Both CommInsure and Tower Australia have been named Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Life Company of the Year.

The awards, co-sponsored by research house Plan For Life, saw Axa and OnePath named as finalists in the top award.

CommInsure also won the service award while Tower won both the trauma and income protection categories.

Winner of the term/trauma and permanent disability category was Zurich, while both Asteron and BT won the risk insurance innovation category.

CommInsure was also a finalist in the income protection category while Tower was a finalist in the term category.

Finalists in the service category were Axa and Macquarie Life while OnePath was a term finalist, Asteron a trauma runner up and AIA was a finalist in the income protection award.

AFA CEO Richard Klipin says the awards are designed to show life companies in Australia are meeting consumer demands.

Plan For Life Senior VP Mike Rosenthal says the life risk market represents a huge growth opportunity.

“In Australia there has been 18-20% growth a year during the past six years,” he said.