TAL Life has won the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA)’s Life Company of the Year for 2017, also having received the Service Quality Award and the Trauma Award for the TAL Life – Critical Illness Premier Plan.
BT Financial Group and MLC Insurance were runners up for the Platinum Award.
AFA chief executive officer Phillip Kewin said recognising excellence was integral to building a strong profesion, while driving improvements in product, service and value for money.
“The overall Awards are based on independent quantitative research conducted by Strategic Insight, Actuaries and Researchers, resulting from three separate investigations during the year,” said Kewin. “Five key areas are compared across the life companies and their products and in 2017, TAL Life ranked ahead of its peers.”
Zurich Financial Services took home the TERM/TPD Award for its Death Cover, CommInsure won the Income Protection Award for its Income Care Platinum Plan and AMP Financial Services and MLC Insurance were joint winners of the Risk Product Innovation Award.
Challenger won both the Overall Annuity Provider of the Year and the Long Term Income Stream Award.
Regional managing director of AFA Life Awards supporter, Strategic Insight, Rael Solomon, said the latest market share data showed overall life insurance risk market inflows were up 2.5 per cent over the year, but some companies showed stronger growth than that average.
“The Awards reveal where life companies have found competitive advantage and success in the individual risk market over the last year and an early indication of how advisers are beginning to adjust their support for the different companies, during the implementation stages of the Life Insurance Framework,” he said.
