QBE has taken home its sixth straight National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) General Insurer of the Year accolade, the highest honour bestowed by the broking industry.

Industry legend Ian Abell announced QBE as the winner at the NIBA Convention on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

Despite receiving top billing in several categories, Chubb was unable to complete a top-two finish, with Zurich coming in overall runner-up.

With CEO Frank O'Halloran looking over his shoulder, COO Terry Ibbotson admitted to a few nerves before the final announcement.

"It's nice having him here," he said. "It's the first time he's ever been. I'm very glad he's made the time.

"We use an external survey group which surveys 470 account executives twice a year across 32 performance measures, and we track every one of our competitors and have done for nine years.

"We knew Zurich would be right on our hammer. I was very nervous until I saw Zurich come in as the runner-up. Then I was fine."

QBE views the NIBA General Insurer of the Year award as the benchmark for excellence in dealing with intermediaries. "How do we know if we are doing a good job for brokers? You can't say because you write more business - because you might not be writing it profitably," Mr Ibbotson said. "The biggest industry award for service levels and overall performance is the NIBA award. That's our objective. It took us two years to get there and we haven't lost it since."