These Terms of Business set out the general terms under which our firm will provide business services to you and the respective duties and responsibilities of both the firm and you in relation to such services.  Please ensure that you read these terms thoroughly and if you have any queries, we will be happy to clarify them.  If any material changes are made to these terms, we will notify you.

Authorisation with the Central Bank of Ireland:

Abingdon Insurances Ltd (C2090) is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an insurance intermediary registered under the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations 2018; as an investment intermediary authorised under the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995. Copies of our regulatory authorizations are available on request.  The Central Bank of Ireland holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the Central Bank of Ireland on 1890 777 777 or alternatively visit their website at www.centralbank.ie to verify our credentials.

 

Governing Law and Language:

The laws of Ireland form the basis for establishing relations between you and Abingdon Insurances Ltd. All contracts, terms, conditions and communications to any policy will be in English

 

Statutory Codes:

Abingdon Insurances Ltd is subject to and complies with the Consumer Protection Code, the Minimum Competency Code, and the Fitness & Probity Standards. These Codes offer protection to consumers and can be found on the Central Bank website www.centralbank.ie

 

Our Services:

As Insurance Intermediaries we provide advice in relation to life insurance, pensions, income protection, savings and investments.

With the number of appointments, we hold we can offer our clients an extensive choice of suitable products that serve your needs and circumstances.

 

Financial Services:   Protection, Investments, Pensions:  We provide advices and can arrange cover for products such as life cover, specified serious illness, income protection, pensions, savings & investment products and PRSA’s both for individuals and corporate clients.  We can also provide you with reviews for your present arrangements, whether held with us or not

 

Unregulated Investments: We also provide advice on unregulated investments and these products do not require licensing or authorisation or registration with the Central Bank of Ireland.  Accordingly, these investments are not covered by the conditions of the Central Bank of Ireland under which consumers may be protected by a Statutory Compensation Scheme.

 

Scope of Research:

Our research conducted by us on your behalf is restricted to the companies we hold agencies with. A full list of our agencies is available on request.

 

Fair and Personal Analysis

In order to ensure that the number of contracts and providers is sufficiently large to constitute a fair and personal analysis of the market, we will consider the following criteria:

  • The needs of the customer
  • The size of the customer order.
  • The number of providers in the market that deal with brokers
  • The market share of each of those providers.
  • The number of relevant products available from each provider.
  • The availability of information about the products.
  • The quality of the product and service provided by the provider
  • The urgency of the matter
  • Cost and
  • Any other relevant consideration.

We are renumerated by commission for our investment intermediary services.

We are remunerated by commission for the advice we provide on our insurance-based investment products.

Life & Pensions/Deposits & Life Wrapped Investments

We provide life assurance and pensions on a fair and personal analysis basis i.e providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available in the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet your needs.

We will provide assistance to you for any queries you may have in relation to the policies or in the event of a claim during the life of the policy and we will explain to you the various restrictions, conditions and exclusions attached to your policy.   However, it is your responsibility to read the policy documents, literature and brochures to ensure that you understand the nature of the policy cover; particularly in relation to PHI and serious illness policies.

Specifically on the subject of permanent health insurance policies we will explain to you: a) the meaning of disability as defined in the policy; b) the benefits available under the policy; c) the general exclusions that apply to the policy; and d) the reductions applied to the benefit where there are disability payments from other sources.

For a serious illness policy, we will explain clearly to you the restrictions, conditions and general exclusions that attach to that policy.

 

Sustainability Factors – Investment/IBIPs/Personal Advice

In accordance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“SFDR”) we inform you that when providing advice on insurance-based investment products/investments, we do not assess, in addition to relevant financial risks, relevant sustainability risks as far as this information is available in relation to the products proposed/advised on.  This means that we do not assess environmental, social or governance events/conditions that, if they occur, could have a material negative impact on the value of the investment.

 

Considering Principal Adverse Impacts on sustainability factors in the advice:

When providing advice on insurance-based investment products (“IBIPs”) or investment advice we do not consider the impacts of our advice that result in negative effects on sustainability factors (namely environmental, social and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters) because currently there is limited relevant products on the market which meet these criteria. The area of sustainability is relatively new and as the issue progresses, we will review our position.

The firm will review this approach on an annual basis in January of each year.

 

Impact on Return

We have not assessed the likely impacts of sustainability risks on the returns of investments/pensions since we have not been able to identify any sustainability risks that are relevant.

 

Statement of Charges

We may earn our remuneration on the basis of fee, commission and any other type of remuneration including a non-monetary benefit or on the basis of a combination of these methods.    A non-monetary benefit will only be accepted if it enhances the quality of the service to our clients.

You may choose to pay in full for our services by means of a fee. Where we receive recurring commission, this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided. We reserve the right to charge additional fees if the number of hours relating to on-going advice/assistance exceeds 5 hours.

A summary of the details of all arrangements for any fee, commission other reward or remuneration paid or provided to us which have agreed with product providers is available in our office or on our website www.abingdon.ie

In certain circumstances it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided.   For a full list of our charges please CLICK HERE.   In other circumstances where fees are chargeable or where you choose to pay in full for our service by fee, we will notify you in writing in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged if different from fees outlined below.  Where it is not possible to provide the exact amount, we will provide you the method of calculation of the fee.

If we receive commission from a product provider, this may be offset against the fee which we will charge you.  Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission may become the amount payable to the firm unless an arrangement to the contrary is made.

Please see details of commissions HERE.

 

Life and Pensions/PRSA’s /Protection/Investment

You may elect to deal with us on a fee basis.  Hourly rates currently applicable are:

 

Principles/Directors €250

Associates €150

Support Staff €50

Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency, our scale of fees for such cases range from a minimum of €50 per hour to a maximum of €250 per hour.  We will notify you in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged.

 

Clawback

If we receive commission from a product provider [and off-set the commission against the fee which we would otherwise have charged you] but the commission is subsequently clawed back by the provider because of early encashment by you or because of the transferring of the assets or business to another provider or in any circumstances consequent on your actions or omissions, we will charge a fee to you that is equal to [100% of] the clawed-back commission. That fee will be owing in simple contract upon the claw-back of the commission.

 

Ongoing Suitability

Investments

Ongoing suitability assessments form part of the service to clients. On an annual basis the firm will issue a client report outlining changes in the services or instruments involved and/or the circumstances of the client.

 

Insurance based investment products

We will provide periodic assessments of the suitability of the insurance-based investment product which we have recommended to you.

 

Regular reviews

It is in your best interests that you review, on a regular basis, the products which we have arranged for you.  As your circumstances change, your needs will change which may result in you having insufficient insurance cover and/or inappropriate investments. We would therefore advise that you contact us to ensure that you are provided with up-to-date advice and products best suites to your needs.

 

Brokers Ireland

We are members of Brokers Ireland

 

Conflicts of interest:

It is the policy of our firm to avoid conflicts of interest in providing services to you. However, where an unavoidable conflict of interest arises, we will advise you of this in writing before providing you with any service.   A full copy of our conflicts of interest policy is available on request.

 

Default by our client:

We will exercise our legal rights to receive payments due to us from clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In particular, without limitation to 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.

 

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.

 

Complaints:

Whilst we are able to receive verbal complaints, it would be preferable that any complaints are made in writing.   We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 5 business days and we will fully investigate it. We shall investigate the complaint as swiftly as possible and the complainant will receive an update on the complaint at intervals of not greater than 20 business days starting from the date on which the complaint is made.  On completion of our investigation, we will provide you with a written report of the outcome. In the event that you are still dissatisfied with our handling of or response to your complaint, you are entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) A full copy of our complaint’s procedure is available on requests.

 

Handling Clients Money:

Abingdon Insurances Ltd will accept payments in cash and by cheque in respect of the circumstances permitted under section 25G of the investment Intermediaries Act 1995. Payments must represent premium is respect of either a renewal of a policy, which has been invited by an insurance undertaking or product producer. Abingdon Insurances Ltd is not authorised to accept cash or negotiable instruments in any other circumstances

 

Receipts:

Abingdon Insurances Ltd shall issue a receipt for each non-negotiable instrument or payment received. This is required pursuant to Section 30 of the ‘Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 and the Consumer Protection Code issued by the Central Bank of Ireland. These are issued with your protection in mind and should be stored safely.

 

Data Protection

Abingdon Insurances Ltd complies with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.    Abingdon Insurances Ltd are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.  We wish to be transparent on how we process your data and show you that we are accountable with the GDPR in relation to not only processing your data but ensuring you understand your rights as a client.  The data will be processed only in ways compatible with the purposes for which it was given and as outlined in our Data Privacy Notice; this will be given to all our clients at the time of data collection.  We will ensure hat this Privacy Notice is easily accessible.    Please refer to our website www.abingdon.ie.    If this medium is not suitable, we will ensure you can easily receive a hard copy by post or email.

 

Please contact us at info@abingdon.ie if you have any concerns about your personal data.

 

Emails

Abingdon Insurances Ltd uses unencrypted emails and unless we are advised to the contrary, we will take it that you are giving your consent to receive these emails.

 

Business Hours:

Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm

Closed for lunch 1.00pm to 2.00pm

Meetings by prior appointment.

 

The following Sections apply to consumer duties and rights arising out of the Consumer Insurance Contracts Act 2019 which was implemented to protect consumers.  Non-Consumer Commercial clients have no duties and rights under this Act, and therefore the following sections do not apply to them.

 

Consumers: Duty of Disclosure when completing documentation for new business/renewals and midterm adjustments.

It is your duty to answer all questions honestly and if you have any doubts any questions you should ask us for clarification.

Failure to do so can lead your insurer to revoke cover or to void a claim.

 

Definition of Consumer

A consumer is defined under the legislation as a personal consumer or sole trader or corporate entity with a turnover of €3 million or less.

 

Definition of non-consumer Commercial clients

This is where you are a sole trader, body corporate, charity etc has a turnover in excess of €3 million or more

 

You are required to answer all questions posed by us or the insurer honestly and with reasonable care – the test will be that of the “average consumer”

 

Before renewal of the contract of insurance, specific questions will be asked. Again, you will be required to answer honestly and with reasonable care. Where you do not provide additional information (after being requested to do so) it can be presumed that the information previously provided remains unchanged.

 

Failure to answer all questions honestly and with reasonable care can result in the insurer being able to rely on proportionate remedies for misrepresentation, which include but are not limited to the insurer voiding the contract of insurance.  If a policy is cancelled by an insurer for any reasons including payment default you may encounter difficulty in purchasing insurance in the future.

 

Completed Proposal Forms/Statement of Fact

Completed Proposal Forms or Statements of Fact will be provided to you.   These are important documents as they form the basis of insurance contract between the insurer and you the consumer.  You should review and confirm that the answers contained within are true and accurate.

 

You are under a duty to pay your premium within a reasonable time, or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the contract of insurance. A court of competent jurisdiction can reduce the pay-out to you if you are in breach of your duties under the Act, in proportion to the breach involved.

 

Cancellation of a Contract of Insurance

If you have taken out a life insurance contract, you may cancel the contract by giving notice in writing to us within 30 days after the date you were informed the contract is on cover.

The giving of notice of cancellation by you will have the effect of releasing you from any further obligation arising from the contract of insurance.  The insurer cannot impose any costs on you other than the cost of the premium for the period of cover.   The right to cancel does not apply where, in respect of life insurance the contract is for a duration of six months.

An insurer may refuse a claim made by you under a contract of insurance where there is a change in the risk insurance, including as described in an “alteration of risk” clause and the circumstances have so changed that it has effectively changed the risk to one which the insurer has not agreed to cover.

Any clause in a contract of insurance that refers to a “material change” will be interpreted as being a change that takes the risk outside what was in the reasonable contemplation of both you and the insurer when the contract was concluded.

You must co-operate with the insurer in an investigation of insured events including responding to reasonable requests for information in an honest and reasonably careful manner and must notify the insurer of the occurrence of an insured event in a reasonable time.

You must notify the insurer of a claim within a reasonable time, or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the contract of insurance.

If you become aware after a claim is made, of information that would either support or prejudice the claim, you are under a duty to disclose it.  (the insurer is under the same duty)

If you make a false or misleading claim in any material respect (and know it to be false or misleading or consciously disregards whether it is) the insurer is entitled to refuse to pay and to terminate the contract.

Where an insurer becomes aware that a consumer has made a fraudulent claim, they may notify the consumer advising that they are voiding the contract of insurer, and it will be treated as being terminated from the date of the submission of the fraudulent claim.  The insurer may refuse all liability in respect of any claim made after the date of the fraudulent act, and the insurer is under no obligation to return ay of the premiums paid under the Contract.

 

Disclosure of Information

It is essential that you should bring to our attention any material alteration in risk such as changes of address or use of premises. Any failure to disclose information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.

 

Investor Compensation Scheme

We are members of the investor Compensation Scheme operated by the Investor Compensation Company Ltd .. See below for details.

Investor Compensation Scheme

The Investor Compensation Act 1998 provides for the establishment of a compensation scheme and the payment, in certain circumstances, of compensation to certain clients (known as eligible investors) of authorised investment firms as defined in that Act.

The Investment Compensation Company Ltd (ICCL) was established under the 1998 Act to operate such a compensation scheme and our firm is a member of this Scheme.

Compensation may be payable where money or investment instruments owed or belonging to clints and held, administered or managed by the firm cannot be returned to those clients for the time being and where there is no reasonably foreseeable opportunity of the firm being able to do so.

A right to compensation will arise only:

  • If the client is an eligible investor as defined in the Act, and
  • 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
  • To the extent that the client’s loss is recognised for the purpose of the Act

Where an entitlement to compensation is established the compensation payable will be the lesser of:

  • 90% of the amount of the client’s loss which is recognised for the purposes of the investor compensation Act, 1998 or
  • Compensation of up to €20,000

For further information contact the Investor Compensation Company Ltd – 01 224 4955

 

January 2025