Important information about Astute Financial Management Limited FSP641829
Astute Financial Management Limited FSP641829 is the Financial Advice Provider.
Our contact details are:
Address: 7 Alpers Avenue, Newmarket, Auckland 1149 / PO Box 9268 Newmarket, Auckland 1023
Telephone: 0508 427 888
Email: ceo@astutefinancial.co.nz
We encourage you to read the important information given below. It may help you decide whether your financial needs may be met by engaging with us.
Licence status and conditions
Astute Financial Management Limited FSP641829 (hereafter known as Astute) holds a financial advice provider licence, issued by the Financial Markets Authority, to provide financial advice.
Astute Financial Management Limited is also authorised by the financial advice provider licence held by Insure 247 Limited FSP626729, trading as Insure 247, to provide advice on general insurance products.
Nature and scope of financial advice service
We engage financial advisers to provide financial advice on the following financial products:
General
insurance products.
These are policies that insure your personal assets (e.g., home,
home contents, motor vehicle, and boat).
Astute, through advisers under its licence, provides financial advice service about general insurance products only from the following providers (also known as fire and general insurers):
| Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited | Ando Insurance Group Limited | NZI Insurance New Zealand Limited |
| Lumley General Insurance (N.Z.) Limited | Classic Cover Insurance Limited | Chubb Insurance New Zealand Limited |
| Delta Insurance New Zealand Limited | Protecsure Pty Ltd | AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited |
| QBE Insurance (International) PTY Limited | Rosser Underwriting Limited | Zurich New Zealand Limited |
| Mecon Insurance Ltd | NM Insurance Pty Ltd | Dual New Zealand Limited |
Premium funding products
Premium funding products enable you to pay the insurance premium over the term of your policy by instalments rather than as one amount.
Astute provides premium funding facility through the two providers below:
| Elantis Premium Funding Limited | IQumulate Premium Funding Pty Limited |
Residential and personal loan products
Astute, through advisers under its licence, provides financial advice about residential and personal loan products only from the following providers (also known as lenders):
| ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited | DBR Limited | Pallas Capital Limited |
| AIA Services New Zealand Limited | FICO Finance Ltd | Pepper New Zealand Limited |
| ASAP Finance Limited | First Mortgage Managers Limited | Pioneer Finance Limited |
| ASB Bank Limited | Funding Partners Limited | Plus Finance Limited |
| Avanti Finance Limited | General Finance Limited | Resimac Financial Securities Limited |
| Bank of China (New Zealand) Ltd | Gold Band Finance Limited | Southern Cross Finance Limited |
| Bank of New Zealand | Heartland Bank Limited | Southland Building Society |
| Basecorp Finance Limited | Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (New Zealand) Limited | The Co-operative Bank Limited |
| Bluestone Mortgages NZ Limited | Liberty Financial Limited | TSB Bank Limited |
| China Construction Bank (New Zealand) Limited | Metro Finance Ltd | Westpac New Zealand Limited |
| Credit Union Baywide | Midlands Fund Management Limited | Wroxton Finance Limited |
| Cressida Capital One Limited | Oxford Finance Limited |
Personal risk insurance products
Astute, through advisers under its licence, provides financial advice about personal risk insurance products (e.g., life insurance, income protection insurance, mortgage protection insurance, total and permanent disability insurance, trauma or critical health insurance, and medical insurance) only from the following providers:
| AIA Services New Zealand Limited | Asteron Life Limited | Cigna Life Insurance New Zealand Limited |
| Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited | nib nz limited | Partners Life Limited |
Astute does not provide financial advice service related to:
- Investment products (e.g., shares, bonds, managed funds, etc.) and KiwiSaver products; and
- Estate planning (such as Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney, and trusts of any description).
You will need to consult appropriate specialists if you would like advice on “a” and “b” above.
Duties
Astute and our financial advisers are bound by the following duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 to:
- meet the standards of competence, knowledge, and skill set out in the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (Code of Conduct), which form part of the wider regulatory regime for financial advice and ensure we have the expertise necessary to provide you with advice; and
- give priority to your interests by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the advice given to you is not materially influenced by our own interests or the interests of any other person connected with the giving of advice; and
- exercise care, diligence, and skill that a prudent person engaged in the occupation of giving related financial advice would in the same circumstances; and
- meet the standards of ethical behaviour, conduct, and client care set out in the Code of Conduct, to treat you as we should and to provide you with suitable advice.
Fees, expenses, or other amounts payable
In majority of cases Astute does not charge any fee, expense or other amount for the financial advice provided to you or for implementing that advice. Our remuneration is paid by the product providers by way of commission.
However, Astute may charge a fee for the financial advice service provided to a client where a client cancels a fire and general insurance policy (or policies) within 24 months from the date that policy is put in place through us.
Whether a fee will be charged, the manner in which it will be charged and the date by which the fee will be payable will be advised when the financial advice service is provided to the client.
If you choose to utilise the premium funding service, then Premium funders charge interest and they take a power of attorney over your insurance policy, this means they have the ability to cancel your insurance policy if you fail to pay an instalment. The amount of interest and how it is payable will be disclosed to you when we know the scope and nature of the advice required and whether you wish to utilise the premium funding facility.
Conflicts of interest and commissions or other incentives
General insurance products.
Astute will receive commission from the insurance companies who provide general insurance products. If you decide to take out a general insurance policy, then the insurance company will pay commission based on the premium that you pay.
Astute will also receive a commission from Premium funders. The commission is a percentage of the amount they fund. The amount of this commission, will be disclosed to you when we know the scope and nature of the advice required and whether you intend to utilise the services of a particular premium funder. Commission will be paid to us directly from the premium funder.
Astute’s advisers providing financial advice on general insurance products do not receive any commission or other incentives. They are salaried advisers.
Residential and personal loan products
Astute will receive commission from the lenders who provide residential and personal loan products. If you decide to take out a residential or personal loan, then the lender will pay commission based on the amount of loan settled with that lender or lenders.
Personal risk insurance products
Astute will receive commission from the insurance companies who provide personal risk insurance products. If you decide to take out a personal risk insurance policy, then the insurance company will pay commission based on the premium that you pay.
From time to time, various product providers (described previously) may also reward Astute for the overall business provided to them. They may give tickets to sports events, hampers, or other incentives. To ensure that our financial advisers prioritise the client’s interests above their own, we follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made based on the client’s personal goals and circumstances. All our financial advisers undergo annual professional development refresher training about how to manage conflicts of interest. We maintain registers of conflicts of interests, and the gifts and incentives received.
Complaints handling and dispute resolution
Astute takes all complaints seriously and works to resolve them as quickly as possible.
If you are unhappy with our financial advice service, and wish to make a complaint, please contact your financial adviser so he or she can try to put things right.
If you do not feel comfortable discussing your concerns with your adviser, you can:
- Call us on 0508 427 888 between the hours of 8:30 am – 5 pm week days
- Email us at ceo@astutefinancial.co.nz
- Write to us at PO Box 9268 Newmarket, Auckland 1023, addressing your letter to the attention of the Chief Executive Officer.
How your Complaint will be handled
We will deal with your complaint using our internal complaints handling process. Accordingly,
- We will investigate your complaint by analysing the information you provided us; and
- We may contact you to get additional information about your complaint.
We aim to resolve your complaint within 40 days of its receipt and advise you, in writing, our proposed resolution to your complaint.
If we cannot resolve your complaint within 40 days of receipt (or any additional time you have given us thereafter, at our request) you can contact the Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL).
FSCL provides an independent external dispute resolution service to consumers with complaints about their financial service providers. This service will cost you nothing and will help us to investigate or resolve your complaint if it is not resolved to your satisfaction using our internal complaints process.
You can contact the FSCL Scheme at:
Email: complaints@fscl.org.nz
Website: www.fscl.org.nz
Telephone: 0800 347 257 or +64 4 4723725
Address: Level 4, 101 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6011
P O Box 5967, Wellington 6140