Nature of our Advice and Services

Life Assurance Limited’s advisers are regulated financial advisers working as insurance advisers and brokers, providing business insurance, life and health insurance, and risk management-related advice and services.

When recommending insurance products to you, we use a range of local insurers. Some insurers however, do not make their products available to insurance brokers such as ourselves, but our advisers may provide comparisons between their policy wording and the policy wording of insurers we may recommend to help you make informed decisions about which products best suit your needs.

Life Assurance Limited are required to comply with certain competency and conduct requirements defined by the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FCMA), listed as the code of conduct. While carrying out our services to you, we will ensure that we, and any person giving advice on our behalf:

If our financial advisers are unable to provide advice on any particular product discussed, this will be made clear in the Scope of Service and Statement of Advice provided.

Amounts Payable

Policy Fees.

Insurance premiums or insurer administration fees are charged directly to you by your insurer. Your policy fee may change at any time. Should a change in your policy fee be required, the change will take effect from your next anniversary date.

Pay your premium on time

You are responsible for paying the premium and other charges within the period specified on each invoice as provided by your insurer or us.

If you make a late or no payment

If you do not pay the cost of your insurance within the time specified on your invoice an insurer may cancel your policy and you may be uninsured. The insurer may also charge a premium for any time they may have covered you without payment.

Where applicable, we will let you know if insurers have imposed a specific premium condition that may give the insurer the right to cancel your policy if the condition is not met. Please contact your broker if you are unable to comply with a premium payment condition.

Goods & Services Tax

You will be charged Goods & Services Tax (GST) where applicable. Any quote, estimation or invoice that we may give you will include GST unless otherwise specified. Pursuant to sections 3 and 14 of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985, Life insurance premiums, are fully exempt from GST.

Our Remuneration

We will use our knowledge and expertise to understand your personal circumstances or business situation, to assess your risks, develop an insurance strategy and to place insurance on your behalf in order to provide our services to you. As a result, we may receive commission from insurers with whose products you proceed with. The amount of commission varies depending on the insurer and policy type, but is generally calculated as a percentage of the insurance premium - excluding any applicable government charges, taxes or fees as determined by the insurer. The commissions fall within a range depending on the type of insurance policy you take.

We are entitled to retain all remuneration commission covering the full policy period for the insurances we have arranged for you, even where an insurance policy is amended, terminated or otherwise cancelled, subject to any right you may have to cancel the insurance during the "free look" period. Should an insurance policy arranged by us be cancelled at any time within 24 months of policy commencement, we will have to pay back earned commission. In such circumstances, we may charge a fee for our services equal to, but never greater than the commission returned to the insurer, or $2,500 +GST which ever is the lesser.

Other ways in which remuneration is utilised:

In addition to our remuneration noted above, we may also be remunerated for our services by other means. From time to time, we, and our employees and contractors, may receive non-monetary benefits from insurers including sponsorship of conferences, training, hospitality, and insurer-sponsored functions. You do not bear the cost of sending our staff to these events. We monitor our compliance with policies and procedures that ensure these situations do not create a conflict with your interests.

Privacy and Confidentiality

As a financial advice provider business, Life Assurance need to collect and store personal client information so we can provide our insurance advice, risk management and consulting services. We have an obligation to comply with the Privacy Act 1993 when we collect, hold, use, disclose and otherwise handle your personal information.

We collect and disclose information in accordance with our privacy policy, available upon request. We understand the confidential information we hold may include written information you provide us or recorded conversations necessary to provide our service or support any claims. In accordance with our privacy obligations, information won’t be stored for longer than the minimum seven year legal requirement, after which time it will be deleted. You can access and correct the information that we hold. To do so, please refer to our privacy policy.

Complaints and Dispute Resolution

Our goal is to provide you with the highest level of quality service and support at all times. But if you do have a complaint or encounter a problem, we make every effort to resolve issues promptly and fairly.

How to make a complaint

We have a detailed and effective escalation process, meaning we will work with you to address your concerns as quickly as possible, whilst still providing you with options to take the matter further if you are unhappy with the outcome. Please contact your Financial Adviser directly to talk through your complaint. We are committed to responding to your complaint within two business days, and will make every effort to help you find a solution as swiftly as practical following hearing from you.

We will do everything we can to fix the issue, but if we are unable to, you can refer your complaint to the Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL). See: www.fscl.org.nz for details