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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At the Awards presentation in Sydney today, CommInsure and Tower were both named winners of the Platinum Risk Insurer of the Year Award.  CommInsure also took out the Service Quality and Investment Bond Award and was a finalist for both the Income Protection and Annuity Provider awards. Tower also won both the Trauma and Income Protection awards and was a finalist for the Term/TPD award.

Runners-up for the Platinum award were AXA and OnePath.

In congratulating CommInsure and Tower, Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) National President, Brad Fox said that while Australians generally are under-insured, those who have adequately protected their financial future benefit from the excellent products and services available via the winners of the Awards.

“The AFA/Plan for Life Awards give us an opportunity to annually review the life products and services on offer to our clients,” he said. “It is heartening to see that life companies continue to innovate and enhance their product and service offering, in order to deliver excellent solutions which suit the ever-changing needs of ordinary Mums and Dads.”

AFA CEO, Richard Klipin said the Awards reflect the fact that life companies in Australia are fully focussed on providing better outcomes for consumers and equipping advisers with the tools they need in order to do it.  “This made choosing ultimate winners in all categories extremely difficult,” he said. “When it came to choosing an overall winner, it was impossible to choose between the excellent products and services offered by both CommInsure and Tower.”

Life companies are analysed  by Plan for Life from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective and adviser feedback plays an important part in the process.

Speaking on behalf of Plan for Life, which was bought earlier this year by Asset International’s Strategic Insight division, Senior Vice President, Operations of Asset International, Mike Rosenthal said the risk market represents a huge growth opportunity. “In Australia, there has been 18-20% growth per annum over the past six years. While the GFC has had some effect on this industry, now is the time to invest in product development and service to advisers, ensuring your sails are there to catch the wind as it picks up shortly and we return to double digit growth again.”

Mr Rosenthal also said that Plan for Life was looking forward to partnering with the AFA to take advantage of this growth and grow the adviser market.

In accepting the Platinum Award on behalf of CommInsure, Managing Director Paul Rayson said, “It’s an honour to win this award for the second year in a row. We have been working hard to improve our product and service offering to advisers and customers and this is welcome recognition.

“We will also continue to promote the vital role that insurance advisers play in helping to address underinsurance in Australia. Insurance advisers play a critical role in raising awareness of the need for adequate insurance cover and doing the hard work to follow up and ensure customers actually get cover.”

In accepting the Platinum Award on behalf of Tower, Brett Clark, CEO Retail Life, paid tribute to his team. “I would like to thank our hardworking team who have brought a compelling value proposition to customers in a very competitive market place,” he said. “We too believe that current remuneration models work. It is very important that all advice and manufacturing networks are aligned on this vital issue.”

For a complete list of winners, please click here

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