Rael Solomon
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Plan For Life (PFL) have announced BT Financial Group as the Platinum Winner of the PFL/AFA Life Company of the Year for 2015 at an event hosted at the Art Gallery of NSW last night.
“The overall Platinum Award recognizes the insurer which exceeds expectations in terms of product quality, innovation and service. This year, that insurer is BT Financial Group,” said AFA CEO, Brad Fox.
TAL and CommInsure were runners up for the overall Platinum Award.
Mr Fox said financial advisers play a vital role in helping Australians recognise their personal life insurance needs and to put protection in place, with around 50 per cent of all life insurance policies currently in force arranged with the help of financial advisers.
“Australians are best served when financial advisers and life insurers are working constructively to provide personal life insurance solutions to consumers. The PFL/AFA Life Company of the Year Awards aim to inspire competition and set higher benchmarks for insurers in satisfying the needs of both advisers and their clients.”
Rael Solomon Manager, Marketing & Product Development, Plan For Life, said during 2015 life companies developed new and better ways to engage with advisers and clients. “For instance, fresh approaches to encourage customers to improve their health as well as gaining benefits in the cost of insurance cover is a very hot topic at present,” he said. “An increasing number of companies have introduced new health programs as part of their offer to both new and existing clients. We expect that this trend towards health benefits will continue to be refined in future.”
In addition to the PFL awards, we also recognize excellence in client service in three critical areas that are fundamental to driving adviser satisfaction and advocacy – underwriting, claims and business support services/BDMs. These Client Service Team awards, sponsored by the Beddoes Institute and riskinfo, are determined exclusively from a large and representative sample of Australian risk-focussed advisers collected as part of the Beddoes Institute’s Adviser Experience Benchmarking Study that forms part of Beddoes’ Life Insurance Industry Performance Barometer. The client service awards include the Underwriting and New Business Team of the Year, the Claims Team of the Year and the Business Support Services and BDM Team of the Year.
A key focus of this industry event is to give back to the community through the AFA Foundation, raising funds on the night for the Garvan Institute supporting medical research programs. Esteemed artist John Olsen generously donated two of his artworks; Accor Hotels gave four nights at the Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach resort and Virgin donated flights. Ian Thorpe, Olympic champion also generously shared his time and experiences, inspiring the audience and supporting fund raising efforts. The AFA Foundation has raised over $150,000 in the last year, and nearly $1 million since its formation.
