Fees and expenses
Generally, we don’t charge you any fee for the advice and transactional solutions that we provide to you.
This is possible because, on settlement of a mortgage or issuance of a risk insurance policy, we usually receive commission from the applicable product provider as described above. There are two exceptions to this general position which are explained below.
One off fees
We may charge you a one-off fee in the following situations:
(a) No commission: If you request that we provide services in relation to a product or service and we do not receive a commission. Any such fee would be agreed and authorised by you in writing before we complete the services, and would be based on an estimate of the time spent providing the advice.
This may arise in the rare event that you request that we provide Services in relation to either a product that is offered by a provider that we do not hold an accreditation with, or a product that is outside our usual arrangements with our product providers.
(b) Repayment of commission: If a product or service provider requires that we repay commission within 28 months of settlement of your mortgage or issuance of your risk insurance policy. Any such fee would be no more than $3,000 (plus GST) and would be calculated based on a rate of $250 (plus GST) per hour of the financial adviser’s time spent providing services to you in connection with the applicable mortgage or insurance.
The fee charged will not exceed the amount of commission clawed back from the lender.
Should we need to charge you a fee, you will be invoiced and will be given 30 days to make payment.
Commission
On settlement of a loan or issuance of a risk insurance policy, we usually receive commission from the applicable product provider. The commission is generally of an upfront nature but may also include a renewal or trail commission. We also receive a fixed rate roll over fee from some product providers if we assist in refixing your loan.
This commission is used to remunerate the financial adviser that provides the advice, and to pay the expenses associated with running our business including any rent, staff costs and IT resources. From this commission we also pay NZ Financial Services Group Limited for services they provide to us in connection with our authorisation under their licence from the Financial Markets Authority.
We take steps to ensure that the receipt of commissions does not influence the advice we give to you and that our advisers prioritise your interests by recommending the best product for your purpose regardless of the type and amount of commission we or they may receive.
We do this by:
Ensuring our advisers follow an advice process that ensures they understand your needs and goals and that their recommendations on insurance cover meets those needs and goals.
Ensuring our advisers receive regular training on how to manage conflicts of interest.
Providing you with a schedule showing commission amounts and types by product provider. This schedule is contained within each Financial Adviser’s personalised Disclosure Guide. A Financial Adviser will provide you with more information aboutcommissions during the advice process.