Terms of Engagement & Service Agreement

Terms of Engagement

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for the appointment of Annis Group Pty Ltd ABN: 23 000 858 079. AFSL: 243559 to act as your insurance broker and risk management consultant.

We subscribe to and are bound by the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice a full copy of which is available from the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) website, www.niba.com.au.

These terms of engagement, along with our Financial Services Guide (FSG) will provide more information about our services we provide for you, our remuneration agreements along with our dispute resolution policy. This is available on our website: www.annisgroup.com.au/financialservicesguide

For whom do we act?

As an insurance intermediary, we act on your behalf and with your interest at the forefront in all matters.

Sometimes, it may be more appropriate for us to either arrange insurance or manage claims where we act as an agent of the insurer. If and when this situation arises, we will explain and highlight this to you.

We are a privately owned insurance broker and are not an insurer or underwriter.

We are authorised to advise you about and arrange general insurance products. If we are unable to advise you or act on your behalf due to a conflict of interest which cannot be managed, we will immediately notify you.

We will normally make a recommendation to you in relation to your insurance policies. You will need to make your own choice about how to proceed and, on receipt of your instructions, we will endeavour to arrange insurance, subject to availability, to meet your stated requirements.

Advice

If you need advice on your insurance covers or rationalisation of your insurance arrangements or if you have any other query, please contact your Account Manager (and not one of our junior staff). Your Account Manager will be happy to answer minor queries, over the telephone, but written advice or confirmation should be sought in relation to any matter on which you propose to rely. We accept responsibility for written advice, but we accept no responsibility for verbal advice.

We do charge for the service of providing advice if the matter requires a significant amount of time. We shall discuss the charge with you at the time.

Acceptance of this engagement

If you use our services and have received this agreement, you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of this agreement on behalf of the business, unless we are otherwise notified in writing.

Period of Engagement

The agreement between us is binding as soon as we perform the services for you after the date you receive this document unless you notify us in writing.

Termination

Either you or we may cancel our appointment upon written notice to the other, in which case:

• You are required to pay our remuneration in relation to the services we perform up to this
• Our appointment is exclusive and replaces any previous agreements containing the same or similar subject matter and may only be varied by written agreement with you.

We look forward to working with you and to a long and mutually satisfactory relationship. We encourage you to call your Account Executive at any time if you have any questions about our services or your insurances.

Notices

In accordance with normal business procedures, we will direct all notices and correspondence in relation to covers we arrange or renew on your behalf to your address as advised by you.

If you wish to change your address, or utilise a postal address please advise us in writing of the new address. Unless you do so, our records will not be altered, and notices and correspondence will continue to go to the existing address. We do not accept responsibility for following up responses from you to correspondence or notices sent to your address.

Insurers are not required to give notices to insureds when covers are arranged through a registered insurance broker. Thus, you will not receive them from the insurer for covers arranged by our company on your behalf. You will always be supplied with the original policy document. If you do not receive the document within a reasonable time after completing all necessary documentation and payment in full has been made, you should contact this office immediately.

It is imperative that you check all your insurance certificates and policy wordings to ensure that they provide the cover you require and that you fully understand their limitations. In all cases, the documentation provided by Annis Group Pty Ltd should be cross checked against any proposal form that you have completed to ensure that all disclosable details have been supplied to the insurer. If you have not retained a copy of the proposals, they are available on request from our office. We again stress that you should feel free to contact us if you have any query.

New Business

If you need cover for property or a risk not currently insured, you will need to advise Annis Group as soon as practical. If you want immediate cover, we will endeavour to arrange interim cover under a cover note, but in order to do so we will, in all instances, need to have details of the property or risk (e.g. nature of risk, location, sums insured, etc.) and all information to be disclosed to the insurer. Where required by the insurers, we will then send you a proposal for completion, which we ask you to return to us as soon as possible. Interim cover is provided for a limited period (e.g. one month or sometimes less) and will lapse unless the proposal is submitted to the insurer during its currency. The insurer should issue the policy within approximately two months. Unless we confirm cover to you in writing, insurance cover will not be in place.

Renewal

We will attempt to give you at least fourteen days’ notice of expiry of any cover arranged or last renewed by us on your behalf. This is obviously dependant on receiving all information from you and the insurance company.

We do not accept liability for giving you notice of expiry of any cover arranged or last renewed direct with the insurer or through another broker. Our invoice for renewal of the cover will include all details of the cover as expiring. In order for us to secure the renewal on your behalf, we must receive before the expiry date your instructions in writing to renew the cover. If you want the cover to be altered in any way, please contact us immediately.

We do not accept responsibility for following you up to check whether you wish to renew. If we do not receive payment of our invoice or written renewal instructions by the expiry date, cover will not be renewed.

Variations

If you want to vary any cover (e.g. by increasing the sums insured, or adding another location, etc.) please contact us. You will need to give us not only the details of the variation you are seeking, but also details of relevant matters to be disclosed to the insurer that have not been previously disclosed. We will then confirm the variation we have effected with the insurer.

Claims

When you need to make a claim, we can advise if it is covered under that policy and assist you to prepare and submit the claim and any necessary documents to the insurer. If there is uncertainty about whether a claim is covered under your policy, we will advise you.

If the insurer appoints a loss adjustor, lawyer or other consultant, we shall let you know and, with your permission, pass on your contact details and co-ordinate meetings.

For major losses, we may be able to attend the initial meeting with the loss adjustor if you wish us to.

We will promptly forward to you all claims documentation, insurance company settlement cheques and other information.

We will assist you to negotiate a settlement and obtain payment of claims and can assist you to seek recovery from third parties if required.

If any claims are outstanding when you terminate our appointment as your insurance broker, we will:

1. Continue to forward and negotiate on your behalf or
2. Provide details of the claim(s) to your new insurance broker so that they may continue to negotiate a settlement on your behalf
   
   
   

REMUNERATION

Many of the insurance companies we deal with do not deal directly to consumers. They’re designed to

work with brokers who use their expertise to make sure you are getting the right advice and coverage.

As outlined in the services we provide this is inclusive of managing your insurance programme, handling of claims, day to day amendments to your insurance and maintaining compliance side of your insurance.

In return for the services we provide, we will receive a commission usually in the range of 0-30% that is built in the insurance premium (excluding relevant taxes, charges, and levies) and paid to us by the insurer, not you. We will also charge a broker fee in almost most cases and payable by you, included in your invoice cost.

There may be in certain circumstances in return for the services we provide, a fee will be charged in lieu of commission. This fee will be agreed with you prior to placement.

If a cover is cancelled before the expiry date of the period of insurance, we reserve the right to refund to you only the net return premium we receive from the insurer and not refund any part of the brokerage and/or broker fee we receive for arranging the cover. A broker fee may be charged to process the cancellation.

YOUR OBLIGATIONS

Provision of information:

In order to be able to arrange insurance to meet your requirements, you must:

1. act at all times with utmost good faith towards your insurers and us;
2. disclose to us and insurers before the policy is placed, and before the policy is renewed, extended, varied or reinstated, and at any other time when providing information to the insurer, all information, facts or circumstances which are, or ought to be, known to you and which are material to the risk or which are relevant to the insurer’s decision whether to accept the risk of the insurance and, if so, on what terms; and
3. ensure that when completing and signing any proposal form, or otherwise confirming information to insurers, the information provided is complete, accurate and provided within a timely manner.
4. agree to promptly check all documentation supplied by us and/or insurer to ensure that all information is correct or no misunderstanding.
5. If changes are required, you will contact us immediately to advise accordingly
   
   
   

Your Disclosure Obligations

It is important that you provide us with complete and accurate information about the risk to be insured otherwise the advice we give you may not be appropriate for your needs. We rely on you to provide complete and accurate information.

Before you enter into an insurance contract with an insurer, you have a duty under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) to disclose information to the insurer. This Duty of Disclosure applies until the insurer agrees to either insure you or renew your insurance. The Duty of Disclosure also applies before you extend, vary or reinstate your insurance.

If you are applying for or renewing insurance in relation to consumer insurance products such as, your motor vehicle, home building and/or contents, residential strata, travel, personal accident, or sickness and/or consumer credit products, you must answer the specific questions asked by the insurer truthfully and accurately. In answering those questions, you must tell the insurer all information that’s known to you and that a reasonable person would be expected to provide in answer to the questions. Not doing so may be considered by the insurer to be a breach of your ‘duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation’ and may cause issues in relation to the validity of your insurance policy and/or issues in the event of you lodging a claim.

At renewal, the insurer may either ask you to advise any changes to information you have previously disclosed or may give you a copy of the information you previously disclosed and ask you to advise them if there have been any changes. If you do not tell the insurer about a change, you will be taken to have told the insurer there is no change.

If you are applying for or renewing any other insurance, you must tell the insurer all information that is known to you that a reasonable person could be expected to know or that is relevant to the insurer’s decision to insure you and on what terms. You do not need to tell the insurer anything:

• that reduces the risk it insures you for;
• is common knowledge;
• that the insurer knows or should know; or
• which the insurer waived you duty to tell it about.
  
  
  

Non-disclosure

If you fail to comply with your Duty of Disclosure, the insurer may cancel your contract of insurance, or reduce the amount it will pay you if you make a claim, or both. If your failure to comply with the Duty of Disclosure, or you are fraudulent, the insurer may refuse to pay a claim and treat the contract of insurance as if it never existed.

If you are in doubt about whether or not a particular matter should be disclosed, please contact your Account Executive.

You must make sure you explain the Duty of Disclosure to any person you represent when we arrange any insurance cover for you. Alternatively, you may ask any person you represent to contact us, and we will explain their Duty of Disclosure to them directly.

If your circumstances change, our recommendations may no longer be appropriate. Please tell us about any changes in your circumstances so that we can confirm that your insurance continues to be suitable for your needs.