A note from our co-founder: what an "award-winning" insurer actually means
You've seen the ads. "Award-winning." "Rated outstanding." A little gold badge in the corner. It's meant to make the choice easy for you, and it works, because who has time to read a policy when someone's already handed you a trophy.
I've been in insurance a long time, and I want to show you how those badges actually work. Not to tell you they're worthless, because they're not, and not to have a go at the companies that win them. Just so that the next time one is waved in front of you, you know exactly what it's telling you, and, more importantly, what it isn't.
Quick answerthe award is usually real and the scoring behind it is usually genuine - but the badge in the ad is, in many cases, a paid licence to display that result. An award can tell you a product scored well on what the scheme measured, usually price and features. It cannot tell you whether the policy suits your home, because it was never asked that question. The rest of this piece unpacks both halves.
What the badge actually is
Most of those awards come from comparison and ratings businesses. They run a genuine process: they score products against a published method, usually built around price and a checklist of features, and the ones that score well get named winners. That part is real. I'm not going to pretend it's invented.
Here's the part nobody explains. Winning the rating and displaying the badge in your advertising are two separate things. The scoring is one process; the shiny logo in the ad is, in many cases, a licence the winner pays to use. That's completely above board, it's how many of those businesses make money, and it's no different from a "5-star rated" sticker on anything else. And to be clear: the rating underneath doesn't stop being genuine because the logo was licensed. But it does mean that what you're looking at is two things stacked on top of each other: an independent score, and a commercial decision to put that score on every screen you own. The first is information. The second is advertising. And nothing in the ad points the difference out.
And keep one more thing in mind: some of those comparison sites also earn a fee when they send you off to buy a particular product. There's nothing sinister in it, and they disclose it - look for the "how we make money" page. But a business that earns a fee when you click through is not a neutral referee, and it's worth knowing which hat the one in front of you is wearing.
What it measures, and what it can't
Here's the real limitation, and it's got nothing to do with anyone being dishonest. An award measures what the scheme decided to measure: most often price, and a tick-list of features on paper. Two things it can't really tell you:
- How the insurer actually behaves when you claim. Product-rating awards score the policy as written, not the experience of the person at the other end of a declined claim. There are satisfaction awards that survey customers, and they're worth more on this front - but even those tell you the average experience across thousands of people, most of whom never claimed. They can't tell you how a contested claim like yours gets handled.
- *Whether the policy is right for your home.* No award has seen your house, your renovation, your ring, your postcode, or the six weeks a year you're away. It can't. It's a general score for a general product, and you are not a general customer.
So an "award-winning" policy might be an excellent fit for you, or a poor one. The badge genuinely cannot tell you which, because it was never asked the question that matters to you.
Why it's so often the same names
People notice the same handful of brands winning these things year after year, and assume something's off. I don't think it's anything as interesting as that. The brands that win most are the ones built to score well on what the methods measure - sharp pricing and long feature checklists - and the ones with the advertising budget to enter widely and put the badge on every screen once they've won. It's not a conspiracy. It's just that the qualities that win a price-weighted award and the budget that buys the billboard live in the same part of the business, and it isn't the claims department.
The thing that should exist, and doesn't
Here's what genuinely frustrates me. For home insurance, the law already makes every insurer give you a standardised one-page summary of their own policy. That's a good thing, and most people have never noticed it. But it only ever describes one product. Nothing requires anyone to show you, side by side, how the cover you're leaving compares with the cover you're moving to when you switch on the strength of a lower price or a shiny badge. You get a trophy and a premium. You don't get the one thing that would actually let you judge the decision: a like-for-like comparison of what's covered. In my view that's the real gap in how insurance is sold in this country, and no award fills it.
Full disclosure: we display a badge too
You'll find one on this site. We were an Excellence Awardee for Large Brokerage of the Year at the 2026 Insurance Business Australia Awards - that put us in the top three large brokerages in the country and got us to the final presentation. The badge is silver; the award is called Excellence Awardee. I'm proud of it - a panel of industry judges rated us highly as a brokerage, and that's not nothing.
Now do me a favour and apply everything above to it. It tells you insurance people think we run a strong brokerage. It does not tell you how we'll look after your policy or your claim, because nothing on a badge can. The only way to know that is the conversation. Hold our award to exactly the standard I've just asked you to hold everyone else's, and then judge us on the part no award measures.
So what do you do with all this?
Don't throw the awards out. They're a reasonable signal that a product scores well on price and features, and that's worth something. Just don't mistake them for the answer to the question you're actually asking, which isn't "did this win an award?" It's "when something goes wrong at my place, will this actually cover me, and will anyone be in my corner?"
If a badge is part of your decision, spend sixty seconds on it: check which year it was awarded and whether the product has changed since; check which product tier actually won, because it's often not the one you're being quoted; find the methodology page and see what was weighted (price usually is, claims handling usually isn't); and check whether the site behind the award earns a fee if you click through and buy. None of it takes long, and it turns the badge from a spell back into a piece of information.
There's no badge for that. There's just someone who reads the wording properly, tells you the truth about what fits your situation, and stands with you when you claim.
Ask someone who's allowed to answer
Here's the strange part of everything above. The question you're actually asking - will this cover my home, and is it right for me? - is one the ratings businesses aren't permitted to answer. A general score is general information, and so is every ad built on it. And on most direct insurers' sales lines, the person on the phone can't answer it either: those channels are set up to give you general information only, not advice about your situation. That's not a criticism of the people on the phone. It's how the channel is built.
A licensed insurance broker is the one party in this whole picture whose job is the opposite. We're able to look at your home, your contents and how you actually live, give you a personal recommendation on that basis, and be accountable for it. No badge does that. No ad does that. It's the entire reason brokers exist.
So use us for exactly the thing the award can't do. Send us the policy you're on, or the award-winning one you're about to buy, and we'll read the wording properly, compare it like-for-like with what you've got, and give you a straight recommendation: keep it, change it, or fix the gaps. If what you've got is right, we'll tell you that too. Award or no award.
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Quick answers
Do insurers pay to win insurance awards?
The scoring itself runs to a published method - winners aren't buying the result. What winners in many cases do pay for is a licence to display the badge in their advertising afterwards. The rating is real; the badge on the billboard is marketing.
Does an award mean a home insurance policy is good?
It means the product scored well on what the scheme measured, usually price and a checklist of features on paper. Whether it's good for you depends on things no award has seen: your home, your contents, your situation. An award can't answer that, because it was never asked.
How do I check what an insurance award actually means?
Four checks, sixty seconds: the year it was won; the product tier that actually won (often not the one you're being quoted); the methodology page and what it weights; and whether the site behind the award earns a fee when you click through and buy.
Can anyone give me advice on whether an award-winning policy suits me?
A ratings site can't, and most direct insurers' sales lines can't - both are limited to general information. A licensed insurance broker can give you personal advice and a recommendation based on your actual situation. That's the difference in one line.
This is general information about how insurance is advertised and rated, not personal advice about your situation or a criticism of any particular insurer, product or ratings provider. Whether a policy suits you depends on your own circumstances and needs and the product's terms, which you should consider before deciding.