TERMS OF BUSINESS

APPLYING TO OUR GENERAL INSURANCE CUSTOMERS.

We recommend that you carefully read these terms that apply to our appointment by you and the services we will provide.

OUR CONTACT DETAILS AND INFORMATION ABOUT US

Imperial House
25 North Street
Bromley
BR1 1SD
Telephone: 01708 936 170
E-mail: enquiries@mgamutual.com

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 835270 to carry out insurance distribution activities. You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk or by telephoning the FCA on 0800 111 6768. We are a company registered in England with company number 09742763.

Our registered office address is Walsingham House, Ninth Floor, 35 Seething Lane, London, EC3N 4AH.

OUR SERVICE

We offer a wide range of insurance products being our own products underwritten by leading insurers in the market place and products developed by insurers that we have selected as offering value for money and quality service.

We do not give a personal recommendation but will assess your needs and will provide you with information on the products we offer and the name of the insurers with which we may and do conduct business to help you decide if those products are suitable for you.

If our assessment of your needs indicates that the products we offer may not suitable we may seek a quotation from one of our broking partners. Again we will not give a personal recommendation but will provide you with information on the product and the name of the insurer to help you decide if the product is suitable for you.

We will give you these details before you make any commitment on any product we offer you and will explain the main features of the product’s cover and benefits, any unusual restrictions or exclusions, any significant conditions or obligations and the period of cover. You should read this information carefully before you make any commitment and contact us if there is anything you do not understand or if you need further information.

We will also make clear in our documentation, prior to conclusion of the contract, the areas where we are acting as agent for you as the customer or the insurer or both. Please see the Conflicts of Interest section below.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Circumstances may arise where we find we have a conflict of interest or otherwise have a material interest in or related to a matter in which we are acting.

We have conflict management procedures and endeavour to avoid conflicts of interest but, where a conflict is unavoidable, we will explain the position fully to the parties concerned and manage the situation in such a way as to avoid prejudice to any party.

Whatever the circumstances we will act in your best interests and, if a conflict arises for which there is no practical solution, we will withdraw unless you indicate that you wish us to continue to act for you.

LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSION OF OUR LIABILITY

The following provisions set out our entire financial liability to you.

You acknowledge and agree that you shall only be entitled to make a claim against us and not against any individual employee or consultant engaged by us.

Our liability for losses suffered by you arising under or in connection with the provision of our services, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise (including our liability for the acts or omissions of our senior management, employees and any appointed representatives) shall be limited in all circumstances to £1,000,000 per claim. Any claim or series of claims arising from one act, error, omission, incident or original cause shall be considered to be one claim.

We shall not be liable to you for any loss of profit or loss of business, whether directly or indirectly occurring, and which arises out of or in connection with the provision of our services.

Nothing in this paragraph shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or for loss by our fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation or breach of regulatory obligations owed to you.

You are welcome to contact us to discuss increasing the limitations of our liability and or varying the exclusions set out above.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR CONSUMER CUSTOMERS ONLY

A consumer is defined as an individual who enters into an insurance contract wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to the individual’s trade, business or profession.

Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representation) Act 2012 (the Act), it is your duty as a consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to an insurer. For the purposes of the Act, if you fail to comply with a request from the insurer to confirm or amend particulars previously given it is capable of being a misrepresentation.

It is important that you ensure all statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate and we recommend that you keep a copy of all correspondence in relation to the arrangement of your insurance.

Under the Act an insurer has exercisable rights against a consumer in respect of qualifying misrepresentations in breach of the consumer’s duty of reasonable care where the insurer considers the misrepresentation to be either deliberate or reckless or careless.

If you are in doubt about any point in relation to your duty to take reasonable care and subsequent qualifying misrepresentations you should contact us immediately.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS ONLY

It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out an insurance policy, throughout the life of the policy and when you renew the policy.

You must make a fair presentation of the insurance risk based on you conducting a reasonable search for information (which may include you obtaining information from senior managers within your organisation or other parties to which the insurance relates or who carry out outsource functions for your business) and you must disclose every material circumstance which you know or ought to know or, failing that, disclose sufficient information to put your insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries.

You must ensure that any information you provide is correct to the best of your knowledge and representations that you make in expectation or belief must be made in good faith and statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents must be full and accurate. We recommend that you keep a copy of all correspondence in relation to the arrangement of your insurance.

If you fail to make a fair presentation of the risk, this may result in additional terms or warranties being applied from inception of the policy or any claim payment being proportionately reduced. In some cases this could result in your policy being declared void by an insurer and your premiums returned. If a breach of the duty of fair presentation is considered to be deliberate or reckless it could result in your policy being declared void by an insurer with no refund of premium allowed.

If you are in doubt about any point in relation to material circumstances and your duty to perform a reasonable search please contact us immediately.

FINANCIAL CRIME

Please be aware that UK money laundering regulations require us to obtain adequate ‘Know Your Client’ information about you. We are also required to cross check you against the HM Financial Sanctions List as part of the information gathering process.

We are obliged to report to the National Crime Agency and/or Serious Fraud Office any evidence or suspicion of financial crime at the first opportunity and we are prohibited from disclosing any such report.

We will not permit our employees or other persons engaged by them to be either influenced by or to influence others in respect of undue payments or privileges from or to insurers or clients.

SOLVENCY OF INSURERS

Please be aware that we can not guarantee the solvency of any insurer with which we place business. This means that you may still be liable for any premium due and may not be able to recover the premium paid, whether in full or in part, should an insurer become insolvent.

In these circumstances you would need to replace the insurance cover. Please also see the Financial Services Compensation Scheme section below.

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Our payment terms are as follows (unless specifically agreed by us in writing to the contrary):

• New policies: immediate payment on or before the inception date of the policy.
• Alterations to existing policies: immediate payment on or before the effective date of the change.
• Renewals: due in full before the renewal date.

You may be able to pay premiums by instalments through a credit scheme operated by a third party premium finance company or insurer. Please note, we can only pay premium to insurers on your behalf once we have cleared funds from you or your premium finance company. Please also see the Premium Finance section below.

If payment is not received from you or your premium finance company in accordance with the above terms, we, or your insurer may be forced to cancel or lapse the relevant policy/policies, which could mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid. It may also mean you are in in breach of your legal requirements regarding certain insurance covers.

When renewal is invited and the policy is paid by monthly direct debit, we will issue a notice to you. To ensure you are not left without cover the absence of a response to this notice will be considered to be your consent to cover being renewed automatically.

Any payment we receive from you will be held by Ambant Underwriting Services Limited (which pays insurers on our behalf) in either a Statutory Trust or a Non Statutory Trust Client Bank account as permitted under the FCA’s Client Money rules. By operating a Statutory Trust or a Non Statutory Trust Client Bank account Ambant Underwriting Services Limited is permitted to and may use such monies to cross fund clients premiums. No interest will be payable to customers in respect of the client account. Any interest earned will remain in the ownership of Ambant Underwriting Services Limited.

We may pass the money you pay us to another intermediary but we will only do this where it is a necessary part of the process of arranging cover for you. Where this includes intermediaries outside the UK, the legal and regulatory regime may be different from that of the UK. In the event of the intermediary failing, money may be treated differently than if it was held by an intermediary in the UK. You may notify us if you do not wish your money to be passed to an intermediary in a particular jurisdiction.

In some cases the payment we receive from you will be held on behalf of the insurer as their agent. This means that any payment you make to us will be regarded as having been paid to the provider – this is known as risk transfer.

PREMIUM FINANCE

Please note if you wish to pay your premium by instalments that we do not recommend any particular credit provider but we are able to introduce you to credit providers (which may include a third party premium finance company or an insurer). There may be other credit providers (including insurers) able to offer better credit terms than those made available to you by a party we have introduced to you.

As part of the process for granting credit a provider will search public information that the credit reference agency holds about you and any previous payment history you have with that provider. The credit reference agency will add details of the search about you and your application to their record about you whether or not your application is successful. Please read carefully the provider’s pre-contractual explanations and the information regarding the cost of credit (including any representative examples). Together they provide important information in relation to the credit facility available from the finance provider.

Where you decide to enter in to a credit scheme for the payment of premium, you will receive separate terms and conditions from the relevant premium finance company or insurer which will govern that arrangement. In accordance with the terms of any such credit scheme we may instruct your insurer to cancel your insurance policy if you are in default of your payments due under the scheme and any return premium or other payment due to you from the insurer may be applied to discharge your liability under the credit scheme without further reference to you.

NOTIFICATIONS OF INCIDENTS OR CLAIMS

It is essential that the insurers are notified immediately of all incidents that may result in a claim against your insurance policy. For liability insurances you must notify the insurer whether or not you believe you may be liable for injury or damage. Your policy summary and/or policy document will provide you with details on who to contact to make a claim – notification of an incident to such persons is considered to be notification to the insurer.

Any letter or other document you receive notifying you of a claim being made against you must be passed to the insurer immediately, without acknowledgement. Only by you providing prompt notification of incidents can your insurer take steps to protect your interests.

Claims payment will be made to you. If you require a payment to be made to a third party you must confirm the required payee name and details and provide a brief explanation for your request.

Please contact us if you need further guidance on how to make a claim under your policy.

YOUR RIGHTS TO CANCEL YOUR INSURANCE

Your policy document will detail your rights to cancel your insurance once you have taken it out. Depending on the type of policy you have purchased, you may be entitled to cancel within 14 or 30 days of either conclusion of the contract or receiving your policy documentation, whichever occurs later. This is often referred to as a ‘cooling off period’.

Where you cancel a policy after the cooling off period you will be responsible for paying a charge to meet the cost of the cover already provided and our administration expenses. Please also see the ‘Refunds’ section.

To enable your insurer to process the cancellation, you may be asked to return certificates of insurance and any official documents to our office within 30 days of you giving notice to cancel.

REFUNDS

Where a policy is cancelled after the cooling off period the insurers charge to cover their costs, subject to there being no incidents and no claims having been made, the balance of the premium you have paid will be refunded to you. Full details will be available in your policy document.

There are certain commercial insurance policies where the insurers consider the premium to have been fully earned at inception of the policy – these premiums are known as ‘in full’ or ‘minimum’ premiums. This means that no refund will be paid if the policy is cancelled after the cooling off period – we will advise you if this affects you.

If your policy is adjustable and the final adjustment gives rise to a return of premium the amount may be refunded to you or held to credit.

HOW WE ARE PAID FOR OUR SERVICES

Payment for our services may be by way of:

(a) A fee that we agree in advance with you.
(b) Brokerage/commission, which is a percentage of the total premiums paid by you and given to us by the insurers with whom we place your business.
(c) Administration charges, in addition to any brokerage/commission, for the administration of your policy including amending and cancelling the policy.

Payment for our services may be a combination of (a), (b) and (c) above. We do not receive commission on any tax element of your insurance premiums.

We take any brokerage/commission due to us once we have received your payment as cleared funds and prior to payment of the premium to the insurer.
In the event of cancellation of your policy, fees and administration charges may not be refundable.

Details of any fees/charges, whether applicable under (a) or (c), together with details of services to which they relate and the basis on which these are made will be declared to you in advance of them being incurred so that you are able to make an informed decision. Where we are not able to provide the actual amount of the fees/charges we will provide you with the basis on which they are calculated.

We may receive additional payments such as profit share or profit commission from insurers. For example, insurers may pay us profit commission under a delegated authority contract or other facility or an individual contract in recognition of the overall profitability of the contract.

We may also earn income from insurers or other sources in other ways. This may be income received from insurers for the provision of ancillary services solely on their behalf or from premium finance providers or insurers for introducing you to them.

Upon request, we will be pleased to provide details of any income we are due or have received as a result of placing your business.

COMPLAINTS

It is our intention to provide you with the highest possible level of customer service at all times. However we recognise that things can go wrong occasionally and if this occurs we are committed to resolving matters promptly and fairly.

Should you wish to complain you may do so to the Complaints Manager:

• By telephone on: 0203 946 9102
• By e-mail at: complaints@mgamutual.com
• In writing to: Complaints Manager, Imperial House, 25 North Street, Bromley, BR1 1SD

Should you not be satisfied with our final response, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). More information is available on request or on their website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Further details will be supplied at the time of responding to your complaint.

FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPENSATION SCHEME (FSCS)

We and the insurers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and you may be entitled to compensation from the scheme depending on the type of business and circumstances of your claim if we or the insurers can not meet our obligations.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at www.fscs.org.uk.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION

We and the parties identified in your policy documents, may hold and process personal data supplied by you where it is necessary to underwrite, administer, and fulfil obligations under your insurance policy including with regard to claims. Each of the parties are data controllers and/or processers with respect to the personal data they hold. We, and the parties, will always act in accordance with relevant data protection legislation and the rights of data subjects under such legislation. Where you provide us with personal data you are confirming to us that you are entitled to do so and have lawfully obtained the data.

Personal data will not be passed to any other third party except where your consent has been given or where permitted by law. The parties will ensure that personal data is kept secure, is used only for the purpose for which it was supplied by you, and is retained only for as long as is necessary.

If any person whose personal data was supplied in relation to your insurance policy would like further information please go to www.mgamutual.com/privacy

We will respond to any such enquiry as promptly and fairly as possible providing contact details for any other party that may hold the personal data enabling the data subject to make further enquiries of those parties.

COMMUNICATIONS/DOCUMENTATION

We will issue all documentation to you in a timely manner.

Documentation relating to your insurance will confirm the basis of the cover and provide details of the relevant insurers. It is important that the documentation is kept in a safe place as you may need to refer to it and you may need it to make a claim.

A new policy/policy booklet is not necessarily provided each year, although a duplicate can be provided at any time upon request.

You should always check the documentation to ensure all the details are correct and if this is not the case you should contact us immediately.

TERMINATION OF OUR AUTHORITY TO ACT ON YOUR BEHALF

You or we may terminate this terms of business agreement at any time. Such termination will take effect 30 days after such notice has been provided or, by mutual agreement between us, termination will occur when all current insurance policies that we have arranged for you have expired. If termination is to be effective 30 days after notice is given then we will cancel the policies at the end of the notice period and provide you with all reasonable assistance to enable you to make alternative arrangements.

Termination is without prejudice to any transactions already initiated by you, which will be completed according to these terms of business unless we agree otherwise in writing.

You will remain liable to pay for any transactions or adjustments effective prior to termination of these terms of business and we shall be entitled to retain any and all commission and/or fees payable in relation to insurance cover placed by us prior to the date of written termination.

GENERAL

If any provision of these terms of business is found to be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of the other provisions of these terms of business and the remainder of the provision in question will not be affected.

These terms of business shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales unless you reside or your registered office or principal place of business is located in Scotland in which case the law of Scotland will apply. These terms of business shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the relevant courts as stated above.
These terms of business supersede all proposals, prior discussions and representations (whether oral or written) between us in connection with the arranging and administration of your insurance.

These terms of business constitute an offer by us to assist you in the arrangement and administration of your insurance matters. In the absence of any specific communication from you (whether verbal or written) to the contrary, you are considered to have accepted our offer and we will accept your instructions to arrange, renew or otherwise act for you in connection with your insurance matters.