Important Notices
POLICY
This notice refers to a contract of insurance that you have entered into via our company. You should refer to your policy document for the full terms and conditions applicable and you should read them carefully. Should any doubts arise as to the scope of cover provided, please contact us for an explanation.
YOUR DUTY NOT TO MAKE A MISREPRESENTATION
Duty to not make a misrepresentation – (consumer insurance contracts only )
Before you take out, renew or vary your policy, you have a duty under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (ICA) to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer (your duty).
Your duty applies only in respect of your policy that is a consumer insurance contract, which is a term defined in the ICA.
New Business
Your duty applies before you enter into the policy, and also before you renew, extend, vary, or reinstate the policy.
Before you do any of these things, you may be required to answer questions and the insurer will use the answers you provide in deciding whether to insure you, and anyone else to be insured under the policy, and on what terms. To ensure you meet your duty, your answers to the questions must be truthful, accurate and complete.
Renewals
This notice includes information you have previously told us that is relevant to your policy, which we passed on to the insurer. The insurer requires you to contact us to tell us if this information is incorrect, or if it has changed. If you do not tell us about a change to something you have previously told us, the insurer will take this to mean that there is no change.
To ensure you meet your duty, when you contact us to advise of any information that is incorrect or has changed, the updated information you give us must be truthful, accurate and complete.
If you fail to meet your duty, the insurer may be able to cancel your contract or reduce the amount it will pay if you make a claim, or both.
If your failure is fraudulent, the insurer may be able to refuse to pay a claim and treat the contract as if it never existed.
RETAIL CLIENTS
Under the Corporations Act 2001 and associated Regulations Retail Clients are provided with additional levels of protection from other insurance purchasers. The Act defines Retail Clients as:
Individuals or a small manufacturing business employing less than 100 people or any other business employing less than 20
people.
And that are being provided a financial service or product that relates to the following insurance covers:
Motor Vehicle (under 2 tonne), Home building, contents, personal and domestic, Sickness and Accident or Travel, Consumer Credit and other classes as prescribed by regulations.
WHAT ADVICE IS BEING PROVIDED (RETAIL CLIENTS ONLY)
If you are a RETAIL CLIENT (refer above) and a Statement of Advice has not been provided to you with this invoice then the advice that we are giving you related to this transaction is General Advice.
General Advice is advice that has been prepared without considering your current objective’s, financial situation or needs. Therefore, before acting on this advice, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice having regard to your current objective’s, financial situation or needs.
If the advice provided relates to the acquisition or possible acquisition of a new insurance policy and the insurer has prepared a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) we will have attached the PDS for your review. You should consider the PDS prior to making the decision to purchase this product. Further information regarding the income we have been paid by the insurer for this transaction is available upon request.
DISPUTES
Clients not satisfied with our services should contact our Complaints Officer. We are members of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), a free consumer service. Further information is available from our office, or contact FOS directly on 1300 780 808 or visit www.fos.org.au. We also follow the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice.
CANCELLATION WARNING (RETENTION OF BROKERAGE AND FEES)
If a cover is cancelled before expiry of the period of insurance, we reserve the right to refund to you only the net return premium we received from the insurer, and not refund any part of the brokerage or fees we receive for arranging the cover. A broker service fee may be charged to process the cancellation.
AVERAGE / CO-INSURANCE
It is most important that the Sum Insured you select is adequate to represent the value of the insured property and is calculated in accordance with the cover being arranged. Otherwise, you will be under-insured and in terms of the Average / Co-insurance provisions of your policy, you may be responsible for paying part of the loss you actually suffer.
THIRD PARTY INTERESTS
Insurance policies will only provide cover for your interest in the property insured and does not cover the interest of any third parties unless you have informed us of them in writing and they are noted on the policy.
COOLING OFF
All Retail Products are subject to a 14-day “cooling off period”. This means that if you are not happy with a Retail Product, you have 14 days to withdraw from the new contract at no cost to you other than our broker’s fee, which is not refundable.