The COVER Excellence Awards 2005 were presented at a lavish awards ceremony in the City of London on 5 October.
The highly sought-after awards recognised exceptional protection and health insurance products, providers and intermediaries and rewarded great service and innovation.
COVER readers rated insurers on their overall service, speed of offer, online facilities, marketing support, training, quality of products, product information, access to underwriters and the efficiency of their claims process. The final score was based on insurers' performance across each of these areas.
Two categories - highly commended and overall winner - were presented in each category, with the exception of the individual income protection award since the winning provider won by a large margin from the rest of the field.
A hand-picked panel of judges were responsible for selecting the winners in the protection and health intermediary categories. The judging panel comprised Peter Le Beau, managing director of Le Beau Visage; Richard Walsh, head of health at the Association of British Insurers; Ronnie Martin of Adalta Consulting; Angela Faherty, editor of COVER and Alex Broad, editor-in-chief of COVER.
The winners in the provider awards were as follows:
Individual IP
Winner: Friends Provident
Individual CI
Winner: Scottish Provident
Highly commended: Friends Provident
Highly commended: Legal & General
Individual PMI
Winner: Standard Life Healthcare
Highly commended: Norwich Union Healthcare
Group IP
Winner: Friends Provident
Highly commended: Legal & General
Group CI
Winner: Legal & General
Highly commended: Scottish Equitable Employee Benefits
Group PMI
Winner: Standard Life Health-care
Highly commended: Norwich Union Healthcare
Group Life
Winner: Legal & General
Highly commended: Norwich Union Life
The winners in the intermediary awards were as follows:
E-business award
Winner: Millennium Insurance Brokers
Highly commended: Riach Independent Financial Advisers
Marketing initiative of the year
Winner: Lifesearch
Protection intermediary of the year
Winner: Tom Baigrie, Lifesearch
Highly commended: Susie Colley, West Country Health Care
Healthcare intermediary of the year
Winner: Phil Taylor, Preferred Medical
Highly commended: Bill Poynton and Sue Smith, Healthcare Plus
Congratulations to all our winners and to those who were highly commended. Photographs of the evening are available online at www.covermagazine.co.uk
