Terms of Business Agreement

Applying to General Insurance customers – You should carefully read these Terms that apply to our appointment by you and the services we will provide. Company Contact Details – AIPS 363 Nottingham Road, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 4SG

Telephone: 01623 650750  Fax: 01623 420257  Email: insurance@aips.co.uk

“AIPS” is a trading style of Autonetic Insurance and Pensions Services Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Our Firm Reference Number is 309081.

You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk or by calling the FCA on 0800 111 6768.

About the Firm

We are an independent Insurance Intermediary. However, to assist in accessing all available markets, we subscribe as a member to Broker Network Limited. Our membership of this network does not affect our independence. We are also members of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) is the UK’s leading general insurance intermediary organisation representing the interests of insurance brokers, intermediaries and their customers.

Our Service

We offer a wide range of insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the marketplace. For some types of insurance we deal predominantly with a single or limited number of insurers which we have selected as offering value for money and quality service. We will give you details of these arrangements before you make any commitment on any product we offer you and a list of the insurers used in these cases will be available on request. We will explain the main features of the products and services that we offer you including details of the provider, main details of cover and benefits, any unusual restrictions or exclusions, any significant conditions or obligations and the period of cover. We will make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs, or advise you if we are unable to place your insurance.  In some circumstances we provide information only and do not therefore make a personal recommendation.  The documentation we provide will make it clear whether the sale is provided on an advised or non-advised basis. We also make clear in our documentation prior to conclusion of the contract areas where we are acting as agent for the customer, the insurer or both.

Limitations and exclusion of our liability

The following provisions set out our entire financial liability to you:

You acknowledge and agree that you shall only be entitled to make a claim against us and not against any individual employee or consultant engaged by us. Any claim or series of claims arising from one act, error, omission, incident or original cause shall be considered to be one claim. We shall not be liable to you for any loss of profit or loss of business whether directly or indirectly occurring and which arises out of or in connection with the provision of our services. Nothing in this paragraph shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or for loss by our fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation or breach of regulatory obligations owed to you. You are welcome to contact us to discuss increasing the limitations of our liability and /or varying the exclusions set out above.

Solvency of Insurers

We cannot guarantee the solvency of any insurer with which we place business. This means that you may still be liable for any premium due and not be able to recover the premium paid, whether in full or in part, should an insurer become insolvent.

Important Information (consumer customers only)

• Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representation) Act 2012 it is your duty as a consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to an insurer.
• Under the act a consumer is defined as an individual who enters into an insurance contract wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to the individual’s trade, business or profession.
• A failure by the consumer to comply with the insurers request to confirm or amend particulars previously given is capable of being a misrepresentation for the purpose of this act.
• It is important that you ensure all statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate and we recommend that you keep a copy of all correspondence in relation to the arrangement of your insurance.
• Under the act an insurer has a remedy against a consumer in respect of qualifying misrepresentations in breach of the consumers’ duty of reasonable care where the insurer deems the misrepresentation to be either deliberate, reckless or careless

If in doubt about any point in relation to your duty to take reasonable care and subsequent qualifying misrepresentations please contact us immediately.

The duty of fair presentation (non consumer customers only)

The Insurance Act came into force in 2016 and changes the way the law deals with the duty of disclosure for commercial insurance contracts. The purpose of the Act is to update the current law to reflect the way in which the insurance market has evolved in modern times with the aim being to achieve a fair and balanced regime between insurers and insureds.

What do you need to do?

Under the Act insurance contracts will still be based on good faith and you will have a duty to make a fair presentation of the risk to insurers, based on you conducting a reasonable search for information, which will include disclosure of:

• Every material circumstance which as an insured you are expected to know or ought to know about the risk for which you are seeking insurance;

Or

• Sufficient information to put a prudent insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries to reveal those material circumstances.

You must ensure that any information you provide is correct to the best of your knowledge and subject to you having conducted a reasonable search for information. This could require you to obtain or verify information with a number of sources who may hold or have access to important information about your business or the insurance risk.

This may include key decision makers or those with responsibility for arranging your insurance (including us as your broker) or other parties that carry out outsourced functions for your business such as (but not limited to):

Senior managers and those with accountability for managing functions relevant to the risk		Persons covered by the insurance e.g. co insured or sub-contractors
Persons normally involved in arranging insurance for the organisation		Employees who may have in-depth or specialist knowledge on processes and procedures
Risk managers		Outsource contractors and service providers

If in doubt about any point in relation to material circumstances and reasonable search, please contact us immediately.

Financial Crime

• Please be aware that current UK money laundering regulations require us to obtain adequate ‘Know Your Client’ information about you. We are also required to cross check you against the HM Financial Sanctions List as part of the information gathering process.
• We are obliged to report to the National Crime Agency any evidence or suspicion of financial crime at the first opportunity and we are prohibited from disclosing any such report.
• We will not permit our employees or other persons engaged by them to be either influenced or influence others in respect of undue payments or privileges from or to insurers or clients.

Consumer Credit Licence

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in respect of our current Consumer Credit Permissions. We act as a Credit Broker only and cannot provide any debt management services.

Terms of Payment

Our payment terms are as follows (unless specifically agreed by us in writing to the contrary):

• New policies: immediate payment on or before the inception date of the policy

• Alterations to existing policies: immediate payment on or before the effective date of the change

• Renewals: due in full before the renewal date

If payment is not received from you in accordance with the above terms, we, or your insurer may be forced to cancel or lapse the relevant policy/policies, which could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.  You may also be in breach of legally required insurance cover.

When renewal is invited and the policy is paid by insurer monthly direct debit, we will issue a notice to you. To ensure you are not left without cover, the absence of a response to this notice will be deemed as your consent to cover being renewed automatically.

If you choose to pay for your insurance premium using a finance provider your details will be passed onto them. They will provide you with a breakdown of the costs of your monthly installments and subsequently a document outlining key features of their credit agreement with you including any fees they apply and the cost of default charges, it is important that you take time to read this document and must contact us if you do not receive this. If you have any queries or questions, either about the service provided by the finance provider or their terms and conditions you should in the first instance contact them. Where your policy is paid via the finance provider and you choose to renew your cover, we will again continue to pass your details to them. If any direct debit or other payment due in respect of any credit agreement you enter into to pay insurance premiums is not met when presented for payment or if you end the credit agreement we will be informed of such events by the finance provider. In certain circumstances we may be contractually obliged by the finance provider to notify your insurer to cancel the policy. Where we are not contractually obliged to do so by the finance provider, if you do not make other arrangements with us to pay the insurance premiums you acknowledge and agree that we may, at any time after being informed of non payment under the credit agreement, instruct on your behalf the relevant insurer to cancel the insurance and to collect any refund of premiums which may be made by the insurer and use this refund to offset the amount levied by the finance provider on the firm.  If this amount is not sufficient to cover all our costs we reserve the right to pursue any additional debt owed to the firm through a due legal process.

You will be responsible for paying any time on risk charge and putting in place any alternative insurance and/or payment arrangements you need.

Upon receiving your strict acceptance to pay for insurance premiums through the finance provider, we will instruct them to proceed with your application for credit. This process will involve the provider searching public information that a credit reference agency holds about you and any previous payment history you have with that provider. The credit reference agency will add details of your search and your application to their record about you whether or not your application is successful.

Please read carefully the pre-contractual explanations and the information regarding the cost of credit (including any representative examples). Together they provide important information in relation to the credit facility available from the finance provider. To use the finance providers facility you must be resident in the UK, aged 18 years or over and hold a bank or building society current account which can support direct debit payments. Credit is available subject to status.

Any payment we receive from you will be held by us in a Statutory Client Trust Bank Account held with NatWest. In some cases the payment we receive will be held on behalf of the provider with whom we arrange your policy as their agent.  This means that any payment you make to us will be regarded as having been paid to the provider.  This is known as risk transfer.

Please make all cheques payable to AIPS.

By instructing us to place insurance on your behalf you give your informed consent to these Client Money procedures. If there are any matters which you do not understand, or do not accept, you should discuss them with us before proceeding.

We may pass the money you pay us to another intermediary. We will only do this where it is a necessary part of the process of arranging cover for you.

Where this includes intermediaries outside the UK, the legal and regulatory regime may be different from that of the UK. In the event of the intermediary failing money may be treated differently than if it was held by an intermediary in the UK. You may notify us if you do not wish your money to be passed to a person in a particular jurisdiction.

No interest will be payable to customers in respect of the client account.  Any interest earned will remain in the ownership of AIPS.

Notification of Incidents/Claims

It is essential to notify us immediately of all incidents that may result in a claim against your insurance policy. You must do so whether you believe you are liable or not. Any letter or claim received by you must be passed to us immediately, without acknowledgement. Only by providing prompt notification of incidents can your insurance company take steps to protect your interests. Your policy summary and/or policy document will provide you with details on who to contact to make a claim.

Claims payment will be made in favour of you. If you require a payment to be made to a third party then you must confirm the required payee name and details and provide a brief explanation for your request.

Please contact us for guidance on claiming under your policy.

Cancellation

Your policy document will detail your rights to cancel your insurance once you have taken it out. Depending on the type of policy you have purchased, you may be entitled to cancel within 14 or 30 days of either conclusion of the contract or receiving your policy documentation, whichever occurs later.  This is often referred to as a cooling off period. Where you cancel a policy before renewal you will be responsible for paying a charge to meet the cost of cover provided and administration expenses. Please see the Refunds section. To enable your insurer to process the cancellation, you will need to return certificates and any official documents to our office within 30 days of your notice to cancel.

Charges/Fees

In addition to the amount charged by insurers we also make charges to cover the administration of your insurance. Any applicable insurance premium tax will be shown on the documentation we provide to you.

Where we arrange low or non-commission paying products, we will charge an arrangement fee which will be advised to you at the time of quotation or renewal. These fees may be subject to change. Where there are changes, we will confirm this clearly and the actual amount will always be disclosed to you before you commit to purchasing the product. To the extent that it is not possible for an amount to be given the firm will provide the basis for its calculation

Remuneration

In good time before the conclusion of the initial contract of insurance and if necessary, on its amendment or a renewal the firm will advise you

(a) On the nature / typeof remuneration the firm received in relation to the contract of insurance

(b) In relation to the contract of insurance the basis/source of the remuneration. 

1. a fee that is remuneration paid directly by you to the firm or
2. a commission of any kind that is a remuneration included in the premium; or;
3. any other type of remuneration including an economic benefit of any kind offered or given in connection with the contract; or
4. the basis of a combination of any type of remuneration set out above

As insurance brokers our remuneration may be as a fee agreed with you or from commission paid to us by insurers based on the amount they charge you. Commercial customers are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing or renewing your insurance cover.

We take any commission once we settle the premium to the insurer. We may occasionally receive additional remuneration from certain insurers for insurance policies we place with them and/or finance providers and others. Please ask us should you require further information. Where you choose to pay your premium by instalments, we may use a scheme operated by your insurer, or we may use a Finance Provider selected from a limited panel, and we may receive a commission for introducing you to them.

Refunds

Where a policy is cancelled before renewal, insurers charge to cover their costs, with the balance refunded to you, subject to no claim having been made. Full details will be available in your policy. In the event of an adjustment giving rise to a return of premium the amount may be refunded or held to credit.

Your attention is specifically drawn to the following: –

Where you cancel your policy after the expiry of the cooling off period or where you request a mid-term adjustment which results in a refund of premium, we reserve the right to charge you for our time and costs. This will usually result in us reducing the amount refunded to you by the FULL amount of the commission and fees we would have received had you not cancelled. The reason for this is that the majority of our costs are incurred either in initially finding and setting up your policy or in the annual renewal process when we might check the ongoing suitability of the cover the policy offers. These costs are recovered through the commission we earn. If you cancel, this does not give us an opportunity to recover the costs we incurred and would often result in us making a loss. However, any charge made will not exceed the cost of the commission and fees we would have earned. For certain commercial insurance policies, insurers will only provide cover where the premium is due in full on inception of the policy. This means that no refund will be paid if the policy is cancelled before renewal. We will advise you if this affects you. In view of the cost involved in making changes to your policy, we will not issue refunds of less than £25.00.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and you may be entitled to compensation from the scheme depending on the type of business and circumstances of the claim if we cannot meet our obligations. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at www.fscs.org.uk

Confidentiality and Data Protection

We are a data controller for the information you provide to us including individual, identification and financial details, policy history and special category data (such as medical or criminal history). Details of our legal basis for processing your information, along with details of any third party recipient whom it may be necessary to share your personal data with in order to fulfill the contract, retention period for data held, security of your data, your rights under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) including the right to complain can be found in our full ‘Privacy Notice’ attached to these terms of business.

Communications/Documentation

We will issue all documentation to you in a timely manner. Documentation relating to your insurance will confirm the basis of the cover and provide details of the relevant insurers. It is therefore important that the documentation is kept in a safe place, as you may need to refer to it or need it to make a claim. A new policy/policy booklet is not necessarily provided each year, although a duplicate can be provided at any time upon request. You should always check the documentation to ensure all the details are correct and if this is not the case you should contact us immediately.

Termination of our Authority to Act on Your Behalf

You or we may terminate our authority to act on your behalf by providing at least 14 days’ notice in writing (or such other period we agree) Termination is without prejudice to any transactions already initiated by you, which will be completed according to these terms of business unless we agree otherwise in writing. You will remain liable to pay for any transactions or adjustments effective prior to termination and we shall be entitled to retain any and all commission and/or fees payable in relation to insurance cover placed by us prior to the date of written termination.

General

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of the other provisions of these Terms and the remainder of the provision in question will not be affected. These Terms shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales or Scotland and the parties agree herewith that any dispute arising out of it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the relevant court. These Terms supersede all proposal, prior discussions and representations (whether oral or written) between us relating to our appointment as your agent in connection with the arranging and administration of your insurance. These Terms constitute an offer by us to act on your behalf in the arranging and administration of your insurance. In the absence of any specific acceptance communicated to us by you (whether verbal or written) you are deemed to accept our offer to act for you on the basis of these Terms, by conduct, upon your instructing us to arrange, renew or otherwise act for you in connection with insurance matters.

Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with the highest possible level of customer service at all times. However, we recognise that things can go wrong occasionally and if this occurs we are committed to resolving matters promptly and fairly. Should you wish to complain you may do so:

• In writing to the Operations Director, who is responsible for complaints

• By telephone on 01623 663107

• By Fax on 01623 663119

• By e-mail at insurance@aips.co.uk

• In person by visiting our office (see above for address)

Should you not be satisfied with our final response, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). More information is available on request or on their website:

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Further details will be supplied at the time of responding to your complaint.