Terms of Business effective from 20th November 2018
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 materials changes are made to these terms we will notify you.
Authorisation with the Central Bank of Ireland
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors (Central Bank number C35724) is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an Insurance Intermediary registered under the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations 2018 and as an Investment Intermediary authorised under the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995. 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.
Codes of Conduct
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors is subject to the Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness & Probity Standards which offer protection to consumers. These codes can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie.
Our Services
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors is a member of Brokers Ireland.
Our principal business is to provide advice and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to pension, investments, life assurance products (term cover, serious illness and permanent health insurance) and is authorised to act as a deposit broker. We also transmit orders on client’s behalf to any of the insurance undertakings or product producers from whom the Company holds letters of appointment. A list of such entities is available on request.
Fair and Personal Analysis
The concept of fair and personal analysis describes the extent of the choice of products and providers offered by an intermediary within a particular category of life assurance 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 and personal 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.
Investment Intermediary Services
We are remunerated by commission for our investment intermediary services.
Insurance based Investment Products
We are remunerated by commission for the advice we provide on our insurance-based investment products.
Life, Pension & life wrapped Investments
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors provides life assurance, pensions and investments on a fair and personal analysis basis i.e. providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product providers 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 we will 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; 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.
Statement of Charges
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors may earn our remuneration on the basis of fee, commission and any other type of remuneration, including an economic benefit of any kind offered or given with the insurance contract. You may elect to deal with us on a fee basis. We reserve the right to charge additional fees if the number of hours relating to on-going advice/assistance exceeds 10 hours.
Fees are charged as follows:
Advisor fees: €200 per hour
Support staff: €75 per hour
Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency.
In certain circumstances it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided. These range from a minimum of €200.00 per hour to a maximum of €250.00 per hour. In other circumstances where fees are chargeable or where you choose to pay in full for our service by fee, we will notify you in writing in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged if different from the fees state above.
If our firm is in receipt of initial commission and renewal income confirmation of this will be provided to our clients in their statement of suitability which is issued to our clients prior to any transactions taking place.
Where we receive recurring commission, this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided.
Ongoing Suitability
Investments
Ongoing suitability assessments form part of the service to clients. On an annual basis the firm will issue a client report outlining changes in the services or instruments involved and/or the circumstances of the client.
Insurance based Investment Products
We will provide periodic assessments of the suitability of the insurance-based investment product which we have recommended to you.
Regular Reviews
It is 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 your needs. Failure to contact us of changes in your circumstances, or failure to request a review, may result in you have insufficient insurance cover and/or inappropriate investments.
Disclosure of Information
It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information for insurers when arranging an insurance policy, throughout the life of that policy, and when you are renewing it. It is important that you ensure that all information provided, and all statements made on proposal forms, statements of fact, claim forms and other documents are, to your knowledge and belief complete and accurate. Failure to disclosure any material information to your insurers could invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that all or part of a claim will not be paid or your policy cancelled. If you have any doubts as to whether any information is material it should be disclosed. Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.
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 arises we will advise you of this in writing before providing you with any service. A full copy of our conflicts of interest policy is available on request.
Default on Payments by Clients
We will exercise our legal rights to receive payments due to us from clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In particular, without limitation to the generality of the foregoing, the firm will see 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.
Complaints
Whilst we are happy to receive verbal complaints, it would be preferable that any complaints are made in writing. We will acknowledge your complaint in writing 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 business 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 and/or our response to your complaint, you are entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO). A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request. All complaints should be directed to Mr Tom Duffy.
Data Protection
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors is subject to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We wish to be transparent on how we process your data and show you that we are accountable with the GDPR in relation to not only processing your data but ensuring you understand your rights as a client.
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, this will be given to all our clients at the time of data collection.
We will ensure that this Privacy Notice is easily assessable. Please refer to our website www.duffyfinancial.ie, if this medium is not suitable we will ensure you can easily receive a copy by post or email.
Please contact us at tom@duffyfinancial.ie if you have any concerns about your personal data.
Compensation Scheme
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors is a member of the Investor Compensation Scheme operated by the Investor Compensation Company ltd. See below for details.
Investor Compensation Scheme
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 right is an eligible investor as defined in the Act;
- 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;
- 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 €100,000 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 are available on request.
—————————————————————————————————————————
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors, Fitzroy House, Castle Street, Mullingar, Co Westmeath
Phone: (044) 93 48772 / Fax: (01) 633 5019 / Email: tom@duffyfinancial.ie
Duffy Mortgage & Investment Advisors Ltd trading as Duffy Financial Advisors is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Registered in Ireland.
Member of: LIA – Life Insurance Association & Brokers Ireland
Company registration number: 386258. Directors: Thomas Duffy, Orla Duffy & Gerard Duffy
