Annis Group

Issued 10/2024

The financial services referred to in this financial services guide (FSG) are offered by:

Annis Group Pty Ltd ABN 23 000 858 079 AFSL 243559

Suite A4.09, 11 Solent Circuit Norwest NSW 2153

Postal: PO Box 7366, Norwest BC NSW 2153

Phone: 02 8852 8888

Email:  info@annisgroup.com.au
Online:  www.annisgroup.com.au

This FSG sets out the services that we can offer you. It is designed to assist you in deciding whether to
use anyof those services and contains important information about:

• the services we offer you.
• how we and others are paid.
• any potential conflict of interest we may have.
• our internal and external dispute resolution procedures and how you can access them.
• arrangements we have in place to compensate clients for losses.

Further information when personal advice is given

We willprovide you with furtherinformation whenever we provide you with advice which takes into account your objectives, financial situation and needs. This information may include the advice that we have given you, the basis of the advice and other information on our remuneration and any relevant associations or interests. This information may be contained in a statement of advice (SOA).

When youask us torecommend an insurance policy for you, we will usually only consider thepolicies 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 (PDS)

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. 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 17th October 2023, 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.

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 page 1 of this FSG.

Who is responsible for the financial services provided?

Annis Group 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. Annis Group holds a current Australian Financial Services Licensee no: 243559. The contact details for Annis Group are on the front of this FSG.

We are required to meet high standards for staff training, organisational competence, management expertise, financial control and compliance disciplines.

What kinds of financial services are you authorised to provide to me and what kinds of financial product/s do those services relate to?

Annis Group is authorised to advise & deal in general insurance products by applying for, acquiring, varying or disposing of a financial product (including workers’ compensation insurance) to retail and wholesale clients. As a general insurance broker, we act on your behalf unless we tell you otherwise.

Who is a Retail Client

Under the Corporations Act 2001 (The Act) Retail clients are provided with additional protection from other clients (wholesale). The Act defines Retail Clients as:

Individuals or a manufacturing business employing less than 100 people or any other business employing less than 20 people AND that are purchasing the following types of insurance covers:

Motor Vehicle (under 2 tonne), Home Building, Home Contents, Sickness & Accident, Personal & Domestic Property, Travel, Consumer Credit.

Cooling Off Period – Retail Insurance Only

For Retail Clients if you decide that you do not need a contract ofretail insurance which has been arranged on your behalf, you have a minimum of 14 days from the earlier of the date you receive confirmation of the contract and the date it was arranged to change your mind. You must tell the insurer in writing that you wish to return the insurance contract and have the premium repaid.

If you do so the insurance contract will be terminated from the time you notified the insurer and the premium will be returned. You cannot return the contract of insurance if it has already expired or if you have made a claim under it.

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.

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. Typically, we only provide General Advice to our Retail Clients and will provide you with a General Advice Warning in such cases.

Where we provide you with advice about your insurance arrangements, that advice is current at the time that we give it. We will review your insurance arrangements when you inform us about changes in your circumstances, or at the time of any scheduled status review or upon renewal of your insurances.

Contractual Liability and your insurance cover

Many commercial or business contracts contain clauses dealing with your liability (including indemnities or hold harmless clauses). Such clauses may entitle your insurers to reduce cover, or in some cases, refuse to indemnify you at all. You should seek legal advice before signing and accepting contracts. You should inform us of any clauses of this nature before you enter into them.

What information do you maintain in my file and can I examine my file?

We maintain a record of your personal profile, including details of insurance policies that we arrange for you. We may 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 for the period
required by law.

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.annisgroup.com.au

If you wish to look at your file, please ask us. We will make arrangements for you to do so.

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.

If there is a refund or reduction of your premium as a result of a cancellation or alteration to a policy, or based on a term of your policy (such as a premium adjustment provision), we will retain any fee we have charged you. We will also retain commission depending on our arrangements with the insurer, or charge you a cancellation fee equal to the reduction in our commission.

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.

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. Our commission varies between 0 and 30%.

P = the amount you pay for any insurance policy (less any government fees or charges included in that

amount). Any fees that we charge you will be disclosed to you on your invoice.

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 20% of our commission or fees.

If we refer your business to another provider for services, we are not licensed to provide we may in some cases be paid a referral fee or commission.

Our employees that will assist you with your insurance needs will be paid a market salary. In some cases, Employees are paid up to 20% incentive of new business income procured by them. In some circumstances, may also receive a bonus based on production and performance.

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.

Do you have any relationships or associations with the insurers who issue the insurance policies or any other material relationships?

Annis Group is a Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) Network Broker. Steadfast has exclusive arrangements with some insurers and premium funders (Partners) under which Steadfast will receive between 0.5 – 3% commission for each product arranged by us with those Partners.

As a Steadfast Network Broker, 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 Steadfast Network Brokers for a fee.

You can obtain a copy of Steadfast’s FSG at www.steadfast.com.au

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 your insurance premium (including government fees or changes). If you instruct us to arrange or issue a product, this is when we become entitled to the commission.

Our commission rates for premium funding are in the range of 0% to 3% of funded premium. When we arrange premium funding for you, you can ask us what commission rates we are paid for that funding arrangement compared to the other arrangements that were available to you. The amount of our commission and any fee that we charge will set out in the premium funding contract.

If you have any questions about these or any other financial benefits, please ask us.

Other Benefits

Some insurers may also give other benefits such as sponsorship, competitions, training and invitations to social business functions. Occasionally employees may also receive small gifts and gratuities. It is Annis Group’s policy that these may only be accepted if they are of an incidental nature. These amounts are not an additional cost to you.

Steadfast Life

I/We may refer you to Steadfast Life (50% owned by Steadfast Group Limited) for Life Insurance related products. Where you purchase a policy through them, they will pay I/we a percentage of their commission which varies between 0% to 33%. This does not increase the amount you are required to pay for your insurance with them.

Insurance Brokers Code of Practice

The Insurance Brokers Code of Practice contains a description of the standards to be expected from brokers and standardizes procedures for handling complaints. At Annis Group Pty Ltd we are committed to complying with the requirements as specified in the Code.

A copy of the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice can be obtained from our website. www.annisgroup.com.au/the-insurance-brokers-code-of-practice-niba/

What should I do if I have a complaint?

Contact us and tell us about your complaint. Annis Group will do its best to resolve it quickly.

• Contact our Complaints Manager on 02 8852 8888 or put your complaint in writing and send it in writing PO Box 7366, Norwest BC NSW
• We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 24 hours (or one business day) of receiving it, or as soon as practicable.
• We will formally respond to your complaint within 30 calendar days, if not before, subject to the exemptions as per ASIC’s IDR complaints process.
• Annis Group is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). If your complaint cannot be resolved to your satisfaction by us, you have the right to refer the matter to the AFCA. AFCA can be contacted at:

Mail      GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001 Ph         1800 931 678 (free call)

Email  info@afca.org.au       Online: www.afca.org.au

What arrangements do you have in place to compensate clients for losses?

Annis Group has a professional indemnity insurance policy (PI policy) in place. The PI policy covers us and our employees for claims made against us and our employees by clients as a result of the conduct of us or our employees in the provision of financial services.

Our PI policy covers us for claims relating to the conduct of representatives who no longer work for us.

Privacy Policy

The Privacy Act 1988 sets out standards for the collection and management of personal information. We are committed to protecting your privacy. We use the information you provide to advise about and assist with your insurance needs. We provide your information to insurance companies and agents that provide insurance quotes and offer insurance terms to you or the companies that deal with your insurance claim (such as loss assessors and claims administrators). Your information may be given to an overseas insurer (like Lloyd’s of London) if we are seeking insurance terms from an overseas insurer, or to reinsurers who are located overseas. We will try to tell you where those companies are located at the time of advising you. We also provide your information to the providers of our policy administration and broking systems that help us to provide our products and services to you. We do not trade, rent or sell your information.

If you don’t provide us with full information, we can’t properly advise you, seek insurance terms for you, or assist with claims and you could breach your duty of disclosure.

A full copy of our privacy policy is available on our website. www.annisgroup.com.au/privacy

Terms of Engagement & Services Agreement

Our full terms of trade, including details relating to new business, policy renewals, variations to covers, advice, terms of payment and general notices are set out in full on our website. Click here to view: https://annisgroup.com.au/terms-of-agreement-service/

Any questions?

If you have any further questions about the financial services Annis Group provides, or any of our policies such as our Privacy, our Services, Vulnerable Customers & Financial hardship and/or Terms of Engagement please contact us.

Please retain this document for your reference and any future dealings with Annis Group.