Financial Services Guide (FSG) This guide is intended to assist you in determining whether to use any of our services offered in this guide. It includes information about remuneration that may be paid to others or us in relation to the products or services offered, and what you can do if you have a complaint about our services. Key information is set out here in answers to specific questions. If you need more information or clarification, please ask us. This Financial Services Guide is issued with the authority of Austnet Group Pty Ltd. Introduction You are entitled to receive a “Statement” whenever we provide you with any personal advice which takes into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. This will occur when we provide recommendations concerning retail products. The information required in the “Statement” will be incorporated into your Tax Invoice and will include information about the ($) amount and/or description of fees, commissions, other benefits and any associations that may have influenced the giving of this advice. Where we provide a general advice service only (i.e. advice which does not take into account your specific needs, objectives or financial situation), we will give you a General Advice Warning at that time and you should consider the product information we provide in deciding whether it is appropriate for your specific needs, objectives or financial situation. Where we provide you with General Advice, we are not required to disclose information about the amount ($ dollar) or description of fees, commissions, other benefits and any associations that may have influenced the giving of advice however you may request this information from us. If we recommend that you acquire a financial product, or we offer to issue or arrange to issue you with financial product, where required we may also provide you with a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) containing information about that product. This will enable you to make an informed decision about the acquisition of that product. When you ask us to recommend an insurance policy for you, we will usually only consider the policies offered by the insurers or insurance providers that we deal with regularly. In giving you advice about the costs and terms of recommended policies we have not compared those policies to other policies available, other than those insurers we deal with regularly. We undertake a review of all insurers with which we deal with regularly on an annual basis. When considering the renewal of your insurance policy, we will only seek additional quotes where the premium quoted by your current insurer is greater than 20% of the prior year premium, or where there are changes to the policy wording, which may affect you. As Insurance Brokers though, we will arrange insurance cover through the underwriters with the best insurance arrangements for our clients. About us Austnet Group is an Australian Financial Services Licensee authorised to advise and deal in general insurance products to wholesale and retail clients. Who will be providing the financial service to you? The financial services are to be provided by Austnet Group Pty Ltd (Austnet), who is licensed under the Corporations Act 2001 to carry on a financial services business. Our advisers are detailed in the Adviser Profile attached. This Financial Services Guide is to be read in conjunction with the Adviser Profile. Our Representatives are authorised by Austnet under the Australian Financial Services Licence No 239086 and Austnet is responsible for the advice provided. What Financial Services are we authorised to provide to you and what kind of products do these services relate to? We offer advice and broking services on General Insurance products. In particular we offer these services on the following products:
Contact Details
About our General Insurance Services. Who do we act for when providing services? We act on your behalf. What remuneration/other benefits do we receive for our Financial Services? You are entitled to know how and what we will charge for our services. At the time of issuing this Financial Services Guide we are unable to provide you with the exact dollar amount of remuneration and/or benefits we may receive in relation to your policy/ies, however we will, either when the advice is given, or as soon as practicable after, provide retail clients, on your Tax Invoice, with information disclosing the exact dollar amount of any remunerations and/or benefits we will receive. We may be remunerated in any of the following ways, or by a combination of them:
In the event of a refund for the cancellation or adjustment of a policy, we reserve the right to retain our remuneration. Our staff receive a market salary that may include a bonus which is based on business performance criteria. When you pay us your premium it will be banked into our trust account. We retain the commission from the premium you pay us and remit the balance to the insurer in accordance with our arrangements with the insurer. We will earn interest on the premium while it is in our trust account or we may invest the premium and earn a return. We will retain any interest or return on investment earned on the premium. If we arrange premium funding for you we may be paid a commission by the premium funder. We may also charge you a fee (or both). The commission that we are paid by the premium funder is usually calculated as a percentage of your insurance premium (including government fees or changes). If you instruct us to arrange or issue a product, this is when we become entitled to the commission. Our commission rates for premium funding are in the range of 0 to 2% of funded premium. When we arrange premium funding for you, you can ask us what commission rates we are paid for that funding arrangement compared to the other arrangements that were available to you. In addition t the commission payment, we may be entitled to receive an over ride payment of between 0 - 1% of the premium funded by all our clients. The payment of the over ride is dependant upon the total amount funded with the provider. How are fees and commissions calculated and deducted? Our Admin and Broker Fees are based upon the time spent providing you with the advisory services you require. The initial and renewal commission are calculated as a percentage of the annual cost of the insurance policy and is based on the following formula: X = Y% x P We may be entitled to receive additional amount of commission when we use electronic data interface (Sunrise) to process your policy with certain underwriters. This may result in 0 – 2.5% of additional commission being paid to Austnet. For retail clients, this amount is included commission amount declared on your tax invoice. The amount of commission Austnet receives ranges between 0 – 30% depending upon the product type and insurer. Typically it is as follows:
Do I need to advise you of any material changes to my circumstances? You must notify your insurer of any significant changes, which occur during the period of insurance. If you do not, your insurances may be inadequate to fully cover you. We can assist you to do this and to ensure that your contract of insurance is altered to reflect those changes. What is Austnet’s terms of payment? We will invoice you for the premium, statutory charges (eg. stamp duty, GST, fire services levy if applicable etc) and any fees we charge for arranging your insurances. You must pay us within 14 days of the policy inception date, or in the case of a renewal, before the expiry date of the contract of insurance. If you do not pay the premium on time, the insurer may cancel the contract of insurance and you will not be insured. The insurer may also charge a short term penalty premium for the time on risk. Do we have any relationships or associations which might influence the provision of our Financial Services? Where you require sports based insurances, we may refer you to Worldwide Sports Insurance Pty Ltd for your insurance needs. Austnet Group Pty Ltd are part owners of Worldwide Sports Insurance Pty Ltd and will receive dividend payments on any profits make from placing your insurances with them. Austnet is a shareholder of Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast). Steadfast has exclusive arrangements with some insurers under which Steadfast will receive between 0.5 - 1% commission for each product arranged by us with those insurers. These payments are used to operate Steadfast. Depending on the operating costs of Steadfast (including the costs of member services provided by Steadfast to us and other Steadfast shareholders) and the amount of total business we place with the participating insurers in any financial year, we may receive a proportion of that commission at the end of each financial year. As a shareholder of Steadfast we have access to member services including model operating and compliance tools, procedures, manuals and training, legal, technical, banking and recruitment advice and assistance, group insurance arrangements, product comparison and placement support, claims support and group purchasing arrangements. These member services are either funded by Steadfast, subsidised by Steadfast or available exclusively to shareholders for a fee. You can obtain a copy of Steadfast's FSG at www.steadfast.com.au From time to time, Austnet and its Representatives, may be entitled to receive certain ‘hospitality benefits’ being: tickets to sporting events; movies; bottles of wine; hampers. The receipt of such benefits are not based on volume of business placed with the provider but are more of an ad hoc reward. The maximum value of such benefits received by Austnet and its Representatives is difficult to determine. However, the details of such benefits, and including the conference benefits from Steadfast, are recorded on a specially maintained Register. Please request if you should wish to see this Register. The Directors of Austnet Group also have ownership in Austnet Group Financial Services Pty Ltd & Austnet Group Financial Services. How can you provide us with Instructions and tell us how you wish us to arrange your Insurance? You may give us instructions by telephone, fax or other means, which we agree with you. What information do you maintain in my file and can I examine my file? Austnet Group Pty Ltd & Austnet Group Financial Services Pty Ltd may use your personal information to help plan, research, market and promote products and/or services between Austnet Group Pty Ltd and Austnet Financial Services Pty Ltd. Where you do not wish to provide consent for Austnet Group Pty Ltd to use your personal information in this manner, please contact our office on (08) 9473 8600 and ask for the customer service officer or email us at info@austnetins.com.au. At your request your name will be placed on our no contact register for related companies within Austnet Group Pty Ltd. We will maintain records of recommendations made. Austnet is committed to ensuring the privacy and security of your personal information in accordance with the principles of the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2001 (Privacy Act). Upon request we can supply you with a copy of our privacy statement. You have the right to examine the relevant contents of your file. Should you wish to examine the relevant contents of your file, please contact our Privacy Officer who can make the necessary arrangements to provide you with the relevant information. If you have any complaints We have our own internal disputes resolution procedures in place. Any concern and/or complaint can be expressed in the first instance, to your Account Manager or alternatively, taken direct to Peter Huk, Responsible Officer in writing, by telephone or email. We will need you to provide us with comprehensive details so as to enable us to investigate your complaint further. All information will be treated with strictest confidence. As required under law, we belong to an external dispute resolution scheme and are a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS”) – a free consumer service for resolution of disputes in relation to insurance brokers and clients. You are free at any time to contact them direct with any concern and/or complaint, and they in turn will refer the matter to Austnet’s Responsible Officer for further investigation. You can contact FOS on 1300 78 08 08 or via email at info@fos.org.au Their address is Level 5, 31 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. Alternatively you can contact the Australian Securities & Investment Commission at their free call infoline on 1300 780 885. Version 1.7 10/02/2009 Austnet Group Pty Ltd This Adviser Profile is to be read in conjunction with the Financial Services Guide dated 29/09/2005 Tony Gucciardi – Licensee/Responsible Officer Peter Huk – Licensee/Responsible Officer Bert Roosendaal - Representative Raylene Pacella - Representative Tony Kinninmont – Authorised Representative Sunny Chew – Authorised Representative Rod Parsons – Authorised Representative Adam Roosendaal – Authorised Representative Tyna King - Representative
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