TOWER Australia and CommInsure have been announced as the joint winners of the 2010 Plan For Life/AFA Life Company of the Year Award.
This is the second tie in the Award’s five-year history, following the joint win by Asteron and Aviva in 2008.
CommInsure has backed up on its win in 2009 (it also won in 2007), while this is the first time TOWER has won the Award.
The announcement was made at a packed industry function in Sydney this afternoon, attended by life companies, adviser and dealer group representatives as well as many other life insurance industry contributors.
In addition to its joint win in the overall Award, CommInsure also took out the Service Quality Award, which was based substantially on feedback provided by the adviser community.
TOWER also won both the Trauma and Income Protection awards.
Runners-up for the overall award were AXA Australia and OnePath.
In congratulating CommInsure and TOWER, AFA National President, Brad Fox said “The AFA/Plan for Life Awards give us an opportunity to annually review the life products and services on offer to our clients. It is heartening to see that life companies continue to innovate and enhance their product and service offering, in order to deliver excellent solutions which suit the ever-changing needs of ordinary Mums and Dads,” he added.
… adviser feedback plays an important part in the Awards process
Plan For Life’s Simon Solomon said adviser feedback plays an important part in the Awards process: “We analyse all candidates from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective and examining the experience of advisers is part of that process,” he said. “We are delighted to report that advisers feel the quality of risk products available in the market and the level of service they receive is excellent.”
To win the Life Company of the Year Award means the winning company must rate highly across many criteria. In addition to product features, pricing, sales performance and financial sustainability criteria, all companies are also subject to feedback from advisers as to the quality of service each provides across the critical areas of new business, underwriting, claims and technology services.
The Award winners across all cagtegories were:
Platinum Award – Life Company of the Year
Joint Winners: CommInsure and TOWER Australia
Finalists: AXA Australia, OnePath
Service Quality Award
Winner: CommInsure
Finalists: AXA Australia, Macquarie
Term Life/TPD Award
Winner: Zurich
Finalists: TOWER Australia, One Path
Trauma Award
Winner: TOWER Australia
Finalists: AXA Australia, Asteron
Income Protection Award
Winner: TOWER Australia
Finalists: CommInsure, AIA Australia
Risk Insurance Innovation Award
Joint Winners: Asteron (Healthy Plus) and BT Insurance(Tele Claims)
Investment Bond Award
Winner: CommInsure
Finalists: AMP, One Path
Annuity Provider of the Year
Winner: Challenger
Finalist: CommInsure
Long Term Income Stream Award
Winner: Challenger
Finalists: AXA, One Path
Income Stream – Innovation Award
Winner: Challenger – Flexible Lifetime Annuity
