Brad Fox

At a black-tie premier event held at the Westin Hotel in Sydney on Wednesday night, CommInsure was named the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA)/Plan for Life (PFL) 2013 Life Company of the Year.

As well as taking the overall Platinum Award, CommInsure also won the Investment Bond award and was a finalist in the award categories of Trauma, overall Annuity Provider of the Year and Long Term Income Stream Awards.

In congratulating CommInsure, AFA CEO Brad Fox said the CommInsure brand has stood the test of time and winning the Life Company of the Year Award is admirable recognition for a business that has gone through considerable change over recent years. “CommInsure continues to demonstrate its commitment to financial advisers, adviser practices and their clients and the AFA highly commends CommInsure as the 2013 AFA Platinum Award winner.”

BT Financial Group and TAL were runners up for the Platinum Award.

Mr Fox said the range of finalists for all awards proved that the industry is continually striving to encourage more Australians to plan for the unexpected and to increase levels of protection.

“The awards process includes a thorough analysis of the life companies within Australia, ensuring the recognition of premier service and product solutions that best provide for the insurance needs of Australians and the financial advisers that service them,” he said. “We are confident that these companies have both advisers and clients at the heart of their offerings and are committed to continued development and innovation.”

Rael Solomon, Manager Marketing and Product Development at PFL said, “Life Companies continued to innovate their risk products in 2013, while at the same time paying attention to increased claim rates in product sectors such as Trauma through increases in premium rates. In the case of immediate annuities, there was an ongoing rise in the numbers of retirees turning to this product, while investment bonds are also continuing to play a role in client portfolios.”

Macquarie Life was the winner of all three client service team awards: Underwriting Team of the Year, Claims Team of the Year and Business Support Services/BDM Team of the Year.

“We introduced the three service quality awards last year in conjunction with RiskInfo and the Beddoes Institute to recognize adviser experiences in dealing with the claims, underwriting and business development teams,” Mr Fox said. “Our congratulations to Macquarie Life on a job well done – a clean sweep is a significant achievement.”

Mr Fox also singled out the Innovation Award winner AIA for special recognition, “The AFA’s theme for 2014 is Innovate: Think, Create, Act so we are very excited to see how the AIA Vitality initiative has challenged the fundamental way insurance connects with consumers. It’s a new conversation.”

The assessment for the Life Company of the Year Awards is completed in two parts. The Product Awards are based on data provided by participating companies to PFL on a quarterly basis, combined with service quality input. The Service Team Awards are the result of around 2,000 survey responses from financial advisers which are then analysed by the Beddoes Institute.

The full list of award winners and finalists appears below.

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