Disclosure and licensing

When recommending general insurance products, our advisers may refer to a range of insurers depending on your needs. We only deal with insurers who are licensed to carry on business in New Zealand, as listed on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand register or, if required, an overseas insurer that is not required to be licensed in New Zealand. 

Some insurers, such as direct insurers, do not make their products available to insurance brokers and we are unable to obtain quotes from them.

Please click here to view the general insurers and underwriters whose products we provide advice about.

When recommending life and health and personal risk products, our advisers have access to all of the major insurers operating in New Zealand.

Please click here to view the life and health insurers and underwriters whose products we provide advice about.

Our advisers have various relationships with New Zealand based product providers and will disclose these provider relationships to you at the time they know the nature and scope of the advice you seek.

Please click here to view the products we typically provide advice about.

We work with New Zealand’s main banks and second tier lenders to help you purchase property and other assets.

Please click here to view the products we typically provide advice about.

We may agree with you a separate service fee (plus GST) to be paid by you in lieu of commission or in addition to any commission we may receive from the insurers when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek. The fee amount will depend on the nature of our advice, the time and care it takes to implement that advice and to maintain a high level of service to you throughout the policy period.

We may also charge documentation fees for any changes to your general insurance made during the policy period. These documentation fees (plus GST) are to cover our costs and disbursements.

We’ll disclose any fees to you and the payment due date at the earlier of the time we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when we provide our advice to you. 

There is no cost to you until you receive our advice. 

If a product provider does not pay a commission to us for the products we advise you about, we may charge fees for our advice. In such cases, when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, we will let you know whether a fee will apply, the amount of that fee and the payment due date before we provide the advice so you can decide whether or not you wish to proceed.

The following service fees may also apply:

Our financial advisers can arrange funding through one of our premium funding companies so you can spread the cost of your annual general insurance premiums over 10 or 12 instalments.

The premium funding details, including the interest rate and administration costs that will apply, will be set out in a separate finance contract and will be disclosed to you at the time the agreement is put in place, as per our premium funding companies’ obligations under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003.

If you choose to pay your general insurance premiums by credit card, a surcharge may apply to cover the costs charged by our banking partner.  

We’ll advise you of the credit card surcharge and any other fees that may apply and that do not directly relate to our financial advice at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when we provide our advice to you.

If you take our advice and we place insurance or arrange other financial products on your behalf, we may earn income in the form of commissions paid by the product providers.

Commission rates vary and will depend on the nature of the financial product recommended for you and the product provider.

General insurers typically calculate commissions based on the insurance premium you pay, less any applicable government charges, taxes and levies. 

We’ll disclose the amount of any commission we will earn at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when we provide our advice to you.  

We are a member of Steadfast NZ Limited (Steadfast). Steadfast supplies technology platforms, management, marketing, professional, technical and buying benefits and services to support us in providing our financial advice services.

Steadfast has arrangements with insurance companies under which Steadfast receives a professional services fee of up to 1.5% of the premium paid, less any applicable government charges, taxes and levies, for each policy arranged by us with those insurers. These payments are used to operate Steadfast. We’ll disclose the amount of that commission at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when we provide our advice to you.  

If we act as an underwriting agency for fire and general insurers (which gives us the authority to review, quote and bind policies on the insurer’s behalf), we will be remunerated by the insurer(s) for these services. This may include managing and settling claims on the insurer’s behalf up to our delegated claims-paying authority on behalf of the insurer(s). We will disclose any such underwriting agency relationship when we provide the advice.

We receive commission from the product provider when we arrange life and health insurance on your behalf. If you decide to take out the insurance we recommend, the insurer will pay the commission to Abbott and/or the financial adviser who provided the advice. The commission amount is based on the insurance premium amount you pay and will be disclosed to you at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when the advice is given.

We may also receive an ongoing trail commission from the product provider in subsequent years while the policy remains in force. This commission amount will also be disclosed to you at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when the advice is given.

We receive commission from the product provider when we arrange life and health insurance on your behalf. If you decide to take out the insurance we recommend, the insurer will pay the commission to Abbott and/or the financial adviser who provided the advice. The commission amount is based on the insurance premium amount you pay and will be disclosed to you at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when the advice is given.

We may also receive an ongoing trail commission from the product provider in subsequent years while the policy remains in force. This commission amount will also be disclosed to you at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when the advice is given.

Some of the lenders we can provide mortgage advice for will pay us a commission. If you proceed to borrow money from the lender we recommend, the lender will pay a commission to your financial adviser. The commission amount is based on the lending amount and will be disclosed to you at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or with our advice.

Premium funding allows you to pay your annual general insurance premiums by instalments over the term of the insurance policy. 

Our financial advisers can arrange premium funding through one of our premium funding companies, Abbott Premium Funding Limited or Endeavour Premium Finance Limited.  

Premium funders charge interest and they take power a power of attorney over your insurance policy, which means they have the ability to cancel your insurance if you fail to make your repayments to them.

If you enter into a premium funding arrangement with either of our companies, we will receive an interest component as disclosed in your premium funding documentation and as per our disclosure obligations under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003.

Please refer to our Terms of Business for more information about premium funding.

We may enter agency agreements with third parties who refer clients to us, and we pay a share of our remuneration to them.

If we refer you to another company within the Abbott group of companies, we may receive commission for the referral or for the business you subsequently do with that Abbott company. This commission amount will also be disclosed to you at the earlier of when we know the nature and scope of the advice you seek, or when the advice is given.

Our internal referral arrangements support our employees and contractors (via salary and performance-based rewards) to deliver effective financial advice and client services related to that advice.

We may also receive non-monetary benefits from insurers such as conference sponsorship, training and hospitality, and insurer-sponsored functions. There is no cost to you if we, our employees and contractors, attend these events and we monitor our compliance with our Conflicts Policy annually to ensure we do not create any conflicts with your interests.