The Gold Mansfield prize for claims excellence has gone to Vero for the fifth consecutive year.

The Purple Mansfield, recognising a company or individual that has made a difference to a client or community, went to Perth-based Allianz complaints support adviser Denise Di Giacomo.

Awards founder Allan Manning, of LMI Group, says the judging this year involved 468 claims ratings for 240 insurer brands.

“It was pleasing for the second year in a row to see that more of the claims ratings went up during the past 12 months than went down,” he said. “In fact, 140 ratings increased while 132 went down. The maximum increase was 1.5 stars and the biggest drop was two full stars.”

Suncorp-owned insurer Vero entered the running for the overall accolade after winning the SME property and casualty category at the awards night in Sydney last week.

The personal lines category was won by Suncorp, while FM and Zurich were joint winners in corporate property and casualty, and specialty was jointly won by transport and logistics insurer NTI and PassportCard Australia.

Winners of each category contend for the overall Gold Mansfield.

The awards, now in their eighth year, are named after the British lord chief justice who introduced the principle of utmost good faith 250 years ago.