Chubb Insurance has won the inaugural Mansfield Award for excellence in claims-handling.

The insurer was awarded the “Gold Mansfield” at an event in Sydney tonight.

The other finalists for the overall award were IAG and Vero, with the organisers saying the result was “very close”.

Chubb Insurance also won the Mansfield Award for SME Property and Casualty and was also a finalist for the Personal Lines award.

The finalists and winners in a range of categories were measured under an independent system devised by claims specialist LMI Group that rates companies’ claims performance using official data and user surveys. The results were also “weighted” to cater for the range of policies available from individual companies, as well as speed of service, proactivity, accuracy and fairness.

More than 200 industry leaders, claims professionals and service providers attended the awards function at the Establishment Ballroom. The event was conceived and organised by Insurance News and LMI Group, with financial sponsorship from Steadfast and icare.

The awards are named after Lord Mansfield, the British Lord Chief Justice who introduced the concept of “utmost good faith” into insurance contracts more than 250 years ago.

Companies were not invited to make submissions or be involved in the judging process.

The full results in the Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence, with the finalists, were as follows:

Personal lines: The winner was Allianz. The other finalists were Ansvar, Chubb and Defence Service Homes.

SME property and casualty: The winner was Chubb Insurance. The other finalists were Ansvar, IAG and Capricorn Mutual.

Corporate property and casualty: The winner was Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance. The other finalists were FM Global, TIO/Allianz and Vero.

Specialty: The winner was NTI. The other finalists were GT Insurance and Terri Sheer.

The Gold Mansfield Award for overall excellence in claims: The winner was Chubb Insurance. The other finalists were IAG and Vero.

The awards were organised on a not-for-profit basis, with money provided by the sponsors used to cover costs. Any funds left over will be given to the Amal Mulia Orphanage in Bengkulu City, Sumatra, Indonesia, which was set up to care for disabled children orphaned by the 2004 earthquake and tsunami. The orphanage receives little government assistance, and has now opened its doors to other disabled children whose families cannot provide for them.

More details in our regular bulletin on Monday.