The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has updated its datacube, which provides a breakdown of disputes by sector, company and product.

The figures here may differ slightly from those reported in AFCA’s annual review, because the datacube includes only companies that record four or more complaints.

Below, we will examine data from last financial year across general insurance, underwriting, general insurance broking and life insurance.  

It is worth noting the number of complaints against companies is typically reflective of the size of their operations, and not necessarily of their overall claims handling.  

The datacube also includes statistics from the first quarter of 2025-26, which AFCA commented on at its member forums last week.

General insurers

General insurers recorded 22,351 complaints to AFCA in the year, up from 21,565 the previous year.

The authority says 44% of complaints were resolved by insurers at the initial referral stage, while 5% registered no response from companies. In the previous year the industry had a 47% resolution rate and a 4% non-response rate. 

Complaint numbers by sector

About 12,066 complaints reached AFCA’s case management stage, and 2011, or about 9% of all cases, reached the decision stage, where 26% went in favour of complainants.  

Home insurance was the leading product at the case management stage, accounting for 36.85% of cases, followed by motor claims at 35.13%. The two ranked second and third among all products.

Suncorp was the most complained-about insurer, with 5343 disputes lodged, followed by IAG with 3444, Allianz with 1625, QBE with 1588 and RACQ with 1075.  

Complaint numbers by insurer

In the previous year there were 5883 complaints against Suncorp, 3592 against IAG, 1736 against Allianz, 1619 against QBE and 888 against RACQ.

Underwriters

Some 4310 complaints were made against underwriters, a slight decrease from the 4340 the previous year.  

There was a 48% resolution rate at the referral and registration stage, and a 3% non-response rate.

Some 2236 complaints progressed to case management, of which 377 went to AFCA’s decision stage, with 30% in favour of complainants.  

Auto & General accounted for 3032 complaints, up slightly from 2940, followed by AWP on 299, Petsure at 195 and Strata Community Insurance Agencies on 96.  

General insurance brokers

There was a sharp increase in the number of complaints against brokers, up to 788 from 447.

The 2024-25 figure reflects a surge in complaints against Coverforce Insurance Broking, which received 385.  

Coverforce told insuranceNEWS.com.au most of the cases related to add-on insurance products and were brought by refund specialist Claimo. It says these complaints “have now been closed off”.

According to the AFCA database, 380 complaints against Coverforce related to credit insurance, with 203 progressing to the case management stage.  

Among all brokers, 21% of complaints were resolved at registration and referral, down from 39%, while 23% had no response.  

About 57% of complaints reached the case management stage, and only 13 progressed to determination, where complainants won 56% of the time.  

Other brokers with notable numbers of complaints were Marsh with 75, Cover Genius with 70 and NLC Insurance with 51.  

Life insurers

Life insurers had 1722 registered complaints, compared with 1768 the previous year.  

About 21% were resolved at the resolution and referral stage, and the non-response rate was 2%.

Some 1315 complaints progressed to case management, with 238 reaching the decision stage. Only 27% of determinations sided with complainants.  

TAL recorded 625 complaints, up from 502 the previous year.  AIA had 298, followed by Zurich with 188 and Resolution Life with 183.  

Access AFCA’s datacube here.