NEOS Life has been awarded the title of AFA Life Company of the Year for 2022 – the first time the company has won the award.
The runners up for the Life Company of the Year were TAL and MetLife. TAL had previously won the overall Platinum award for five consecutive years since 2017.
AFA President, Sam Perera, congratulated NEOS on winning the platinum award and all the winners and finalists of individual awards.
He says that despite the challenges in this sector in recent years “…life insurance companies continue to innovate and adapt to the changing environment. Most important is their ongoing role in providing certainty and security to millions of Australians every year.”
The categories include the overall Platinum Award, together with individual product awards, offered in conjunction with Plan For Life, and the Client Service Team Awards presented in association with the Beddoes Institute.
NEOS also won the Service Quality award (for the second year in a row) and the Term and TPD product categories, while TAL took out the both the Trauma and Income Protection categories.
The AFA notes that the overall award and product awards are based around Plan For Life’s Risk Products Benchmarking services, which benchmarks retail life insurers across five key metrics:
- Financial strength
- Product features
- Premium rates
- Service and market strength
- Sustainability of product features and premium rates, engagement, and health & wellness are also rated
Innovation awards
In the Innovation – Product category, PPS Mutual was the winner while TAL was awarded in the Innovation -Health and Wellness category. AIA Vitality won the Innovation – Adviser Training award.
Client Service Team awards
AFA says the Client Service Team Awards, which recognise outstanding underwriting, claims and BDM teams, are based on feedback from advisers surveyed through the Beddoes Institute’s Adviser Experience Benchmarking Study.
In these awards, NEOS Life was again prominent and was announced as the Underwriting Team of the Year (for the fourth year in a row) and also took out the BDM Support Team of the Year (for the third year in a row).
Zurich Australia won the Claims Team of the Year.
A full list of 2022 winners and runners-up for these awards, first presented in 2006, is detailed in the table below:
Previous Winners
- 2021: TAL Life
- 2020: TAL Life
- 2019: TAL life
- 2018: TAL Life
- 2017: TAL Life
- 2016: BT Financial Group
- 2015: BT Financial Group
- 2014: TAL
- 2013: CommInsure
- 2012: TAL
- 2011: TAL
- 2010: TOWER/CommInsure (Joint winners)
- 2009: CommInsure
- 2008: Asteron/Aviva (Joint winners)
- 2007: CommInsure
- 2006: AXA
