Purpose of this Financial Services Guide.
We are required by law to provide you with this Financial Services Guide (FSG). This document outlines important legal information as required by the Corporations Act 2001. It contains important information about the authorised services we offer, the remuneration received by us, our service providers, authorised representatives and our internal and external dispute resolution services. This FSG is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of the authorised services.
Our services.
TAL Direct Pty Limited and its authorised representatives are authorised and responsible under its Australian Financial Services Licence to:
- provide general financial product advice about life and general insurance products, and
- deal in life and general insurance products.
Who are our representatives?
Our representatives are our own staff and our management. We have also appointed a number of trained people to be our authorised representatives. These people are employees of SalesForce Australia Pty Ltd, who have undergone a stringent training process set and administered by us to ensure our standards are maintained. Our contact details are shown at the end of this Financial Services
Guide.
The name and ASIC identification number of the authorised representative with whom you deal will be provided in an accompanying letter which forms part of this Guide.
What does general financial product advice mean?
Our representatives have been trained to an ASIC prescribed standard to discuss the products we offer. It is important that you understand that we do not provide personal advice or make recommendations about the suitability of the product for you. Therefore, you should carefully review the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) that we will send to you, having regard for your own objectives, financial situation
and needs before deciding to purchase.
The PDS sets out the important information you should consider when deciding to acquire a certain product, including the insurer and the benefits, features and associated costs of the product. You can read the PDS prior to receiving a call from an Authorised Representative or if you like, you can ask the Authorised
Representative to read it to you.
What does "dealing" mean?
This means that our representatives can arrange policies on your behalf. When we give general financial product advice, arrange for the insurer to issue policies or renew general insurance policies, we act for you. However, we are also authorised to issue policies on behalf of certain insurers under an arrangement called a “binder”.
These insurers are TAL Life Limited - “TAL” and for Pet Insurance, The Hollard Insurance Company Pty Ltd - “Hollard”.
When we do this we will tell you and, in these circumstances, we are acting for the insurer, rather than you. The insurers registered addresses are:
- TAL - 80 Alfred Street, Milsons Point NSW 2061.
- Hollard - Level 24, 259 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000.
Dispute resolution process.
InsuranceLine offers an internal dispute resolution service in relation to any concerns you may have about InsuranceLine or any of our authorised representatives. If a dispute is not resolved to your satisfaction through our internal dispute resolution service, you may then refer your concern to an external dispute resolution service.
These services are free of charge to you.
Internal dispute resolution service.
In the first instance, we hope that our representatives can handle any concern you may have. Please call or write to us first. If you are not satisfied with our initial response, please ask to speak to the Complaints Officer who will handle your matter personally, or write to our Complaints Officer at the address shown at the end of this Financial Services Guide.
External dispute resolution service.
In the event that we are unable to resolve your concern, you have the right to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) which is an independent complaints resolution body. Call FOS on 1300 780 808 or write to G.P.O Box 3, Melbourne Victoria 3001. The FOS is an independent body and its service to you is free. Different terms of reference are applied by the FOS depending on whether your complaint relates to a life insurance product or a general insurance product. Please refer to the FOS for details. To use FOS, you must have firstly attempted to use our internal dispute resolution service.
Your privacy and call recording.
The way in which we collect, use and disclose your personal and sensitive information is set out in the InsuranceLine Privacy Policy at www.insuranceline.com.au. We collect information from you over the telephone, via the Internet and/or when you fill out an application form. In some situations, we may also collect your personal and sensitive information from your health professional or any other party with which we have an arrangement for the promotion and sale of
products offered or distributed by us. Depending on the product you enquire about, apply for or hold, InsuranceLine may disclose some of your personal information to
external parties such as:
- The insurer, plan administrators and any related bodies corporate – in order to assess your policy application and administer your policy.
- Organisations to whom we, the insurer or the plan administrators outsource mailing, information technology, telephony and communications requirements – in order to process your application.
- Organisations who provide us with data analytics, research and other related services.
- Government regulatory bodies – if required by law.
- Investigators, health professionals, lawyers, accountants, other insurers, reinsurers – in order to assess your application or at the time of a claim.
- A life insured named in your application.
- The financial institutions involved in collecting your premium.
- Other organisations which in conjunction with us provide products and services (so that they may provide their products and services to you).
By making a telephone call, online quote or application or by signing an application form, you consent to these disclosures listed above. By supplying us with contact details you agree to allow InsuranceLine to contact you from time to time in relation to the products we offer until you tell us otherwise. Generally, individuals have rights to access the personal information held about them.
Please note that for legal purposes and quality control, all phone calls are recorded. If you do not wish to have your call recorded, please tell us at the start of the call. In this case, we may request that your communication be put in writing.
Opt-Out.
From time to time InsuranceLine may use your information to promote and market our products and services to you. If you do not want to receive telemarketing calls, or would prefer to receive telemarketing calls at certain times or days, please call us on 1800 652 291. If you wish to do so, or if you do not want to receive any information on other products or services offered by InsuranceLine or the insurer, please contact us.
Disclosure of remuneration.
Depending on the product and the insurer, for each policy we arrange InsuranceLine receives commission from the insurer plus reimbursement for the GST we have to pay. This commission is used by InsuranceLine to cover the costs of marketing and distributing this product to you. This commission is included in the premium already,
and you don’t pay any extra. Commission from TAL is 93.6% of the first year’s premium, plus up to 16.4% of each premium paid thereafter.
For Pet Insurance, commission from Hollard is between 20% and 30% (depending on benefits selected) of each premium paid less $1.50 per insured pet. The current GST rate is 10% of the amounts paid to us. Our commissions are paid monthly or twice monthly. Other than as set out above, these commission rates don’t vary for any reason.
From the commissions that the insurer pays to us, InsuranceLine pays the following costs. Note that these costs are not additional charges to you:
- Any additional commissions, bonuses and/or other non-cash incentives for our authorised representatives. These are calculated fortnightly depending on the number of policies issued and the standard of compliance achieved, and in total will vary between 0% and 20% of the first year’s premium. If payable, commissions and bonuses are paid fortnightly, while other incentives accrue
from time to time.
- Any referral fees or commissions to people or organisations who may refer new customers to us. The referral fee may be paid in the form of an upfront commission fee and/or periodical trail fees. The fee will be paid to the referrer by the insurer, there will be no additional cost to you.
Direct debit request summary.
This summary describes how the direct debit request system works. Upon issue of your policy, you will also receive a full copy of the Direct Debit Request Service Agreement. You should read the Agreement carefully as it explains your rights and obligations relating to your ongoing direct debits.
When you complete your bank details and sign the authority, you are authorising the direct debit of the appropriate premiums from your nominated account. Your authority will be kept confidential at all times. If your premium cannot be paid (for example there’s not enough money in your nominated account) your bank may dishonour that payment, in which case your policy may lapse and all cover cease.
If you have concerns about its operation or you subsequently need to change any aspects of the authority, please notify us. From time to time updates about our services which are subject to change and which are not materially adverse to you may be found on the InsuranceLine website at
www.insuranceline.com.au and if you request a paper copy of any updated information, this will be provided to you without charge.
PI Insurance.
We confirm that TAL Limited retains professional indemnity (PI) insurance to cover the activities of licensees within TAL Limited, including TAL Direct Pty Limited. This PI cover is maintained in accordance with the law; is subject to its terms and conditions; and provides indemnity up to the sum insured for the activities of the employees and authorised representatives of TAL Direct Pty Limited in respect to the financial services we provide.
How to contact us.