Terms and Conditions

Our Terms and Conditions are set out below to set out the basis of the agreement under which we conduct our business and offer our services to you.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA)

The FSA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. It requires us to give you this document. Please use this document to decide if our services are right for you.

Who regulates us?

W H Adams & Co (Brokers) Ltd, 16 East Street, South Molton, Devon, EX36 3BU, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Our FSA Register number is 300192.

Our permitted business is:

  • Advising customers on non-investment contracts – This includes recommending a specific insurance policy.
  • Arranging (bringing about) deals in non-investment insurance contracts – This covers a range of activities including introducing a customer to an insurer, helping a customer to complete a proposal form and sending this to an insurer.
  • Making arrangements with a view to transactions in non-investment insurance contracts – This includes helping potential policyholders to complete a proposal form or introducing a customer to another intermediary either for advice or to help arrange an insurance policy.
  • Dealing as agent in non-investment insurance contracts – This includes entering into a contract of insurance with a customer on behalf of an insurer (for example, issuing a cover note).
  • Assisting in the administration and performance of a non-investment insurance contract – This includes notifying an insurance claim to the insurer and negotiating settlement on behalf of the customer.

You can check the above on FSA’s register by visiting their website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting them on 0845 606 1234.

Our Service

We act as an Independent Broker on your behalf and our service includes advising you on your insurance needs, arranging your insurance cover with insurers to meet your requirements and helping you with any ongoing changes you have to make. We will also assist with making a claim under your policy.

Products that we offer

We sell and advise on a wide range of both personal and commercial insurance products and provide advice or information on the basis of a fair analysis of the market from a wide range of insurers.
We offer products from a number of insurers for most insurance and will provide a list of these insurers on request. However where we have decided it is in the client’s and our best interest, we have arranged blanket cover or other restricted panel quotes on Legal Protection products, Directors & Officers and Breakdown cover.
For internet insurance our quotation engine links exclusively to a specific provider for an instance quotation.

Our Charges

We normally make the following charges to cover the administration of your insurances:

Arranging new policies = £25.00
Mid term adjustments = £25.00
Mid term cancellations = £25.00
Renewals = £25.00
Overdue Accounts = £25.00 (per letter)
Additional Administration = £25.00 (per letter or action)

The specific amount and purpose of any additional charges will always be advised to you in advance. For return premiums (usually arising if an insurance risk is reduced or the policy cancelled), we repay commission on the refund to your insurer and this amount will be deducted from the final amount refunded to you. Prior to the conclusion of each insurance contract, or upon renewal, we will remind you of your right to be advised of the level of commission that we receive from underwriters. You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission that we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business.

Premiums and Financial Aspects

Our Client Bank Account has been set up under strict rules laid down by the FSA.
In some instances under the terms of our Non-Statutory Trust client bank account (which has been set up in accordance with strict rules laid down by the Financial Services Authority), we are required to inform you that we may use your individual premium to settle premiums due under other policies (including those payable by other clients).

In other instances we may act as the Agent of Insurers for the purpose of collection of certain premiums. In arranging your insurances we may employ the services of other intermediaries who are regulated by the FSA and your premium may be passed to these intermediaries for payment to insurers.

Finally, in rare instances, when circumstances dictate, please note premiums may be passed to organisations outside the United Kingdom, in which case a different legal and regulatory regime may apply. In addition, in the event of failure of the organisation to whom premiums are passed such money may be treated in a different manner from that which applies if the money were held by a firm in the UK. Please let us know if you do not wish your premiums to be passed in this way.
We retain interest on client money held in our client account and by accepting these Terms of Business you give your consent for us to retain such interest.

In order to be able to offer you credit facilities, we are registered under the Consumer Credit Act and our Licence Number is 029566.
We normally accept payment by guaranteed cheque, cash or any of the major debit/credit cards.
You may be able to spread your payments through insurers’ instalment schemes or a credit scheme that we have arranged with a third party finance provider. We will give you full information about your payment options and details of the interest payable when we discuss your insurance in detail.

For certain types of insurance we may ask you to sign a form granting us authority to retain documents such as Motor Certificates until full payment has been received. In these circumstances we will provide you with any documents that you are required to have by law.

Disclosure

It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take out your insurance policy, throughout the life of your policy, and when you renew your insurance. Failure to disclose information pertaining to your insurance, or any inaccuracies in information given, could result in your insurance being invalid or cover not operating fully.
It is important you ensure that all statements you make on proposal forms, claim forms and other documents are full and accurate. If a form is completed on your behalf, you should check that the answers shown to any questions are true and accurate before signing the document.
You are reminded that it is an offence under the Road Traffic Act to make any false statements or withhold any relevant information to obtain an Insurance Certificate.

You are advised to keep copies of any correspondence you send to us or direct to your insurer.

If you are in any doubt as to whether any information is material, you should disclose it.

Claims

It is essential that you notify us immediately of all incidents which may result in a claim under your insurance policy whether you believe you are liable or not. Any letter or claim received by you must be passed to us immediately.

When we receive notification of an incident that might give rise to a claim under your policy, we will inform the insurers without delay and, in any event, within three working days.

We will advise you promptly of insurers’ requirements concerning claims, including the provision, as soon as possible, of information required to establish the nature and extent of loss. You should not admit liability or agree to any course of action, other than emergency measures to minimise your loss, until you have agreement from your insurer.

We will forward any payments received from insurers, in respect of any claim, to you without delay. We will notify you of any request for information we receive from your insurers.

Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. However, if at any time you are dissatisfied with the service we provide, we have a formal complaints procedure. You should therefore take the following course of action:
In the first instance you should discuss your complaint with the member of staff with whom you have been dealing.
If you remain dissatisfied, please write to or telephone Richard Bushnell at the address shown above. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and advise you who is conducting the investigation into the matters that you have raised. We will provide a formal response within 20 working days from initial receipt of the complaint. If the complaint cannot be resolved within this timescale we will explain why and specify the likely timescale for resolution.
If we cannot settle your complaint, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We will advise you if you are able to refer any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

We are covered by the FSCS. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim.

Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the first £2000 and 90% of the remainder of the claim, without any upper limit. For compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, without any upper limit.
Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.

Confidentiality

All personal information about our customers is treated as Private and Confidential.
We will only disclose the information we have about private individuals in the normal course of arranging and administering their insurance and will not disclose any information to any other parties without their written consent unless required by law or public interest.
We may use the information we hold about our customers to provide them with information about other products and services that we feel may be appropriate to them.
Under the Data Protection Act 1988, private customers have a right to see the personal information about them that we hold in our records. If you wish to exercise this right, or have any other related queries, you should write to Richard Bushnell at the above address.

Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register and Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register

Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register operated by Database Services Ltd and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register compiled by the Association of British Insurers. The objective is to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. Motor insurance details are also added to the Motor Insurance Database operated by the Motor Insurers’ Information Centre (MIIC), which has been formed to help identify uninsured drivers and may be accessed by the Police to help confirm who is insured to drive. In the event of an accident, this database may be used by Insurers, MIIC and the Motor Insurance Bureau to identify relevant policy information. Other insurance related databases might also be added in the future.

Applicable Law

This Terms of Business document is subject to English Law.