AIA’s new product designed for life
While AIA’s new Cover for Life looks like a level premium product it is something different the company says.
Thursday, March 26th 2026, 4:48AM 
2 Comments
Cover for Life is designed to provide certainty by offering cover for the policyholder’s entire lifetime. The policy will pay out whenever the insured person passes away, provided the policy is in force.
“This is different from traditional level premium options, which generally guarantee premiums only up to a selected age. While the cover itself can continue beyond that point, premiums typically convert to a rate‑for‑age basis and increase each year, creating uncertainty around long‑term affordability.”“While Cover for Life includes a level premium structure for the chosen payment term, the level premium feature is not the core purpose of the product.”
“Its fundamental benefit is the lifetime cover with a known and finite premium payment period.”
Customers can choose to pay premiums to age 65, 70 or 80. The selected payment term must be at least 10 years long from the customer’s start age. For example, a customer who is 50 can select a payment term to age 65. A customer who is 57 cannot select age 65 because this would not meet the minimum 10-year requirement, so their options would be to age 70 or 80.
Premiums stop at the anniversary following the selected age, and the policy remains in force for life.
Cover for Life includes a paid-up option. Once at least 50% of the chosen payment term has been completed, the customer can choose to stop paying premiums. The policy continues with a reduced sum assured amount. The paid-up value is calculated using the proportion of the payment term completed multiplied by the original sum assured, and includes a five percent adjustment as set out in the policy document.
Because Cover for Life provides lifetime protection with finite premiums, and includes features such as the paid-up option, premiums are higher than those for traditional level premium or rate for age products,
“These products are not directly comparable because traditional level cover generally requires premiums to be paid for life to keep the cover in force, particularly once the premium guarantee period ends. Cover for Life is different because once the selected payment term is completed, no further premiums are required and the cover remains in force for life, unless the policy is lapsed,” Kϋhnast says.
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It does this by inserting "generally" at a couple of key places, which does the job nicely.
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But the fundamental benefit according to Alex - lifetime cover with a known and finite payment period - is not unique to AIA. What is unique is the choice of payment periods (65/70/80).
The Asteron Life Level to Age 100 premium structure offers lifetime cover with a known and finite payment period.
This is not a criticism of the Cover For Life product, just the messaging/(mis)representations. I appreciate that it can sometimes take a while to fine tune messaging when launching a product, but getting the early messaging correct is crucial, given the anchoring effect it has.
If AIA says “our product is the only one on the market that does this thing” and, hearing this, advisers tell their clients “if you want this thing, your only choice is this AIA product”, these misleading representations could be a problem for AIA.
For examples of what this problem looks like in practice, see the Cigna/OnePath enforceable undertaking (2022), and the FMA v MAS [2023] and FMA v IAG [2025] judgements. (Applications of FMCA s536 to contraventions of s22.)