This Terms of Business letter sets out the services we shall provide including both our rights and obligations. Please read this letter carefully. If you have any questions at all, please contact us immediately. If any material changes are made to these terms we will notify you.
MBC Financial Ltd (“the Company”) is authorised under the Investment Intermediaries Act (1995) as amended, is registered under the European Communities (Insurance Mediation) Regulations 2005 and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an insurance intermediary and a deposit broker. The Company is subject to the Central Bank of Ireland’s Fitness and Probity Standards, Consumer Protection Code and Minimum Competency Code. These Codes are available for inspection on the Central Bank of Ireland’s web site www.centralbank.ie. You may contact the Central Bank ofIreland on (01) 410 4000 to verify our credentials.
2.1 We shall give advice and/or act as agent or arrange on your behalf policies of the following types:
Life Insurance Policies
UCITs
Deposits (Limited Analysis Basis)
Regular Savings
Personal Pensions
Executive Pensions
ARF’s & AMRF’s
PRSAs
Group Pension Schemes
Life Assurance/ Serious Illness/ PHI
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 companies with whom MBC Financial holds an agency in writing are, Aviva, Caledonian, Friends First, Irish Life, New Ireland Assurance, Zurich Life, Standard Life, BCP Asset Management, J&E Davy, Cantor Fitzgerald, Merrion Stockbrokers, Invested Bank, PTSB, Wealth Options, Independent Trustee Co Ltd, KBC Bank,
When acting as a deposit broker the Company offers advice only in respect of only the deposit takers from which appointments are held and which are listed elsewhere in this document.
MBC Financial Ltd. 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 the 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. However, it is 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.
Specifically on the subject of permanent health insurance policies it is our policy to explain to you a) the
meaning of disability as defined in the policy; b) the benefits available under the policy; c) the general exclusions that apply to the policy; and d) the reductions applied to the benefit where there are disability payments from other sources.
For a serious illness policy, we will explain clearly to you the restrictions, conditions and general exclusions that attach to that policy
2.2 Before making any specific recommendations we take into account your objectives and current financial position, and will recommend the most suitable product available from those companies with whom we hold an appointment in writing. Attached is a list of these product producers.
3.1 We shall act on instructions given by you or any person you have nominated as long as you have written to us about that person. We can accept instructions over the telephone or in writing, which will not take effect until actually received by us. If we accept instructions over the telephone, we may act on them before we receive confirmation, unless you specifically tell us not to.
3.2 We shall keep you (or, if you want, the person you nominate) informed about transactions arranged for you. We will also send contract notes to you or that person. Any change in these instructions should be in writing.
4.1 We may receive commission and other payments from the product producers from whom we hold appointments and to whom orders are transmitted. We may also receive additional payments directly from financial institutions where we have transacted large volumes of business; details of such arrangements are available for inspection on request. You may choose to pay in full for our services by means of a fee which will be agreed with you in advance of the provision of service.
If we receive commission from a product provider, this will be offset against any fee payable. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission will become the amount payable to the firm unless an arrangement to the contrary is made
Where we receive recurring commission this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided.
4.2 Where you agree to pay a fee for a service provided on a non commission basis this fee is due on receipt of any appropriate invoice.
4.3 Deposits
The Company is in receipt of commission from deposit takers from which appointments are held of up to 0.3%
We do not hold money received in the course of providing investment services to our clients. Accordingly any money, which we receive on your behalf, will be forwarded to you or to a named third party on your instruction forthwith. Any cheques or banker’s orders drawn by you in respect of amounts owed to third parties should be drawn in favour of the third party concerned.
We will issue receipts for all forms of payment received. A receipt will be issued for all insurance related transactions where a premium is involved as required by the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995 and the Consumer Protection Code. These receipts are issued with your protection in mind and should be retained safely. Issuance of a receipt does not constitute the inception of the policy in question.
In the event of failure to pay premiums due your Insurer will cancel your policy. Failure to pay may include:
To provide you with suitable advice we will require certain information. This may be on a once off basis or on an ongoing basis depending on the nature of the products and services we are providing.
Failure to make full disclosure of relevant facts, including any change in the risk since inception of cover or the last renewal of the policy including:
a) Medical details or history (where relevant); and
b) Previous insurance claims made by you the consumer for the type of insurance sought may render the policy inoperative or could result in insurers voiding the policy which means that
It is our policy to avoid any conflict of interest when providing business services to our clients. However, where an unavoidable conflict may arise we will advise you of this in writing before proceeding to provide any business service. If you have not been advised of any such conflict you are entitled to assume that none arises.
These Terms of Business may be varied or superseded at any time by agreement in writing between us, but any such variation shall not affect any rights or obligations of either of us already accrued unless otherwise specially agreed the variations will not apply until 30 days following receipt by you of the new Terms of Business.
Termination will not in any event affect accrued rights, existing commitments or any contractual provision intended to survive termination and will be without penalty or other additional payment save that you will pay our fees, if any, pro rata to the date of termination.
The Company has in place a written procedure for the handling of complaints. This procedure ensures that all complaints are recorded and acknowledged within 5 business days. All complaints are fully investigated and the complainant updated in writing, at intervals not greater than 20 business days. When the complaint is not resolved within 40 business days we will advise the complainant of the anticipated time frame within which is hoped to resolve the complaint and of the complainant’s right to refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman. The Company will advise the complainant, in writing, within 5 business days of the completion of the investigation of the complaint and the outcome of the investigation and where the applicable the terms of any offer or settlement.
All Complaints should be directed to Gerard O’Brien (Managing Director). If the complainant still remains dissatisfied with the handling of and/or the response to a complaint they may refer the matter to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman www.fspo.ie
Irish law will govern the provision of the services covered by this letter, and the Irish courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.
Under Section 38 (a) of the Investor Compensation Act, 1998 we wish to draw your attention to the following:
Or
It is in your best interests that you review, on a regular basis, the products which we have arranged for you. We therefore ask you to please contact us as your circumstances change so that we can ensure that you are provided with up to date advice and products best suited to your needs.
MBC Financial Ltd t/a MBC Financial complies with the requirements of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003.The data which you provide to us will be held on a computer database and paper files for the purpose of arranging transactions on your behalf. We would also like to keep you informed of insurance, investment, and any other services provided by us or associated companies with which we have a formal business arrangement, and which we think may be of interest to you.
The Company holds appointments from the following deposit takers:
Permanent TSB
Investec
The calculators on this website are based upon calculators built by Irish Life. They are designed to provide guideline indicators for life cover, pension, and income protection requirements. It is recommended that you speak to your broker before buying any financial product.
Registered Address: MBC House, 36 South Mall,Cork
Business Address: MBC House, 36 South Mall,Cork
Company Registration Number:449256
Company Directors: Alan McCarthy ( Managing Director ), Shane Sullivan, Desmond Murphy, Denis Collins
Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
‘Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’) This EU Regulation is effective 10 March 2021. As the area of the SFDR is new and evolving without sufficient information being currently available, we do not currently assess in detail the adverse impact of investment decisions on suitability when providing investment or insurance advice. The key product providers with which we engage have developed responsible investment as part of their investment philosophies and sustainability policies. However, detailed information on specific fund recommendations we recommend is not always available. As further information on the approach being taken by product providers, and their internal/external fund managers, becomes available over the course of the next year, we anticipate reviewing these areas in our assessments.’
Sustainability We consider the adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors in our Investment Advice and our Insurance Based Investment Advice, both at the initial stages of our research in our recommendations and annually* as part of the investment services we provide to our clients.
(*Information point: Product Producers and Insurers will have to provide periodic updates under the regulations.
An assessment of sustainability risks are integrated into our investment advice and our Insurance Based Investment Advice through the following means.
The product information provided to us by the Product Producers and Insurers on the integration of the sustainability risks.
Our professional interrogation of the information provided by the Product Producers and insurers.
Our in-house investment research as we keep our investment knowledge current and relevant.
We will advise you of the likely impacts of sustainability risks on the returns of the financial product we may recommend. This will be advised to you in your Statement of Suitability (SoS)*
*Information Point: The Statement of Suitability (SoS) is not specified as the document for this information, but we see this as a suitable place.
REMUNERATION SUMMARY AND WEBSITE
Sustainability: We are usually remunerated by commission from the Product Producers and Insurers whom we facilitate Investment and Insurance Based Investment transactions on your behalf. The commission payment will not influence our decision to recommend a particular product. We consider how the product Producers and Insurers have integrated sustainability risks into their investment product offerings prior to making our recommendations to our clients.
MBC Financial Ltd Date 02/02/2023
MBC Financial Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland