The financial services referred to in this financial services guide (FSG) are offered by:
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd ABN 32 003 068 540
Address:3 Harold Street, North Parramatta NSW 2151
Phone:(02) 9630 8788
Fax: (02) 9630 0648
Email: advice@professionalinsurance.com.au
Holder of Australian Financial Services Licence Number 241251
This FSG sets out the services that we can offer you. It is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of those services and contains important information about:
- how to contact us
- the services we offer you.
- how we and our associates are paid.
- any potential conflict of interest we may have.
- our internal and external dispute resolution procedures and how you can access them.
General Advice
Usually we only provide General Advice to our Retail Clients. General Advice does not take into account your particular needs and requirements and you should consider the appropriateness of this advice to your circumstances prior to acting upon it. We will provide you with a General Advice Warning in such cases.
Statement of Advice
You will receive a statement of advice (SOA) whenever we provide you with advice which takes into account your objectives, financial situation and needs. The SOA will contain the advice, which will enable you to make an informed decision about your insurance needs.
When you ask us to recommend an insurance policy for you, we will usually only consider the policies offered by the insurers or insurance providers that we deal with regularly. In giving you advice about the costs and terms of recommended polices we have not compared those policies to other policies available, other than from those insurers we deal with regularly.
Product Disclosure Statement
If we offer to arrange the issue of an insurance policy to you, we will also provide you with, or pass on to you, a product disclosure statement (PDS), unless you already have an up to date PDS from the insurer. The PDS will contain information about the particular policy which will enable you to make an informed decision about purchasing that policy.
From when does this FSG apply? |
This FSG applies from (Date of Issue) and remains valid unless a further FSG is issued to replace it. We may give you a supplementary FSG. It will not replace this FSG but will cover services not covered by this FSG.
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How can you instruct us? |
You can contact us to give us instructions by post, phone, fax or email on the contact number or details mentioned on last page of this FSG.
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Who is responsible for the financial services provided? |
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd is responsible for the financial services that will be provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG.
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd holds a current Australian Financial Services Licence no: 241251. The contact details for Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd are on the front of this FSG.
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How will I pay for the services provided? |
For each insurance product the insurer will charge a premium that includes any relevant taxes, charges and levies. We often receive a payment based on a percentage of this premium (excluding relevant taxes, charges and levies) called commission, which is paid to us by the insurers. However, in some cases we will also charge you a fee. These will all be shown on the invoice that we send you. You can choose to pay by any of the payment methods set out in the invoice. You are required to pay us within the time set out on the invoice (failure to do this will result in claims not being met by the insurer).
If there is a refund of premium owed to you as a result of a cancellation or alteration to a policy, we will retain any fee we have charged you. We may also retain commission depending on our arrangements with the insurer.
When you pay us your premium it will be banked into our trust account. We retain the commission from the premium you pay us and remit the balance to the insurer in accordance with our arrangements with the insurer. We will earn interest on the premium while it is in our trust account or we may invest the premium and earn a return. We will retain any interest or return on investment earned on the premium.
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What should I do if I have a complaint? |
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Do you have any relationships or associations with the insurers who issue the insurance policies or any other material relationships? |
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd is a shareholder of Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast). Steadfast has exclusive arrangements with some insurers under which Steadfast will receive between 0.5 – 1% commission for each policy arranged by us with those insurers. These payments are used to operate Steadfast.
Depending on the operating costs of Steadfast (including the costs of member services provided by Steadfast to us and other Steadfast shareholders) and the amount of total business we place with the participating insurers in any financial year, we may receive a proportion of that commission, at the end of each financial year.
As a shareholder of Steadfast we have access to member services including model operating and compliance tools, procedures, manuals and training, legal, technical, banking and recruitment advice and assistance, group insurance arrangements, product comparison and placement support, claims support and group purchasing arrangements. These member services are either funded by Steadfast, subsidised by Steadfast or available exclusively to shareholders for a fee.
Steadfast is also a shareholder of Miramar Underwriting Agency Pty Limited (Miramar). As a shareholder, Steadfast may receive dividends from Miramar. These amounts will indirectly contribute towards the benefits we receive from Steadfast.
Steadfast has a shareholding in Macquarie Premium Funding (Macquarie). If we arrange premium funding with Macquarie for you, under its agreement with Macquarie, Steadfast will receive 0.5% of your insurance premium (including government fees or charges). As an equity shareholder of Macquarie, Steadfast may also receive dividends from profits of Macquarie. The amount of the Steadfast dividend is based on the share of profit attributable to funding arranged by Steadfast shareholders. The payments (commission and dividends) that Steadfast receives from Macquarie are used to operate Steadfast. Depending on the operating costs of Steadfast and the amount of total business we place with Macquarie in any financial year, we may receive a portion of those amounts at the end of each financial year. You can obtain a copy of Steadfast’s FSG at www.steadfast.com.au.
Premium Funding. If we arrange premium funding for you we may be paid a commission by the premium funder. We may also charge you a fee (or both). The commission that we are paid by the premium funder is usually calculated as a percentage of the funded amount. If you instruct us to arrange or issue a product, this is when we become entitled to the commission. When we arrange premium funding for you, you can ask us what commission rates we are paid for that funding arrangement compared to other arrangements that were available to you.
Interest earned on your premium payment. When you pay us your premium it will be banked into our trust account. We will retain the commission from the premium you pay us and remit the balance to the insurer in accordance with our arrangements with the insurer. We will earn interest on the premium while it is in our trust account or we may invest the premium and earn a return. We will retain any interest or return on investment earned on the premium.
Conflicts of Interest. As a business we have relationships with and receive income from various third parties as detailed in this FSG. For retail clients receiving personal advice, details of relationships that impact the advice will be included in any SOA or invoice documentation we send to you. All material conflicts that impact our advice, that are not mentioned in this FSG, will be advised to you on the invoices related to that advice.
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What kinds of financial services are you authorised to provide to me and what kinds of financial product/s do those services relate to? |
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd is able to provide financial product advice (personal and general) and deal in general insurance products.
There is a wide range of insurance policies we can arrange these include, but are not limited to, the following insurance policies for retail clients:
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd is authorised to deal in general insurance products to wholesale and/or retail clients. We will do this for you as your broker unless we tell you otherwise.
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Will I receive tailored advice? |
Maybe not in all cases. However, we may need information about your personal objectives, details of your current financial situation and any relevant information, so that we can arrange insurance policies for you, issue insurance policies to you or to give you advice about your insurance needs. We will ask you for the details that we need to know.
In some cases we will not ask for any of this information. If we do not ask, or if you do not give us all of the information we ask for, any advice you receive may not be appropriate to your needs, objectives and financial situation.
You should read the warnings contained in any SOA, or any other warnings that we give you, carefully before making any decision about an insurance policy.
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What information do you maintain in my file and can I examine my file? |
The Federal Privacy Act 2000 sets out standards for the collection and management of personal information. With your consent, we will only use your personal information for general insurance services.
We maintain a record of your personal profile, including details of insurance policies that we arrange or issue for you. We also maintain records of any recommendations or advice given to you. We will retain this FSG and any other FSG given to you as well as any SOA or PDS that we give or pass on to you.
We are committed to implementing and promoting a privacy policy, which will ensure the privacy and security of your personal information. A copy of our privacy policy is available on request. A copy is also available on our website, www.professionalinsurance.com.au. If you wish to look at your file please ask us. We will make arrangements for you to do so.
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How are any commissions, fees or other benefits calculated for providing the financial services? |
Our commission will be calculated based on the following formula:
X = Y% x P
In this formula: X = our commission Y% = the percentage commission paid to us by the insurer. The commission rate ranges between 0% and 20% according to the type of insurance and cover provided and the way the transaction is arranged. P = the amount the insurer charges for the policy (less any government fees or charges included in that amount).
In some cases we may receive a volume bonus or share from the product issuer, if a particular portfolio of business achieves a certain level of profitability, but only if the volume bonus or share is made as a matter of course by the product issuer.
The amount of any fee we charge will vary depending on the complexity of the advice and other services that we provide for you, the seniority of the staff required to provide the services, the amount of time to place and maintain the policy of insurance for the period insured, and other factors that might be specific to the transaction. Generally though our fees for retail products range from $0 to $75 (plus GST).
Any commission or fee that we charge you will be specified in our Statement of Advice and in our Invoice.
Other remuneration information
Staff Our staff that will assist you with your insurance needs will be paid a market salary which may include a percentage between 0% and 5% of our commission or fees.
Premium Funding We may arrange premium funding for you. If we do we will receive a commission from the premium funder. This commission is usually calculated as a percentage of the funded amount. The rate of commission can vary between 1% and 3%.
Referrals We do not often pay any commissions, fees or benefits to others who refer you to us or refer us to an insurer. If we do, we will pay commissions to those people out of our commission or fees (not in addition to those amounts), in the range of 0 to 60% of our commission or fees or pay them an agreed referral fee.
If we give you personal advice, we will inform you of any fees, commission or other payments we, our associates or anyone referring you to us (or us to any insurer) will receive in relation to the policies that are the subject of the advice.
Association Refer to the ‘Do you have any relationships or associations’ section of this FSG for information on the Steadfast association and commission.
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Cooling off provisions? |
All retail products are subject to a 14 day ‘cooling off period’. This means that if you are not happy with the product, you have 14 days to withdraw from the contract at no cost to you.
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Compensation? |
For your added protection we also hold a Professional Indemnity Policy. This policy is designed to pay claims by Third Parties (including our clients) arising out of our Professional Negligence. The policy has a minimum cover of $1M for any one claim with the additional protection of providing for a further two claims (again with a minimum cover of $1M each) in the same policy year. The policy extends to covers us for work done for us by representatives/employees after they cease to work for us and satisfies the requirements for compensation arrangements under Section 912B of The Act.
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Contact Agreement? |
To ensure that we provide you with appropriate products and services, you agree to us calling you at our discretion to discuss any new products and services. If you do not wish to receive such calls please advise us and we will place you on our Do Not Call Register.
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Any questions? |
If you have any further questions about the financial services Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd provides, please contact us.
Please retain this document for your reference and any future dealings with Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd.
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How to contact us?
Professional Insurance Brokers (NSW) Pty Ltd |
Telephone: Facsimile:
Email: Website:
Post:
In Person: |
(02) 9630 8788 (02) 9630 0648
www.professionalinsurance.com.au
P O Box 2243 North Parramatta NSW 1750
3 Harold Street North Parramatta NSW 2151
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End of FSG 10V01029092