Financial Services Guide

The financial services referred to in this Financial Services Guide (FSG) are offered by: Geelong Insurance Brokers PTY LTD ABN 76 072 118 499 AFSL 243289 34 Ormond Road, East Geelong VIC 3219 PO Box 96, Geelong VIC 3220 Phone: +61 3 5229 0061 Email: info@gibvic.com.au This FSG sets out the services that we can offer you. It is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of those services and contains important information about: • The services we offer you. • How we and others are paid. • Any potential conflict of interest we may have. • Our internal and external dispute resolution procedures and how you can access them. • Arrangements we have in place to compensate clients for losses. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lack of Independence Why we are not independent, impartial, or unbiased in relation to the provision of personal advice and the impact of this on you: We, Geelong Insurance Brokers, are not independent, impartial or unbiased pursuant to section 923A of the Corporations Act because: a. We may receive commission, fees and very occasional gifts or other benefits when we provide personal advice to you in relation to insurance products and other financial products. b. We may be subject to direct or indirect restrictions relating to the financial products in respect of which personal advice is provided; and/or c. We may have associations or relationships with issuers of insurance products and other financial products. Further information about these benefits and relationships is set out in this Financial Services Guide. If you have any questions about this information, please ask us. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Further information when personal advice is given: We will provide you with further information whenever we provide you with advice which takes into account your objectives, financial situation and needs. This information may include the advice that we have given you, the basis of the advice and other information on our remuneration and any relevant associations or interests. This information may be contained in a statement of advice (SOA). When you ask us to recommend an insurance policy for you, we will usually only consider the policies offered by the insurers or insurance providers that we deal with regularly. In giving you advice about the costs and terms of recommended policies we have not compared those policies to other policies available, other than from those insurers we deal with regularly. Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) If we offer to arrange the issue of an insurance policy to you, we will also provide you with, or pass on to you, a product disclosure statement (PDS), unless you already have an up-to-date PDS. The PDS will contain information about the particular policy which will enable you to make an informed decision about purchasing that product. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ From when does this FSG apply? This FSG applies from 11 April 2025 and remains valid unless a further FSG is issued to replace it. We may give you a supplementary FSG. It will not replace this FSG but will cover services not covered by this FSG. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ How can I instruct you? You can contact us to give us instructions by post, phone or email on the contact number or details mentioned on page 1 of this FSG. Who is responsible for the financial services provided? Geelong Insurance Brokers is responsible for the financial services that will be provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG. Geelong Insurance Brokers holds a current Australian Financial Services Licensee no: 243289. The contact details for Geelong Insurance Brokers are on the front of this FSG. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ What kinds of financial services are you authorised to provide to me and what kinds of financial product/s do these services relate to? Geelong Insurance Brokers is authorised to: 1.Provide financial product advice for the following classes of financial products: a.General insurance products; and b.Life products limited to life risk insurance products as well as any products issued by a Registered Life Insurance Company that are backed by one or more of its statutory funds; and 2.Deal in a financial product by: a.Issuing, applying for, acquiring, varying or disposing of general insurance products; and b.Applying for, acquiring, varying or disposing of a financial product on behalf of another person in respect of general insurance products; and life products limited to life risk insurance products as well as any products issued by a Registered Life Insurance Company that are backed by one or more of its statutory funds; to retail and wholesale clients. We will do this for you as your broker unless we tell you otherwise. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Will I receive tailored advice? Maybe not in all cases. However, we may need information about your personal objectives, details of your current financial situation and any relevant information, so that we can arrange insurance policies for you, issue insurance policies to you, or give you advice about your insurance needs. We will ask you for the details that we need to know. In some cases, we will not ask for any of this information. If we do not ask, or if you do not give us all of the information we ask for, any advice you receive may not be appropriate to your needs, objectives and financial situation. You should read the warnings contained in any SOA, or any other warnings that we give you, carefully before making any decision about an insurance policy. Where we provide you with advice about your insurance arrangements, that advice is current at the time that we give it. We will review your insurance arrangements when you inform us about changes in your circumstances, at the time of any scheduled status review or upon renewal of your insurances. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Contractual Liability and your insurance cover Many commercial or business contracts contain clauses dealing with your liability (including indemnities or hold harmless clauses). Such clauses may entitle your insurers to reduce cover, or in some cases, refuse to indemnify you at all. You should seek legal advice before signing and accepting contracts. You should inform us of any clauses of this nature before you enter into them. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ What information do you maintain in my file and can I examine my file? We maintain a record of your personal profile, including details of insurance policies that we arrange or issue for you. We may also maintain records of any recommendations or advice given to you. We will retain this FSG and any other FSG given to you as well as any SOA or PDS that we give or pass on to you for the period required by law. We are committed to implementing and promoting a privacy policy, which will ensure the privacy and security of your personal information. A copy of our privacy policy is available on request. A copy is also available on our website, www.geelonginsurancebrokers.com.au If you wish to look at your file please ask us. We will make arrangements for you to do so. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ How will I pay for the services provided? For each insurance product, the insurer will charge a premium that includes any relevant taxes, charges and levies. We often receive a payment based on a percentage of this premium (excluding relevant taxes, charges and levies) called commission, which is paid to us by the insurers. However, in most cases, we will also charge you a fee. These will all be shown on the invoice that we send you. If there is a refund or reduction of your premium as a result of a cancellation or alteration to a policy, or based on a term of your policy (such as a premium adjustment provision), we will retain any fee we have charged you. We will also retain commission depending on our arrangements with the insurer, or charge you a cancellation fee equal to the reduction in our commission. You can choose to pay by any of the payment methods set out in the invoice. You are required to pay us within the time set out on the invoice. When you pay us your premium it will be banked into our trust account. We retain the commission from the premium you pay us and remit the balance to the insurer in accordance with our arrangements with the insurer. We will earn interest on the premium while it is in our trust account or we may invest the premium and earn a return. We will retain any interest or return on investment earned on the premium. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ How are any commissions, fees or other benefits calculated for providing the financial services? Our commission will be calculated based on the following formula: X = Y% x P In this formula: X = our commission Y% = the percentage commission paid to us by the insurer. Our commission varies between 0% and 30% (up to 66% of first year’s premium for Life Products) P = the amount you pay for any insurance policy (less any government fees or charges included in that amount). Any fees that we charge you will be based on the commission we receive. Where 0% commission is received our fee will be equivalent to the normal commission for the type of product. Where normal commission is received our standard fee applies, which is: • $40 + GST for Home & Contents, Residential Landlords, Private Motor, Boat, Leisure Travel & other Domestic/Personal Insurance covers; •$110 + GST for all other types of insurance •$10 + GST for all endorsements Note: Our fee is often adjusted so the total payable ends in a whole dollar (no cents). If you cancel a policy mid-term we will charge a cancellation fee equal to the return of the commission, if we do not receive any refund of our initial commission payment from the insurers. We do not often pay any commissions, fees or benefits to others who refer you to us or refer us to an insurer. If we do, we will pay commissions to those people out of our commission or fees Our employees that will assist you with your insurance needs will be paid a market salary. A bonus or incentive is paid to employees based on performance, and at the discretion of management. This includes a bonus at Christmas, and attendance at social activities and events such a conference or sporting event. If we give you personal advice, we will inform you of any fees, commission or other payments we, our associates or anyone referring you to us (or us to any insurer) will receive in relation to the policies that are the subject of the advice. See below for information on the Steadfast association and commission. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have any relationships or associations with the insurers who issue the insurance policies or any other material relationships? Geelong Insurance Brokers is a Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) Network Broker and our brokerage company holds shares in Steadfast. As a Steadfast Network Broker, we have access to services including model operating and compliance tools, procedures, manuals and training, legal, technical, banking and recruitment advice and assistance, group insurance arrangements, product comparison and placement support, claims support and group purchasing arrangements. These services are either funded by Steadfast, subsidised by Steadfast or available exclusively to Steadfast Network Brokers for a fee. You can obtain a copy of Steadfast's FSG at www.steadfast.com.au Steadfast has arrangements with some insurers and premium funders (Partners) under which the Partners may pay Steadfast a fee to access strategic and technological support and the Steadfast Broker Network. Steadfast is also a shareholder of some Partners. If we arrange premium funding for you we may be paid a commission by the premium funder. We may also charge you a fee (or both). The commission that we are paid by the premium funder is usually calculated as a percentage of your insurance premium (including government fees or changes). If you instruct us to arrange or issue a product, this is when we become entitled to the commission. Our commission rates for premium funding are in the range of 0% to 4% (normally 2%) of funded premium. When we arrange premium funding for you, you can ask us what commission rates we are paid for that funding arrangement compared to the other arrangements that were available to you. The amount of our commission and any fee that we charge will set out in the premium funding contract. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ What arrangements do you have in place to compensate clients for losses? Geelong Insurance Brokers has a professional indemnity insurance policy (PI policy) in place. The PI policy covers us and our employees for claims made against us and our employees by clients as a result of the conduct of us or our employees in the provision of financial services. This policy satisfies the requirements for compensation arrangements under section 912B of the Corporations Act. Our PI policy will cover us for claims relating to the conduct of representatives who no longer work for us. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ What should I do if I have a complaint? 1. Contact us and tell us about your complaint. We will do our best to resolve it quickly. 2. If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved within 14 days, please contact Don Shields on 0419 390 303 or put your complaint in writing to him at the address noted at the beginning of this FSG. We will try and resolve your complaint quickly and fairly. 3. If our brokerage is unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, as a Steadfast Network Broker we have access to a free, additional, proactive service known as the Steadfast Customer Advocacy service. It can assist if you have a problem related to satisfaction, or fair treatment in relation to your dealings with us, or your insurer. The service can be accessed by sending an email to customeradvocacy@steadfast.com.au, or by calling the Steadfast Group Ltd head office on 02 9495 6500 and asking to speak with the Customer Advocacy service. 4. Geelong Insurance Brokers is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). If your complaint cannot be resolved to your satisfaction by our brokerage, or by the Steadfast Customer Advocacy service, you have the right to refer the matter to the AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to customers. The AFCA can be contacted at: Australian Financial Complaints Authority Mail: GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC 3001 Phone: 1800 931 678 Email: info@afca.org.au Website: afca.org.au ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have any questions? If you have any further questions about the financial services Geelong Insurance Brokers provides, please contact us. Please retain this document for your reference and any future dealings with Geelong Insurance Brokers. Geelong Insurance Brokers PTY LTD Address: 34 Ormond Road, East Geelong VIC 3219 Mail: PO Box 96, Geelong VIC 3220 Phone: +61 3 5229 0061 Email: info@gibvic.com.au Website: geelonginsurancebrokers.com.au ______________________________________________________________________________________________________