Rebecca Sheils

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and the Beddoes Institute have announced the 2016 Preliminary Award Winners of the new Consumer Choice Awards which recognise the best insurers as rated by advised policyholders and claimants.

Based on results from the first wave of in-depth research conducted in March/April 2016, the Preliminary Award Winners of the top three categories include:

• Most Satisfied Claimants – BT Financial Group – Winner
• Most Satisfied Policyholders – TAL – Winner
• Best Policyholder Advocacy – TAL – Winner

The Consumer Choice Awards are based on customer ratings from more than 2,100 customers across all major life insurance companies and foreshadow the inaugural Annual Consumer Choice Awards in November 2016.

Claimant awards reflect the opinions of surveyed policyholders who are going through or who have gone through the claims process, while policyholder awards reflect the views of all surveyed policyholders.

“Life insurance remains a vital protection for Australian families and individuals,” said AFA CEO Brad Fox. “These awards bring the voice of policyholders who have a financial adviser to the forefront of thinking for the customer experience teams at our major life insurers. They serve the purpose of establishing benchmarks, driving competition and recognising best practice performance.”

Dr Rebecca Sheils, Director of Beddoes Institute said, “Recognition for offering the best service is incredibly prestigious and desirable, particularly in the current environment where advisers and their clients want confidence they have chosen the right insurer.”

Life companies needed at least 50 customer ratings to be eligible for a policyholder choice award or claimant choice award. All claimants from participating companies in the previous 12 months were invited to contribute and 25% to 30% responded, which is a significant number for this type of research and much higher than expected.

“We have developed a quantitative way to evaluate insurers to help give advisers and their clients peace of mind when selecting a trauma, TPD or income protection insurance provider, based on the experiences of actual customers,” Dr Sheils said. “It’s like asking a couple of thousand neighbours with experience with those organisations, which ones they rate.”

The AFA and the Beddoes Institute are encouraging all life insurance companies to step forward for the inaugural Annual Consumer Choice Awards in November 2016. Participating life companies are required to submit their policyholder and claimant contact lists by the end of July.

The complete list of the May 2016 Consumer Choice Awards winners and finalists is:

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