Our Terms of Business -Insurance Services & Costs
Authorisation Statement
Plan & Protect Solutions is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA regulates financial services in the UK and you can check our authorisation and permitted activities on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk/firms/systems-reporting/register. Our FCA number is 958343.
Our Services
For protection and insurance contracts we are an intermediary and will act on your behalf when providing advice and making our personal recommendation(s) to you. We will do this based on a fair and personal analysis of insurers for term Life assurance, income protection, critical illness, private medical insurance and Cash plans.
The Costs of our Services
At our meetings, we discussed the way in which Plan and Protect Solutions Ltd would be remunerated for our services. We agreed that Plan and Protect Solutions Ltd will receive commission from the respective insurer to cover the cost of advice, administration of the policy and you will not pay an up-front fee for this initially.
The above commission payment can be used to offset our fee and there will be no further payment required. Although this means you pay nothing up front, this does not mean the service is free. You still pay us indirectly through the contract charges. Contract charges pay for the provider’s own costs and any commission.
We do not charge you an up-front fee for arrangement of an insurance product as we will receive a commission as stated above from the product provider. If however you cease to pay premiums and/or the policy cancels the insurer will clawback a proportion of the commission that has been paid to us. As this commission covers the cost of our service to you, its important that you understand that there is a financial adverse impact on us if you were to cancel your protection plan (life cover, critical illness, income protection) within the first 4 years of that cover being in place.
If you would rather pay an up-front fee for our advice (instead of us gaining a commission) then please let us know during our first discussion and a fee schedule around hours worked will be documented and agreed and finalised and paid prior to any advice been given.
Our Ethical Policy
We are committed to providing the highest standard of advice and service possible. The interest of our customers is paramount to us and to achieve this we have designed our systems and procedures to place you at the heart of our business. In doing so, we will:
• be open, honest and transparent in the way we deal with you;
• not place our interests above yours;
• communicate clearly, promptly and without jargon;
• seek your views and perception of our dealings with you to ensure it meets your
expectations or to identify any improvements required.
Cancellation rights
Certain protection and insurance contracts allow you the right to cancel after a contract has been put in force. Prior to you entering into a contract of protection or insurance we will provide you with specific details should this apply to include: its duration; conditions, practical instructions and any costs for exercising it, together with the consequences of not exercising it.
Instructions
We prefer our clients to give us instructions in writing, to aid clarification and avoid future misunderstandings. We will, however, accept oral instructions provided they are confirmed in writing.
Complaints
If you wish to register a complaint, please write to Plan & Protect Solutions Ltd, 15 New Street, Littleborough, OL15 8HW or telephone 07725585817.
A summary of our internal complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4567.
Compensation Scheme
If you make a complaint and we are unable to meet our liabilities, you may be entitled to compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Further information about the limits applicable to the different product types is available from the FSCS at http://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/products
Client Verification
We may be required to verify the identity of our clients, to obtain information as to the purpose and nature of the business which we conduct on their behalf, and to ensure that the information we hold is up-to-date. For this purpose we may use electronic identity verification systems and we may conduct these checks from time to time throughout our relationship, not just at the beginning.
Law
This agreement is governed and shall be construed in accordance with the Law of England and the parties shall submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
Force Majeure
Plan & Protect Solutions shall not be in breach of this Agreement and shall not incur any liability to you if there is any failure to perform its duties due to any circumstances reasonably beyond its control.
Termination
The authority to act on your behalf may be terminated at any time without penalty by either party giving seven days notice in writing to that effect to the other, but without prejudice to the completion of transactions already initiated. Any transactions effected before termination and a due proportion of any period charges for services shall be settled to that date.