to attract new customers and promote multiple policy purchases. Look for new customer discounts, healthy life discounts, multicover discounts, and high-sum insured discounts. Comparing these across insurers can lead to significant savings on your life insurance coverage.
Top 5 Life Insurers for 2024
In 2024, delving into a company’s life insurance offerings is key. You want a provider that leads the market and caters to your specific needs with a diverse range of policies. The current frontrunners in Australia – TAL Life Limited, AIA Australia Limited, Zurich, MLC Limited, and Resolution Group – are prime examples of such versatility.
When examining these companies, consider their range of policies and the free built-in benefits they offer. These can include critical illness cover and total disablement benefits, enhancing your coverage significantly. Additionally, explore optional riders and extra benefits like premium waivers and accommodation benefits, which can be added for an extra cost, thereby maximising the value of your policy.
TAL Life Limited
TAL is one of Australia’s largest life insurance companies and a subsidiary to Dai-ichi group. TAL offers Accelerated Protection Life Insurance, Critical Illness coverage, and Income Protection plans.
Common Built-in benefits – Accelerated Protection
- Health and Wellness Program: TAL Health Sense rewards program can help you save up to 15% on your premiums.
- Free Interim cover benefit: Should you pass away or become injured before your application is accepted, TAL will pay you a specified lump sum benefit as per the terms and conditions.
- Free Child Critical Illness benefit: Pays up to $10,000 if your child, aged 2 to 15, is diagnosed with a specified medical condition, or terminal illness, or passes away, applies to select life, tpd or critical insurance cover.
- Financial planning benefit: Reimbursing you up to $5,000 for financial planning advice on eligible claims.
AIA Australia
Established in 1972 and owned by the Hong Kong-based AIA Group Limited (AIG), the life insurance company continually strives to improve its customer and claims services with the latest technological advances.
Common Built-in benefits – Priority Protection
- Health and Wellness Program: Premium discounts, shopping vouchers and up to 50% back on Virgin Australia flights with AIA Vitality wellness program.
- Final expenses benefit: 10% advancement off sum insured, up to $25,000, to deal with your final expenses.
- Complimentary Family Final Expenses: Pays 10% of sum insured, up to $20,000, if your child (2 to 17 years old) passes away or gets diagnosed with a terminal illness on select life insurance policies.
- Financial planning benefit: Receive a financial planning reimbursem*nt of up to $3,000.
Zurich
Zurich is a multinational insurance company based in Switzerland that’s been providing insurance for over 150 years. Zurich Wealth Protection includes products such as Death Cover, Total and Permanent Disablement Cover, Trauma Cover and Income Protection Insurance.
Common Built-in benefits – Wealth Protection
- Health and Wellness Program: Access over 4,500 lifestyle entertainment rewards and get premium discounts with Zurich LiveWell digital wellness program.
- Advancement for funeral expenses: Advance payment of $15,000 to cover funeral expenses.
- Accidental injury benefit: An advance payment of part or all your death benefit should you suffer a specified accidental injury.
- Accommodation expenses: Potentially receive reimbursem*nt for some travel and accommodation expenses for immediate family members that have to travel more than 100km to be with the life insured.
- Interim cover: Free interim cover for accidental injury or accidental death while you’re waiting for your application to be assessed.
We make it easy for you to compare policies online with our powerful comparison engine.
Buy with confidence today for peace of mind tomorrow.
MLC Limited
MLC has been providing insurance services since 1886, with the majority of the company owned by Nippon Life. The life insurer offers you a selection of products to protect you and your family from financial loss, including Life Cover, TPD Insurance, Critical Illness Cover and Income Protection.
Common Built-in benefits – MLC Insurance
- Health and Wellness Program: You can benefit from their MLC Vivo program when increasing your physical activity and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
- Cooling-off Period: You can refund your policy within 14 days as long as you have not filed any claims.
- Guarantee of Upgrade: If your policy improves in the future, you will be given those benefits if you keep up with your premiums.
- Access to Vivo Virtual Care: This award-winning service has a database of over 50 000 medical health professionals, so you can get a second opinion on your diagnosis or treatment no matter where you are in the world. This service is provided for free to customers and can be used an unlimited number of times.
Resolution Life (AMP)
Resolution Life is undergoing a massive change that will result in AMP Life completely transitioning to the Resolution Life name. In 2018, AMP announced its sale of the life insurance business to Resolution Life. This company offers life cover, TPD, Income Protection and Trauma Cover.
Common Built-in benefits – Elevate Insurance
- Terminal illness benefit: If the policyholder is diagnosed with a terminal illness, they may request that the life insurance sum be paid out. This advance payment will be in addition to any other benefits and will be given as a lump sum.
- Accommodation benefit: If you or your family member has to pay 100% of the sum insured under the Terminal illness benefit, TPD benefit, or Trauma benefit and remain confined in bed due to an injury/illness we cover, then the insurer will generally pay for related accommodation costs.
- Advancement of funeral expenses benefit: This benefit will pay for funeral expenses in advance once the death certificate or other proof of death is received and accepted by the insurer.
- Premium freeze: By choosing this option, your premium will stay the same as it is now. However, your sum insured will gradually decrease over time for each year it is applied to your policy.
Choosing Your Life Insurance Provider: What to Look For
When selecting a life insurer in 2024, key aspects to consider include their market share, indicating industry presence; the variety of products offered, ensuring a match with your requirements; financial strength for long-term security; efficiency in underwriting; a solid history of paying out claims, signifying reliability; and competitive pricing. Additionally, weigh the benefits of stepped versus level premiums to find the best fit for your budget.
Products
Typically, life insurance products are designed to cater to a range of needs:
- Death Cover: Provides a lump sum to beneficiaries upon the insured’s death. This is the most basic form of life insurance, aiming to secure the financial future of your loved ones.
- Income Protection Insurance: Offers a regular income if you cannot work due to illness or injury.
- Trauma Insurance: Pays a lump sum upon diagnosis of specific illnesses or medical conditions.
- TPD Insurance (Total and Permanent Disability): Provides a lump sum if you become totally and permanently disabled.
- Business Expenses Insurance: Covers ongoing fixed business expenses if you, as a business owner, cannot work due to illness or injury, ensuring business continuity.
- Child Critical Illness Cover: Offers a lump sum payment if your child is diagnosed with a specified critical illness, helping to ease financial strain during a difficult time.
Financial Strength
This measures a company’s ability to meet its financial obligations, including paying claims. A financially strong insurer gives you confidence in their long-term stability and claim-paying ability.
Underwriting
Efficient underwriting means quicker and more accurate policy processing. A company with a streamlined underwriting process can often provide faster service and more tailored policy terms.
Claims Paid
The history of claims paid by an insurer shows their reliability in fulfilling their promise. A high claims paid rate indicates a company that stands by its customers.
Premiums
In choosing a life insurance company, the premiums you’ll pay are a key consideration. These costs vary based on several factors: the amount of coverage you choose (sum insured), your age, gender, whether you smoke, and the structure of the premium plan. Finding the right balance between what you pay and the coverage you receive is essential to ensure that your policy is both affordable and adequately meets your requirements.
Stepped Vs Level Premiums for Males
| Insurer | Stepped | Level |
| Encompass Protection | $54.41 | $176.95 |
| MLC Insurance | $54.41 | $176.95 |
| OnePath OneCare | $53.83 | $185.13 |
| TAL Accelerated Protection | $59.26 | $185.50 |
| MetLife Protect | $59.47 | N/A |
| Zurich Wealth Protection | $60.83 | $199.01 |
| NEOS Protection | $60.90 | $196.08 |
| Clearview ClearChoice | $62.65 | $239.33 |
| AIA Priority Protection | $74.28 | $166.85 |
Source: Life Insurance Direct Comparison Engine (December 2023; Premium estimates for $200,000 of death cover for a 55-year-old non-smoking male who works as a school teacher and lives in NSW)
Stepped Vs Level Premiums for Females
| Insurer | Stepped | Level |
| Encompass Protection | $38.34 | $118.46 |
| MLC Insurance | $38.34 | $118.46 |
| OnePath OneCare | $42.25 | $117.84 |
| TAL Accelerated Protection | $46.09 | $116.91 |
| MetLife Protect | $42.43 | $107.28 |
| Zurich Wealth Protection | $46.91 | $139.62 |
| NEOS Protection | $33.80 | $122.03 |
| Clearview ClearChoice | $41.57 | $163.25 |
| AIA Priority Protection | $52.73 | $105.65 |
Source: Life Insurance Direct Comparison Engine (December 2023; Premium estimates for $200,000 of death cover for a 55-year-old non-smoking female who works as a school teacher and lives in NSW)
We make it easy for you to compare policies online with our powerful comparison engine.
Buy with confidence today for peace of mind tomorrow.
List of life insurance companies in Australia
According to APRA, there are about 25 registered life companies in Australia. You can review the full list of companies registered under section 21 of The Life Insurance Act 1995 in the list below:
- AIA Australia Limited
- Allianz Australia Life Insurance Limited
- Challenger Life Company Limited
- ClearView Life Assurance Limited
- Combined Life Insurance Company of Australia Ltd
- General Reinsurance Life Australia Ltd
- Hallmark Life Insurance Company Ltd.
- Hannover Life Re of Australasia Ltd
- H C F Life Insurance Company Pty Limited
- Integrity Life Australia Limited
- MetLife Insurance Limited
- MLC Limited
- Munich Reinsurance Company of Australasia Limited
- Pacific Life Re (Australia) Pty Limited
- QInsure Limited
- Resolution Life Australasia Limited
- RGA Reinsurance Company of Australia Limited
- RLNM Limited
- SCOR Global Life Australia Pty Limited
- St Andrew’s Life Insurance Pty Ltd
- Swiss Re Life & Health Australia Limited
- TAL Life Insurance Services Limited
- TAL Life Limited
- Zurich Australia Limited
Source: Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA; January 2024)
* Discounts premiums correct at the time of publishing subject to change without notice
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Which life insurance company is the best in Australia?
The best life insurance company in Australia will depend on your individual requirements. It’s typically a good idea for you to seek the services of a broker or specialist when looking to take out personal insurance. Alternatively, you can complete a quote form above or call us at 1300 135 205 to speak with one of our specialists.
Who are the top 5 life insurance companies?
The top 5 life insurance companies in Australia are TAL, AIA, Zurich, MLC Limited and Resolution Group. Each of these companies has a range of policies that allow you to set up your life insurance coverage to suit your needs. They offer competitive rates and sound customer service, so it’s important to research to ensure you’re getting cover to protect you and your family adequately.
Who is the biggest insurer in Australia?
TAL is Australia’s largest life insurer; this insurer currently holds 34.2% of the market share, according to the Plan For Life Actuaries & Researchers report released in November 2023. They offer a range of policies to many people’s requirements and budgets, including trauma insurance, income protection insurance and funeral insurance.
Which life insurer offers the lowest rates?
A life insurance policy can help provide financial security for your family if something happens to you. The death benefit is generally used to help pay for end-of-life expenses, loan repayments and other financial obligations. Typically, you’ll be able to find the cheapest life insurance by comparing rates from different companies.
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