Terms Of Business
How we are regulated
Bluestone Insurance Services Ltd. Esland Place, Love Lane, Cirencester, GL7 1YG. Telephone: 01285 702 777. Email: office@bluestoneinsurance.co.uk.
The Regulator
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is an independent watchdog that regulates financial services.
Our Financial Services firm reference number is 631481 and you can check our status and permissions at https://register.fca.org.uk/ or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
Law and Language
This Terms of Business Agreement is subject to English Law and the jurisdiction of the English Courts. We will use the English language for all communications, the contractual terms and conditions, and any information we are required to supply to you before and during the duration of the contract.
Our Activities
We are an insurance distributor, which means the FCA has authorised us to advise, arrange, deal in and assist with the placing and administration or prepare in any other way the conclusion of all types of General Insurance policies. We are also authorised to undertake the following Consumer Credit Activities: Credit Broking (where we act as a credit broker)
Our Service
We are an insurance distributor (intermediary) and can act both as agent of insurer, and on behalf of you, the customer. We have in place management controls to deal with any conflicts of interest that might arise. Unless we advise you otherwise, we are acting on your behalf.
We also act on behalf of insurers when collecting premiums under risk transfer (See “Money” section)
We will ask questions to enable us to assess reasonably your insurance requirements, this may include checking information that we already hold about you and your existing insurance arrangements with us and other parties.
We will provide you with advice and guidance, after assessing what you want and need and recommend a suitable policy based on our experience of dealing with similar risks.
We will confirm to you the level of service we are providing as part of our sales process. In all cases our service will include arranging and administering your insurance, including helping you with on-going changes.
If we use the services of another intermediary or distributor to place your insurance, we will advise you of the name of the intermediary or distributor we use and the name of the insurer.
Demands and Needs
Consumers
In assessing your demands and needs we will ask you a number of questions.
It is your responsibility to ensure you give us complete and accurate answers to any such questions, not only when you take out your policy, but also when you decide to renew or make any changes during any term of a contract of insurance (this applies to any changes in information relating to any individual named on the policy.)
We will make a specific personalised recommendation for product suitability based on our understanding and appraisal of your demands and needs requirements. Where we provide you with specific advice, we will give you the relevant information you require, honestly, fairly, and professionally and in a way that is in your best interests (i.e., we will alert you to important terms and conditions about the contract of insurance, and we will provide you that information when it is most relevant). This may include information about comparable products between different product providers, all of which will help you to decide whether to go ahead with any particular contract of insurance.
Non-Consumers
If you are dealing with us in a commercial capacity, you will be under a duty to make a fair presentation. You are therefore required to disclose any matter which you know or ought to know that would influence the judgement of an insurer in deciding whether to insure the risk and on what terms.
If you are unsure whether matter is relevant or not you should provide sufficient information so as to put an insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries if necessary.
We will make a specific personalised recommendation for product suitability based on our understanding and appraisal of your demands and needs requirements.
Where we provide you with specific advice, we will give you the relevant information you require, honestly, fairly, and professionally and in a way that is in your best interests (i.e., we will alert you to important terms and conditions about the contract of insurance, and we will provide you that information when it is most relevant).
This may include information about comparable products between different product providers, all of which will help you to decide whether to go ahead with any particular contract of insurance.
Our Product Selection (Fair and Personal Analysis)
We offer products from a wide range of product providers (i.e., insurance companies) and sometimes use other distributors (i.e., sub-agents) to access products. Our selection usually involves presenting to a reasonable number of insurance companies that will insure for the risk at hand, and this is called a fair and personal analysis of the market.
Sometimes we may only approach a specified number of product providers (i.e., insurance companies) and this is a Panel, or in some cases, we may only approach one product provider, in either case, we will tell you the basis as part of our selling process.
The processes we have in place means that the characteristics of these products take account of our target customer’s demands and needs and include sourcing products from one or more of the product providers we deal with.
Our Product Selection (Panel)
We only offer products from a panel of insurers, that we have selected as appropriate for the cover you require.
The processes we have in place means that the characteristics of these products take account of our target customer’s demands and needs and include sourcing products from one or more of the product providers we deal with.
Our Product Selection (Single Insurer)
We only offer some products from one insurer and so do not approach other providers. We will advise you if we are contractually obliged to use any insurer.
Method of Communication
Whilst you do have a choice in the way we communicate with you, we will principally provide you with information using electronic means (usually this will be e-mail or some other means to enable you to access information electronically). During the process of dealing with us you will be given an option to receive information in this way, meaning if you would like information in a paper format, we will be happy to provide it.
Call Recording
Your call may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes. We ensure all call recordings are protected in the same way as any other digital or written data in strict accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and The Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.
Training
We maintain training to a minimum standard to ensure our workforce is appropriately skilled but where specialism in particular activities is required, we have in place more detailed requirements, including the need for our staff to attain a professional qualification where relevant.
Limit of Liability
This clause restricts the amount that may be recoverable because of our negligence. Other than injury or death of any person (for which no cap on liability will apply), our liability to you for the services we provide shall not exceed £2,000,000 about any one event or connected events. We shall not be liable to you for any special indirect or consequential losses.
Conflict Management
Whilst we act in the capacity of agents for our product providers (i.e., the insurance companies we do business with) we are required to have in place appropriate governance controls to help us meet our regulatory objectives. We
have in place effective organisational controls, including appropriate supervision, to ensure we manage any and all conflicts of interests which may arise or may be identified from time to time, this includes gifts and benefits granted and accepted, which may damage the interests of our relationship with either our distributors or our customers.
Our Customers Best Interests
Our primary aim is to ensure, for any customer (or potential customer) that we act honestly, fairly and professionally and in the customers best interest including giving customers information they might need to understand the relevance of any information we provide, as well as objectively giving that information when it is most useful to a customer to enable informed decision making.
Financial Strength
We regularly assess the financial strength of the Insurance Companies and other intermediaries that we deal with. The process usually involves general observation of the financial ratings applied by independent rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and A M Best published with other readily available information within industry guides, newsletters, and press releases. Whilst we take care to deal with companies that maintain reasonable solvency margins, we cannot guarantee their financial ability to pay claims.
Money
We will hold money that you pay to us in accordance with the regulator’s rules or under a risk transfer agreement with insurers. This will include holding your money in the following way.
A non-statutory trust insurer bank account in accordance with our agreements with Insurance Companies that transfer the risk of money we receive from customers to them, these agreements deem any money you pay to us, to be received by them and they will bear the risk of any losses in the event that our firm becomes insolvent. This includes claims money or premium refunds we receive prior to being paid to you.
By holding your money in this way, means that in the event that this firm becomes insolvent your money remains protected.
In arranging your insurance, we may employ the services of other intermediaries who are regulated by the FCA and your premium may be passed to these intermediaries for payment to insurers. These firms are also required to hold clients’ money in a separate trust account. We will also inform you if at any time we are required to pass your premium to firms that operate outside the UK where the protection may be different. Should you not wish us to pass premiums to a firm outside of the UK, please inform us.
Insurance Premium Tax (IPT)
Your premium detailed in the policy will include IPT at the prevailing rate. Should the rate of IPT be amended by the Government, your premium will be amended by the insurer to reflect the change.
Our Remuneration
We usually receive a commission from the insurance provider with whom we place your business, and this is expressed as a percentage of the premium you pay and in such a case, the commission will be paid to us either when we are in receipt of cleared funds from you (or the premium finance company, if one has been used) or, when the insurer has received cleared funds from us in respect of the premium due under your policy. The individual agreements we have with each insurer will determine which of the two methods above is used to make this transfer of commission. We also receive commission for arranging finance agreements for the payment of insurance premiums and this is usually expressed as a percentage of the individual loan and is paid to us directly by the premium finance provider. This means that the amount you pay for credit and the overall cost of arranging your insurance will vary according to the interest charged by the lender and the amount of commission we earn. Using premium finance makes the overall cost of the insurance more expensive. A full breakdown of the cost of your insurance and the cost of credit will be provided as part of your new business or renewal quotation before you make a decision whether to proceed.
We may also receive a commission or fee for passing introductions to other professional firms. In addition, we may also charge you a fee for arranging your insurance and full details will be provided to you at outset.
Fees and Charges:
| New policies | £50.00 (or up to 15% of the gross insurer premium whichever is greater). |
| Renewal policies | £50.00 (or up to 15% of the gross insurer premium whichever is greater). |
| A mid-term adjustment (requiring an endorsement to be produced) | £25.00 |
| Cancellation of a policy | £50.00 (or retention of up to 25% of the gross insurer return premium, whichever is greater.) |
| Net rated policies | Up to 40% of the insurer nett premium. This will be confirmed at the quotation stage prior to acceptance of our quotation. |
Payment Options
We will provide you with full details of all the payment options available to you when we provide you with your insurance premium.
If you choose to enter in a finance arrangement, your details will be passed to a third party (insurer or lender) to enable them to contact you and you should contact us at the address given in this document if you do not want your details passed to that party. This finance arrangement will be subject to interest charges that we will confirm to you when providing the full details. Importantly, the arrangement you will enter into will be with the finance company not us. It is an entirely separate contract irrespective of the insurance contract. In the event of your failure to meet with the contractual obligations regarding payment the finance provider could approach the insurer to seek a termination of the insurance contract to recoup their outstanding finance arrears. You will be liable to pay their costs and charges if you do not keep up your repayments and cover is cancelled under your policy. This is because the agreement is between you, the policyholder and the finance company direct, not us or the insurer.
It is important that you read the finance agreement that is sent to you before you agree to enter into such an agreement. We do not charge any fees to you for introducing you to a credit provider.
If you are a consumer as defined under the Consumer Credit Act, you will have the benefit of a 14-day cooling off period.
Please note that we only use Close Brothers Premium Finance for the provision of premium finance facilities.
Please Note: Your policy cover will cease if you fail to keep up payments on an instalment agreement or premium finance facility related to it.
Your Right to Cancel (Applicable to Consumers only)
Please contact us if you wish to cancel any policy that we have arranged for you. Customers acting outside their trade or profession (Consumers) will usually have a legal right to cancel policies for any reason, subject to no claims having occurred, within 14 days of receiving the full terms & conditions. You will always be advised where this Right applies.
A charge will apply for the period of cover provided and, in addition, an administration charge may also apply (see the Fees and Charges table above). Cancellation under this right must be in writing, prior to expiry of the cancellation period, to our usual office address.
Cancellation non consumer
Commercial insurance policies do not routinely have cancellation rights except those available to the insurer. As a Commercial customer, you do not have the same cancellation rights by law as a consumer but may still have specific contract rights and reference should be made to the policy document to ascertain your position.
Where returns of commercial premiums are made on cancellation, it is usually following cancellation by the insurer, not the policyholder. On cancellation of a policy any refund or premium allowed by the insurer will be paid to you after deducting our annual commission and fees.
Complaints
Our aim is always to provide our customers with a first-class service; however, we are aware that, occasionally, it is possible that we may fail to meet your expectations. If for any reason we have not met your expectations, let us know as soon as possible, by calling our main office telephone 01285 702 777, or write to Pauline Rushton, Esland Place, Love Lane, Cirencester, GL7 1YG or email office@bluestoneinsurance.co.uk.
If we are unable to resolve the issue to your satisfaction by the end of the third business day following receipt, we will formally investigate the matter. You will receive an acknowledgement of the matter together with a copy of our complaints process promptly and certainly within 5 working days. We will then aim to investigate and provide a resolution as quickly as possible, informing you of a final response no later than 8 weeks.
If you are not happy with our response, or the position after a period of 8 weeks, you may be eligible to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for an independent assessment and opinion.
The FOS Consumer Helpline is on 0800 023 4567 (free for people phoning from a “fixed line” (for example, a landline at home) or 0300 123 9123 (free for mobile-phone users paying monthly charge for calls to No’s starting 01 or 02). Alternatively, you can contact them at Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9SR. www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
If we are unable to meet our obligations, you may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS. If we have advised or arranged insurance for you this will be covered for 90% of a claim, without any upper limit, however, claims under compulsory insurance, professional indemnity insurance and certain claims for injury, sickness or infirmity of the policyholder are protected at 100%. Further information is available from the FSCS helpline on 0800 678 1100 or 020 7741 4100 and www.fscs.org.uk
The FSCS is the UK’s statutory fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. Compensation is usually payable if an authorised firm is unable or unlikely to pay claims usually because it has ceased trading or become insolvent.
Ownership
There is no direct or indirect holding or voting rights or capital in the firm held by any insurance company.
Your Data
We aim to process your data responsibly, fairly and in strict accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and The Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.
The UK GDPR modernised data protection law requiring enhanced disclosures about what we do with your information including (but not limited to):
- Our lawful bases of processing;
- The information we collect, and how we use and share that information;
- How long we keep information, including the purposes (e.g., administer your policy);
- The technical and organisational measures we have in place to safeguard your information;
- Your individual rights; and
- Our approach to marketing
As with many organisations, and to ensure Customers can easily access details on the areas listed above, we have developed a separate Privacy Notice which can be found at: www.bluestoneinsurance.co.uk/privacy
It is vitally important to take time to read our Privacy Notice carefully as it contains full details of the basis on which we will process (i.e., collect, use, share, and or transfer) and store your information. It is also your obligation to ensure you show our Privacy Notice to all parties related to this insurance arrangement. If you have given us information about someone else, you are deemed to have their permission to do so.
If you have any questions, including obtaining a copy of our Privacy Notice, or any further information about our approach to the UK GDPR you can contact us using the details at the top of this document.
Termination
The authority to act on your behalf may be terminated at any time by either party by giving 14 days notice in writing to the other. You will remain liable to pay for any transactions or adjustments effective prior to termination 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 of our authority to act on your behalf.
Bluestone Terms of Business 2021.07