Financial Services Guide


 

The financial services referred to in this FSG are offered by:

Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. ABN 36 064 554 945
AFS Licence No.234533
128 Canterbury Road, Blackburn South Vic 3130
Tel: 03 9878 8999
Email: insure@blackburnib.com.au

Financial services are also offered by our Authorised Representatives:

Liability Brokers Pty Ltd. ABN 49 163 128 747
Authorised Representative No.302039

A J Burns Insurance Broking Pty Ltd. ABN 72 625 162 576
Authorised Representative No.001263864

This FSG sets out the services that we can offer you. It is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of those services and contains important information about:

  • the services we offer you.
  • how we and others are paid.
  • any potential conflict of interest we may have.
  • our internal and external dispute resolution procedures and how you can access them.
  • arrangements we have in place to compensate clients for losses.
Further information when personal advice is given
We will provide you with further information whenever we provide you with advice which takes into account your objectives, financial situation and needs. This information may include the advice that we have given you, the basis of the advice and other information on our remuneration and any relevant associations or interests. This information may be contained in a statement of advice (SOA).]

When you ask us to recommend an insurance policy for you, we will usually only consider the policies offered by the insurers or insurance providers that we deal with regularly. In giving you advice about the costs and terms of recommended polices we have not compared those policies to other policies available, other than from those insurers we deal with regularly.

Product disclosure statement
If we offer to arrange an insurance policy for you, we will also provide a product disclosure statement (PDS), unless you already have an up to date PDS from the insurer. The PDS will contain information about the particular policy which will enable you to make an informed decision about purchasing that product.

From when does this FSG apply?
This FSG applies from 30-June-2023 and remains valid unless a further FSG is issued to replace it. We may give you a supplementary FSG. It will not replace this FSG but will cover services not covered by this FSG.

How can you instruct us?
You can contact us to give us instructions by post, phone, fax or email on the contact number or details mentioned at the top of this page.

Who is responsible for the financial services provided?
Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. is responsible for the financial services that will be provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG.

Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. holds a current Australian Financial Services Licensee no: 234533. The contact details for Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. are at the top of this page.

What kinds of financial services are you authorised to provide?
Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. is authorised to advise and deal in general insurance products to wholesale and/or retail clients. We will do this for you as your broker unless we tell you otherwise.

Will I receive tailored advice?
Maybe not in all cases. However, we may need information about your personal objectives, details of your current financial situation and any relevant information, so that we can arrange insurance policies for you, [issue insurance policies to you] or to give you advice about your insurance needs. We will ask you for the details that we need to know.

In some cases we will not ask for any of this information. If we do not ask, or if you do not give us all of the information we ask for, any advice you receive may not be appropriate to your needs, objectives and financial situation.

You should read the warnings contained in any SOA, or any other warnings that we give you, carefully before making any decision about an insurance policy.

Where we provide you with advice about your insurance arrangements, that advice is current at the time that we give it. We will review your insurance arrangements when you inform us about changes in your circumstances.

What information do you maintain in my file and can I examine my file?
We maintain a record of your personal profile, including details of insurance policies that we arrange [or issue] for you. We may also maintain records of any recommendations or advice given to you. We will retain this FSG and any other FSG given to you as well as any SOA or PDS that we give or pass on to you for the period required by law.

We are committed to implementing and promoting a privacy policy, which will ensure the privacy and security of your personal information. A copy of our privacy policy is available on request. A copy is also available on our website - www.blackburnib.com.au. If you wish to look at your file please ask us. We will arrange this for you.

Payment for the services provided?
For each insurance product the insurer will charge a premium that includes any relevant taxes, charges and levies. We usually receive a payment based on a percentage of this premium (excluding relevant taxes, charges and levies) called commission, which is paid to us by the insurers. This can vary from 0% to 26.5%. However, in some cases we will also charge you a fee. These will all be shown on the invoice that we send you. You can choose to pay by any of the payment methods set out in the invoice. You are required to pay us within the time set out on the invoice.

If there is a refund or reduction of your premium as a result of a cancellation or alteration to a policy, or based on a term of your policy (such as a premium adjustment provision), we will retain any fee we have charged you. We will also retain commission depending on our arrangements with the insurer, or charge you a cancellation fee equal to the reduction in our commission. There will also be an addition fee charged between $25.00 to $40.00 for processing the cancellation. Before making any decision to cancel this policy you should consult us concerning the charges involved and commission and fees which will be retained by us.

When you pay us your premium it will be banked into our trust account. We retain the commission from the premium you pay us and remit the balance to the insurer in accordance with our arrangements with the insurer. We will earn interest on the premium while it is in our trust account or we may invest the premium and earn a return. We will retain any interest or return on investment earned on the premium.

Our employees that assist you are paid a market salary and do not receive commissions.

Do we have any relationships with the insurers who issue these policies or any other material relationships?
Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. is a Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) Network Broker. Steadfast has exclusive arrangements with some insurers and premium funders (Partners) under which Steadfast will receive between 0.5 - 1% commission for each product arranged by us with those Partners. Steadfast is also a shareholder of some Partners.

As a Steadfast Network Broker we have access to member services including model operating and compliance tools, procedures, manuals and training, legal, technical, banking and recruitment advice and assistance, group insurance arrangements, product comparison and placement support, claims support and group purchasing arrangements. These member services are either funded by Steadfast, subsidised by Steadfast or available exclusively to Steadfast Network Brokers for a fee.

You can obtain a copy of Steadfast's FSG at www.steadfast.com.au If we arrange premium funding for you we may be paid a commission by the premium funder. We may also charge you a fee (or both). The commission that we are paid by the premium funder is usually calculated as a percentage of your insurance premium (including government fees or changes). If you instruct us to arrange or issue a product, this is when we become entitled to the commission.

Our commission rates for premium funding are in the range of 0 to 2% of funded premium. When we arrange premium funding for you, you can ask us what commission rates we are paid for that funding arrangement compared to the other arrangements that were available to you. The amount of our commission and any fee that we charge will set out in the premium funding contract.

What should I do if I have a complaint?

  1. Contact us and tell us about your complaint. We will do our best to resolve it quickly.
  2. If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved within 21 days, please contact the Complaints Officer on 03 9878-8999 or put your complaint in writing and send it to him at the address noted at the beginning of this FSG. We will try and resolve your complaint quickly and fairly.
  3. Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). If your complaint cannot be resolved to your satisfaction by us You have the right to refer the matter to AFCA. AFCA can be contacted by mail at GPO Box 3, Melbourne or phone 1800 931 678, email info@afca.org.au or website www.afca.org.au.
What arrangements do you have in place to compensate clients for losses?
Blackburn (Insurance Brokers) Pty.Ltd. has a professional indemnity insurance policy (PI policy) in place.

The PI policy covers us and our representatives (including our authorised representatives) for claims made against us and our representatives by clients as a result of the conduct of us, our employees or representatives in the provision of financial services.] Our PI policy will cover us for claims relating to the conduct of representatives who no longer work for us.

Any questions?
If you have any further questions about the financial services our company provides, please contact us. It is important that you retain this document for your reference and any future dealings with this company.