<i>Business Insurance</i> names overall winners of first Buyers Choice Awards

CHICAGO—Five companies were recognized in Chicago Tuesday as the top overall honorees in Business Insurance's first Buyer's Choice Awards program.

Chubb Corp. was recognized as top insurer by mid-market buyers, and Chartis Inc. was honored as top insurer by large buyers. Willis Group Holdings P.L.C. was named as top broker by mid-market buyers, while Marsh Inc. was recognized as top broker overall by large buyers. Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. was named the top third-party administrator overall by both mid-market and large buyers.

The insurers, brokers and TPAs honored in Business Insurance's 2011 Buyers Choice Awards earned the recognition by being identified by buyers as the companies they would recommend to peers as exemplifying service and expertise attributes they value most.

The inaugural Buyers Choice Awards replace Business Insurance's previous Readers Choice honors. The changes in approach, which included employing an independent market research firm to survey buyers, were intended to bring maximum transparency to the process and put the program's focus on what buyers value most in their industry partners.

Buyers were asked to rank seven key service and seven key expertise attributes in evaluating insurers, brokers and TPAs. Business Insurance compiled the lists of key attributes by studying other industry surveys and querying risk managers for suggestions on what they consider key attributes for assessing brokers, insurers and TPAs.

Once buyers ranked the key attributes, they were asked to name the companies they'd recommend for each, yielding the Buyers Choice honorees for service and expertise.

The top overall honorees—Chubb, Chartis, Willis, Marsh and Sedgwick—were determined by being the companies most often mentioned by buyers in their categories as the companies they would recommend to peers across both service and expertise attributes.

Read the complete list and get profiles of this year's Buyers Choice Awards winners.