More Australians are taking up the option of buying life insurance directly through insurance companies and banks rather than financial planners, according to financial ratings firm Canstar Cannex.
Buying life insurance directly takes it out of the "too-hard basket" for many people and makes it a more feasible option to consider, Canstar Cannex head of wealth management Stephen Mitchell said.
"The big attraction of direct life insurance is the fact that you don't have to go through a financial planner and there is minimum to zero medical information needed," he said.
"The cover is easy to apply for, applications can be done online, over the phone or in the branch and you will know straight away if you have been accepted."
Canstar Cannex has released its first direct life insurance star ratings, which compared policies from 17 insurers.
MetLife and Allianz scored highest in the combination of premium price and features offered with their respective direct life insurance policies, Simply Life and Life Plan.
"We found there were very close competitive similarities between policies offered by MetLife and Allianz and this can only benefit consumers," Mitchell said.
"Both are good, basic, term life policies that are well priced. They cover up to $1.5 million and only have suicide as the one exclusion."
