The runners up for the Life Company of the Year were:

• TAL
• MetLife

AFA President, Sam Perera, said, “The AFA congratulates NEOS on winning the platinum award for the first time, and all the winners and finalists of individual awards. Despite the challenges in this sector in recent years, life insurance companies continue to innovate and adapt to the changing environment. Most important is their ongoing role in providing certainty and security to millions of Australians every year.”

The categories for the Awards include the overall Platinum AFA Life Company of the Year Award and individual product awards, offered in conjunction with Plan For Life, and the Client Service Team Awards with the Beddoes Institute.

The Overall and Product Life Company of the Year Awards

The overall award and product awards are based around Plan For Life’s Risk Products Benchmarking services, which benchmarks retail life insurers across five key metrics: financial strength, product features, premium rates, service and market strength. Sustainability of product features and premium rates, engagement, and health & wellness are also rated. Industry innovation in product is also recognised again this year.

Rael Solomon, Regional Managing Director, Plan For Life, said, “In 2022 the retail life insurance market continues to rebuild following the recent decline in numbers of advisers. While sales of new life insurance business remained at similar levels to the previous year, there are nonetheless distinct signs of strong activity in the ways that insurers are innovating their products and systems. This is reflected in Plan For Life Innovation Awards in three categories this year. The investment bond and annuity markets continued to forge ahead in the year and now represent substantial parts of the Savings and Retirement sectors.”

The Client Service Team Awards

The Client Service Team Awards, which recognise outstanding underwriting, claims and BDM teams, are based on feedback from advisers surveyed through the Beddoes Institute’s Adviser Experience Benchmarking Study.

In the Client Service Team Awards, NEOS Life was again announced Underwriting Team of the Year and also took out the BDM Team of the Year, whilst Zurich Australia won Claims Team of the Year.

Bill Nikolovski, CEO, Beddoes Institute, said, “We have seen the newer life insurance companies gain substantial traction in the marketplace recently, and it is clear why, when all the top performing insurers in the key touchpoints of Underwriting and Business Support were smaller companies. Congratulations to NEOS on taking out the Underwriting and Business Support Awards. Claims is at the heart of life insurance, and we congratulate Zurich on winning the award this year.”

The full list of winners are finalists are:

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Runners up for the Life Company of the Year title were:

• AIA Australia
• MLC Life Insurance
• NEOS

AFA President Michael Nowak said, “We congratulate TAL on being awarded the title ‘2020 Life Company of the Year’ and also pay tribute to the runners up, and all the winners and finalists in other categories who have truly stepped up in an extraordinarily difficult environment. These companies have risen to meet the challenges presented by the current pandemic and continue to deliver superior products and services to financial advisers and their clients.”

AFA partners with Plan for Life, Riskinfo and Beddoes Institute on the Life Company of the Year Awards, which celebrate excellence in service, product and support delivered to advisers and their clients and are the leading annual recognition for retail life insurers, annuities and investment bond providers in Australia.

Plan for Life provides the benchmarking research for the life insurance, annuity and investment bond product awards.

Rael Solomon, Regional Managing Director, Plan for Life, said, “Whilst 2020 was a difficult year for the life insurance market, life insurers have continued doing their best to support advisers through increased training efforts, maintained high levels of service for both advisers and customers and kept a high profile through advertising their products.”

In the Client Service Team Awards, NEOS won the Underwriting Award, and the BDM/Business Support Award, while OnePath took home the Claims Award. Beddoes Institute’s Adviser Survey underpins the three key team-based awards.

Dr Rebecca Sheils, Director of the Beddoes Institute, said, “Our research findings from financial advisers indicate that the new insurers have made significant gains across Underwriting and their BDM teams. Underwriting performance across the industry overall dropped over the last 12 months. Likewise, claims performance across the industry overall also dropped. It was a challenging year for BDM teams in 2020 as reflected in slightly lower scores compared to 12 months ago. That said, the top performing insurers went above and beyond, delivering an exceptional standard of service and maintaining their strong and supportive adviser relationships under difficult circumstances.”

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BT, which also took out the income protection award for its BT – Income Protection Plus Plan product, was named Platinum Winner of the AFA/SI Life Company of the Year for 2016 at the sell-out AFA event hosted at the Hilton Sydney last night. The event also raised funds, via the AFA Foundation, for Youth off the Streets.

“The AFA/SI Life Company of the Year Awards are based on independent quantitative research conducted by Strategic Insight, Actuaries and Researchers, resulting from three separate investigations during the year,” said AFA CEO, Brad Fox. “Each life insurer is individually assessed on a range of criteria and then measured against other insurers. In 2016, it was BT that once again ranked ahead of its peers.”TAL, MLC and OnePath were runners up for the Platinum Award.

TAL, MLC and OnePath were runners up for the Platinum Award.

Mr Fox said financial advisers arrange just on half of the life insurance in Australia, and $5B of the total $7.2B in claims is paid to clients of financial advisers. “These Awards are designed to encourage life insurers to invest in product and service innovation and to strive for excellence so that financial advisers can offer their clients the best possible risk protection.”

Rael Solomon, Head of Sales, Marketing and Product Development at Strategic Insight said, “The retail life insurance market continues to be driven by a high level of competition between all life companies, resulting in innovation in not only products, but also in the aspects of underwriting, customer service and adviser training. Health and wellness has become a major theme and is already playing a part in the benchmarking which Strategic Insight applies to providers and their products.”

The AFA also announced Zurich as the winner of two of the three AFA/Beddoes Institute/riskinfo Client Service Team Awards, including the Underwriting Award and the BDM/Business Support Awards. BT won the Claims Award.

The Client Service Team Awards are based on nearly 2000 ratings in an extensive survey of advisers conducted by the Beddoes Institute in collaboration with riskinfo and the AFA.The Beddoes Institute’s Rebecca Sheils said, “The goal of these awards is to recognise life companies that the Adviser Experience Benchmarking Study identifies as providing exemplary services to advisers.  These awards are timely as this year’s study reveals that advisers are calling for greater business support and better services as they strive to exceed their clients’ expectations and build better businesses.”

The Beddoes Institute’s Rebecca Sheils said, “The goal of these awards is to recognise life companies that the Adviser Experience Benchmarking Study identifies as providing exemplary services to advisers.  These awards are timely as this year’s study reveals that advisers are calling for greater business support and better services as they strive to exceed their clients’ expectations and build better businesses.”The AFA/SI Life Company of the Year event raised funds on the night for Youth off the Streets, a non-denominational community

The AFA/SI Life Company of the Year event raised funds on the night for Youth off the Streets, a non-denominational community organisation working for disadvantaged young people who may be homeless, drug dependent and/or recovering from abuse.

See the complete list of winners and finalists.

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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.

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Brad Fox

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Plan for Life (PFL) have named TAL as the 2014 Life Company of the Year at a black-tie premier event held at the Westin Hotel in Sydney last night.

As well as receiving the overall Platinum Award, TAL also won the Trauma award and was a finalist in the award categories of Service Quality and Term/TPD.

AFA CEO Brad Fox said TAL was well deserving of the platinum award. “The Platinum Award recognises the insurer that has shown exceptional performance across all judging criteria including an important element that reflects upon the sustainability of their product and services. TAL has certainly led the market in a number of areas over recent years including initiatives that bring efficiency gains to advisers and their businesses as well as to the client.”

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

Rael Solomon, Manager Marketing and Product Development at PFL said, “We compared five key areas, including financial strength of the company, product feature strength, company service quality, premium rates and company market strength to determine the winners in all categories. These in conjunction with consistency of premium rates and product features, product improvements and unique product features, lapse data, contribution to the growth and promotion of the Australian life insurance industry, internal service benchmarks and sustainability were considered in the process.”

Challenger was awarded all three Annuity and Income Stream Awards, including Overall Annuity Provider, Long Terms Income Stream and the Annuity and Income Stream innovation award.

Macquarie Life also won all three client service team awards as reflected in adviser feedback collected and analysed by the Beddoes Institute in conjunction with RiskInfo; Underwriting Team of the Year, Claims Team of the Year and BDM Team of the Year.

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.

Commenting generally on the importance of the awards, Mr Fox noted that the tripartite relationship between insurer, adviser and client is important for Australian societal outcomes. “The research into Australians that receive help from a financial adviser to organise their life insurance show clearly that they have far better protection in the event of death or health disaster. Advised clients have more than three times the death cover of non-advised Australians, and they have insurance contracts with far better terms and conditions – the evidence of the quality shows up at claim time when it really matters. Advised life insurance continues to deliver far better outcomes than direct insurance.”

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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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