Terms of Business - O'Donovan Insurances
As a valued client of O’Donovan Insurances it is important that you are fully up to date with consumer protection information regarding this brokerage and our designation as a section 10 multi agency intermediary.
CONSUMER INFORMATION:
James O’Donovan, Sheamus O’Donovan & Sharon O’Donovan trading as O’Donovan Insurances is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Our authorisation number is 4322 and a copy of our statement of authorisation is available.
O’Donovan Insurances (“The Firm”) ltd is authorised in Ireland to provide the investment instrument insurance policies, tracker bonds and PRSA’s under Section 10 of the Investments Intermediaries Act, 1995, as amended. Our firm is also registered as an insurance/reinsurance intermediary under the European Communities (Insurance Mediation) Regulations, 2005 (as amended). We are also authorised as a deposit broker. The Central Bank of Ireland holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the Central Bank of Ireland on (01) 4104000 or alternatively visit their website on www.centralbank.ie to verify our credentials.
Our firm is subject to the following Codes of conduct issued by the Central Bank of Ireland. These codes offer protection to our clients and all of the Codes can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie
Consumer Protection Code 2012, Minimum Competency Code 2011, Prudential Handbook for Authorised Advisors and Restricted Intermediaries, Fitness and Probity Standards.
Under the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 we may receive and transmit orders in investment instruments to each insurance company (product producer) listed hereunder from whom a letter of appointment is held. O’Donovan Insurances is bonded through its membership of the Irish Brokers Association for €200,000.00 Euro with an inner limit of €65,000.00 Euro per client and holds professional indemnity insurance as required by the Financial Regulator.
Services:
Our firm provides its life, investment, pension and non-life services to our clients on a fair analysis basis. “Fair analysis of the market” means that our firm provides its non-life services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable our firm to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet our clients consumer’s needs. When our firm provides deposit services to clients we provide this service on a limited analysis basis meaning that our firm provides non-life services on the basis of a limited number of contracts and product producers available on the market.
Our firm is authorised to provide the following services and offer advice in relation to all aspects of non-life insurance (motor, household, contents, health, commercial vehicle, travel, farm, shop, office, property owners, combined, liability, professional indemnity, motor fleet, marine, fire , marine cargo, yacht / pleasure craft ). We also provide advice on life insurance, investments, pensions, savings and deposits.
REMUNERATION POLICY NON-LIFE ASSURANCE:
O’Donovan Insurances is remunerated by a combination of commission received from product producers (details available on request) to whom orders are transmitted and an administration charge/fee of up to 40% of the premium subject to a minimum of €100. These charges cover: sourcing of product, administration costs, risk management, claims handling assistance, compliance and advice. In determining the application of any such charge factors such as specialist skills, complexity, value, risk and urgency will be taken into account. Where broker to broker schemes are used the source broker may also be charging a brokerage fee. We reserve the right to earn upto 3% commission from premium finance providers.
ALTERATIONS, CANCELLATION & TEMPORARY SUBSTITUTION CHARGES
Fees are charged for any midterm alteration to your policy i.e. duplicate documents, transfers, change of sums insured etc. This charge will be upto 40% of the alteration premium subject to a minimum alteration charge of €100.00.
Premium rebates are subject to an administration charge/rebate fee of no more than 20% of the rebate amount subject to a minimum of €100.00. We do reserve the right to offset rebates due to clients against any sums outstanding from that client to us and/or the client’s insurer. There is no VAT charge on any transaction however stamp duty and/or government levies may apply.
LIFE ASSURANCE:
O’Donovan Insurances in the case of life assurance / investments contracts where the firm is not in receipt of commission, will charge a service fee, agreed with the clients, in advance of the provision of the service, depending on the complexity the transaction, the time spent and nature and extent of the transaction.
SOFT COMMISSION:
O’Donovan Insurances may be in receipt on soft commissions from insurance undertakings– a list is available on request as this may vary from year to year.
HANDLING CLIENTS’MONEY
O’Donovan Insurances will accept payments in cash, cheque bank draft, and postal order in respect of all classes of insurance in circumstances permitted under section 25G of the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995.
In conformity with current legislation O'Donovan Insurances cannot pay premiums to product producers, which have not been paid to it by clients. Premiums must be paid at inception date, or, on or before renewal date, or as invoiced to you as there are NO DAYS OF CREDIT. In the event of default by the client in failing to pay, the product producer will be informed and cancellation of cover may result.
O’Donovan Insurances are not authorised to accept cash or negotiable instruments in any other circumstances.
DEFAULT ON PAYMENT BY CLIENT:
O’Donovan Insurances will exercise its legal right to receive payments due to it from Clients for investment business services provided. In particular, without limitation of the generality of the foregoing. The firm will seek 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. Insurers and other 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.
RECEIPTS
O’Donovan Insurances shall issue a receipt for each non-negotiable or negotiable instrument or payment received. This is required pursuant section 30 of the “Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995”. These are issued with your protection in mind and should be stored safely.
INVESTOR COMPENSATION:
The Investor Compensation Act 1998 provides for the establishment of a compensation scheme and payment, in certain circumstances, of compensation to certain clients (known as eligible investors) of authorized investment firms, as defined in the 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 the 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 there is no reasonably foreseeable opportunity of the firm being able to do so.
A right to compensation will arise only:
a. If the Client is an eligible investor as defined in the Act; and : b. 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: and
c. to the extent that the Client’s loss is recognized for the purposes of the Act.
Where an entitlement to compensation is established, the compensation payable will be the lesser of: 90°/s of the amount of the Client’s loss which is recognized for the purposes of the Investor Compensation -Act 1998: or
Compensation of up to €20,000.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
We at O'Donovan insurances wish to avoid conflict of interest when providing services to you our clients. We will endeavour at all times to make every effort to avoid conflicts of interest, Where an unavoidable conflict arises we will advise you of this in writing before providing any business service. If you have not been informed of any such conflict you may assume that none arises.
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE:
We will acknowledge each complaint received in writing within 5 business days of the complaint being received.
We will provide the complainant with the name of the Complaints Officer as the main point of contact in respect of their complaint until their complaint is resolved or cannot be processed any further.
We will provide the complainant with a regular written update on the progress of the investigation of the complaint at intervals of not greater than 20 business days.
We will attempt to investigate and resolve the complaint within 40 business days of having received the complaint. When the 40 days has elapsed, if the complaint is not resolved, we will inform the complainant of the anticipated timeframe within which we hope to resolve the complaint. At this point we will inform the complainant of their right to refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman’s Bureau www.financialombudsman.ie or the Pensions Ombudsman www.pensionombudsman.ie.
Where we resolve the complaint, we will advise the complainant in writing, within 5 business days of the completion of the investigation of the complaint, the outcome of the investigation and where applicable explain the terms of any offer or settlement being made. We will also inform the complainant of their right to refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman’s Bureau or the Pensions Ombudsman.
We will maintain an up to date record of all complaints including all relevant correspondence, records and any action taken.
Financial Services Ombudsman's Bureau Office of the pensions Ombudsman:
3rd Floor, 36 Upper Mount Street,
Lincoln House, Dublin 2,
Lincoln Place,
Dublin 2Lo Call: 1890 88 20 90
Tel:01 6620899 Tel+ 00 353 1 6471650
Fax:01 6620890 Fax+ 00 353 1 6769577
DATA PROTECTION:
Our client’s personal data is confidential and available only to our firm, we do not pass on clients details to any other firm unless instructed to do so by our client.
Data Protection is the safeguarding of the privacy rights of individuals in relation to the processing of your personal data. For the purpose of data protection, organisations of individuals who control the contents use of personal data are known as data controllers. These rights empower you to ensure that your information is accurate is only made available to those that should have it and is only used for specifies purposes. In the event that you have any difficulty enforcing your rights, you can avail of the assistance of the Data Protection Commissioner. Further information on your rights is available from
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, Block 6, Floor 3, Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.
LoCall: 1890-2522312 or their website: www.dataprotection.ie
MONEY LAUNDERING:
Client Identification - we are required to identify our clients for the purposes of the anti-money laundering legislation. (Criminal Justice Act 1994 as amended). We are likely to request from you and retain, some information and documentation for these purposes..
OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL INSURANCE ADD ONS:
At policy inception or renewal we may offer you optional insurance products or services – such as legal protection, personal accident, vehicle breakdown, replacement car hire, annual travel insurance or a combination of all. These are optional benefits and will be clearly indicated to you as such – the cost of these optional benefits will also be shown separately on our documentation. Please tick the box at the end of this sentence if you wish to be offered these optional extra benefits
AGENCIES:
We currently hold written letters of appointment with the following insurance companies/product producers, with whom we can arrange all classes of non-life risks e.g. motor, property, liability, marine etc. Copy of this list is available on request.
OTHER ISSUES:
Please note we may record and store telephone calls, written correspondence and electronic communication to and from you.