CommInsure and Tower have been named joint winners at the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Plan for Life 2010 Life Company of the Year Awards.
Sharing the title of overall risk insurer of the year, CommInsure also took out the service quality and investment bond awards, and was a finalist for both the income protection and annuity provider awards.
Tower also won both the trauma and income protection awards and was a finalist for the term/total and permanent disability (TPD) award.
AFA chief executive Richard Klipin said the awards reflected the fact life companies in Australia were fully focused on providing better outcomes for consumers and equipping advisers with the tools they needed in order to do it.
"This made choosing ultimate winners in all categories extremely difficult and when it came to choosing an overall winner, it was impossible to choose between the excellent products and services offered by both CommInsure and Tower," Klipin said.
AFA national president Brad Fox said that while Australians generally were underinsured, those who had adequately protected their financial future benefited from the excellent products and services available via the winners of the awards.
"The AFA/Plan for Life awards give us an opportunity to annually review the life products and services on offer to our clients," Fox said.
"It is heartening to see that life companies continue to innovate and enhance their product and service offering in order to deliver excellent solutions which suit the ever-changing needs of ordinary mums and dads."
Other winners at yesterday's award ceremony in Sydney were term/TPD winner Zurich and risk insurance innovation winners Asteron (Healthy Plus) and BT (Tele Claims).
Challenger won the annuity provider of the year and the long-term income stream awards, with the income stream - innovation award also going to Challenger - Flexible Lifetime Annuity.
