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Financial Services Guide

This Financial Service Guide is provided to you by Colonial Financial Services Pty Ltd - the holder of an Australian Financial Services Licence № 281568. This FSG applies from September 2019 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.

The Purpose Of This Guide

This FSG is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of our services and contains important information about:

  • The services we offer you
  • How we and our associates are paid
  • Any potential conflicts of interest we may have
  • What to do in the event of a complaint

Responsibility For Services Provided

CFS hold a current Australian Financial Services Licence with the following authorisations:

  • provide financial product advice for the following classes of financial products:
    • deposit and payment products limited to:
    • basic deposit products;
    • deposit products other than basic deposit products;
    • derivatives;
    • general insurance products;
    • debentures, stocks or bonds issued or proposed to be issued by a government;
    • interests in managed investment schemes including:
    • investor directed portfolio services;
    • retirement savings accounts ("RSA") products (within the meaning of the Retirement Savings Account Act 1997);
    • securities; and
    • superannuation; and
  • deal in a financial product by:
    • issuing, applying for, acquiring, varying or disposing of a financial product in respect of the following classes of financial products:
    • derivatives; and
    • applying for, acquiring, varying or disposing of a financial product on behalf of another person in respect of the following classes of products:
    • deposit and payment products limited to:
    • basic deposit products;
    • deposit products other than basic deposit products;
    • derivatives;
    • general insurance products;
    • debentures, stocks or bonds issued or proposed to be issued by a government;
    • interests in managed investment schemes including:
    • investor directed portfolio services;
    • retirement savings accounts ("RSA") products (within the meaning of the Retirement Savings Account Act 1997);
    • securities; and
    • superannuation.

CFS are responsible for the financial services provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG. In order to be granted and retain their Licence CFS are required to meet stringent guidelines in areas such as: staff training, organisational competence, management expertise, financial control and compliance disciplines. CFS have an ongoing requirement to maintain and enhance our professionalism to ensure that you receive fair and honest Financial Services from us.

Who Do We Act For

We usually act on your behalf and in your interests in all matters. Sometimes, it may be more appropriate for us to access 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.

Our Services

We offer a range of services to assist you to protect your assets and guard against unexpected liabilities including reviewing and advising on your insurance needs, identifying risk factors to avoid claims and seeking competitive premium quotations.

Our Products

We can advise and arrange a broad range of insurances on your behalf including: Home Building and Contents, Private and Commercial Motor, Farm, Business Packages, Construction, Liability, Workers Compensation, Industrial and Professional covers.

Retail Clients

Under the Corporation Act 2001 (The Act) Retail Clients are provided with additional protection from other clients. 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, home building, contents, personal and domestic, sickness/accident/travel, consumer credit and other classes as prescribed by regulations. Some of the information in this FSG only applies to Retail Clients and it is important that you understand if you are covered by the additional protection provided.

Retail Client Issues

Typically 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. If you are a new Retail Client purchasing Personal Accident or Sickness insurance and obtain Personal Advice, that is, advice that takes into account your particular circumstances, we will give you a Statement of Advice (SOA), that sets out the advice provided and the basis on which the advice is made and our remuneration should you purchase the product. For existing Retail Clients we may not provide an SOA but rather provide the advice to you verbally. In such cases you may request us to provide you with a Record of Advice (via phone or in writing) which we will provide to you within 28 days of such request. 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.

If we recommend the purchase of a particular financial product, we will also give you a Product Disclosure Statement at that time, which sets out details specific to that product and the key benefits and risks in purchasing the product.

What We Expect From You

To enable us to provide the right advice we need you to provide us with complete information about the risk(s) that you face and those that you want to be insured for. You should also tell us about any relevant changes as they occur so that we can review your insurance needs accordingly.

Personal Information

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.

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.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Duty of Disclosure

Before you enter into a contract of general insurance with an insurer, you have a duty, under the Insurance contracts Act 1984, to disclose to the insurer every matter that you know, or could possibly be expected to know, is relevant to the insurer’s decision whether to accept the risk of the insurance and, if so, on what terms. You have the same duty to disclose those matters to the insurer before you renew, extend, vary or reinstate a contract of general insurance.

  • Your duty however does not require disclosure of matter-
  • That diminishes the risk to be undertaken by the insurer
  • That is of common knowledge
  • That your insurer knows, or in the ordinary course of his business, ought to know
  • As to which compliance with your duty is waived by the insurer

Non Disclosure

If you fail to comply with your duty of disclosure, the insurer may be entitled to reduce his liability under the contract in respect of a claim or may cancel the contract.

If your non-disclosure is fraudulent, the insurer may also have the option of avoiding the contract from its beginning.

New Business

We will endeavour to arrange interim cover for property or risk not currently insured when you supply full details of the property or risk and all information requiring disclosure to the insurer. A proposal will need to be completed by you and submitted to the insurer prior to expiry of the interim cover. It is the insured’s responsibility to ensure accuracy of all information supplied on the proposal prior to signing the document.

The policy document issued by the insurer forms the agreement between you and the insurer. Upon receipt of this document we recommend to check the details thoroughly to ensure the cover meets your requirements.

Renewals

We will give at least fourteen days notice of expiry of general insurance policy cover administered by Colonial Financial Services Pty Ltd. We do not accept responsibility for policies not administered by Colonial Financial Services. We may automatically renew those policies being administered as per policy expiry details.

Policy Alteration/Endorsement

Please contact us should you require alteration to details of the insured property or risk. Your Duty of Disclosure requires details of relevant matters be disclosed to the insurer, which have not been previously disclosed. An invoice will be issued to confirm the alteration we have effected with the insurer.

Terms of Payment

When we arrange, renew or vary cover on your behalf, we will invoice you for the premium, statutory charges (e.g. stamp duty, fire services levies, GST, etc.) and our brokerage &/or fees. Invoices must be paid by the expiry date or within fourteen (14) days of receipt, unless otherwise stated. The full amount is payable by you to us, including the premium and statutory charges and/or brokerage and/or fees.

If a cover is cancelled before the expiry of the period of insurance, we will refund to you only the net return premium we received from the insurer. We will not refund any part of the brokerage we receive for arranging the cover. Fees may also be charged for the cancellation.

Complaints

Clients not satisfied with our services should contact the Complaints Officer of CFS on telephone number 02 8005 8444 or put your complaint in writing and send it to Complaints Officer, Colonial Financial Services Pty Ltd, PO Box A2202, SYDNEY SOUTH NSW 1235. Please mark the envelope “Notice of Complaint”. We will try and resolve your complaint quickly and fairly.

CFS are members of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), a free consumer service. CFS also adopt the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice. Further information is available from our office, or contact AFCA directly on 1800 931 678 or visit www.afca.org.au

Compensation

CFS hold a Professional Indemnity Policy which also provides cover for us. This policy is designed to pay claims by Third Parties (including our clients) arising out of our Professional Negligence. The policy extends to cover us for work done for CFS by us after we cease to work for CFS and satisfies the requirements for compensation arrangements under Section 912B of The Act.

Colonial Financial Services Source of Income

When placing your insurance CFS usually receive a commission from the insurer. The amount varies between 0% and 25% of the base premium you pay. Where a policy is cancelled before the period of insurance has ended we will usually retain the commission on any return premium involved. If you are a Retail Client and we give you Personal Advice, full commission details (including the dollar amounts) will be provided in any SOA or (where an SOA is not required to be provided) included on any relevant invoices. When we give you General Advice, full commission information (including dollar amounts) will be provided on request. CFS have a set of standard non refundable Broker Fees that we charge you for the cost of services such as:

  • Market research on products available.
  • Assessing the claims paying ability of insurers.
  • Sourcing alternative quotations and coverage.
  • Risk analysis and portfolio co-ordination.

All fees payable for our services will be advised to you at the time of providing the advice or service. CFS may receive additional remuneration from insurers with whom we have profit share or volume bonus arrangements. This remuneration is payable if we meet certain agreed sales and/or profitability targets set by the insurer. If we have profit share arrangements with an insurer that apply to a product we recommend to you, we will advise you of this at the time of making any such recommendation. CFS retain the interest on premiums paid by you that are held in our trust account before paying the insurer.

CFS is a Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) Network Broker. As a Steadfast Network Broker we have access to 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 broker 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 you pay by credit card we may charge you a credit card (incl. arrangement & handling) fee, which is disclosed and shown separately on our invoices, they are non refundable. This fee covers the cost of bank charges etc. associated with such facilities. Premium funding products enable you to pay your premiums by instalments. Premium funders do charge interest. We can arrange premium funding if you require it. We may receive a commission based on a percentage of the premium from the premium funder for doing so. We will tell you the basis and amount of any such payment if you ask us.

How We and Our Representatives Are Paid

We receive between 0% and 100% of CFS’s income that is generated by our clients

Most of our advisers receive an annual salary and may receive a bonus and/or incentive which are based on a number of factors including achievement of company goals. Some advisors receive a remuneration split that can range from 10% to 50% of the total commission and fees received by us.

If a person has referred you to us, we may pay them a part of any fees or commission received.

If you are a Retail Client and receive Personal Advice full remuneration details will be disclosed in the SOA or invoices related to the advice. Otherwise details are available on request.

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 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.

Contact Agreement

To ensure that we provide you with appropriate products and services, you agree to us calling you 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.

How To Contact Us

You are able to contact us by phone, in writing, by fax, email or in person.
Postal address: PO Box A2202 Sydney South NSW 1235
PHONE: 02 8005 8444
EMAIL: support@colonialinsurance.com.au
WEBSITE: www.colonialinsurance.com.au

 

* Selecting the pay by the month option involves entering into a financing arrangement with Easy Greenslips whereby an interest charge will be payable in addition to the CTP premium.

General Advice on this website has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on advice, consider its appropriateness. Consider our disclosure documents,
which include our FSG and Product disclosure Statements (PDS) for some products.