Vero won the Gold Mansfield prize for claims excellence for a fifth straight year at an awards ceremony in Sydney last night.

The Suncorp-owned insurer entered the running for the overall accolade after winning the SME property and casualty category.

The personal lines category was won by Suncorp, while FM and Zurich were joint winners in corporate property and casualty, and specialty was jointly won by transport and logistics insurer NTI and PassportCard Australia.

Winners of each category contend for the overall Gold Mansfield.

From next year, there will be three additional award categories: service provider, broker claims team, and loss adjusting.

The awards, now in their eighth year, are named after the British lord chief justice who introduced the principle of utmost good faith 250 years ago.

LMI Group founder Allan Manning says the judging this year involved 468 claims ratings for 240 insurer brands.

“It was pleasing for the second year in a row to see that more of the claims ratings went up during the past 12 months than went down. In fact, 140 ratings increased while 132 went down. The maximum increase was 1.5 stars and the biggest drop was two full stars.”

The event, held at the Establishment venue, also included the presentation of a Purple Mansfield, recognising a company or individual that has gone above and beyond to make a difference to a client or community.

The award went to Perth-based Allianz complaints support adviser Denise Di Giacomo.

The Mansfields are sponsored by Steadfast Claims Solutions and icare. Proceeds go to the Amal Mulia Orphanage in Bengkulu, Sumatra – near the site of the claim that gave rise to the utmost good faith principle.