Insure Me For LifeAR 1244847 of Consilium Advice Australia Pty Ltd, AFSL 246623
14 min read
Illustrative life insurance costs in Australia, the factors that drive your premium, and how stepped and level structures change what you pay over time. General advice only.
General Advice Only
This is general advice only and does not take into account your individual circumstances.
Please read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before making a decision.
Consider seeking personal advice from a licensed financial adviser.
Insure Me For Life is Authorised Representative Number 1244847 of Consilium Advice Australia Pty Ltd, Australian Financial Services Licence 246623.
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How much does life insurance cost in Australia?
There is no single price. Life insurance cost in Australia is driven by your age, the type and amount of cover, whether premiums are stepped or level, your occupation and health, and whether cover sits inside or outside super. As an illustrative panel reference, indicative stepped premiums for $500,000 of life cover for a 30-year-old non-smoker in a professional occupation are and rise substantially with age. These are illustrative panel figures, not a quote for your situation.
General advice warning: This information is general advice only. It is produced by Insure Me For Life (AR 1244847) under Consilium Advice Australia Pty Ltd (AFSL 246623) and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. The premiums shown are illustrative examples sourced from live panel data, not personal quotes. Consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and your own circumstances, and seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making a decision.
What drives the cost of life insurance?
Every premium answers one question for the insurer: how likely is a claim, and how large would it be? The bigger the assessed risk, the higher the premium. The main levers are below.
Age. The single biggest factor. A 30-year-old pays a fraction of what a 50-year-old pays for identical cover.
Cover type. Life (death) cover, TPD, trauma, and income protection are priced separately because each insures a different risk.
Cover amount. Larger sums insured cost more, but not proportionally more, because part of the cost is fixed per policy.
Premium structure. Stepped premiums rise each year; level premiums start higher and stay flatter for a set period.
Occupation. An insurer underwriting factor. Desk-based roles are rated lower than physically hazardous ones.
Health and smoking status. Both are insurer underwriting distinctions, assessed at application, not fields a broker controls.
Insure Me For Life is a panel broker that compares across 9 insurers (AIA, Zurich, TAL, OnePath, ClearView, NEOS, Encompass, Acenda, and Futura), with no ownership tie to any panel insurer. That is the lens for the figures and comparisons below.
How much is life insurance per month? (illustrative figures)
Because price scales with age, a monthly figure only means something once age, cover amount, and structure are fixed. The table below shows the illustrative panel range for $500,000 of life cover for a non-smoker in a professional occupation, on stepped premiums, sourced from live LRO panel data.
The pattern is the important part: the dollar step between ages widens as you get older, even though the percentage increase each year is broadly similar. That is the mortality curve at work, explained next. These are illustrative panel figures for one profile and are not a quote.
For a figure matched to your own age, cover amount, occupation, and health, an indicative comparison across the panel is the only reliable approach. An "average" premium is not meaningful when the inputs vary this much.
Why does life insurance get more expensive with age?
Life insurance is priced on mortality risk: the statistical likelihood that the insurer will need to pay a claim in a given year. That risk does not rise in a straight line. It compounds, roughly doubling every 7 to 10 years.
Think of it as compound interest working against you. If risk at 25 is some baseline, it is broadly double that by the mid-30s, double again by the mid-40s, and so on. On a stepped policy (the most common type), that is why premiums increase by a similar percentage each year but by larger dollar amounts each decade.
The curve steepens after age 50 because that is when serious conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer become more common. The practical takeaway most cost guides reach is the same: the earlier cover is taken out, the lower the rate locked in, and the longer that lower rate applies.
Stepped vs level premiums: which costs less?
This choice affects not just next year's bill but the total paid over the life of the policy.
Feature
Stepped premiums
Level premiums
Starting cost
Lower
Higher (commonly 40 to 60 percent more at the start)
How it changes
Increases each year with your age
Stays relatively flat to a set age (commonly 65)
Cheaper early on
Yes
No
Cheaper long term
Not usually
Often, if held past the crossover
Typical crossover point
Around 13 to 15 years
Around 13 to 15 years
Suits
Shorter cover horizons (for example, until a mortgage is repaid)
Longer cover horizons of 15 years or more
Two points of caution. First, level premiums are only cheaper in total if the policy is genuinely held past the crossover; cancelling early tends to mean overpaying. Second, a level premium is not fixed forever. When the level period ends (commonly at 65) it converts to stepped rates for that age, which is a steep step up. Neither structure is "better" in the abstract. The fit depends on how long cover is expected to be kept.
How does smoking affect the price?
Smoking is an insurer underwriting distinction, not a broker-controlled field. Smoker rates typically run materially higher than non-smoker rates for the same profile, commonly approaching double, because tobacco and nicotine use raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
Insurers classify you as a smoker if you have used tobacco or nicotine products in the past 12 months, which includes cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and vaping or nicotine replacement with nicotine. The reverse is also true and useful: after 12 consecutive months smoke-free, you can apply to be reclassified as a non-smoker, which can reduce the premium materially. Our snapshot covers non-smoker rates; for an indicative smoker figure, a panel comparison matched to your details is the right step.
Does cover amount change the price per dollar?
Yes, and not in the way many people expect. Doubling the sum insured does not double the premium, because part of an insurer's cost (administration and underwriting) is fixed per policy. The cost per $1,000 of cover therefore falls as the sum insured rises.
The practical implication: buying less cover than a household needs purely to save money tends to cost more per $1,000 of protection, not less. Working out the right amount first, then pricing it, is the more useful order.
Life cover, TPD, trauma, and income protection are priced separately
"Life insurance" is often used loosely to mean a suite of covers, and each is priced on its own risk:
Life (death) cover pays a lump sum on death or terminal illness.
TPD pays a lump sum if you become totally and permanently disabled. Own-occupation definitions are more generous and cost more than any-occupation.
Trauma (critical illness) pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a defined condition such as cancer, heart attack, or stroke.
Income protection replaces up to 70 percent of income if illness or injury stops you working, paid monthly after a waiting period.
Income protection is priced quite differently from lump-sum cover because it depends on your income, occupation, waiting period, and benefit period. Under APRA's individual disability income insurance reforms, newer income protection contracts cap the replacement ratio at 90 percent of earnings for the first six months and 70 percent thereafter (Source: APRA, Final individual disability income insurance sustainability measures). For an income protection figure, an indicative quote matched to your income and occupation is the only reliable guide, because it is not represented in the illustrative life-cover snapshot above.
Inside super vs outside super: a cost trade-off
Where the cover is held changes both the price and how it is paid.
Inside super. Premiums are deducted from your super balance rather than your take-home pay, which can be cheaper for basic default amounts (check what your super fund covers by default). Cover amounts are often limited and may not match what a household needs, and a death benefit may pass through the fund trustee first.
Outside super. Cover bought through an insurer, broker, or adviser typically allows higher sums insured and more direct control over beneficiaries, but premiums are paid from after-tax income.
In Australia, the large majority of life cover is held through superannuation. Of roughly 29.1 million lives insured across all cover types at June 2025, about 75 percent of cover was held through super, around 12 percent through advised individual policies, and 9 percent sold directly (Source: APRA, Life insurance claims and disputes data, June 2025, Policy statistics). ASIC's Moneysmart frames the core decision as inside super versus outside super and notes that default or direct cover "might not match your needs" (Source: ASIC Moneysmart, Life cover). Which path suits a given household depends on individual circumstances; this is general information, not a recommendation.
How to get an accurate price (not just an average)
Illustrative figures and averages are a starting point, not an answer. An accurate price needs your specific inputs, and the spread between insurers is wide enough that comparing matters.
Fix the inputs. Decide the cover type, the sum insured, and the premium structure before pricing.
Include the underwriting factors. Age, occupation, health, and smoking status all move the figure, and they are assessed by the insurer.
Compare across insurers. Premiums for identical cover can vary by 20 to 30 percent or more between insurers, so a single quote is rarely the full picture.
Look past price alone. Terminal illness definitions (12 versus 24 months), TPD definitions (own versus any occupation), and claims performance affect value as much as the headline premium. ASIC's Moneysmart Life Insurance Claims Comparison Tool publishes claims-accepted and dispute rates by channel using APRA data (Source: ASIC Moneysmart).
See Indicative Life Insurance Quotes
Compare indicative premiums across 9 panel insurers based on your age, cover amount, and health. The comparison takes about 3 minutes and is general advice only.
Life insurance cost in Australia is predictable in its drivers even though there is no single price. Age sets the base because premiums track mortality risk, which roughly doubles every 7 to 10 years. Cover type and amount, the stepped-versus-level choice, occupation, health, and smoking status do the rest. The illustrative panel figures above show modest premiums for younger non-smokers on $500,000 of life cover, rising substantially with age, but they are examples sourced from panel data, not a quote.
The reliable next step is an indicative comparison matched to your own details, across the panel rather than from a single insurer, while remembering that the cheapest premium is not the same as the best value once definitions and claims performance are taken into account. For a deeper look at how premiums move decade by decade, see how life insurance costs are calculated by age.
Frequently asked questions
How much does life insurance cost in Australia?
There is no single price. Cost depends on your age, the type and amount of cover, whether premiums are stepped or level, your occupation and health, and whether cover is held inside or outside super. As an illustrative panel reference, indicative stepped premiums for $500,000 of life cover for a 30-year-old non-smoker in a professional occupation are . These are illustrative panel figures sourced from live LRO panel data, not a quote for your circumstances.
What is the average cost of life insurance per month in Australia?
An "average" is misleading because premiums vary widely by age, cover amount, and structure. A 30-year-old non-smoker on stepped premiums pays a small fraction of what a 55-year-old pays for identical cover, because life insurance is priced on mortality risk, which roughly doubles every 7 to 10 years. The most reliable figure is an indicative quote matched to your own age, health, and cover amount.
Why is life insurance more expensive as you get older?
Life insurance is priced on mortality risk, the statistical likelihood the insurer pays a claim. That risk increases exponentially rather than linearly, roughly doubling every 7 to 10 years, which is why stepped premiums rise faster in dollar terms each decade. The acceleration after age 50 reflects the rising incidence of age-related health conditions.
Does smoking increase life insurance premiums?
Yes. Smoker rates typically run materially higher than non-smoker rates for the same profile, commonly approaching double, because tobacco and nicotine use raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Insurers classify you as a smoker if you have used tobacco or nicotine products in the past 12 months. After 12 consecutive months smoke-free you can apply to be reclassified as a non-smoker, which can reduce the premium materially.
Is stepped or level premium cheaper?
Stepped premiums start lower and increase each year with your age. Level premiums start higher but stay relatively flat for a set period (commonly to age 65). Stepped is usually cheaper in the early years; level can be cheaper in total if you hold the policy long enough for the crossover, commonly around 13 to 15 years. Which structure suits a given person depends on how long they expect to keep the cover, not on price alone.
Is life insurance cheaper inside or outside super?
Default cover inside super can be cheaper for basic amounts and is paid from your super balance rather than your take-home pay, but cover amounts are often limited and may not match what a household needs. Cover held outside super (through an insurer, broker, or adviser) typically offers higher sums insured and more control over beneficiaries. The trade-offs differ by individual; this is general information, not a recommendation.
How can I get an accurate life insurance price?
Illustrative figures and averages only go so far. An accurate price requires your specific age, cover type and amount, occupation, health, smoking status, and premium structure. Comparing across multiple insurers matters because premiums for identical cover can vary by 20 to 30 percent or more. Use a quote tool that compares the panel for a figure matched to your details.
Indicative premium figures: live LRO panel data via the project reference-premiums snapshot (NSW, professional occupation, non-smoker, stepped premiums, $500,000 sum insured). Figures are illustrative, not quotes.
General Advice Disclaimer: This information is general in nature and does not take into account your individual circumstances, objectives, or financial situation. It is produced by Insure Me For Life (AR 1244847) under Consilium Advice Australia Pty Ltd (AFSL 246623). We provide general advice only. Premiums shown are illustrative examples sourced from panel data and may vary based on individual circumstances and insurer underwriting. Consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making a decision about insurance.
How Much Does Life Insurance Cost in Australia? (2026) | IMFL