CommInsure has taken home the top gong at the fourth annual Australia and New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards 2007.
The insurance arm of Commonwealth Bank was awarded the Life Insurance Company of the Year accolade late last week.
CommInsure pipped finalists Aviva and MLC to the post.
"We've made progress as an organisation in the last year and that's reflected in the award," CommInsure managing director Simon Swanson said.
The company's focus on protecting the lifestyle of ordinary Australians won judges over.
Judges cited its customer retention strategy, implemented in 2006, as a winning attribute. Its Loyalty Bonus Benefit will provide $1.2 billion of free cover from October.
CommInsure aims to protect more people by making personal risk insurance more accessible and affordable. To gauge this it regularly surveys customer needs.
Also, the group risk arm retained 95 per cent of it clients last year, even though several major clients' policies were up for renewal.
CommInsure's work to educate Australians on the need for life insurance also won judges over.
The awards were presented by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIF) and founding partners Asia Insurance Review.
More than 700 insurance industry executives attended the event in Sydney on Thursday.
ANZIF chief executive officer Joan Fitzpatrick presided over a 14 member judging panel. The procedure was audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
QBE Insurance (Australia) won General Insurance Company of the Year, Savant Virtual won Insurer Technological Innovation of the Year, Minter Ellison won Law Firm/Practitioner of the Year, Finity Consulting won the Service Provider to the Insurance Industry category, Guild Risk Services won Risk Practitioner/Team of the Year, Aon scooped Broker of the Year, Munich Reinsurance Group in Australasia was Reinsurance Company of the Year, GAB Robins New Zealand was Loss Adjuster of the Year and Pacific Premium Funding was Premium Funder of the Year.
The Services to the Community Award went to Ansvar Insurance and Bob Buckley was named Insurance Leader of the Year.
