The Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence are to become an annual fixture on the insurance industry calendar following a successful inaugural event last week.

Chubb Insurance was the big winner at the Sydney function, taking out the overall “Gold Mansfield”, winning the Mansfield Award for SME Property and Casualty and running as a finalist for the Personal Lines award.

As reported by insuranceNEWS.com.au in a Breaking News on Thursday night, Chubb won the overall award narrowly from fellow finalists IAG and Vero.

The decision to make the awards an annual event follows discussions between Insurance News Publisher Terry McMullan and LMI Group MD Allan Manning, who conceived and organised the awards.

More than 200 industry leaders, claims professionals and service providers attended the Mansfield Awards function at the Establishment Ballroom in Sydney.

Mr Manning says claims staff he spoke to at the event commented to him on the presence of a large number of chief executives and senior staff.

“Claims people really appreciated seeing so many senior executives there,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “They felt the importance of their work was being recognised across the industry.”

Mr McMullan says the awards, which were sponsored by icare and Steadfast, have been met with “an overwhelmingly positive response”.

“It shows there has been a real need for claims to be recognised and celebrated as the most vital function of insurance,” he said.

“We have agreed to hold the Mansfields annually.

“After we’ve surveyed attendees we will also look at the possibility of expanding them to include more classes of insurance.”

The full results of the Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence were:

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

• Personal lines: Awarded to Allianz. The other finalists were Ansvar, Chubb and Defence Service Homes.

• SME property and casualty: Awarded to Chubb Insurance. The other finalists were Ansvar, IAG and Capricorn Mutual.

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

• Specialty: Awarded to NTI. The other finalists were GT Insurance and Terri Sheer.

The finalists and winners in a range of categories were established using an LMI-designed program that rates companies’ claims performance using a range of official data and 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.

Money left over from the awards will be donated to a charity, fulfilling a rule agreed by Insurance News and LMI Group that the event must be run on a not-for-profit basis.