How We Rate Insurers

Four Rating Dimensions

Every insurer is scored across four dimensions, each with a transparent weighting. The final editorial rating is a weighted aggregate, expressed out of 5.

Editorial Principles

Five principles guide every rating, review, and article we publish. These exist to protect the reader, not the business.

1. 1

   Read the PDS, not the marketing

   Every provider review on this site is based on the actual Product Disclosure Statement issued by the insurer - not the sales copy on the homepage. Sub-limits, exclusions, and excess structures are where real differences between policies live, and marketing copy rarely tells the full story.

2. 2

   Editorial independence over commercial relationships

   We earn commission through affiliate partnerships with some providers. This relationship has no effect on our ratings. If a partner provider ranks poorly on coverage or claims, that is what we publish. Ratings are not adjusted to reflect commission rates - ever.

3. 3

   Third-party aggregators are not a rating input

   We do not base our editorial ratings on third-party aggregators like ProductReview or Trustpilot. These platforms suffer from survivorship bias - unhappy customers are far more motivated to write reviews than satisfied ones, which distorts the picture. Our editorial ratings are derived from the four dimensions above, weighted and scored by our research team.

4. 4

   Quarterly re-evaluation

   Ratings are not "set and forget". Every provider is re-evaluated each quarter and the review, coverage details, and rating are updated accordingly. The "Last updated" date published on every review page reflects the most recent editorial refresh.

5. 5

   General advice only

   All editorial content is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial advice. We are not a licensed financial advisor. Readers should always read the full PDS and, where appropriate, seek personal advice from a licensed financial advisor or insurance broker before purchasing a policy.

PDS Verification Cycle

Every provider profile on this site is verified line-by-line against the current Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) at first publish and re-verified at least annually. When we cite a sub-limit, an exclusion or a coverage amount, the figure is drawn directly from the PDS - not from the insurer's marketing copy, not from third-party comparator databases, and not from broker bulletins.

Each provider page includes a "Last verified against PDS" line in the footer that names the exact PDS document used as the source. If a PDS is updated mid-cycle and we have not yet re-verified against the new version, we will say so explicitly on the page - and we will prioritise the re-verification immediately. If you find a figure on this site that does not match the current PDS, please let us know.

Schedule Items vs PDS Minimums

One nuance that routinely confuses comparison shoppers: not every headline figure you see on an insurance quote is actually written into the PDS. Some of the most important numbers - particularly third-party liability limits - are set on the individual Policy Schedule at quote stage, rather than published as a fixed minimum in the PDS itself. This is genuinely material because it means the "$10M liability" you see on one provider's quote screen is not necessarily a guaranteed PDS feature - it is a retail issuance that varies per customer.

Our comparison table flags this distinction explicitly. Where a provider's liability figure is a Schedule item, the table renders "Schedule item" with the typical retail amount as a footnote, so readers can see at a glance which insurers publish their liability floor in the PDS and which set it on the individual policy. Of the three providers currently on the site, only NRMA has $10,000,000 liability written into the PDS Definitions - Club Marine and Nautilus Marine both treat liability as a Schedule item.