Ausure provides financial services through Authorised Representatives (Representative). Details of the Representative that is responsible for your insurance are contained in this FSG. This Representative provides the service to you however Ausure is responsible for their conduct. Ausure has authorised the Representative to provide advice and deal in general insurance products.

How do we get paid?

We receive our remuneration in the form of fees and commission which we collect when you pay your premium. Our primary form of remuneration is commissions which is an amount of money paid to us by the insurer and varies between 0 and 22.5% of base premium (Premium less any taxes and charges) depending on the policy type and insurer. Sometimes we also charge fees as a part of our remuneration, these fees depend on the amount and type of work we perform and are always included in the price we quote you. If we refer you to a premium funding company we may receive up to 2% of the amount of the financing in commission. Some of the insurers that we do business with give benefits to us such as subsidized training, sponsorship of conferences and invitations to social business functions. We have a policy to deal with any potential conflicts of interest, this means we have a documented plan that we continually monitor to ensure that our advice is not influenced by any considerations other than your best interests.

Please note that in the event of cancellation of a policy before the expiry date some Insurers make no refunds or may charge cancellation fees. We do not refund fees that we have received. If premium funding has been arranged you may also be obliged to pay the interest component for the full year and other penalty charges by the premium funder. Before making any decision to cancel a policy you should consult us concerning the charges involved and commission and fees which may be retained by us.

When we provide personal advice to you we will clearly inform you that we have taken into account the personal information you have told us in making our recommendation. We will also clearly inform you of the scope of our advice for example we may only provide advice on which product from our approved list is more appropriate for you.

To enable your broker to provide advice you need to supply full and correct details of the assets to be insured along with your personal objectives and financial situation. If you are unable or choose not to supply information to your broker will be unable to make an effective recommendation and you will need to assess the appropriateness of the advice to ensure your insurance needs are properly met. You must also tell your broker about any relevant changes in your circumstances during the term of any insurance which has been arranged so that your broker can advise whether your insurance remains appropriate for your situation.

When we provide a more limited general advice service to you we will clearly advice you that our advice is ‘general only’. This means that we have not taken into account your personal circumstances, we have only considered the products and their providers in our recommendations. In these situations you must take care to consider whether this general advice is appropriate for your circumstances. You must read and understand the product disclosure statement to help you to decide if the product is right for you.

Important Relationships

Allstate Underwriting Agency Pty Ltd (ABN 51 121 066 180) and National Funding Solutions Ltd (ABN 28 127 926 005) share common ownership with either the shareholders of Ausure and/or its Authorised Representatives. Allstate Underwriting is remunerated in accordance with the performance of their portfolio of clients. In return for performing policy and claims administration it is entitled to receive a share of the profits which is calculated after deducting all costs including claims, reinsurance, admin expenses, insurers overheads etc. Hollard Insurance is a minority shareholder of the Ausure Group.

How do we resolve complaints?

In the event that you have a complaint about the manner in which we provide any financial service please contact Ausure by phone on 02 4948 1155 or by writing at the address on this FSG. If your complaint remains unresolved, Ausure’s dispute committee will review the matter and respond within 15 days.

Your complaint will be dealt with fairly and promptly but if you remain dissatisfied with the final decision you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which acts as Ausure’s external dispute resolution provider. FOS is an independent body and its service is free to you. FOS can be contacted on 1300 780 808. Ausure and our Representatives agree to accept the FOS decision. We use personal information about you to provide you with financial services in accordance with our privacy policy. We are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the National Privacy Principles. A copy of our privacy policy is available on request.

Duty of Disclosure

You and everyone who is insured under this policy must comply with the duty of disclosure. You must ensure that you explain the duty to any other insured that apply for insurance on behalf of. Your duty of disclosure applies when you enter into the policy and upon any renewal or variation to the contract.

Where we act on behalf of the insurer you need to refer to the policy or the application form which will set out your obligations for disclosing information.

When we act for you it is important that you tell us every matter that you know or that a reasonable person in your circumstances would know that would be relevant to an insurers decision whether or not to insure you and on what terms. You have a duty to act in good faith towards the insurer, this means you must give honest and complete answers to each of the insurers question. You must disclose in answer to each question any matter that is known to you and which a reasonable person in the circumstances could be expected to have told the insurer in the circumstances. If you or any person under the policy do not comply with the duty the insurer may avoid the claim

Other information
Where you purchase certain domestic insurance policies (home, motor, travel sickness and accident, consumer credit etc) as a retail client you will usually have a 14 day cooling off period. If you want to take advantage of a cooling off period you must inform us promptly so we can inform the insurer in writing. The insurer may retain its reasonable administration and transaction costs.

We will forward you an invoice for the premium, statutory charges, taxes and our fees for any insurance we place for you,. You must pay us by the due date on your invoice. We will hold your payment in trust pending our regular settlement with insurers and we retain the interest earned on this account. If you do not pay the premium on time we are obliged to advise the insurer who has the right to cancel your policy. The insurer also has the right to charge you for time on risk if you decide you do not want the policy after you have been insured for a period.

The Insurance Contracts Act sets out standard terms of cover for motor vehicle, home building, home contents, sickness and accident, consumer credit and travel. If an insurer wants to alter these terms they must clearly inform you in writing. If an insurer has an unusual clause in their contract they must inform you in writing or they are not able to rely on that clause to reduce a claim. Insurers do this by requiring us to provide you with a product disclosure statement.

Ausure has in place a Professional Indemnity Policy to compensate persons who have suffered a loss or damage due to a breach of obligations by our Authorised Representatives. Please keep this document along with your policy wording and invoice. This document will apply where we provide you services in the future. If this document becomes superseded we will supply a replacement document.

Financial Services Guide (FSG)