Terms of Business

Academy Insurance Services Limited

We are a regulated independent intermediary representing a number of insurers. We pride ourselves on providing a personal and professional service and we are confident that you will enjoy doing business with us. We provide insurance policies for most insurable risks and we would welcome the opportunity to provide free no obligation quotations for all your insurance needs.

Who regulates us?

The FCA 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.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Academy Insurance Services Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA Register number is 307142.
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 noninvestment insurance contracts
  This includes helping a potential policyholder 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 noninvestment insurance contract
  This includes notifying an insurance claim to the insurer and negotiating settlement on behalf of the customer.
   
• Credit Broking
  We introduce those wishing to pay by instalments to firms that are able to lend money under a regulated credit agreement by way of business.

You can check the above on the FCA’s register by visiting their website www.fca.org.uk/register or by contacting them on 0800 111 6768.

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.

Products which 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.

Insurers

Whilst we take every care to check the financial stability of any firm with which we place business, we cannot be held responsible if that firm subsequently ceases to trade.

Cancellation Charges

Before you proceed to cancel any policy, we advise you to call our offices as there may be an alternative option more suitable to your needs. Academy apply short period rates shown in the table below in respect of the cancellation of policies. Under certain circumstances, for example following a claim, there will not be a refund. This also applies to many specialist and commercial policies such as Liability, Marine, Classic Cars and Motorhomes.

Because insurers claw back some commission following cancellation we make a charge which is made up of lost commission plus an administration fee of up to £100.00.

Our Charges

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

• Mid term adjustments £25
• Renewals £25

The specific amount and purpose of any other additional charges will always be advised to you in advance and shown in any correspondence.

If an adjustment to a policy results in a return premium we repay commission on the refund to your insurer and this amount plus an administration charge of £25.00 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 which we receive from underwriters or credit providers. You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business. Where we offer premium finance facilities we may earn a commission from the lender.

In the event that undisclosed claims or convictions are found by insurers when carrying out their checks under the Claims and Underwriting Exchange and Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud Register, we reserve the right to charge a minimum sum of £75 in addition to any additional premium that may be required by the insurer in order to cover the additional administration costs incurred.

Your Duty to Provide Information (Consumer clients)

It is your duty to take reasonable care to answer all questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge. If you do not, your insurance policy may be cancelled or treated as if it never existed or your claim may be rejected or not paid in full.

It is important 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 of the questions are true and accurate before signing the document.

Failure to provide requested information to your insurers could invalidate your insurance cover and mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.

Fair presentation of risk (Commercial clients)

The Insurance Act 2015 requires you to make adequate enquiries within your business to identify and verify that information relevant to the risks concerned is disclosed. This must include knowledge of “senior management” of your business and those involved in buying insurance (including us as brokers).

Reasonable enquiries must also be made of any relevant third parties involved with your business, including external consultants, contractors and anyone insured by the policy. Risk information should be clearly seen by insurers and brokers and not masked in large amounts of information.

You must highlight unusual activities and /or known areas of concern that could affect risk. It is your duty to take reasonable care to answer all questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge and 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. If you do not, your insurance policy may be cancelled or treated as if it never existed or your claim may be rejected or not paid in full.

It is important 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 of the questions are true and accurate before signing the document.

You are advised to keep copies of correspondence or documents sent to us. If you are in any doubt as to whether information is material, you should disclose it. Please do consult us if you are in doubt on any aspect.

Failure to provide requested information to your insurers could invalidate your insurance cover and mean that part or all of a claim may not be paid.

Premiums and Financial Aspects

In order to be able to offer you credit facilities, we are registered under the Consumer Credit Act and our Licence Number is 394676

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.

Under the terms of our client bank account (which has been set up in accordance with strict rules laid down by the Financial Conduct 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). Please note we retain interest earned on our Client Account and by accepting these Terms of Business you give your consent for us to retain such interest.

We are the Agent of Insurers for the purpose of collection of certain premiums.

For some insurance we may place business with Insurers through another FCA authorised intermediary and in these circumstances premiums will be transferred to that intermediary. You will be advised if this affects your own insurances and given details of any fees or charges made by that intermediary.

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

We sincerely hope that you will not need to make a complaint about our service. However, if you do, we wish to deal with your problem as quickly and efficiently as possible and we advise you to always note down the names of the staff you speak to as this information eases investigation.

If you encounter a problem, ask to speak to the office manager. It is extremely unlikely that the issue will not be resolved at this point but the manager will speak to the Managing Manager if necessary. If you prefer to put your complaint in writing, please address your correspondence to the Office Manager. You will receive an acknowledgement within five working days.

If you still feel the problem has not been resolved satisfactorily, then please write to the General Manager at the following address. You will receive an acknowledgement within five working days.

Mr Neil Turner, Academy House, 11 Horseshoe Park, Horseshoe Road, Pangbourne, RG8 7JW, Telephone Number: 0118 984 1441.

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.

Should you have a specific complaint about an insurer, rather than our service, we will put you in touch with the appropriate body.

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.

Non-compulsory insurance advising is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. For compulsory classes of insurance this increases to 100% of the claim without any upper limit.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.

What Information we collect about you:

When you contact us for an insurance quotation we collect the relevant information needed by an insurer to calculate the premium and understand your insurance needs. We collect this information during our meetings and /or telephone conversations with you and through the completion of proposal forms and fact finds.

How your information will be used:

The information we collect will be passed to insurers to enable them to calculate a competitive insurance quotation to meet your requirements.

In order to obtain the most competitive cover it may be necessary to pass your information to other insurance intermediaries who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Information provided by you may be put onto a register of claims and shared with other insurers to prevent fraudulent claims.

Should you wish to pay your premium by instalments we may pass your information to a premium finance provider however, this will not be done without discussing payment options with you first.

We may share your information with and obtain information about you from credit reference agencies. If you require information about the credit reference agency we have received information from please do not hesitate to contact us. Please note that any searches undertaken prior to you proceeding with your application will be soft searches and will not affect your credit rating.

We will retain any information we have collected about you for up to 6 years after our professional relationship has terminated however, data held electronically may be retained for longer.

Your rights of access to your data:

You have a right to obtain a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. If you believe that any information held is incorrect or incomplete, you should contact us.

Any information that is found to be incorrect or incomplete will be amended promptly. You also have a right to “be forgotten”, this means you can ask for the information which we hold about you to be deleted from our records but this will mean that we will be unable to continue to handle your insurance arrangements.

Applicable Law

This Terms of Business document is subject to English Law.

Academy Pricing Policy

About Our Pricing

We make every effort to ensure your policy represents good value for money for the cover it provides you with. However, we appreciate that occasionally you may wish to compare your policy with alternative quotations. If you are we strongly suggest you follow our 3 easy step guide to make sure you get an accurate comparison:

Step 1 - Your Circumstances

Have yours changed since your last renewal? Our quotation is based on the information we currently hold on you. If your circumstances have changed it can affect the price you pay for your insurance, quite often in your favour.

Step 2 – Your Cover

Are you getting the same cover? Not all insurance policies are the same. It’s easy to save a few pounds but it can be at the expense of the cover you get.

Step 3 - Take Professional Advice

Use our free Renewal Comparison Service. We don’t expect you to be an expert in insurance. If you get a lower quote contact us with the details and we’ll compare it to your existing policy. It’s a free service so what have you got to lose? Insurance is a very competitive market with lots of companies offering hundreds of different policies. Making sure you have the right cover for your needs is imperative so if you get a lower quote speak to us so we can make sure you’re getting the right cover for your needs.

Additional Information

To protect customers from fraud and to obtain the best possible price some insurers now carry out information only credit checks – these checks do not affect your credit score. Please refer to our terms of business or visit www.academyinsurance.co.uk/creditcheck for full details.

Many of our policies include additional covers such as breakdown, claims assistance and key-care cover. Our household and commercial policies may also include legal expenses cover.These are optional but in some cases by including the cover you are enjoying an extra discount on your premium, which may be withdrawn if the extra cover is declined.

In some circumstances a minimum premium is applied to policies to enable us to provide the level of service and benefits that we consider appropriate.