This document contains the disclosures that Clarity must provide to you. This document explains:
▪ who Clarity is;
▪ the duties that we owe to you;
▪ the nature and scope of the advice we can give;
▪ how we may be remunerated (including details of the fees that we charge and the commissions that we may receive);
▪ the material conflicts of interest that currently exist or that may arise in the future in relation to the advice we can give; and
▪ our service issues and complaints handling and disputes resolution procedures.
The information in this document is issued by Clarity. Our head office contact details are:
Clarity Insurance
Level 2, 1 Redmond Street Auckland 1011
Clarity exists to protect and enrich the lives of people around the New Zealand. We provide our clients with advice and solutions that give them the clarity and confidence to make better decisions to protect and grow their business.
Clarity has experts across New Zealand. Whether it’s personal, business, or financial services insurance – our people are passionate about ensuring you, your loved ones, your business, and your assets are properly protected. Having a real conversation can make a real difference, so say hello to your local Clarity team today.
Clarity Insurance Brokers is an Authorised Body of Insurance Advisernet New Zealand Ltd, FAP No. FSP26221 Authorised Body No (FSP1001710), providing General Insurance services and products.
Clarity Financial Services is a Financial Advice Provider (FSP1008708) and holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide a financial advice service for Life & Health service products.
For more information, visit our website https://clarityinsurancebrokers.co.nz/
Clarity, and its advisers that provide regulated financial advice, are required to comply with duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 when providing regulated financial advice to retail clients.
These duties include:
▪ meeting the standards of competence, knowledge, and skill set out in the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services;
▪ meeting the standards of ethical behaviour, conduct, and client care set out in the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services;
▪ giving priority to our clients’ interests; and
▪ exercising care, diligence and skill.
As your insurance broker, you will only receive advice from us that relates to contracts of insurance, including the renewal or variation of the terms or conditions of an existing contract of insurance.
Clarity is not an insurer. Clarity provides financial advice in relation to products that are provided by only a selection of insurers.
The insurers include:
▪ AIA New Zealand Limited
▪ AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited
▪ Ando (The Hollard Insurance Company Pty Ltd)
▪ Asteron Life Limited
▪ Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company
▪ Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London or their agents
▪ Chubb Insurance New Zealand Limited
▪ Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited
▪ Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited
▪ IAG New Zealand Limited and its business divisions NZI and Lumley
▪ NIB NZ Limited
▪ Partners Life Limited
▪ QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited
▪ Southern Cross Medical Care Society
▪ The New India Assurance Company Limited
▪ Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited (Vero)
▪ Vero Liability Insurance Limited
▪ Zurich Australian Insurance Limited trading as Zurich New Zealand
Depending on the advice we provide, we may approach other insurers, and we will advise you if this occurs.
We use our professional judgement in providing advice and arranging insurance cover for you, based on the requirements you have notified to us. This means that we may only approach one insurer or a limited number of insurers in placing your cover.
We cannot guarantee the availability of insurance for your particular risks or the solvency of insurers.
Neither Clarity nor any of its advisers provide financial advice in relation to any other financial products nor any valuation or tax advice relating to your insurance.
Clarity can give you factual information about premium funding and can help arrange this for you, but Clarity is not able to provide you with advice or a recommendation about the suitability of premium funding for you.
As an insurance broker, we have many clients in similar situations with similar risks and needs. For these groups, we design and develop products with insurers (Insurance Facilities & Schemes) which combine competitive pricing and quality cover underwritten by reputable insurers.
Where we believe it suits your risks and needs, we may only recommend an Insurance Facility / Scheme (rather than alternative insurance products).
Where we do not have an Insurance Facility suitable to your risks and needs, we may seek quotes from appropriateinsurers to help you identify an insurance product.
We may agree with you the fees we will charge for our services. We may charge you an administration charge to cover our expenses and disbursements. Minimum charges apply, being $100 excluding GST for personal policies and $200 excluding GST for commercial policies. For the private client segment, the minimum administration charge is $100 excluding GST. These fees apply if you agree with our advice and place insurance through Clarity.
We will provide you with further information regarding our fees if you seek financial advice from Clarity.
Conflicts of interest may arise in circumstances where some or all of your interests as our client are, or may be, inconsistent with some or all of our interests.
As your insurance broker we act for you in providing our insurance services.
We may offer to arrange premium funding to help spread the cost of your insurance premiums over the year. When Clarity arranges premium funding, we act as agent for the premium funder for the purpose of facilitating your loan application, and not as your credit provider or finance broker. Clarity may also act on the premium funder’s instructions to cancel any insurance where you have failed to meet your repayment obligations.
If you choose premium funding, we will receive commission from the relevant premium funder. The commission is calculated as a proportion of the loan amount borrowed. The standard commission rate is 2%.
Interest and administration costs apply.
Clarity and its staff may receive non-monetary benefits from insurers such as sponsorships of Clarity conferences, client functions, education programs, meals and entertainment. Clarity staff may also have personal connections with insurers and other third parties that may be involved in the services we provide to you.
Clarity may receive commission, insurer services charges and licence and product development fees from insurers in relation to the placement of your insurance. These amounts are calculated as a proportion of premium and are dependent on the product range.
Clarity staff may receive an incentive when they refer new business to other Clarity teams. The incentive is received ifyou engage Clarity to provide the relevant advice or services.
We will provide you with further information regarding the commissions and other fees we may receive if you seek financial advice from Clarity.
We have a conflicts of interest policy and procedure, including training and monitoring, to ensure we are aware of and manage any conflicts of interest. Our company, staff and our representatives must comply with this policy and procedure.
Where relevant, we will only provide advice in circumstances where we are able to appropriately manage a conflict of interest.
If you have a complaint about the service Clarity has provided to you, you can contact your Clarity service provider or their manager at your local Clarity office by telephone, email or in writing to explain your problem. You will find the address and phone number of the local office on your invoice or on our website at www.Clarity.co.nz. We will endeavour to resolve your complaint promptly and reach a satisfactory resolution together with you.
Nearly all service issues and complaints are quickly resolved in this way however, if we are not able to resolve your complaint locally within 2 business days, we will:
▪ formally acknowledge receipt of your complaint and provide an estimate of the timeframe for a fuller response;
▪ provide you with an overview of our complaints process;
▪ provide information about our free, independent, dispute resolution scheme that may help to investigate or resolve your complaint (see further information below).
If we are not able to resolve your complaint locally, it will be referred to our complaints team for an internal review.
Alternatively, you can at any time contact the complaints team directly on 0800 502221 or you can email details of your complaint to [email protected]
The complaints team will endeavour to provide you with a decision or proposal for resolution within 20 business days of your original complaint. If your complaint is complex and may take longer to resolve, we will advise you of this and will keep you informed of progress.
Sometimes it is not possible to resolve a complaint by agreement and, if your complaint remains unresolved or you are not satisfied with our decision following the process above, you may then choose to seek independent advice.
You may refer the matter to Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) subject to their terms of reference. FSCL is a Financial Ombudsman Service and the dispute resolution service we belong to. There is no cost for you to ask FSCL to independently review your complaint however you must contact FSCL within 3 months from the date of our final response (or within 9 months in exceptional circumstances). If you do not contact FSCL within this time, they will be unable to assist you.
FSCL can be contacted by email at [email protected] or by calling 0800 347 257. Full details on the FSCL scheme can be obtained on their website www.fscl.org.nz. Please note before FSCL can investigate your complaint, they do require you to have first provided us with the opportunity to address your complaint.
