Terms Of Business

Terms of Business – Effective from May 2018.

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services

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

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services (C45564) is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an insurance intermediary registered under the European Communities (Insurance Mediation) Regulations, 2005 and as a Mortgage Intermediary authorised under the Consumer Credit Act, 1995 and as a mortgage Credit Intermediary under the European Union (Consumer Mortgage Credit Agreements) Regulations 2016. Copies of our regulatory authorisations 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.

Codes of Conduct

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services. is subject to the Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness & Probity Standards which offer protection to consumers. These Codes can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie

Our Services

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services is a member of Brokers Ireland.

Our principal business is to provide a full and comprehensive financial planning service, advice and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to life, pensions, savings and mortgages. A full list of insurers, product producers and lending agencies with which we deal with is available on request.

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services acts as an Independent Broker which means that:

a) The principal regulated activities of the firm are provided on the basis of a fair analysis of the market; and
b) You have the option to pay in full for our services by means of a fee.

Fair Analysis

The concept of fair analysis is derived from the Insurance Mediation Directive. It describes the extent of the choice of products and providers offered by an intermediary within a particular category of life assurance, general insurance, mortgages, and/ or a specialist area. The number of contracts and providers considered must be sufficiently large to enable an intermediary to recommend a product that would be adequate to meet a client’s needs.
The number of providers that constitutes ‘sufficiently large’ will vary depending on the number of providers operating in the market for a particular product or service and their relative importance in and share of that market. The extent of fair analysis must be such that could be reasonably expected of a professional conducting business, taking into account the accessibility of information and product placement to intermediaries and the cost of the search.
In order to ensure that the number of contracts and providers is sufficiently large to constitute a fair 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,
•  cost, and
•  any other relevant consideration.

Life & Pensions

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services provide life assurance and pensions on a fair analysis basis.

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 policies 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 it is our policy to 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.

Mortgages

Through the lenders or other undertakings with which we hold an agency, David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services can provide advice on and arrange mortgage products from the following range: fixed-rate loans, variable rate mortgages, capital & interest mortgages, interest only mortgages, endowment mortgages, pension mortgages and residential investment property.
David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services provide mortgage advice on a fair analysis basis.
We will need to collect sufficient information from you before we can offer any advice on housing loans. This is due to the fact that a key issue in relation to mortgage advice is affordability. Such information should be produced promptly upon our request.

Disclosure of Information

Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services are remunerated by commission and other payments from product producers or lenders on the completion of business. 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 15 hours.

In certain circumstances, it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided. These are listed below for Life Products, Standard PRSAs and Mortgages. 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.

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

Financial Planning Fees

For Clients who engage in a full annual financial planning service, the annual fee is €960. This fee is separate to any remuneration paid for the arrangement and implementation of financial products.
The financial planning service entails gathering all essential information required to formulate a plan for forecasting the cost of your future lifestyle using sophisticated financial planning software.

For one off areas of advice you may elect to deal with us on a fee only basis. The hourly rate is €150. All fees/remuneration will be discussed and agreed upon before any further work is carried out on your behalf. Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency. We will give an estimate of this rate in advance of providing you with services. Our scale of fees for such services range from a minimum of €125per hour to a maximum of €175 per hour.

Life Products – Remuneration from Life Companies

Where advising and implementing Life Insurance, Serious Illness insurance or Income Protection products, payment to this firm by way of commission from the product provider will be the usual source of payment to this firm. Alternatively, if your preference is to pay the firm directly you can opt to pay us by way of a fee and the firm will receive no commission. Hourly rates are €125 to a maximum of €175 per hour for more complex cases.

Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) – Fees

Where advice is requested for PRSAs, the following fee will apply:
A flat fee of €595 will be charged for the arrangement of the pension if the pension is arranged on a nil commission basis if initial commission is received this will be rebated to you in full.

An annual Review of your pension will incur a fee of €250 and will be agreed in advance alternatively a fund-based renewal commission to a maximum of 0.5% of fund value will be charged at the outset. Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency. We will give an estimate of this rate in advance of providing you with services

Regular Investment Pension & Savings – Remuneration from Life Companies

Commissions received for regular premium products will be 10% of first year’s premiums with an annual management charge of 0.5%

Mortgages

We may receive up to 1% (or whatever maximum is applicable) of the loan for arranging mortgage finance. This commission is paid by the mortgage lender. The actual of commission will be disclosed at a later stage in the ESIS (European Standardised Information Sheet) which will be forwarded to you. Information on the variation in levels of commission payable by the different creditors providing credit agreements being offered are variable on request.

Further to any commission paid by the lender an administration fee of €350 is charged for our services. The fee must be paid on submission of your mortgage paperwork to Brokers Ireland. This is not in any way an indication of mortgage/loan approval. Our fee will be notified to the lender who will include this fee into the calculation of the ARPC (Annual Percentage Rate Charge)

Please note that lenders may charge specific fees in certain circumstances and if this applies, these fees will be specified in your Loan Offer. You have the right to pay a fee separately and not include it in the loan. Typically, this situation arises in relation to specialist lending. If we provide mortgage advice and obtain a Loan Offer for you and you subsequently do not proceed with your mortgage application though our firm, we will charge you and arrangement fee of €595 for our services.

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. You must advise us of those changes and request a review of the relevant policy so that we can ensure that you are provided with up to date advice and products best suited to your needs. Failure to contact us in relation to changes in your circumstances or failure to request a review may result in you having insufficient insurance cover and/or inappropriate investments.

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 on payments by clients

Our firm will exercise its legal rights to receive payments due to it from clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In particular, without limitation of 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.

Mortgage lenders may seek early repayment of a loan and interest if you default on your repayments. Your home is at risk if you do not maintain your agreed repayments.

Complaints

Whilst we are happy to receive verbal complaints, it would be preferable that any complaints are made in writing. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and we will fully investigate it. 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 complaints procedure is available on request.

Data Protection

David O’Neill t/a Liffey Financial Services complies with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.

We 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 that this Privacy Notice is easily assessible. Please refer to our website www.liffeyfinancial.ie, if this medium is not suitable we will ensure you can easily receive a copy by; hard copy, telephonic environment. (pre-recorded).

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

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 Investor 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 clients 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 purposes 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. at (01) 224 4955

Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund;

We are also members of the Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund. Subject to the rules of the scheme the liabilities of its members firms up to a maximum of €10,000 per client (or €250,000 in aggregate) may be discharged by the fund on it’s behalf if the member firm is unable to do so, where the above detailed Investor Compensation Scheme has failed to adequately compensate any client of the member. Further details are available on request.