Mark Winters & Henry Bourke T/A Allied Financial
These Terms of Business set out the general terms under which our firm will provide business services to you and the respective duties and responsibilities of both the firm and you in relation to such services. Please ensure that you read these terms thoroughly and if you have any queries we will be happy to clarify them. If any material changes are made to these terms we will notify you.
Authorisation and codes of conduct with the Central Bank of Ireland
Allied Financial is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an insurance intermediary registered under the European Communities (Insurance Mediation) Regulations, 2005 and as an Investment Intermediary authorised under the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995. Allied Financial is subject to the Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness & Probity Standards which offer protection to consumers. Copies of our regulatory authorisations are available on request. The Central Bank of Ireland holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the Central Bank of Ireland on 1890 777 777 or alternatively visit their website at www.centralbank.ie to verify our credentials.
Our Services
Allied Financial is a member of the Brokers Ireland. As a member of Brokers Ireland we must be able to place insurance with at least five insurers of the relevant form (life/non-life) and therefore can generally give consumers greater choice than agents and tied agents. Our principal business is to provide advice and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to Life & Pensions/Savings/Investments. A full list of insurers, product producers with which we deal is available on request.
So that we can provide you with a professional business services, you will have to provide sufficient information to the product/service been sought. The level of information we gather will be appropriate to the nature & complexity of the product or service being sought by the client. Personal information including your name, address, date of birth & details about your financial arrangements such as your existing protection cover, pension arrangements, & your savings & investments, from time to time you may also need to give personal information such as medical details.
Allied Financial acts as a Broker which means that:
The principal regulated activities of the firm are provided on the basis of a fair analysis of the market
Fair Analysis
The concept of fair analysis is derived from the Insurance Mediation Directive. It describes the extent of the choice of products and providers offered by an intermediary within a particular category of life assurance, general insurance, mortgages, and/ or a specialist area. The number of contracts and providers considered must be sufficiently large to enable an intermediary to recommend a product that would be adequate to meet a client’s needs.
The number of providers that constitutes ‘sufficiently large’ will vary depending on the number of providers operating in the market for a particular product or service and their relative importance in and share of that market. The extent of fair analysis must be such that could be reasonably expected of a professional conducting business, taking into account the accessibility of information and product placement to intermediaries and the cost of the search.
In order to ensure that the number of contracts and providers is sufficiently large to constitute a fair analysis of the market, we will consider the following criteria:
the needs of the customer,
the size of the customer order,
the number of providers in the market that deal with brokers,
the market share of each of those providers,
the number of relevant products available from each provider,
the availability of information about the products,
the quality of the product and service provided by the provider,
cost, and
Any other relevant consideration.
Life, Pensions and Investments
Allied Financial provides life assurance, pensions & investments on a fair analysis basis i.e. providing services based on a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet your needs.
We will provide assistance to you for any queries you may have in relation to the policies or in the event of a claim during the life of the policies and we will explain to you the various restrictions, conditions and exclusions attached to your policy. However, it is your responsibility to read the policy documents, literature and brochures to ensure that you understand the nature of the policy cover; particularly in relation to PHI and serious illness policies.
Specifically, on the subject of permanent health insurance policies it is our policy to explain to you a) the meaning of disability as defined in the policy; b) the benefits available under the policy; c) the general exclusions that apply to the policy; and d) the reductions applied to the benefit where there are disability payments from other sources.
For a serious illness policy, we will explain clearly to you the restrictions, conditions and general exclusions that attach to that policy.
Disclosure of Information
Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.
Allied Financial is remunerated in a couple of different ways;
– from the product producers whom we place business with in the form of commission payment. Where we receive recurring commission, this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided.
Or
–By the client directly in the form of a fee which will be discussed in advance of all transactions.
Our fees range from €250 per hour for a Senior Financial Planner
Other services which include Retirement Planning / Inheritance Planning & Investment Advice range from €250 up to a maximum of €1500
And/or
– You also have the option to pay for the services we provide by way of a professional fee and/or by way of a combination of commissions and fees which we will discuss and agree in advance of all transactions.
Summary details of these payments will be included in a product information document, under the customer Information notice section, which you are legally entitled to receive before an application for a product is completed, & full details will be included in your cooling off letter & welcome pack. Any ongoing commission shown in the customer information notice will be paid to me if I continue to be your financial advisor. Details of commission payments for other products are available on request.
Complaints
While we are happy to receive verbal complaints, it would be preferable that any complaints be made in writing. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and we will fully investigate it. We shall investigate the complaint as swiftly as possible, and, the complainant will receive an update on the complaint at intervals of not greater than 20 days starting from the date on which the complaint is made. On completion of our investigation, we will provide you with a written report of the outcome. In the event that you are still dissatisfied with our handling of or response to your complaint, you are entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman or the Pensions Ombudsman. A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.
Regular Reviews
It is in your best interests that you review, on a regular basis, the products which we have arranged for you. As your circumstances change, your needs will change. You must advise us of those changes and request a review of the relevant policy so that we can ensure that you are provided with up to date advice and products best suited to your needs. Failure to contact us in relation to changes in your circumstances or failure to request a review, may result in you having insufficient insurance cover and/or inappropriate investments.
Conflicts of interest
It is the policy of our firm to avoid conflicts of interest in providing services to you. However, where an unavoidable conflict of interest arises we will advise you of this in writing before providing you with any service.
Default on payments by clients
Our firm will exercise its legal rights to receive payments due to it from clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In particular, without limitation of the generality of the foregoing, the firm will seek reimbursement for all payments made to insurers on behalf of clients where the firm has acted in good faith in renewing a policy of insurance for the client.
Product producers may withdraw benefits or cover in the event of default on payments due under policies of insurance or other products arranged for you. We would refer you to policy documents or product terms for the details of such provisions.
Data Protection
Allied Financial complies with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018
The data which you provide to us will be held on a computer database and paper files for the purpose of arranging transactions on your behalf. The data will be processed only in ways compatible with the purposes for which it was given and as outlined in our Data Privacy Notice and Data Protection policy. We would also like to keep you informed of mortgage, insurance, investment and any other services provided by us or associated companies with which we have a formal business arrangement; which we think may be of interest to you. We would like to contact you by way of letter, email or telephone call. If you would like to receive to receive such marketing information, please complete the permission statements contained in the Terms of Business acknowledgement letter attached.
We may receive referrals from such firms and may advise them of any transactions arranged for you.
You have the right at any time to request a copy of any ‘personal data’ within the meaning of the GDPR) that our office holds about you and to have any inaccuracies in that information corrected. Please contact us at info@syswealth.ie if you have any concerns about your personal data.
Compensation Scheme
We are members of the Investor Compensation Scheme operated by the Investor Compensation Company Ltd. The Investor Compensation Act, 1998 provides for the establishment of a compensation scheme and the payment, in certain circumstances, of compensation to certain clients (known as eligible investors) of authorised investment firms, as defined in that Act.
The Investor Compensation Company Ltd. (ICCL) was established under the 1998 Act to operate such a compensation scheme and our firm is a member of this scheme.
Compensation may be payable where money or investment instruments owed or belonging to clients and held, administered or managed by the firm cannot be returned to those clients for the time being and where there is no reasonably foreseeable opportunity of the firm being able to do so.
A right to compensation will arise only:
If the client is an eligible investor as defined in the Act; and
If it transpires that the firm is not in a position to return client money or investment instruments owned or belonging to the clients of the firm; and
To the extent that the client’s loss is recognised for the purposes of the Act.
Where an entitlement to compensation is established, the compensation payable will be the lesser of:
90% of the amount of the client’s loss which is recognised for the purposes of the Investor Compensation Act, 1998; or
Compensation of up to €20,000.
For further information, contact the Investor Compensation Company Ltd. at (01) 224 4955.
Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund
We are also members of the Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund. Subject to the rules of the scheme the liabilities of its members firms up to a maximum of €100,00 per client (or €250,000 in aggregate) may be discharged by the fund on its behalf if the member firm is unable to do so, where the above detailed Investor Compensation Scheme has failed to adequately compensate any client of the member. Further details available on request.
Once these Terms of Business have been agreed, they shall remain in place unless subsequently altered. The Terms of Business shall be construed in accordance with Irish Law. The Courts of Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or indifference concerning the Terms of Business and any matter arising between the client and the company.