peopleNEWS

Claims excellence celebrated at Mansfield Awards

The annual Mansfield Awards recognising claims excellence took place at The Establishment Ballroom in Sydney, with guests attending from across the insurance industry.

Vero won the overall Gold Mansfield for a fourth consecutive year after also taking out the SME Property and Casualty category. The Personal Lines award was presented to Budget Direct, Zurich Australia took out Corporate Property and Casualty, and Specialty was won by transport insurer NTI.

The Purple Mansfield, which recognises people who have gone above and beyond to help others, went to Nick Albrecht of Allianz for his heart and patience in assisting a client in difficult circumstances.

The Mansfield Awards, run by LMI Group and sponsored by Steadfast Claims Solutions and icare, are named in honour of the British Lord Chief Justice who introduced the industry to the principle of utmost good faith some 250 years ago.

MGA holds Hobart conference

MGA Group celebrated its annual broker conference in August at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart, with 138 brokers and industry partners attending.

The event’s theme was Evolution – Driving the Future, and speeches from Managing Director Paul George and Executive Chairman John George reflected on the company’s outlook and future growth targets.

Keynote speakers Luke Richmond and Simon Kuestenmacher featured, and there were industry insights from Insurance Training Australia’s Oren Jacobi and Macquarie Group’s Andrew Buncombe.

“It was great to get to speak to the various insurer teams, and in a lot of cases put faces to names,” MGA Tamworth broker Rochelle Cashen told Insurance News.

APIG hosts ‘thought-provoking’ event

The Australasian Professional Indemnity Group (APIG) national conference was held in September at the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park.

Organisers hailed it “a great success”, bringing together the Australian financial lines industry for “thought provoking discussions” on cyber, D&O, construction, and insurer profitability.

“It is wonderful to see our industry coming together and so eager to advance our understanding on a broad range of financial lines risks,” a spokesperson said.

“It is a testament to our industry and dedication to our clients, so we can not only provide insurance but also add value to clients’ risk management processes.”

ESG, cyber, US banking issues, changes to sexual discrimination laws and international insurance markets remain hot topics in the financial lines industry and the conference touched on all these key areas.

PSC Network conference goes to Adelaide

PSC Network Insurance Partners held its National Conference in Adelaide, sharing with insurance partners and authorised representatives (ARs) the business’s growth plans.

More than 250 guests including staff attended the August 13-15 event at the Sofitel Hotel in the South Australian capital.

PSC says the business aims to build on the foundations of the network to support ARs and position them for stronger growth.

Investing in artificial intelligence, partnership developments and driving collaboration with ARs are among the focus areas going forward.

At the conference PSC also gave out awards to standout ARs. Here are the winners:

Rising Star of the Year – Lachlan Lee & Matthew Perez, Stonewell Insurance; AR of the Year – Wesley Strong, Westrock Insurance Brokers; and Reliance Partner of the Year – Paul Flannery, RP Quayside.

The High Achiever award for PSC staff went to Ray Marvin (Regional Manager NSW) and Janine Shipton (Regional Manager Western) for their support in the development, testing and roll-out of the Apex platform and Chairman’s Region of the Year went to Paul Hogan (Queensland).

Next year’s conference will take place in Tokyo.

McLardy McShane aims for infinity and beyond

More than 350 people attended McLardy McShane’s “infinity and beyond” conference in Perth.

The August event raised more than $185,000 for charities including The Reach Foundation, Love Your Sister and Cure EB.

Sessions at the conference were more inspirational than insurance-focused, with speakers ranging from Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne to former boxing champion Danny Green.

GWP for the Melbourne-headquartered group is now just short of $500 million, including WA-based Apollo, whose name sparked the conference theme and which represents McLardy McShane’s most significant investment to date.

An intergalactic-themed gala dinner was held on the last night and awards were handed out.

Resilium names award winner at Queenstown
conference

More than 300 people attended authorised representative (AR) network Resilium’s conference in Queenstown, New Zealand, in July.

Delegates listened to a fascinating line-up of speakers, and took part in activities including jetboating and wine tasting tours, along with a Marketplace Tradeshow, featuring more than 30 key insurer and premium funding partners.

At a gala award ceremony, Regional Insurance Services was named Resilium Practice of the Year, having competed with about 140 AR practices for the title.

UAC expo roadshow continues

The Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) national expo roadshow made stops in Brisbane, Norwest Sydney and Adelaide, drawing hundreds of brokers who got a first-hand look at the array of insurance products available in the market.

The Brisbane expo took place at the city’s Convention and Exhibition Centre in July, the Norwest Sydney expo in August at the CommBank Stadium and the Adelaide expo at the city’s Convention Centre in September.

Since the start of the year UAC has hosted a number of underwriting expos at different locations, providing its members with opportunities to interact directly with brokers on potential business opportunities.

ANZIIF ‘night of nights’ celebrates awards

More than 800 industry professionals attended the 19th Australian Insurance Industry Awards at The Star, Sydney, in August.

Organisers the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) congratulated winners recognised at the “night of nights”.

Among awards for individual excellence, Calise Liu of Finity was announced Young Insurance Professional of the Year, Taylor Fry’s Win-Li Toh is Insurance Leader of the Year, and Sedgwick’s Tony Morgan was presented with the ANZIIF Lifetime Achievement Award.