If you are living with HIV, you can apply for life insurance and be confident your application will be assessed. Advances in HIV treatments have improved the general health and life expectancy of people living with HIV, so the range of insurance products available is increasing.

When applying for life insurance with us, you'll need to provide details about your health, medical history, occupation, employment status, income, high-risk hobbies, travel plans, and residency status. As part of the underwriting process, all applicants are asked about their HIV status. Specifically, we will ask whether you have ever tested positive for HIV or are currently awaiting test results. If you disclose an HIV positive status, we’ll ask for additional details about your diagnosis, treatment plan, viral load, and any related conditions. We do not ask about your sexual orientation or personal relationships.

If you tell us that you’re living with HIV we may request a medical report from your treating doctor. This report should include recent blood test results, CD4 count, viral load levels, and details of your treatment plan. If your test results are not up to date, we may ask you to complete a blood test, either through your doctor or a medical examiner of our choice.

We require a complete picture of your medical history. This includes details about your height, weight, alcohol or recreational drug use, current and past medical conditions, treatments and any previous diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections.

While some of these questions may feel personal, they are asked of all applicants seeking underwritten cover. Our goal is simply to gather the necessary information to assess any potential health.

Depending on your health and the level of cover being applied for, we may offer Life Cover, Total & Permanent Disability, Critical Illness and Income Protection. The insurance may be subject to terms such as a higher premium (called loadings), a shorter-term policy, and/or exclusions. In certain scenarios, we may not be able to offer you cover at all.

For example, Critical Illness Plus insurance pays a benefit for medically or occupationally acquired HIV. If you disclose an HIV positive status, these events would be removed from your policy, but you would be covered for a range of other critical conditions.

Note: The critical conditions of Bacterial Meningitis and Encephalitis within Critical Illness Plus have exclusions if they resulted due to a HIV infection.