ALUCA’s inaugural 2018 ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Awards night held on May 24th at Darling Harbour in Sydney was a wonderful testament for the best in the profession to recognise and reward the fantastic work being done by their peers and colleagues.
These special Awards were about celebrating the value great Life Insurance underwriting, claims, rehabilitation and other professionals/services contribute to this vibrant industry.
Judging Process
In total we received 84 nominations across all of the categories. The smallest amount received being the 4 Underwriting leader entries all from Zurich and the 4 nominations for Underwriting teams.
The papers were judged via a 2 round process. A first round panel of judges marked and scored all of the papers separately and independently. They marked these against the key criteria for each of the award categories using a marking sheet. The scores were sent back and collated at a central level. Judges then met to discuss the papers and the scores. The top 3 – 4 finalist entries were agreed on for each category.
The finalist papers for each category were then provided to a cross industry and external industry panel of judges who also all marked against the key criteria for each of the award categories via a marking sheet – these were all scored separately and independently. Once again, the scores were sent back and collated at a central level . Judges then met to discuss the papers and the winners for each category. Any judging bias was removed first via a strong cross industry panel and where papers were very close, to remove any judging bias those 2 judges scores were taken out of the process.
Award Judges
A huge heartfelt thanks to all of the wonderful judges involved in this process. It takes a lot of time to read and rate each submission against the key criteria. The 23 judges included:
- Brett Clark, CEO,TAL
- Mark Senkevics, MD, SwissRe
- Dion Russell, MD, SCOR
- Dr Ian Opperman, NSW Chief Data Scientist
- Tracy Hibbert, CEO, Beyond Aptitude, GM Patties
- Effie Fox, GM, Samsung
- Elissa Dwyer, Heart Research Institute
- Nick Kirwan, FSC
- Dr Bill Monday, PacificLife Re
- Peter Tilocca, ANZ
- Tina Beilby, Zurich
- Tony O’Leary, G & T Risk Management
- Malcolm Weir, Comminsure
- Natalie Cameron, MLC
- Loraine van Eeden, TAL
- Paula Bourke, SCOR
- Carol Smit, ALUCA & AIA
- Carly van Den Akker – ALUCA & SwissRe
- Mary Sinclair-Porter, Zurich
- Amanda Stow, OnePath
- Devi Uka, ALUCA Deputy Chair, TAL
- Amanda McKernan, ALUCA CEO & Adjunct Faculty, UNSW
- Jim Welsh, ALUCA Chair & AMP
Our Thanks
A huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who was nominated for an Award. The judges were very impressed by the high quality of the submissions. Everyone should all be incredibly proud of their achievements. It was very close in a number of the categories.
Many thanks to all of ALUCA’s sponsors too who helped to make these Awards possible. A shout out to our platinum sponsors who each awarded one of the winners in a category.
A big thanks to our Awards committee who all worked tirelessly to ensure the night ran seamlessly and no envelope mishaps happened like at the Oscars!
Thanks too – to Dean Mico and Lynette Mico the son and widow of the late David Mico who presented the David Mico Excellence in Life Insurance education award. This special award dedicated in memory and honour of David Mico’s contribution to the Life Insurance industry through his work with IFSA (now FSC), he successfully worked to maintain the balance between the freedom to underwrite applications and assess claims fairly and the needs of the community at large. This award acknowledges an individual from the life insurance industry who has excelled in their on-going professional development in Life Insurance via education
Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum, AO
Visually impaired himself, his success as a lawyer, educator, and advocate for blind people is in large part due to technologies like tape recorders, voice synthesizing programs and computer scanning. Ron shared his very personal tale about his life, his challenges and achievements.
He was appointed to a full professorship at the University of Sydney making him the first totally blind person to be appointed to a full professorship at any Australian or New Zealand university. He has served as chair or member of various federal and state inquiries including the 2012 inquiry into the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). All of the audience were incredibly touched by Ron’s story and his quest to champion the rights of the disabled.
MC, Sophie Scott
The MC for the Awards night was ABC Medical reporter Sophie Scott who did an excellent job interviewing all of the award winners and keeping the event on time.
There were also many learning’s for next year – one being that Underwriters are a modest group of professionals! On behalf of ALUCA thank you for joining us for an evening where we were able to truly celebrate and acknowledge all of the wonderful talent in the Life Insurance industry and the achievements each and everyone has made. Everyone should feel incredibly proud of the enormous and positive difference we make to the communities we all serve.
ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Awards Night 2019 – MELBOURNE
On that note stay tuned for ALUCA’s 2019 Life Insurance Excellence Awards night to be held in Melbourne. Nominations for all awards will open in November 2018.
ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Awards Finalists & Winners, 2018
The award finalists and winners for each category are listed below with some of the comments we shared at the awards night as to why the winners were selected.
Individual Awards
1 ALUCA Life Insurance Leadership Excellence Award
This award acknowledges an individual life insurance leader who has demonstrated excellence above BAU by driving successful Life insurance strategies with strong customer outcomes.
Finalists & Winner
- Chris Austin, AMP Limited
- Amanda Ide, MLC Life Insurance
- Peter Tilocca, Onepath
- Tina Beilby, Zurich Financial Services WINNER
Judges comments
The judges felt all finalists were ” very worthy recipients’ with a lot of discussion around each of the finalists and their tangible achievements with a specific focus on leading teams to greater customer outcomes and their contribution to the industry. The winning nomination from Tina Beilby’s team for Tina was felt to have achieved stronger customer outcomes with very clear tangible outcomes of her achievements and exceptionally strong testimonials both within and outside her organisation.
Prize selected by winner – Complimentary place to ALUCA biennnial conference in Hobart
2 ALUCA Life Insurance Claims Excellence Award
This award recognises an individual life insurance claims professional who has demonstrated excellence above BAU via their achievement of key claims business and customer outcomes.
Finalists & Winner
- Maieve Annersley, AMP Limited
- Ryan Gailey, BT Financial Group
- Matthew Austin, CommInsure WINNER
Judges comments
The judges commented that all finalists did demonstrate excellence in this category, However, the winner – Matthew Austin, set himself apart with demonstrably excellent customer outcomes and knowledge sharing, strongly attested to by colleagues, peers and customers alike.
Prize selected by winner – Complimentary place to ALUCA biennnial conference in Hobart
3 ALUCA Life Insurance Underwriting Excellence Award
This award recognises an individual life insurance underwriter who has demonstrated excellence via their achievement of innovative underwriting business/customer outcomes over and above BAU.
Finalists & Winner
- Roxanne Chapman, Zurich
- Stephen Connolly, Zurich WINNER
- Sarah Cosier, Zurich
- Simon Parry, Zurich
Judges comments
The winner, Stephen Connolly, was felt to be a great all-rounder who went above and beyond expectations of the role with a very sensitive and topical subject that will help underwriters in the daily delivery of underwriting decisions for customers with great use of FAQs to ensure consistency in the message being given to customers.
Prize selected by winner – 6 month coaching package
4 ALUCA Life Insurance Rehabilitation Excellence Award
This award acknowledges an individual life insurance rehabilitation professional who has demonstrated excellence via their achievement of innovative rehabilitation business and customer outcomes over and above BAU.
Finalists & Winner
- Karen Robertson, AIA
- Alexandra Russo, AMP
- Rebecca McMurray, Work Rehab WINNER
Judges comments
All finalists had achieved some great outcomes but the judges felt the winning submission for Rebecca McMurray, also provided tangible evidence of doing more outside of their organisation, not just within. Rebecca also demonstrated innovation in the industry with strong regional community involvement with strong proof and tangible evidence of her achievements.
Prize selected by winner – 6 month coaching package
5 ALUCA Excellence in Life Insurance Rising Star of the Year Award
This award recognises an individual who has worked in life insurance for under three years who has demonstrated excellence in a claims, underwriting or rehabilitation role above BAU.
Finalists & Winner
- Donna McEwan, AMP
- Amlan Sharma, AMP
- Katie Hartley, CommInsure WINNER
Judges comments
The judges shared that each of the finalists had great submissions, going above and beyond their day to day role with clear outcomes.
The winners submission for Katie Hartley, clearly articulated the accomplishments that she had achieved with some really strong customer outcomes – the judges also noted that the winner included testimonials from different external companies not just internal ones.
Prize selected by winner – 6 month coaching package
6 ALUCA David Mico Excellence in Life Insurance Education Award
A special award for an individual who has excelled in their on-going professional development in Life Insurance via education – open to all Life Industry professionals.
Finalists & Winner
- Carola Moore, AMP WINNER
- Christine Gan, CommInsure
- Daniel Devine, TAL
- Katherine Matherson, Zurich
Judges comments
Very strong and varied finalists who were all to be highly commended. Judges were impressed by the finalists ongoing commitment to their professional development.
The winning nomination from Carola Moore demonstrated her broad range of life insurance education showing how she had used her life insurance knowledge to bring a vast range of varied topics into the business to have a direct and improved impact on the customer experience.
Cash prize of $1,500
TEAM AWARDS
All winning teams to receive a bespoke speaker event especially for their teams.
7 ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Claims Team of The Year Award
This award recognises a Claims team who have shown leadership and innovation as a team in the life insurance claims area that enhances customer outcomes above BAU.
Finalists & WINNER
- Fifita Ngaue – CommInsure Claims Team
- Alice Chiesa – MLC Life Claims Team WINING TEAM
- Jackie Cumming – Qinsure Claims team
Judges comments
The judges said that they felt the winning team – MLC Life Claims team – addressed many parts of the claims process and achieved highly desirable customer outcomes. Holistically it was a compelling journey that they have been on and they had done something different for their customers – achieving great and tangible outcomes with proof and evidence of this.
8 ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Underwriting Team of The Year Award
This award acknowledges an Underwriting team who have shown leadership and innovation as a team in the life insurance underwriting area that enhances customer outcomes above BAU.
Finalists & Winner
- Lisa New – Asteron Life team WINNING TEAM
- Gail Jones – CommInsure team
- Helen Molloy – TAL team
- Matthew Apps- Zurich team
Judges comments
This was another very close decision. The winning team – Asteron life – achieved something new and fresh. The finished project not only facilitated customer benefits such as much improved cycle times but also incorporates excellent management information data enabling ongoing improvements. Their team innovation cuts across the whole business. They also demonstrated clear improvements that had a positive direct impact on the customer experience by bringing the underwriter into each customer’s front room. Although these changes first started in 2015 – they were a leader in change and the transformational part was delivered in 2017.
9 ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Team of The Year Award: Customer Service
This team award recognises teams working in life insurance who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to innovative customer care to provide great customer outcomes above BAU.
Finalists & Winner
- Neil Borthwick – BT Financial team – Claims
- Ciaran Curley – CommInsure Claims team
- Lucy Hartley – EM Life
- Rommel Luzaraz – TAL Direct Claims team WINNING TEAM
Judges comments
The nature of the award is based on customer feedback as well as what is being done to address the feedback. Judges loved the community effort in the winning submission from TAL’s direct claims team and the extra step that this team go to. They were able to show how they took their customer service to the next level with lots of support and proof of this in addition to a great video clip.
10 ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Team of The Year Award – Innovation
This award honours a life insurance team working in the sector who have shown excellence in life insurance through innovative processes/products/services/data/ technology etc.
Finalists & Winner
- Neil Borthwick – BT Financial Claims team WINNING TEAM
- Amity McCarthy- Comminsure Digital Claims team
- Georgina Lamb – IPAR team
- Peter Tilocca- OnePath Underwriting team
Judges comments
This category brought much discussion amongst the judges as two finalists were very, very close but the winning submission from the BT Financial Claims team, demonstrated their innovation excellence via their customer leading innovation delivering strong customer outcomes.
The NSW Chief Data Scientist, Dr Ian Opperman who was one of the judges for this category wanted to make mention of the other very strong entry from the IPAR team who were very impressive – with their depth of innovation which was to be commended.