Financial Services Guide
FINANCIAL SERVICES GUIDE
Vie General Insurance Pty Ltd is a corporate authorised representative of GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd. We trade as Vie General Insurance Pty Ltd (ASIC AR Number 001294319).
LACK OF INDEPENDENCE
We receive commission from the underwriters that we place your insurance with and we retain that commission to operate our business.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE
This Financial Services Guide (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
We are an Authorised Representative (AR) of GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, who holds an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL). We are authorised by them to advise and deal in tier 1 general insurance products only.
We employ the following staff who are also authorised representatives of GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd: Leigh De Jong – A.R. No. 001277593.
GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd is responsible for the financial services provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG. They are required to meet high standards for staff training, organisational competence, management expertise, financial control and compliance disciplines.
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 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
- Seeking competitive premium quotations
HOW TO CONTACT US
You are able to contact us by phone, in writing, email or in person. Please refer to our contact information detailed in the below segments.
OUR PRODUCTS
We can advise and arrange the following insurances on your behalf: All General Insurance Products, such as; Home and Contents, Landlords, Motor Vehicle, Commercial Motor Vehicle, Workers Compensation, Business Packages, Office Packages, etc.
RETAIL CLIENTS
Under the Corporations 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”.
This FSG applies from 22/06/2022 – V3. 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. 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 (advice that takes into account your particular circumstances), we will give you a Statement of Advice (SOA), that sets out the advice provided, the basis upon 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 orally. 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 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 insurance providers 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.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
The Privacy Act 1988 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. Our Privacy Policy Statement is available free of charge upon request.
COMPLAINTS
Clients not satisfied with our services should contact GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd’s Complaints Officer. GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), a free consumer service. Further information is available from our office, or you can contact AFCA directly on 1800 931 678 or visit www.afca.org.au. GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd also adopts the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice.
COMPENSATION
GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd holds a Professional Indemnity Policy which also provides coverage 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 for work done by us after we cease to work for GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd and satisfies the requirements for compensation arrangements under Section 912B of The Act.
ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF DISCLOSURE NOTICES
Please note that where possible we prefer to provide all correspondence and disclosure notices (including Financial Services Guides and Product Disclosure Statements) to you electronically, via email or links to websites etc. If you have provided your email address to us, we will typically use that email address for all correspondence and disclosure notices. Should you not wish to be sent disclosure documents electronically please advise us and we will update our records accordingly.
HOW ARE WE PAID/SOURCE OF INCOME
We receive 85% of GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd’s income that is generated by our clients. 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 remuneration details will be disclosed in the SOA or invoices related to the advice.
If you are a Retail Client and we give your Personal Advice, commission amounts will be provided in any SOA or on any relevant invoices where an SOA is not provided. When we give you General Advice, full commission information (including dollar amounts) will be provided on request.
GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd has a set of standard non-refundable broker fees that they charge for services such as:
- Market research on products available.
- Assessing the claims service of insurers.
- Sourcing alternative quotations and coverage.
- Risk analysis and portfolio co-ordination.
All fees payable for services will be advised to you at or before the time of providing the advice or service. GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd may receive additional remuneration from insurers with whom they have profit share or volume bonus arrangements. This remuneration is payable if they meet certain agreed sales and/or profitability targets set by the insurer. If they 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 if the amount involved is material.
GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd retains the interest on premiums paid by you that are held in their trust account before paying the insurer.
If you pay by credit card, GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd may charge you a credit card 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 invoice by instalments. Premium funders do charge interest. We can arrange premium funding if you require it. We will normally receive a commission of between 1% and 4% of the amount funded from the Premium Funder for arranging the funding. We will tell you the basis and amount of any such payment if you ask.
STEADFAST MEMBERSHIP
We are a Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) Network Broker and have access to member services including model operating and compliance tools, procedures, manuals and training, legal, technical, HR, contractual liability advice and assistance, group insurance arrangements, product comparison and placement support, claims support, group purchasing arrangements and broker support services. These services are either funded by Steadfast, subsidised by Steadfast or available exclusively to Steadfast Network Brokers for a fee.
Steadfast has arrangements with some insurers and premium funders (Partners) under which the Partners pay Steadfast a fee to access strategic and technological support and the Steadfast Broker Network. Steadfast is also a shareholder of some Partners. You can obtain a copy of Steadfast’s FSG at www.steadfast.com.au.
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 at our discretion to discuss 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.
CONTACT DETAILS
Vie General Insurance Pty Ltd Financial Services Guide
ABN: 80 655 329 016
41A Tamar Street, Launceston TAS 7250
Ph: 0447 970 402 | Email: ldejong@vie.com.au
Authorised Representative No. 001294745 of GI Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd
AFS License No: 521808 | ABN: 23 638 733 070
192 Charles Street, Launceston TAS 7250
PO Box 745, Launceston TAS 7250
Ph: (03) 6364 3824 | Email: reception@giib.com.au | Website: www.giinsurancebrokers.com.au
This FSG has been authorised by the licensee and applies from 22/06/2022.