Disclosure Information
The following information provides you with an important overview of Assured Limited, our duties to you, fees and how we manage complaints.
Licence Status and Conditions
Assured Limited, FSP645889, trading as Assured Group and Assured Insurance and Finance, holds a financial advice providers licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority.
Nature and Scope of Advice
Assured Limited provides advice to our clients about their financial, lending, life & risk insurance needs.
We advise on life, trauma, key person and private health insurance and other risk products. We also provide advocacy and support at claim time.
We access a wide panel of approved lenders such as banks and other finance institutions for mortgage and commercial lending products for residential lending, property investors, construction loans, commercial loans and asset finance. When providing our advice we give priority to clients’ needs and interests to find appropriate loans structures.
Fees, expenses, or other amounts payable
Assured Limited may charge you a fee for providing financial advice, placing of loans and finance, and for arranging, altering or cancelling your risk insurance. If a fee will be charged, you will be advised at the time the financial advice is provided.
In some circumstances we may recommend another service provider to assist us in providing appropriate financial advice. These providers can include accountant, solicitors, property valuers, property surveyors. These providers will charge a fee for the work they do. We will advise you of any related fees and charges prior to having them commence any work on your behalf.
Conflicts of interest and commissions or other incentives
Assured Limited has spent many years forging relationships with local and international lending institutions and insurance providers. The benefits of these relationships are seen every day by giving our clients outstanding choice, competitive pricing, loan structure and coverage options, and policy support services. Assured Limited is paid a commission from the insurance product provider and from the bank or lender when arranging insurance or finance with them on your behalf. The amount of commission received varies as it is calculated as a percentage of the total loan amount or insurance premium charged.
Assured Limited and its Financial Advisers may also receive indirect benefits such as business lunches, tickets to sporting and/or cultural events, corporate promotional merchandise and other unquantifiable minor benefits.
We recognise that the above commissions and incentives may create conflicts of interests for Assured Limited and your financial adviser. To manage these conflicts, our financial advisers follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made on the basis of your financial and risk management goals and circumstances. All our financial advisers undergo training about how to manage conflicts of interest. We undertake compliance audits of our financial advisers, and annually audit our conflicts of interest compliance framework.
We may, however, choose to rebate all or some commissions and charge you a fee based on the nature of the service we provide.
Complaints & Disputes Process
If you are not fully satisfied with the services provided by Assured Limited, please contact your financial adviser or Assured Limited directly. Assured Limited’s complaints officer will formally acknowledge your complaint in writing and will endeavour to resolve your complaint fairly and in a timely manner. Please review our Complaints Disclosure document for more details on Assured Limited’s complaints handling process. This can be found on our website at www.assuredgroup.co.nz or you can request a copy by emailing admin@assuredgroup.co.nz
Duties
We believe in delivering the most appropriate advice possible. We are bound by duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (Act).
We are required to:
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Meet certain standards of competence, knowledge and skill, as set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (Code of Conduct). These have been designed to ensure that we have the relevant expertise to provide you with advice.
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Take reasonable steps to ensure that you understand the nature and scope of the advice we give you and let you know if there are any limitations on the advice we provide. This will help you ensure that the advice provided meets your goals and objectives.
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Give priority to your interest, by taking all reasonable steps to make sure our advice isn’t materially influenced by our own interests.
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Exercise a prudent level of care, diligence and skill.
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Meet certain standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care as required by the Code of Conduct. These are designed to ensure that we treat you as we should and give you suitable advice.
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Not offer or recommend a finance or insurance product that contravenes the Act or related regulations. This gives you peace of mind that the products we recommend are compliant with relevant laws.
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Make certain disclosure information available to you at certain times, for example when advice is provided. We must not provide false, misleading or incomplete information. You can access the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services here.
Contact Details
Assured Limited [FSP645889] holds a financial advice provider licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority.
You can contact us at:
Phone: 027 554 4157
Email: admin@assuredgroup.co.nz
Address: First Floor,
54 Montgomery Square, Nelson 7010; or
PO Box 1609, Nelson 7040