Transport and logistics specialist NTI has been crowned underwriting agency of the year, with Vero winning the large general insurer title and Liberty named top specialty insurer.

The awards were presented at the National Insurance Brokers Association Convention on Tuesday.

The three prizes were determined using feedback from the annual broker market survey by NielsenIQ, which this year attracted a record 1000 responses to questions about product and service quality.

Liberty Specialty Markets, which won for the fourth consecutive year, showed it is “leading the way when it comes to key metrics such as overall satisfaction and trust”, NielsenIQ director Angela Carter says.

Liberty Asia-Pacific president Mike Abdallah says the win is “truly special for our team”.

“We sincerely thank the broker community for their ongoing trust and support. To keep being recognised ... demonstrates the efforts of our team in building valued and sustainable relationships with brokers and clients through the market cycles,” he said.

Ms Carter says Vero showed “significant improvement in its perception of being a trusted partner for insurance brokers”, while NTI was a market leader in the net promoter score metric.

Sydney-based Bell Partners Insurance MD Matthew Bates was named broker of the year and Canberra-based AEI Insurance Broking Group account manager Emily-Rose Srbinovska was crowned best young broker.

Aon head of operations Asia-Pacific Eric Harris was awarded the Lex McKeown Trophy for service to the profession. He served as a NIBA board director for a decade until 2022 and was president from 2019 to 2021.

Gallagher claims manager Jenavee Holz-Cubby was named claims broker of the year and Austbrokers Comsure people and culture manager Paul Reis won the community excellence category. 

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