The Australasian Life Underwriting and Claims Association has announced the winners of its annual Life Insurance Excellence Awards with Darren Leonard, MLC Life Insurance’s Northern Underwriting Manager NSW/QLD, named as the winner of the Leadership Award.
ALUCA says the Leadership Award acknowledges an individual life insurance leader who has demonstrated excellence by driving successful life insurance strategies with strong customer outcomes and has been a people leader for at least six years.
The other winners are:
- Professional Winner: June Khaw – Hannover Life Re. This category recognises an individual life insurance professional who has demonstrated excellence via their achievement of key business and customer outcomes
- Rising Star Winner: Sean Marais – Hannover Life Re. This recognises a life insurance individual with less than three years in the life insurance industry who has demonstrated excellence in a life insurance claims, underwriting or rehabilitation, over and above business-as-usual
- David Mico Industry Winner: Paul Bennell – TAL Australia. This special award is presented to an ALUCA member who has actively been involved in challenging and promoting the life insurance industry
- Claims Team Winner: MLC Claims Management Team – MLC Life Insurance. Open to any life insurance, reinsurance or super fund claims team
- Underwriting Team Winner: Zurich Underwriting Digital Solutions Team – Zurich. Open to any life insurance or reinsurance, super funds underwriting team.
- Customer Service Team Winner: MLC Claims Management Team – MLC Life Insurance. ALUCA says this is open to any life insurer, reinsurer or service provider team which is setting new standards in customer service and engagement
- Innovation Team Winner: SCOR & Adviser Connect. Open to any life insurer, reinsurer or service provider team setting new standards in life insurance innovation – which could be in process, product, service, technology, data, media etc. Covering both business-to-consumer and business-to-business relationships
- Partnership Impact Team Winner: Recovery & Wellness – MLC Life /SwissRe/Wyasa. Open to any cross-company partnership demonstrating outstanding collaboration for greater life insurance customer outcomes and/or benefits to the life insurance industry.
- Best Technology Team Winner: AIA Australia and Hannover Life Re. Open to any life insurer, reinsurer or service provider team which can demonstrate outstanding and innovative achievement in the area of technology application for good, to improve the life insurance industry and/or customer/community outcomes.
ALUCA’s says its excellence awards are about celebrating “…the great value life insurance underwriting, claims and rehabilitation professionals contribute to the industry.”
Back-to-Back Awards
Meanwhile, MLC Life Insurance has announced its win in the Claims Team of the Year Award category was back-to-back with its win last year.
The insurer says that having last year taken home Claims Team of the Year for its Fast Track Straight Through Processing Initiative, this year it went back-to-back for the same award, winning the accolade for its Income Protection Analytics Model.
It says this improves customer and partner experience by augmenting the ability for claims teams to accurately forecast claim durations from lodgement and ensure the right support is provided at the right time, assisting customers through their claims journey.
