New player comes out top

In the survey, by Australian-based WA Taylor & Associates, advisers gave Club Life a satisfaction rating of 88%, compared with an industry average of 79%.

Club Life was the only firm to get a "five star" rating in the survey. Four companies got four stars, two got three stars and two got two stars.

WA Taylor has declined to publicly release the survey results. But Club Life has included them in pamphlet being circulated to advisers and clients. The pamphlet shows how Club Life ranked versus the industry, but it doesn’t name other companies or detail their results.

During its first six months of operation Club Life outranked all other survey participants on a quality of performance measurement. Club Life scored 80 on this measurement, compared with an industry average of 76.

The survey asked 549 independent brokers and advisers to rate insurers against a ranked set of quality performance functions. Club Life was ranked first by 107 respondents in 22 of the 33 categories.

The Auckland-based insurer out-performed the industry in areas such as staff helpfulness, knowledge and availability, underwriting, product design, administration and post sale administration.

It also out-performed on policy documentation, commission size and structure, product range and product advice.

Areas where it under-performed included brand positioning, advertising and promotion, and strength.

Club Life’s publicity about the survey result is understood to have irked some other insurers, who point out that the company had only been in business for six months when the survey was done.

That meant it had yet to develop much of a track record in important areas such as claims payments.

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