This is Information Sheet 218 (INFO 218). It explains what you should do if you have a complaint about your life insurance policy.
This information sheet covers the following:
If you have a complaint about a financial firm regarding your life insurance policy, the first step is to try to resolve it directly with the financial firm. This is known as ‘internal dispute resolution’ or ‘IDR’.
The term 'financial firm', in this context, includes life insurers, super fund trustees, financial advisers and insurance brokers. It may also include certain providers of claims handling and settling services.
Financial firms must properly consider and deal with complaints. They must try to resolve your complaint in a timely way and must tell you their final decision about the complaint.
If you are unhappy with their response, you can take your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA is an independent external dispute resolution (EDR) scheme that deals with consumer and small business complaints about financial firms.
Who you contact will depend on whether you hold your policy:
If you have been through the IDR process with a financial firm and are not satisfied with their response, you can take your complaint to AFCA.
AFCA offers a free and independent service to consumers to resolve complaints with financial firms and is an alternative to going to court. AFCA can:
There are monetary limits on some complaints that AFCA can deal with. For more information, see the AFCA website.
Note: Trustees and beneficiaries of an SMSF can complain to AFCA if they are dissatisfied with a decision of their insurer. However, AFCA cannot help if disagreements arise between the beneficiaries of an SMSF and the trustee of that SMSF.
If you wish to make a complaint about how AFCA dealt with your complaint, you can raise the issue directly with AFCA and the scheme's independent assessor. See Information Sheet 176 What to do if you are dissatisfied with a decision by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (INFO 176) for more information.
If you are unhappy with AFCA's decision about your complaint, or if your complaint is about an SMSF trustee, it may be that taking your complaint to court is the only avenue available for you to be compensated for your loss. You may need legal advice to help you make this decision. If you are unsure of how to access legal advice, contact the Law Society in your state or territory to find a lawyer.
You may also contact your local community legal centre for free advice regarding your life insurance policy as an alternative to paying for a lawyer. ASIC’s Moneysmart website has information on free legal advice services available in Australia.
ASIC does not provide dispute resolution services like AFCA does. This is because individual disagreements between consumers and financial firms are best resolved through the IDR and AFCA processes. We do not intervene in decisions made by financial firms' IDR processes or AFCA.
ASIC has an oversight role regarding the insurance industry. However, this role is limited to considering regulatory issues that may impact the market more broadly – any action we take against life insurers is unlikely to resolve your specific complaint.
Please note that this information sheet is a summary giving you basic information about a particular topic. It does not cover the whole of the relevant law regarding that topic, and it is not a substitute for professional advice. We encourage you to seek your own professional advice to find out how the applicable laws apply to you, as it is your responsibility to determine your obligations.
You should also note that because this information sheet avoids legal language wherever possible, it might include some generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases, your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.
Information sheets provide concise guidance on a specific process or compliance issue or an overview of detailed guidance.
This information sheet was updated in March 2025.
