INTRODUCTION Please read this document carefully. It sets out the terms and conditions on which we agree to act for you, contains details of our responsibilities together with your responsibilities both to us, to insurers and to other third-party providers. Please contact us immediately if there is anything in this document that you do not understand/or with which you disagree. In the interests of security, staff training and to improve our service please be aware that telephone calls may be monitored and/or recorded.
STATUS AS AN INDEPENDENT INTERMEDIARY AND REGULATORY AUTHORISATION Safeguard iP is a trading name of Safeguard iP Limited which is an Appointed Representative of HISL Brokers Limited. Safeguard iP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm registration number 623971 to provide insurance intermediation services. Safeguard iP Limited is registered in England and Wales, its company number is 09048290 and registered address is 124 City Road, London EC1V 2NX
CAPACITY AND SERVICES As an insurance intermediary we usually act as your agent (for example when sourcing cover and quotations) and are therefore subject to the law of agency which imposes various duties on us. In certain circumstances we may act for and owe duties of care to insurers (for example when placing cover). Where any conflict of interest arises, it will be managed appropriately as per the ‘Conflict of Interest’ clause below.
PRODUCT RANGE We have access to leading insurers and often we select your insurance product from a wide range of insurers, however there are times when we use a select panel of insurers/finance providers. Please ask us if you would like a list of these insurers. At our discretion, we offer customers the options to pay by instalments through Premium Credit Limited. We will always advise you of our selection range prior to you committing to purchase an insurance policy or take out a finance agreement. In certain circumstances we may use the services of another intermediary to place your insurance, and in these circumstances, we will always advise you of the name of that intermediary.
OUR ADVICE Upon assessment of your requirements, we will make a recommendation for a particular insurance product. Our advice will be confirmed in a demands and needs statement which will clearly state the reasons for our recommendation. In some circumstances we may not provide advice, for example if we renew your insurance cover with your existing insurer without rebroking your insurance and where no recommendation has been provided; and/or if we simply provide you with information on a product. If we do not provide you with advice, we will always make this clear to you in our documentation.
REMUNERATION AND OTHER INCOME We reserve the right, at our discretion, to make an administration charge.. These fees may be subject to change and where this is the case you will always be advised of the actual fee in writing. We usually receive commission from an insurer when placing your business. We occasionally receive additional remuneration from insurers and other associated business partners for business we place with them. Please ask us if you would like further information.
CONSUMERS - INFORMATION WE NEED TO KNOW Your policy document will state your customer classification. A Consumer is an individual buying insurance wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to their trade, business, or profession. cancel You must take reasonable care to provide complete, accurate and honest answers to the questions we ask when you take out, make changes to, and renew your policy. Please also tell us if there are any changes to the information set out in your policy documentation. If any of the information provided by you changes after you purchase or renew your policy, and during the period of your policy, please provide us with details. If any of the information provided by you is not complete and accurate: • your insurer may cancel your policy and treat it as if it never existed; or • your insurer may refuse to pay any claim, or • your insurer may not pay any claim in full, or • your insurer may revise the premium and/or change the compulsory excess, or • the extent of the cover may be affected You should keep a record (including copies of letters) of all information provided for future reference.
COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS’ DUTY OF DISCLOSURE Your policy documents will state your customer classification. A Commercial customer is one which is not a Consumer as per definition above. You must, at all times act with utmost good faith towards your insurer. This means that before your policy is placed, at renewal, when varying or extending the policy (and also during the policy period if your policy contains a particular clause stating that any change in circumstances must be advised to your insurer), you must disclose to us all information, facts and circumstances which are, or ought to be, known to you and which are material to the risk. When providing information or completing a proposal form or otherwise confirming any information to us, you should take care to ensure that the details provided are complete and accurate. You should note that your duty of disclosure is not confined to answering specific questions asked by us or your insurers and that all material circumstances should be disclosed to us whether or not we or your insurer has asked for the information. Circumstances which may be considered material are: • special or unusual facts relating to the risk; • any particular concerns which led you to seek insurance cover; and • anything which would generally be understood as being something that should be disclosed for the type of risk in question. If you are unsure whether a fact or circumstance should be disclosed, or whether the duty of disclosure information continues throughout the period of your policy you should disclose the information anyway as failure to do so may lead your insurer to reduce its claim payment, apply additional terms or even avoid your policy. You should keep a record (including copies of letters) of all information provided for future reference.
RENEWAL OF CONTRACT We write to you in good time before your renewal date, offering you renewal terms or in situations where we are not inviting renewal, we will tell you. Renewal of the contract is based on the information you supplied when we arranged your current contract along with any amendments you have made during the period of cover. It is important that you advise us of any changes to your requirements. Where we offer you renewal terms and you pay your insurance by continuous monthly direct debit instalments, in the absence of a response from you, we will deem this as your consent to renew automatically to ensure you are provided with continuous cover. We will advise you upfront if your policy will be automatically renewed. You have the right to cancel the automatic renewal of your policy free of charge at any time. Please contact us by telephone, post, email or online if you wish to do so. Where you opt-out of automatic renewals, please be aware that your policy will lapse, and you may be left without cover. We will continue to contact you in advance of your renewal to arrange further cover where you have opted out of automatic renewals.
HOW AND WHEN TO MAKE PAYMENTS You must provide the premium due in cleared funds in accordance with the amounts and payment dates specified in our letter / invoice / payment options schedule. Failure to meet the payment date may lead to insurers cancelling your policy. Please refer to our letter / invoice / payment options schedule for full details on how to make a payment. Please note that cover will cease if you fail to keep up payments under a credit agreement. If a third-party premium finance provider asks us to cancel the policy we will undertake this action, however we will be acting as your agent in the process.
CANCELLATION RIGHTS Your policy document will provide you with specific information on your full rights to cancel your insurance. A personal policy, which lasts for more than one calendar month, offers you the facility to cancel the cover (providing there have been no claims) within 14 days from the policy start date or the date when you receive the full policy documentation from your insurers or us whichever occurs later. You will be entitled to a refund of premium less our administration charge and a charge by your insurer for the time your insurance cover was in place.
REFUND PROCEDURES (outside of cancellation rights or a mid-term adjustment resulting in a refund) Where you cancel your personal insurance outside of the 14-day cancellation period or where you cancel your commercial policy at any time, we reserve the right to charge for our time in providing you with advice and for the administration costs involved. This results in us retaining our original commission and fees. For some insurance contracts, insurers will not provide refunds for mid-term cancellation of cover. We will advise you of this if it affects you. NOTIFICATION OF CLAIMS OR INCIDENTS Please ensure that you report all incidents that could give rise to a claim as soon as you become aware of them either by contacting your insurer or us. In some circumstances, late notification can result in a claim being rejected. If you receive any correspondence from a third party in relation to your claim, please pass it to us or your insurer immediately and unanswered. If you require any assistance regarding a claim or incident, please do not hesitate to contact us.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY To help make sure you receive a competitive quotation, offer of appropriate payment options, protect against fraud and to verify your identity, insurers may use publicly available data, which they obtain from a variety of sources, including a credit reference agency and other external organisations. Their search will appear on your credit report whether or not your application proceeds. All information on our records relating to you will be treated as private and confidential and will only be disclosed to others such as our business partners, insurers, credit providers and other third parties who are directly involved in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurance. We will only process the information where we have a lawful basis for processing. Further information is available in our Privacy Policy. Please contact us if you require further information. Where you have given us consent, we may use the data we hold about you to provide you with a renewal quotation and information about products and services we consider may be appropriate. Our Retention of your Personal Information - By using our services you consent to us, and our partners, retaining any personal information you have provided. We will retain any personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the business purpose for which it was collected. We will also retain and use your personal information for as long as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 and UK Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to ask us for a copy of any personal information about yourself that we hold on our records. Please contact us if you require any more information. For further information on your rights under the General Data Protection Regulations, please refer to the Information Commissioners Office – www.ico.org.uk. TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT Our agreement may be terminated by either one of us giving 30 days’ notice in writing to the other. You will be liable to pay for any outstanding transactions or adjustments prior to termination without any penalty fee as long as these are settled immediately on termination. We will be entitled to retain any fees or commission payable in relation to business transacted prior to date of the termination. LAW AND JURISDICTION These Terms of Business which form our agreement with you, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales / Scotland and the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh / Scottish courts unless we agree with you otherwise. BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION Our company culture and ethics mean that we do not bribe or use any other means to influence, improperly, the decisions of customers, potential customers or government officials. Our business is structured with appropriate systems and controls so as to comply with the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010. SANCTIONS Both parties shall pay due regard to, and co-operate in respect of the observance of, any applicable international economic, financial or trade sanctions legislation. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURES Our aim is to provide all of our customers with an excellent level of service; however, we recognise that there may be occasions when you do not feel satisfied with the service you have received from us. Should you need to make a complaint please contact our Complaints Manager using any of the methods below. • In person. • In writing – Sue Maclean, HISL Brokers, 63 St Marys Axe, London EC3A 8AA • By telephone – 0207 220 9020 • By email – sue.maclean@hislbrokers.com We aim to resolve complaints within three business days following receipt, however if we can't, we will write to you within five working days to acknowledge your complaint and provide details of our complaint handling procedures and who is dealing with your complaint. We aim to provide a final response to your complaint within eight weeks from the date of receipt of your complaint. If we cannot provide a final response within eight weeks, we will outline the reasons for the delay and provide you with an indication of when you can expect to receive a response. If you are dissatisfied with our final response, or we have been unable to provide our final response to your complaint you may be eligible to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) free of charge. Details of the eligibility criteria can be found in our complaint’s procedure or on the FOS website https://financial-ombudsman.org.uk. If you do decide to refer your complaint to the Ombudsman, you must do so within six months of the date of our final response. The FOS offer an independent service for resolving disputes and you can contact the FOS by: • Calling their consumer helpline on 0800 0234 567 or 0300 1239 123; • Writing to them at Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR; • Emailing complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk. We will include a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service's leaflet in all resolution letters. SOLVENCY AND COMPENSATION We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we place business with. We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for insurance mediation only; this does not extend to consumer credit lending. The FSCS is the UK's compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. You may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and circumstances of the claim. Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim with no upper limit, although compulsory insurance is protected in full. Further details about the FSCS can be found on their website www.fscs.org.uk. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Our company ethics and culture towards customer service means that we never deliberately put ourselves in a position where our interests or our duty to another party prevents us from discharging our duty to you. Where we become aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest we will tell you about the situation, the options available to you and we will ask for your consent to proceed.