SUMMARY OF SERVICES
- Insurance Broking and Financial Services
- Claims Service
- Your Co-Operation
- Remuneration
- Payment of Premiums/Cancellation
- Complaints and Disputes
- Conflicts of Interest
- Privacy Statement
- Professional Indemnity Insurance
1. INSURANCE BROKERING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
In consultation with you, we will be responsible for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring of your insurance programme. We will endeavour to provide you with best advice possible in order to make sure you have an effective and comprehensive coverage.
We are independent of insurers and are not bound to use any particular insurer. We will advise you of those with whom we propose placing your insurance and will also advise you of any change of insurers after the insurance has been placed.
Using reasonable time frames, we will provide you with renewal quotations that have key details of coverage, exclusions, insurers, premiums, quotations from alternative insurers where agreed.
You understand that we will use all reasonable precautions in choosing an insurance company(ies) and will advise you of their claims paying rating where required under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010. Please also understand that we cannot guarantee the financial status of any insurance company and we do not accept any liability due to the failure of any insurance company.
During the process of transacting your insurance programme we may complete various documentation on your behalf, this includes Fire Service Levy Declarations and insurer paperwork where required. Where this information effects the policy we have in place for you we will provide a copy of the documentation for you to review to make sure it is accurate and as agreed.
Before passing insurers documents on to you, we will check them to ensure that they meet requirements and conform with the negotiated terms and scope of cover.
Once premiums and related statutory charges have been paid to us, we will arrange for their timely disbursement to insurers and the appropriate authorities.
We will hold review meetings with you when required. At those meetings we will report on matters relating to your insurance programme and will gather information regarding any changes in your situation that could affect your insurance.
If a contract of insurance falls due and we have been unable to contact you, we will automatically arrange continuity of cover where able. The main objective of this is to keep you and your business insured. If you do not require the cover, please tell us as soon as possible. A short-term premium may apply depending on the date of cancellation.
2. CLAIMS SERVICE
We are committed to achieving the best outcome for you from every claim on policies arranged or reviewed by us during our appointment. We will:
Assist you with the preparation of claims. Act as your advocate in negotiations with insurers or their legal advisors. Regularly review and pro-actively manage your claims. Provide you with records and analysis of claims as required.
If you terminate our appointment, we will not continue to provide services in relation to any notified claims or circumstances.
3. YOUR CO-OPERATION
To perform our service efficiently, we will need your co-operation, particularly the timely provision of information.
We take no liability for the accuracy or completeness of any information that you provide including the placement or provision of insurance on your behalf on incomplete or inaccurate information.
After receiving your insurance documents from us, you should read and check them, then advise us promptly of any discrepancies or anything that does not meet your expectations.
While we may prepare underwriting information on your behalf, the legal obligation to disclose all material facts rests with you. You must tell the insurer, before each policy starts and renews, about anything a prudent insurer would want to take in to account when deciding whether to insure you, and if so, on what terms. Please provide this information to us. If you do not provide us with full information, we cannot properly advise you and you could breach your duty of disclosure.
Should a circumstance or event occur which could result in making an insurance claim, you should advise us of the details as soon as possible. Failure to advise such actual or potential claims, may prejudice your rights under an insurance policy.
4. REMUNERATION
Remuneration
Unless agreed otherwise, we will be remunerated through commission from the insurer when you enter into an insurance contract arranged by us, including policy renewals and alterations. The rates of commission may vary depending on the insurer and the type of insurance product. This commission is deemed earned upon the placement of cover for services rendered, which includes the upfront management, implementation, preparation of documentation, and provision of advice related to your insurance needs.
In the event of a policy being cancelled mid-term and not replaced by another policy, we will refund any returned premium received from the insurer, subject to any cancellation or administrative fees imposed by either the insurer or us. However, we do not refund any proportion of the commission, brokerage, or fee we have received for arranging or managing the policy.
If a policy is cancelled due to non-payment, we reserve the right to charge you for the time, effort, and services provided in arranging the insurance. This includes the work involved in assessing your needs, sourcing appropriate cover, preparing and submitting documentation, and putting the policy into place. These charges will reflect the value of the services we have already delivered, even if the policy does not remain in force.
We do not have preferential arrangements or alliances with specific insurers that influence our advice.
In addition to commissions, we may charge you a fee. This fee may either supplement or replace the commission earned from the insurer. Fees are charged upon the placement of your insurance policy and when making changes throughout the year, such as policy alterations or endorsements. Any fees will be disclosed to you and reviewed annually, or sooner if the scope of our services changes.
Our remuneration may also include investment income earned from premium payments before they are forwarded to the insurer, as permitted by the Insurance Intermediaries Act 1994.
If we arrange a premium funding contract on your behalf, we may receive additional remuneration for this service.
All income we receive is fully transparent, and we will provide you with a breakdown of our remuneration, including the percentage of income derived from commissions and fees, at the time of renewal or whenever any new insurance product is acquired.
5. PAYMENT OF PREMIUMS AND CANCELLATIONS
The premium and any fee should be paid to us in full. We do not provide any credit and the full amount is due to us immediately upon receipt of our invoice. We are required to pay your insurer within a specific time frame. If we are unable to do so because we have not received the premium from you, we are required by the Insurance Intermediaries Act 1994 to advise the insurer of this in writing within 7 days. The Insurer may then issue a notice of cancellation of the policy in accordance with the policy terms because of the non payment. Although the time frame varies from policy to policy, the insurer usually allows 30 days for the premium to be paid before the policy comes to an end.
We may also provide monthly payment options to you. On agreement you are also providing the authority to bind and transact these loan documents on your behalf. We in turn will provide you a full breakdown of associated costs incurred and associated contract documents.
If an insurance policy is cancelled before expiry by you, we will pay to you any premium refunded by the insurer, less any outstanding remuneration and/or fee you owe us.
6. COMPLAINTS AND DISPUTES
If you have a problem, concern, or complaint about any part of our service, please tell us so the problem can be remedied. If you prefer or we cannot agree how to resolve the matter to your satisfaction, you may formalise your complaint by writing to our complaints officer. Your complaint will be acknowledged in writing, and we will endeavour to resolve the matter within twenty working days.
In the event that we still cannot agree how to resolve the matter, you can register your complaint with Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme to whom we subscribe. There is no cost to you for this service and you may write to them at:
Physical Address: Level 2, Solnet House
70 The Terrace
Wellington
Post: PO Box 10-845,
Wellington, 6143
Telephone number: 04 499 7612
Email address: info@iombudsman.org
7. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The Advisers prides itself in putting clients interests first and foremost and at all time endeavours to provide quality professional advice and arrange suitable contract of insurance with sound insurers and competitive premiums.
It is our official policy to avoid conflicts of interest where possible which could result in you being disadvantaged. Where these may be unavoidable, we will disclose this to you and obtain consent that you are happy with such actions we take.
8. PRIVACY STATEMENT
We are committed to protecting your privacy. We use the information you provide to advise about and assist with your insurance needs. We only provide your information to the companies whom we recommend or whom you choose to deal with (and their representatives). We do not trade, rent, or sell your information. You can check the information we hold about you at any time. More information can be found in Our Privacy Policy.
9. PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE
We will maintain in force Professional Indemnity Insurance against negligent acts, errors, or omissions in accordance with the requirements of the Regulatory Bodies governing our business activities.
We currently hold through our partnership with NZbrokers $100,000,000 of Professional Indemnity Insurance.