{"id":81789,"date":"2026-03-31T10:40:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=81789"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:02:56","slug":"rising-level-premiums-complaint-dismissed-by-afca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2026\/03\/31\/rising-level-premiums-complaint-dismissed-by-afca\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising ‘Level’ Premiums Complaint Dismissed by AFCA"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFCA has rejected a complaint over increases in ‘level’ life insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

In a determination issued 17 December 2025 \u2013 but published 18 March \u2013 AFCA considered a complaint from a policyholder who argued he had been misled into believing his premiums would rise only marginally. The complainant pointed to increases of 23% in 2020 and 49% in 2023 and sought a full refund of premiums paid.<\/p>\n

AFCA found the insurer, Nippon Life Insurance Australia and New Zealand, was entitled to raise premiums, noting the policy explicitly allowed for repricing and that \u201clevel premium rates are not guaranteed and may change over time\u201d.<\/p>\n

…rules prevent it from assessing whether a premium increase is fair…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The authority said its rules prevent it from assessing whether a premium increase is fair in amount, unless the complaint involves misrepresentation, non-disclosure, or a breach of legal duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere a policy entitles an insurer to increase premiums and it has increased premiums lawfully and consistently with the policy terms, AFCA cannot review the fairness of the amount,\u201d the determination<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

AFCA examined whether the product disclosure statement was misleading but concluded it adequately disclosed that premiums could change if the insurer adjusted its rates. It said the complainant\u2019s reliance on a graph (see below) illustrating premium paths did not establish misleading conduct when the document was read as a whole.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, the authority ordered the insurer to pay $750 compensation for non-financial loss, citing administrative errors including the temporary cancellation of cover, and a delay in removing an exclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFCA has rejected a complaint over increases in ‘level’ life insurance premiums. In a determination issued 17 December 2025 \u2013 but published 18 March \u2013 AFCA considered a complaint from a policyholder who argued he had been misled into believing his premiums would rise only marginally. The complainant pointed to increases of 23% in 2020 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":81794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-81789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-associations","8":"category-general"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81789"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81795,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81789\/revisions\/81795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}