Disclosures you need to know when working with TGN Advisers
This document is a compilation of certain requirements as well as other important information you should know about when engaging our services. It highlights:
● The services we provide and how we provide them
● How an engagement with us will work and what it might cost you
● Security, privacy and the confidentiality of your information
About us
TGN Advisers is a subsidiary of TGN Investments Limited (Reg No.FSP716191) which holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to operate as Financial Advice Provider (FAP). TGN Advisers provides advice to our clients on investments, business planning, financial planning, life insurance, health insurance and fire and general insurance. Your financial adviser for these products will be George Bayley (Reg No.FSP405807).
As the public's knowledge of financial matters increases there is a growing expectation that people should have a base level of understanding. In truth, the subject matter is so large that knowing 'what you should' is often unrealistic in the face of other modern pressures.
The concept of having a financial adviser is, therefore, a relatively new one; the idea being, to have someone relieve you of having to know everything yourself. As an advisory firm, our aim is to help you set your personal insurance affairs in order, so you can get on with the rest of your life.
A large part of how we can help revolves around the financial modelling we do. Working with you we enter your information into our modelling software and develop not just an understanding of your finances, but a picture of how your choices and options might play out over the course of your lifetime, and construct your investment portfolio and insurance cover accordingly.
We do not charge for an initial meeting and are happy to spend some time with you knowing that invariably a client engagement will find its own level. We always invite people to use us as a resource and have found that doing the right thing comes back to us in one way or another.
Our services
As Financial Advisers there are a number of ways we can help. While the list below is included to provide some markers for areas of expertise, it is helpful to understand that where we tend to help people most is by providing clarity and certainty.
Key areas of expertise are:
- Investment planning, business planning, implementation and ongoing monitoring of portfolios
- Retirement planning, using lifetime cash flow modelling
- Personal and General insurance planning and implementation
- Business and Liability insurance
Other interests and relationships
We can use what providers we wish to on the basis of what our research and analysis indicate is best for a client. This typically means that while we can use a range of providers we tend to favour a small group and most clients will be advised accordingly. It is important to know we are not ‘locked in’ to any commercial relationships or contractual arrangements that present any particular conflicts of interest to consumers generally which would be reasonably likely to materially influence the financial adviser service.
Our financial advisers provide financial advice in relation to investments, business and personal financial planning, life insurance, health insurance and fire and general insurance. Our advice as shown is based on the products of certain providers:
For investments we provide a boutique, fee-based service supported by a network of investment, tax and legal specialists
For personal risk insurance, we work with five companies - AIA, Asteron, Cigna, Partners Life and Fidelity
For health insurance, we work with five companies - AIA, Accuro, NIB, Partners Life and Southern Cross
For fire and general insurance, we work with one company - Vero
For business and liability insurances, we work with two companies - Sherpa, DUAL, Delta or other specialists
Engaging with us
An engagement will usually occur at the end of a meeting or discussion, once we have determined what steps should logically follow, and you have authorised us to conduct analysis, write advice, or otherwise take action in some way.
Doing your part
Every time we give you advice we will likely ask a range of questions about your situation. It is therefore important to help us develop the right thinking and let us know if you have strong views about anything in particular. Our advice is based on this information so it is essential that it is correct and complete. If you think our advice seems wrong for any reason you should let us know as soon as possible so that we may make any necessary adjustments.
It is important to understand that our advice will always be based on a historical picture of your situation. If anything material changes in your world our advice to you might change and to best help you, we would want to know about it.
We are most effective when we can communicate with you. Please inform us of any changes to your contact details such as when you move house, change jobs or adopt new email addresses or mobile numbers.
Please know that we cannot be held accountable for information not received or incorrect information that may otherwise affect our advice or services provided to you.
Vulnerability
At TGN we are dedicated to providing, the best service we can to ALL who seek our advice, whether a client or not. Often in life, we do not realise that we may be at a vulnerable stage, that we should be taking special care of ourselves and our loved ones and not rushing to make decisions that we may not understand the consequences fully or the effect that they will have on our future. Being aware of our future and present client’s vulnerabilities is not straightforward to identify as an adviser and indeed often not easy to realise or admit as a client.
We have put together some prompts below for your consideration, please have a careful think and if we have not already brought this element into our conversation and you would like to do so, please do raise it with us, so we can ensure that the advice we are providing to you is as suitable for you as possible.
Annual reviews
We encourage an annual review of your situation to ensure our advice remains current and this contact may come in the form of an email, letter or phone call.
It may be that an acknowledgement from you is all that is needed to ensure good order but sometimes a more in-depth assessment is appropriate, with ensuing steps taken by us to implement any required adjustments. Reviews of this nature are typically catered for where we already look after you in some way but where our scope of service is more limited we may have to charge a fee based on the nature and complexity of the work involved.
During reviews we will not consider your wider situation outside of your existing scope of services unless we have been engaged to do so and even where an engagement exists, we rely on you to let us know of changes or impending changes which may affect our advice.
Fees and remuneration
Fees can broadly be split into two areas:
- Fees for analysis, investment, estate planning and retirement planning, including any written advice and guidance (this includes insurance advice)
- Commissions paid by product providers as remuneration for managing the client relationship between us
In relation to commissions:
Investments and Kiwisaver -
We charge for advice at the hourly rate of $250 plus GST, excluding the initial consultation which is free of charge.
The fee charged will depend on the nature and scope of the advice or service we provide for you. There is a cost for our financial planning advice and to implement any investment advice. We will outline the estimated cost in a letter of engagement and agree the fees with you before we proceed.
Clients who choose our Investment Management Service are charged a retainer fee which covers investment monitoring, administration and reporting. This also covers on-going review of your financial situation. The cost is expressed as a percentage of funds under management and will be agreed in a letter of engagement.
Life and Health Insurance (except Southern Cross) - TGN Advisers receive commissions from the relevant insurance company if you take out insurance following our advice. The commissions are between 80% and 200% of the first year’s premiums of your policy — the amount depends on which insurance company and which insurance policy you choose. TGN also receives a commission of between 5% and 30% of the premium for each year the policy remains in force. In addition, TGN Advisers receives commission of between 15% and 30% of the first year’s premiums of your policy, depending upon which insurance company and which policy you choose. To ensure that we prioritise your interests above our own, we follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made on the basis of your individual goals and circumstances. We complete annual training about how to manage conflicts of interest. We undertake a compliance audit, and a review of our compliance programme is undertaken annually by a reputable compliance adviser.
As a rule, the lower the initial commission the higher the ongoing. TGN is committed to ensuring our clients always receive excellent service, and that we are available to you to discuss any aspect of your insurances including of course being there to help manage any claims you may make. We, therefore usually elect to receive low initial and higher ongoing commissions to ensure that we are there for you in the long term. Hence, please do not feel shy about calling us with any questions or queries at any time, as we are paid to look after your ongoing insurance needs.
Southern Cross - TGN Advisers receives commissions from the Southern Cross if you take out insurance following our advice. The commission is 30% of the first year’s premiums of your policy. TGN also receives a fixed dollar amount commission of the premium for each year the policy remains in force. In 2021 this amount is $138.38 per policy per annum.
General Insurances - House, Contents the commission TGN Advisers receive is 20% of the annual risk component only, not the EQC or Fire Levy components. For vehicles, it is 10% of the annual risk component only.
For Business and Liability insurances the commission TGN Advisers receives is 20-25% of the annual premiums.
It is also our practice to refuse any ‘introductory commissions’ for referring clients to other third parties such as Solicitors, Accountants, or Property Specialists – if we refer you to someone then it is because we think they can help and not because we want to get paid.
For insurance
The required research, analysis and time involved in preparing insurance advice is significant. If you engage us to provide an Insurance Planning Service and if you do not proceed in any way, then please be aware that this will have taken a considerable amount of time and resource and whilst we don’t charge, we do appreciate people bearing this in mind when instructing us. If you proceed with the advice then we get paid a commission by an insurer.
Upon the establishment of an insurance policy, the insurer will pay an initial commission. Once the policy has been in force for longer than 12 months, then ‘ongoing’ commission is paid, which is why a planning fee and a service fee are not required for insurance advice.
Insurers also provide non-monetary benefits and from time to time and the firm or its advisers may receive these. This could include sales incentives such as corporate gifts, invitations to sporting events, subsidised professional development, etc. TGN Advisers takes the position that only activities with a direct benefit to our clients will be participated in such as professional development or information services.
It is worth noting that life insurers pay initial commissions based on the expectation that a customer relationship that will last longer than two years. Where a policy is cancelled before the end of two years, the insurer will claw back a percentage of this initial commission.
PLEASE NOTE - In the unlikely event that a policy is cancelled within the first 24 months of going into force we retain the right, at our sole discretion, to charge a flat one-off fee of $1,500 + GST to recover a proportion of the costs incurred in providing advice and placing the insurance cover into force.
Hourly rate consultancy - fees
Where we do not have an ongoing engagement, we can still provide transactional services.
For unstructured advice or appointments with a consultant or adviser, an hourly rate of $250 plus GST applies. Where this requires a meeting outside of business hours or out of office, an additional fee of $150 may apply. We may also charge fees to cover any implementation or administration resource.
Where a transactional service is provided, we will usually agree to a cost for service beforehand, although this may rise where time and complexity becomes a factor.
Payment of fees
● Fees for advice are due upon receipt of the advice and become overdue after
20 days
● Fees for review, administration services or hourly rate work are due upon completion of the task and become overdue after 20 days
● If payment is still due after 20 days we will issue a letter requesting payment within another 20 days. If our fees are still due at the end of this period we may enter into debt recovery proceedings
Communications, Privacy and YOUR information
Communications
We provide our advice in writing. For this, email is our preferred format either as an expression of advice itself or as a medium of delivery with a pdf of advice attached to it. While we are happy to re-visit, clarify or provide more general guidance over the phone, if advice isn’t in writing then it is not advice.
We do want to hear from you and always encourage you to use us a resource. As a small team, we may not always be immediately available, but our policy is to try and return your communication within 24 hours of any contact.
Additionally, we are easy to find and if you lose our contact details please search the internet for TGN or call 029 4367432.
Please know that to keep you appropriately informed we might contact you from time to time with news of relevant adjustments, noteworthy changes or options, or perhaps even other services, offers or information.
Your information
Confidentiality and the security of your personal information is something we take seriously. We will only use your information for the purposes of engaging with you, providing guidance or advice, and fulfilling our legal and regulatory obligations.
We endeavour to operate as paperless as possible, with very little physical information held on-site. Our primary storage method is an enterprise-level Microsoft system. Any physical information you or your authorised agents (accountants, solicitors, insurers, etc.) provide to us is scanned and either returned to you or securely destroyed.
We will only share your information when instructed to do so by you or your authorised agent. For example, this typically occurs when implementing advice such as applying for insurance. Information is sent securely to the relevant provider; we do not use third-party data processors, nor do they have direct access to our systems.
It is also possible that our contracted locum service, IT providers (ITcentre and Planolitix), compliance advisers and assessors, or regulatory bodies such as the FMA (Financial Markets Authority) or IFSO (Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman) may require access to information in order to ensure the business continues to operate, maintain compliance, or meet legal requirements.
Business Sale or Succession
In the event that TGN Investments Limited is sold, merged, or otherwise transfers ownership or part of its business, your personal information may be disclosed to the prospective purchaser and, if a transaction proceeds, transferred to the new owner. This would be done strictly under confidentiality obligations and only to ensure continuity of service to you. You will be notified of any such transfer and provided with the new entity’s privacy policy and contact details.
Access to your information is otherwise available only to staff of the firm and to you. Under the Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to request access to and correction of your personal information at any time.
General
Attendance to instructions
We will always try to act promptly on instructions. Please let us know if we have let you down in any aspect of our service. We are always trying to improve and the thoughts of our clients are important to us.
Money handling
We do not have a trust account, do not handle client funds and cannot personally access client monies for any reason. All funds are payable to the service provider directly. We do not accept hard monies of any kind to make an investment or pay an insurance policy.
Liability
There are many events that can occur outside of our control and while we do what we can, there are certain things we cannot accept responsibility for:
● Any damage or loss caused to you or your system by any electronic communication, or any interference, interception, virus, other defects, delay or non-delivery relating to such a transmission
● Where electronic communication with any third party (e.g. a supplier of investments) does not occur and eventuates in a loss or missed opportunity
● A loss or missed opportunity due to the actions or negligence of our chosen suppliers or their downstream providers
● A loss or missed opportunity due to the inherent activity of markets
The above list is not exhaustive. We are bound by the laws of New Zealand and professional bodies. While our success is intrinsically linked to what we can do for you, it is important to understand that no guarantees of performance are expressed or implied.
Termination of engagement
You may terminate our engagement in writing at any time.
We may also stop working for you if:
● We have a conflict of interest
● Our fees are not paid
● There is another good reason for us not to complete your instructions
If either of us terminates the engagement, these terms will survive the termination and you must pay us for all work we have done and expenses we have incurred to the date of termination.
Termination will also occur if:
● You cancel all insurance policies
● The principal transaction that formed the basis of our engagement is completed
What should you do it something goes wrong?
If you are not satisfied with our financial advice service you can make a complaint by emailing admin@tgn.co.nz , or by calling: 029 4367432. You can also write to us at: PO Box 79008, Avonhead, Christchurch, 8446
When we receive a complaint, we will consider it following our internal complaints process:
• We will consider your complaint and let you know how we intend to resolve it. We may need to contact you to get further information about your complaint.
• We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them. If we can’t, we will contact you within that time to let you know we need more time to consider your complaint.
• We will contact you by phone or email to let you know whether we can resolve your complaint and how we propose to do so.
If we can’t resolve your complaint, or you aren’t satisfied with the way we propose to do so, you can contact the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO). IFSO provides a free, independent dispute resolution service that may help investigate or resolve your complaint, if we haven’t been able to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction.
You can contact the IFSO at:
Address: PO Box 10-845, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
Telephone number: 0800 888-202
Email address: info@ifso.nz
How are we regulated by the Government?
You can check that TGN Investments Limited (Trading as TGN Advisers - FSP716191) and George Bayley (FSP405807) are registered at the Financial Service Providers Register - https://fsp-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/
The Financial Markets Authority authorises and regulates financial advisers. Contact the Financial Markets Authority for more information, including financial tips and warnings.
You can report information or complain about my conduct to the Financial Markets Authority, but in the event of a disagreement, you may choose to first use the dispute resolution procedures described above (under 'What should you do if something goes wrong?').
Name and registration number of Financial Adviser
Adviser: Benjamin George Robson Bayley – FSP405807
Postal: PO Box 79008, Christchurch 8446
Company name: TGN Investments Limited t/a TGN Advisers
Telephone number: 029 4367432
Fax number: not available
Email address: george@tgn.co.nz
Variations
We may at any time vary these terms and this will apply at the date of publication.
An updated document can be requested but will not be automatically delivered to you.