The life insurance industry is missing a significant segment of the Australian market after a new survey found two in five people think insurance is far too complicated and hard to understand.

ING Australia's life insurance research 'She'll be right: Australia's attitudes towards underinsurance' found 41 per cent of respondents find life insurance too complex.

The survey results also found 26 per cent of those without life insurance don't know where to start and one in four don't know the level of cover they need.

In a clear message to product developers, the survey found one in five Australians without life insurance said it's too hard to choose an appropriate product.

"If you don't understand something you're going to struggle to keep it. We have to get rid of that complication so that people purchase [life insurance] and stay with it," said Gerard Kerr, ING Life Risk head of marketing, retail products and reinsurance.

Whether or not someone uses a financial adviser didn't seem to make much difference after the survey found one in three of those respondents with an adviser still found life insurance hard to understand.

Overall, the survey found Australians felt life insurance products didn't add any value and on the whole adopt a "she'll be right" attitude to life, where many respondents said they would figure something out if and when the event occurred.

"There is great potential for financial advisers or insurance brokers to act as educators, guides and intermediaries on life insurance for even their existing client base," said Kerr.

He said ING Australia would use the survey results to develop an awareness campaign using mainstream media and later to help inform advisers and to develop new products.