Life insurer TAL has taken out the 2014 Life Company of the Year award at a black-tie event held by the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Plan for Life (PFL).
In addition, TAL also won the Trauma award and was a finalist in service quality and term/TPD (total and permanent disability).
AFA CEO Brad Fox said TAL had performed well in many areas including bringing efficiency gains to advisers and their business, as well as the client.
He added that advised clients have more than three times the death cover of non-advised clients, and their insurance contracts has better terms and conditions.
Other firms vying for the platinum award were CommInsure and BT Financial Group.
Challenger won all three Annuity and Income Stream Awards, including Overall Annuity Provider, Long Terms Income Stream and the Annuity and Income Stream innovation award.
PFL marketing and product development manager Rael Solomon said the companies were judged on five key areas: financial strength, product feature strength, company service quality, premium rates and company market strength.
Judges also looked at premium rates and product features, product improvements and unique product features, lapse data, internal service benchmarks and sustainability.
