Insurance expert Allan Manning is developing a new service to provide the industry and public with ratings for insurers’ claims performance.

Dr Manning, whose LMI PolicyComparison tool is widely used across the industry, says the free service will initially compare insurers’ claims performance in five classes: home, contents, private motor, private travel and small business/farm.

“I’ve always believed price shouldn’t be the sole determining factor when buying a policy,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “The detail of the policy is vitally important, and so is the individual insurer’s claims performance.”

He says such a claims rating service has often been requested by brokers, most of whom already use PolicyComparison to establish the most suitable policies for clients’ needs.

The ratings will be published every three months using LMI’s ongoing research in the market, with the results to be announced in insuranceNEWS.com.au.

The published results will be linked to a website being developed by LMI, and Dr Manning says he will also present annual awards to the claims managers of the best-performing insurers.

“Claims people are the unsung heroes of the industry, so this is an opportunity to recognise their work,” he said. “It will give people a clear guide as to which insurer is performing best with claims in various classes, and also encourage claims people.

“We’re not going to charge for access. It will be freely available to the industry and to ordinary members of the public.” 

Claims ratings for other commercial classes will be developed in the future, Dr Manning says.

Publisher Terry McMullan says he is delighted insuranceNEWS.com.au has been chosen to work with the LMI team in announcing the quarterly and annual results.

“As the largest-circulation publisher in the industry, we’ll do all we can to ensure the service becomes established among insurance professionals as the standard by which claims performance is measured,” he said.