“The Consumer Choice Awards give consumers who hold life insurance policies via financial advisers and people who make claims on those policies, a strong voice in shaping the future of life insurance in Australia,” said AFA CEO Philip Kewin. “By recognising exemplary insurers, these awards help advisers and theiOKr clients as they choose income protection, trauma and total permanent disability policies.”

Zurich took out the overall Consumer Choice Award, which recognises the life insurer that excels at both servicing their policyholders and delivering on their promises to claimants, ahead of fellow finalists AMP, MLC Life Insurance and OnePath.

The Awards include the Policyholder Choice Awards and the Claimant Choice Awards. The Policyholder Choice Awards recognise outstanding customer service, as well as the value (other than protection) that personal life insurance provides such as education, health and wellness programs, communication and other consumer-focused initiatives.

The Claimant Choice Awards recognise outstanding service of claimants of Income Protection, Trauma and Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) insurance, including claims processing, early intervention, support and holistic care.

In the Policyholder Choice Awards, Zurich won the Most Satisfied Customers Award, based on ratings from both new and established policyholders and in the Claimants Choice Awards, Zurich took out the Greatest Gain in Advocacy Award, for achieving the greatest increase in NPS®^[1] among claimants.

The Policyholder Choice Awards all changed hands this year, with AMP winning the Value for Money Award for the first time and MLC Life Insurance the Best New Customer Experience Award.

In the Claimant Choice Awards, BT Financial Group performed strongly again this year, winning three of the six categories, including Best Application Process and Best Claims Staff for the second year in a row and adding a new win – the Return to Health and Wellness Award.

OnePath won Best Turnaround Time for the first time and MLC Life Insurance won the inaugural Focus on Early Intervention Award.

”By listening to the voice of large groups of consumers on an ongoing basis, life insurance companies are increasingly prioritising where they can best improve their service to better meet their customers’ needs,” said Director of the Beddoes Institute, Dr Rebecca Sheils.

“This year marks an unprecedented level of inter-company engagement with the Awards. It’s encouraging that so many insurers are pursuing excellence in servicing claimants and policyholders. It’s one thing to be good in certain areas but it’s an entirely different thing to be consistently excellent in everything, and this is what we are starting to see.”

A list of winners and finalists appears below.

More information and quotes from claimants and policyholders.

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[1] The NPS® is a powerful loyalty metric which has been linked to profitability and growth in a wide range of businesses. An NPS® higher than zero is regarded as ‘good’ while an NPS® of 50+ is regarded as excellent.

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