Authorisation with the Central Bank of Ireland
Jameson Insurance & Financial Services Ltd (hereafter Jameson Financial) is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an insurance intermediary registered under the European Communities (Insurance Mediation) Regulations, 2005. Copies of our regulatory authorisations are available on request. The Financial Regulator holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the Financial Regulator on 1890 200 469 or alternatively visit their website at www.financialregulator.ie to verify our credentials.
Codes of Conduct
Jameson Financial 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
Our principal business is to provide advice and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to life, pension products and mortgages. We currently hold agency appointments with New Ireland Assurance Company plc, Aviva, Irish Life plc., Royal London and Zurich Assurance. We are also authorized to provide mortgages through Brokers Ireland Network Services and Home Plus, Residential Reversions Ltd., t/a Home Plus.
Jameson Financial is a member of Brokers Ireland. As a member we must be in a position to place insurance with at least five insurers of the relevant form (life/non-life) and therefore can generally give consumers greater choice than agents and tied agents.
Jameson Financial acts as a 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.
Jameson Financial provides life assurance and pensions on a fair analysis basis i.e. providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet your needs.
Life & Pensions
As a Multi-Agency Intermediary, we can provide advice in relation to products for which we hold an agency and can place business on your behalf with those product producers. We can provide advice on and arrange products from the following range: Life Cover, Serious Illness Cover, Income Protection, Savings, Investments and Pensions.
With your agreement, we may review the policies you take out on a periodic basis to ensure that you are kept informed as to their benefits and to check whether they are still suitable for your needs.
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. It is however, 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.
Jameson Financial is 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.
In certain circumstances, it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided. These are listed below for life, pensions & investments, non-life business and Standard PRSAs. 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 may/will be offset against the fee which we will charge you. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission may become the amount payable to the firm unless an arrangement to the contrary is made.
Life, Pensions & Investment Fees
You may elect to deal with us on a fee basis. We charge €250.00 per hour.
Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency, our scale of fees for such cases range from a minimum of €300 per hour to a maximum of €450 per hour. We will notify you in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged.
Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs):
Where advice is requested for PRSAs, the following hourly fees will apply: 250.00 per hour.
Mortgages
Through the lenders or other undertakings with which we hold an agency, we 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.
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.
We may receive up to 2% (or whatever maximum is applicable) of the loan for arranging mortgage finance. This commission is paid by the mortgage lender. The actual amount 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 available on request.
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 through our firm, we will charge you an arrangement fee of €250.00 for our services.
Disclosure of Information
Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.
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.
Data Protection
Jameson Financial complies with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.
Jameson Financial is 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.jamesonfinancial.ie. If this medium is not suitable we will ensure you can easily receive a hard copy by post.
Please contact us at david@jamesonfinancial.ie if you have any concerns about your personal data.
Sustainability Factors
When providing advice, Jameson Financial does not consider the adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability. The firm will review this approach on an annual basis in January of each year.
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.
Complaints
We ask that you make any complaint against our firm relating to services provided by us in writing. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and we will fully investigate it. 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 Ombudsman or the Pensions Ombudsman. A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.
Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman
Lincoln House
Lincoln Place
Dublin 2
Phone: 01 567 7000
E-mail: info@fspo.ie
Website: www.fspo.ie
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) 410 4955.
