Tower Australia has dominated the 2006 Money Management/Dexx&r Adviser Choice Risk Awards, both with its own products and those of Prefsure, which it acquired in April.
Tower is this year’s Risk Company of the Year — as selected by a panel of industry advisers, while Prefsure placed third in the main award category, behind runner-up AIG.
Its triumph this year represents a step-up for Tower, which placed third behind runner-up Prefsure, and winner in last year’s awards, Aviva.
For Tower chief executive, retail life, David Callander, the award is a sign the company is now “reaping the benefits of work done in the previous three years, during which time Tower has had an absolute focus on life insurance”.
“We do have investments, but the lion’s share of management’s time, the board of directors’ time and our staff’s time is devoted to life insurance.
“In fact, we get up in the morning and think about how we can do better today what we did yesterday,” he said.
This year, Tower also won gold in the Term and Total and Permanent Disability Cover (TPD) category for its Life Protection Plan and silver in the Disability category for its Income Protection Plan.
Prefsure was runner-up in the business expenses category for its Business Expenses Gold plan, behind winner MLC, which has now won the category twice in successive years for its Business Expenses plan. There was no bronze award made in this category.
The Disability category, which Tower won last year, was this year won by Asteron for its Income Protector plan, improving on its third-placed category performance last year.
CommInsure took out third place in the Disability category this year for its Income Care plan, and also third-place in the Trauma category for its Trauma Cover plan.
Metlife won this year’s Trauma category for its Life Care Trauma product, followed by AMP for its Trauma Cover Premier, a position it also achieved in last year’s awards.
In this year’s Term and TPD category, AIG’s Priority Protection plan placed second (behind Tower), and Zurich Life third for its Term Life Insurance Plus.
