JPR INSURANCE BROKERS LIMITED
TERMS OF BUSINESS AGREEMENT (TOBA)
1. Please read this document carefully. It sets out the terms on
which we agree to act for our clients and contains details of our regulatory
and statutory responsibilities.
In this TOBA ‘we’ or ‘us’ means
JPR Insurance Brokers Limited (company number 4686878), registered office
Unit 21, Red House Yards, Gislingham Road, Thornham Magna, Eye, Suffolk,
IP23 8HH.
Please contact us immediately if there is anything in these terms of business
which you do not understand or with which you disagree.
2. Our service to you. In arranging insurance for our customers we
act as an independent intermediary and act on your behalf when arranging insurance.
Our service includes: advising you on your insurance needs; arranging your
insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements; and helping you with
any ongoing changes you have to maker. We offer a range of general insurance
products; have access to a number of insurers with whom we place your insurance.
We will give you details of these insurers when we discuss your individual
requirements.
3. Disclosure of information. It is important that you understand
that any information, statements or answers made by you to us, or your insurer,
are your responsibility and must be correct. Any failure to disclose facts
material to the insurer or any inaccuracies in your answers may invalidate
your insurance cover in part or in whole. Facts material to the acceptability
or otherwise of your proposal or renewal must be disclosed immediately. Material
information is information that would influence the judgement of a prudent
insurer in fixing the premium or determining whether to accept the risk. You
are advised to keep copies of documentation sent to or received from us for
your protection. Please do consult us if you are in doubt on any aspect. The
disclosure of information not only applies at commencement and renewal of your
policy, but also at anytime during the period of insurance
4. Awareness of policy terms. When a policy is issued, you are strongly
advised to read it carefully, as it is that document, the schedule, any certificate
and any other documents (which indicate that they are part of the contract
of insurance) that are the basis of the insurance contract you have purchased.
If you are in any doubt over any of the policy terms and conditions please
seek our advice promptly.
5. Charges. We reserve the right to make charges, in addition to
any insurance premiums for the arranging, amending, renewing and cancelling
any policy of insurance. Details of charges made will be declared in all correspondence
with you.
6. Renewal Instruction. In accordance with the Financial Services
Authority regulations we are required to obtain your renewal instructions prior
to each renewal date.
Whilst we will make every effort to contact you prior to renewal to obtain
your instructions, if, for whatever reason, we are not in possession of either
your written or verbal instructions by your renewal date, then in order to
protect your position we may, in our absolute discretion, proceed and renew
your policy on the basis of our renewal recommendation. However, we reserve
the right not to renew the policy should we not have received the appropriate
instructions from you and any renewal, whether with or without your instructions
remains subject to the provisions of clause 14 below regarding the possible
cancellation of the policy, e.g. if you fail to pay the premium when due. In
the event of such non-renewal, we will not be held liable for any loss you
may suffer if you fail to provide the necessary instructions to renew in sufficient
time before the renewal date.
7. Customer protection information. It is our intention to provide
you with a high level of customer service at all times. If there are occasions
when we do not meet your standards please contact the director responsible
for compliance either verbally or in writing, who will take details of your
concerns and attempt to address your concerns within five business days. If
our investigations take longer we will provide a full response within twenty
business days or explain our position and provide timescales for a full response.
If we cannot satisfy your complaint you may be entitled to refer to the Financial
Ombudsmen Service.
8. Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). We
are covered by the FSCS, subject to the terms of such scheme, which is administered
by the FSA. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot
meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances
of the claim. Insurance advising and arranging is covered for the first £2,000
and 90% of the remainder of the claim without any upper limit. Further information
about the compensation scheme is available from the FSCS.
9. Cooling off period. We will give you enough information and help
so you can make an informed decision before you make a final commitment to
buy your insurance policy. However, you may if you are a Retail customer (as
defined in section 22) have 14 days to change your mind and cancel the insurance
contract from the date you receive the policy documentation.
We earn remuneration on the commencement of the policy. Once our remuneration
has been earned, in the event that the insurance is cancelled after inception,
our fees or brokerage will only be returnable at our absolute discretion.
10. Relationships. As an independent insurance intermediary we cat
as the agent of our client. We are subject to the law of agency, which imposes
various duties on us. However, in certain circumstances we may not act for
and owe duties of care to other parties. We will advise you when these circumstances
occur so you will be aware of any possible conflict of interest.
Upon receipt of your instructions we will place insurance with insurers,
and keep you informed of the progress of our negotiations.
We will advise you of any inability to place the insurance.
11. Security. We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we
place business with.
A liability for the premium, whether in full of pro rata, may arise under
policies where a participating insurer becomes insolvent.
12. Policy Documentation. Our business practice is that policy documentation
will be issued in a timely manner.
Your policy documentation will confirm the basis of the cover, give details
of the insurers, and accompanied by a policy summary and a debit note of a
premium billing. The dates that the premium is due, together with any penalties,
will be clearly shown.
Prior to the conclusion of the contract you will be given a statement of
demands and needs. You should read this carefully. It will set out your demands
and needs and confirm whether the contract has been personally recommended
and, if so, the reasons for making the recommendation.
Retail customers (as defined in section 22) will be provided with the renewal
terms in writing no less than 21 days before expiry of the policy, or notified
that renewal is not being invited. Attached to the renewal terms will be a
statement of any changes to the terms of the policy, and changes to directive-required
information (information required under the EU Directives), statement of price
and information about cancellation.
You will be given an explanation of any changes where necessary and in good
time, which may appear in your policy and you will be advised of your right
to request a new policy statement.
Unless specifically instructed by you in writing, it is our policy to retain
documents for business effected on your behalf in electronic or paper format
for a minimum of 5 years, after which time the documents are liable to be destroyed
without notice to you.
For some types of insurance cover it is possible that a claim may be made
under a policy long after its expiry date and it is therefore important you
keep such documents safely.
13. Claims. It is essential that underwriters are notified immediately
of any claim or circumstances that may give rise to a claim as failure to do
so may entitle insurers to deny liability for the claim.
Where we undertake to handle or manage claims on your behalf,
- You must notify us immediately you become aware of any claim or any circumstances
that may give rise to a claim.
- We will assist you in presenting and pursuing a claim under your policy.
- We will notify insurers on your behalf and will keep
you informed of insurer’s
requirements in respect of your claim.
- We will promptly inform you of your insurer’s
decision on the settlement or otherwise of your claim.
- We will promptly forward to you monies that we collect from insurers in
settlement of your claim.
14. Premium. You must provide the premium due in cleared funds within
14 days from the Insurance effective date or date of invoice, whichever is
the latter. Failure to meet the payment date may lead to insurers cancelling
your policy.
Failure to pay your premium will result in the insurers cancelling your policy.
Where insurers have specified that the premium must be received by a certain
date, failure to comply can result in the automatic termination of your insurance
contract.
15. Remuneration. Anything which is not to be a premium is considered
to be a fee. Any commission which is due is payable out of premium. Our remuneration
may be as a fee, or as a brokerage, which is a percentage of the insurance
premium paid by you and allowed by the insurer with whom the insurance is placed.
Brokerage fees are earned for the policy and we will be entitled to retain
all fees and brokerage in respect of the full period of the full period in
relation to policies placed by us.
JPR Insurance Brokers Ltd as a whole may sometimes in the ordinary course
of our business also earn income in a number of other ways by providing services
to the market or suppliers we deal with. The level of such remuneration is
determined by the terms of business agreements with them but may be for example
in the form of management/administrative expenses allowed to us by insurers
to cover our cost in administering underwriting authorities for them or in
the form of volume, growth or profitability payments for the performance market,
product development, systems and processing functions and other such services
on there behalf. Further details will be provided to your specific request.
16. Client Money. Client money is money of any currency that we receive
and hold and in the course of carrying insurance mediation on your behalf or
which we treat as client money in accordance with the FSA client money rules.
A copy of these rules are available on request.
Client money can be held in one of the following ways:
- It can be subject to a statutory trust
- It can be subject to a non-statutory trust or
- In accordance with the FSA client assets sourcebook (CASS) held for the
insurer.
Client money will only be held on behalf of an insurer or underwriter in
accordance with a written agency agreement. You will be notified if this should
not be the case.
Non-Statutory Trust
In accordance with the FSA client money rules, we propose that all client
money is held in a non-statutory trust in accordance with the terms of the
deed a copy of which is available on request. The aim of the Trust is to protect
you in the event if the failure of the firm or the failure of the bank or a
third party at which the money may be held. In such circumstances, our general
creditors should not be able to make claims on client money, as it will not
form part of our property.
The fact that we will hold money on trust gives rise to fiduciary duties
which will be owed to you by us until the client money reaches the insurer
or product provider or is held as agent on trust for the insurer.
We hold client money subject to a non-statutory trust.
As is current practice, this means that we are entitled to and may use client
money held on behalf of one client to pay another client’s premium
we may also pay claims and premium refunds to another client before we receive
payment from the insurer. However we are not entitled to use client money
at pay commissions before we receive the relevant premium from the client.
The benefits of holding client money in a non-statutory
trust account are that it permits greater flexibility when making payments
on behalf of clients, e.g. it permits the advance of credit to a client.
The implications of this are that temporarily one client’s money may
be used to make advances to another. If this advance is outstanding on a
day when we check the balance held in the account (a reconciliation of client
money must be made at least every 25 days), we will make up the difference
out of our funds. In the event that we should be unable to do so due to insolvency,
should you suffer loss as a result you will be covered by the FSCS for compensation
in this respect, subject to terms of the FSCS scheme.
Segregation of Designated Investments
We keep client money separate from our own money. We may do this by paying
it into a client bank account. However, we may also do this by arranging to
hold separately permitted designated investments with a value at least equivalent
to the money that would otherwise have been paid into a client bank account.
If we do this we will be responsible for meeting any shortfall in our client
money resource which is attributable to falls in the market value of a segregated
investment.
Interest on Client Money
Any interest on client money held by us and any investment returns on any
segregated designated investments will be retained by us for our own use, rather
than paid to you, and will not be treated as client money.
Payment to Third Parties
We may transfer client money to another person, such as another insurance
intermediary, for the purpose of effecting a transaction on your behalf through
that person.
This may include insurance intermediaries outside the UK. The legal and regulatory
regime applying to a broker or settlement agent outside the UK may be different
from that of the UK and, in the event of a failure of the insurance intermediaries,
this money may be treated in a different manner from that which would apply
if the money were held by a broker or settlement agent in the UK. You may notify
us if you do not wish your money to be passed to a person in a particular jurisdiction.
17. Bank Accounts. The bank with which the company
account is held containing all client money will be an “approved bank” for
the purposes of CASS, and is presently HSBC Bank plc.
18. Cancellation of This Agreement. Our agreement may be terminated
by one of us giving 30 days notice in writing to the other. In the event that
our services are terminated by you we will be entitled to receive any fees
or brokerage payable. Cancellation of our contract does not necessarily cancel
your insurance but will mean that we will not offer to renew the insurance
unless you request it.
19. Money Laundering / Proceeds of Crime We are obliged
to report to the National Criminal Intelligence Service any evidence or suspicion
of money laundering at the first opportunity and we are prohibited from disclosing
any such report or its existence to you.
Claims payments will be made in favour of you. If you require a payment to
be made to a third party then you must confirm the required payee name and
details and provide a brief explanation for your request. However, we reserve
the right to refuse to do so, in our absolute discretion.
20. Data Protection. We are registered under the Data Protection
Act 1998 and we undertake to comply with the Act in all our dealings with your
personal data.
Your personal information will be kept secure, but will be used for the purposes
of the insurance administration and renewal by the insurer, its agents (such
as loss adjusters or investigators), reinsurers and ourselves. We may also
use it for making credit reference agency searches. Credit reference agencies
share the information with other organisations, enabling applications for premium
credit or other financial products to be assessed or to assist in the tracing
of debtors or to prevent fraud. Insurers also pass information to the Claims
and Underwriting Exchange Register run by Insurance Database Services Limited
(IDS) to check information provided and prevent fraudulent claims.
We may use your information to keep you informed of products and services
that we offer and which we feel may be of interest to you, but we will not
pass your information to third parties for marketing purposes.
Sensitive Data. In order to assess the terms of insurance contract
or administer claims we will need to collect personal data that the Data Protection
Act 1998 defines as sensitive, such as medical history or convictions. By proceeding
with this contract you will signify your consent to such information being
processed by the insurer or its agents.
21. Law and Jurisdiction. These terms of business will be governed
by and construed in accordance with English law. In relation to any legal action
or proceedings arising out of or in connection with these terms of business
we and you irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English
courts.
22. Customer Classification. The FSA divide customers into two categories
and they are retail and commercial. The FSA handbook and website ( www.fsa.gov.co.uk)
contain the full definitions pf retail and commercial customers. We consider
a retail customer to be an individual that obtains insurance outside of their
trade or profession.
23. Consent Please complete the declaration as below,
keeping one copy for your records and returning one copy to JPR to show that
you agree to the terms and information set our in our ‘terms of business’ and key
facts ‘about our
insurance services’.
I/We agree to the terms as set out in JPR
Insurance Brokers Limited Terms of Business Agreement and key facts ‘about
our insurance services’
Signed:
Name of Signatory (printed):
Position of signatory (if for a company):
Name of company (printed if applicable):
Date: |
If this is not returned, but you continue to do business
with us we will take this as being your agreement to the terms and information
set our in our ‘terms of business agreement’ and key facts ‘about
our insurance services’.