1.  Introduction

P. J. Brooks & Co. Insurance Brokers is an  independent firm of insurance brokers acting on your behalf offering transactional and/or advisory services for your insurance requirements.  We advise on a wide range of non-life general insurance products and have access to leading insurers in the market place and are not tied contractually to any one insurer, unless we advise you to the contrary. For all commercial risks we provide advice based on a fair analysis of the insurance market.  In respect of home, private car, travel, we provide advice based on a limited number of insurance takings.  In respect of legal expenses, motor uninsured loss recovery, private medical insurance and/or income protection we offer advice on products provided from one single insurer, although we are not contractually obliged to conduct business in this way.  On request, we can provide a list of the insurance undertakings with whom we deal for those classes where it is either a single insurer or a limited number of insurance undertakings. We aim to offer the highest standards of service in establishing appropriate insurance cover for your requirements.  On occasions we may place insurance business through other intermediaries where it is in your best interests.

2.  Our Services

Our service includes discussing with you your insurance requirements including the scope of cover and limits to be arranged and premium cost.  On receipt of your instructions, whether written or oral, we will endeavour to satisfy your insurance requirements and assist you with any on-going changes you may wish to make. 

During the course of arranging your insurance we will endeavour to keep you informed of the progress of our negotiations and identify any inability to obtain the cover required by you.  We will use reasonable attempts to implement your insurance programme subject to available insurers, before the intended inception date, renewal or extension of cover (which ever is appropriate).

We will provide you with information about the insurance cover to be recommended to you including the identity of the insurers,  the proposed cover, benefits, restrictions, principal exclusions and conditions, thereby allowing you to make a decision as to whether or not accept the insurance.

If you want to consider the products or services we have offered you, we will confirm how long you have to take up the insurance on the terms we have quoted and provide a written quotation if required including all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Unless otherwise agreed, we will send you documentation confirming the basis of the cover arranged on your behalf including details of the insurers, with an invoice where applicable, showing separately all the amounts payable.  Policy documents where applicable and any amendments or endorsements to your policy will be forwarded as soon as reasonably practicable.

3.        Customer Protection Information

P J Brooks & Company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.Our FCA Register number is 305378.  We are permitted to:-

• advise and arrange general insurance contracts
• make arrangements with a view to transactions in general insurance contracts
• act as agent in general insurance contracts
• assist in the administration and performance of a general insurance contract

You can check this information on the FCA’s Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 0845 606 1234.

4.  Claims

Unless agreed otherwise with you or where market practice determines otherwise, we will provide our claims handling services during the policy period for the policies placed by us.  This service includes, upon receiving the required information from you, the notification of the claim or circumstances to your insurers.  We represent you in the resolution of your claim and arranging the collection and/or settlement of the claim in accordance with the policy terms, conditions and market practice.  Where there are claims in which you deal with the insurers directly, we will provide advice and support as requested. Your insurer may offer a ‘Helpline’ facility.

5.  Duty of Disclosure

It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information to insurers when you take an insurance policy and throughout the life of the policy including when you renew your insurance.  It is vital that you ensure all statements you make on proposal forms, claims forms and other documents are full and accurate.  This is equally your responsibility where we may at your request complete proposals on your behalf, the information provided by you forming the basis of the insurance contract.  Please note that if you fail to disclose any material information to your insurers, this could invalidate your insurance and could mean that all or part of a claim may not be paid.  Commercial clients should take particular care to check the accuracy of all information required.

It is essential that you notify us immediately of any incident which may result in a claim against an insurance policy,  You must do so whether you believe you are responsible for the incident or not and any letter of claim received by you must be passed to us immediately, without acknowledgement.  This action serves to protect your interests.

6.  Change of circumstances

You will need to advise as soon as reasonably practicable of any changes in your circumstances that may affect the services to be provided by us or the cover provided under your insurance policy. 

7.  Our Remuneration

Our remuneration will either be a fee as agreed with you or brokerage which is a percentage of the insurance premium paid by you and allowed to us by the insurer with whom the insurance is placed.  If appropriate, and with your consent, there are occasions when we may receive a fee and brokerage.  Fees are earned for the policy period and we will be entitled to retain all fees in respect of the full policy period in relation to the policy arranged by us.

Payments for services can be made by cheque, cash or in the case of direct debit with the Premium Finance or Insurance Company.  Where you pay your premium by direct debit to the insurer, we will automatically renew your policy unless you advise us to the contrary. 

In addition, we may provide services to insurers that are not directly related to the services provided to you and may receive remuneration in recognition of those services.  Any such remuneration might be a management or administration fee and in no way has a bearing on the premium that you pay for your insurance.

8.        Cancellation

You may be entitled to cancel your policy within a specified period of time of taking up the policy.  You will be informed of this upon inception or renewal of your contract.

9. Client Money

P J Brooks & Company in the majority of cases acts as agent of insurers for the collection of premium. This means that premiums are treated as being received by the insurer when received in our bank account and the insurer will bear the risk for any losses that may arise from the failure of our firm.  We hold client and insurer monies in a statutory trust account, which means that whilst we have legal ownership, such monies remain for the benefit of our clients.

10.  Confidentiality

All information about you will be treated as private and confidential.  We will only use and disclose this information in the normal course of arranging and administering your insurances or where required to do so by law.  It will be necessary, for us to disclose information that you consider confidential to insurers or other parties when acting on your behalf, where we consider such information to be material to the risks being insured, simply to protect your interest.  Likewise, we may disclose to third parties certain industry wide statistics or other information which may include information relating to you. 

We may also use the information we hold about you to provide you with information on other products and/or services we can offer which we feel may be appropriate to you.  If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us, or for us to disclose information about you to other parties for this purpose, then please advise us in writing.  Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have rights of access to any personal information we hold about you in our records.  If you have any queries concerning this please contact us accordingly.

11.  Conflict of Interest

There may be occasions when a potential conflict of interest arises.  If this happens, we will inform you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions.

12.  Complaints

It is our intention to provide you with the highest level of customer service at all times.  However, should you have any cause for complaint with either the insurance cover or the level of service we have provided, then we operate a complaints procedure.  In the first instance you should contact us by telephone or in writing at the above address.  If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Services.

 We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (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 (motor and Employers Liability), 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.

13.  Law

The above agreement which sets out the terms of our relationship with you, will be governed and construed in accordance with English Law and any dispute arising under it shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

21^st February 2014