Terms of Business

PIB Insurance Management / Plymouth Insurance Brokers / Plymouth Ins. Brokers Limited

Terms of Business for Clients

Independent Insurance Intermediaries (Since 1975)

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority If you incept a policy with us, there is an implied and actual acceptance of these terms of business.

About Us

Plymouth Insurance Brokers and PIB Insurance Management (hereafter referred to as PIB) are our trading names. We are independent insurance brokers who arrange insurance and risk management solutions chosen from a wide range of insurance providers on behalf of our clients. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to sell general insurance products. Our FCA register number is 592794. You can check this on the FCA register by contacting the FCA on 0845 606 1234 or by visiting the FCA web site www.fca.gov.uk/register. In 2013 it was proposed that Plymouth Insurance Brokers becomes a Limited Company, Plymouth Ins. Brokers Limited t/a Plymouth Insurance Brokers, and this has been carried through, though there were no change in personnel at the company.

Our Services

In arranging insurance for our customers we act as an independent intermediary and act on your behalf when arranging your insurance. 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. We offer a wide range of general insurance products and have access to a wide range of insurers with whom we place insurance. Details of insurers will be provided to you when your individual requirements have been discussed.

Costs and Remuneration

We will provide details of the costs of each of the insurances offered. The quotations we provide are fully inclusive of premium, Governmental tax, commission and fees.

We will charge a £20 fee for policy amendments. We will charge a £20 setting up fee for new policies. We will not tell you if we decide to waive or reduce these charges. We may charge a fee for complex claims handling but will always agree this with you in advance. In the event of policy refunds or cancellation we will always deduct our commission from the amount refunded. Smaller premium policies such as Public Liability insurance and Caravan Insurance are subject to a minimum premium of no less than £75 and £96 respectively, inclusive of all tax and commission. Replacement documentation is subject to a discretionary minimum charge of at least £15 or £10 if dispatched to you electronically.

We are normally remunerated for arranging insurance in the form of commission or brokerage paid to us by the Insurers underwriting the insurance. Non-Commissionable work such as assistance with UK based contracts are not chargeable unless they are particularly complex or numerous. Where we are asked to provide advice and assistance on International Contracts we charge a set fee of £50 per hour or part thereof. Occasionally our arrangement with you is that our services will be provided for an agreed fee or a combination of fees and commissions in the event of the arrangement of multiple insurances.

In addition to such brokerage or commission, or an agreed fee basis of remuneration as appropriate, we may rarely be entitled to benefit from earnings which we are able to generate due to the weight of account placed with certain markets and its underwriting performance, which are not identifiable to any specific account. We may also receive earnings that we are able to generate through management of cash balances held on behalf of insurers and clients, which are not identifiable to any specific account. This is bank interest.

Duty of Disclosure

It is important that you understand that any information, statements or answers made by you, to your insurer, or us are your responsibility and must be correct. Any failure to disclose facts material to the insurer or any inaccuracies in your answers may invalidate your insurance cover in part or in whole. Facts material to the insurance are matters or information that may influence your insurer as to the acceptability or otherwise of your Proposal or Renewal and must be disclosed immediately. You are advised to keep copies of documentation sent to or received from us for your own protection. Please do consult us in you are in doubt on any aspect. The disclosure of information not only applies at commencement and renewal of your policy, but also at anytime during the period of insurance. Where the terms of your insurance require you to notify your insurers of any increase or alteration in the nature of the risk, it is your obligation to provide such information to us so that insurers can be notified in accordance with the requirements of your insurance. All answers or statements on a proposal or claim form or other material document are your responsibility and you should always check the accuracy of the information you provide to us, even where we assist in the completion of any aforementioned document. Some insurers will wish to conduct a credit check on policyholders and prospective policyholders and this will likely be recorded on your credit record. You need to contact us if you do NOT consent to such a check being undertaken, however this may affect the ability of an insurer to offer its best rates and payment by instalments.

Awareness of Policy Terms

When a policy is issued, you are strongly advised to read it carefully, as it is that document, the schedule and any certificate of insurance that is the basis of the insurance contract that you have purchased. If you are in any doubt over any of the policy terms and conditions, please seek our advice promptly.

Placement of the Insurance

When arranging the insurance, we will act objectively in your best interest when choosing insurers. We will take reasonable steps to review the financial security, service standards and stability of all insurers recommended for use on your insurances, but PIB Insurance Management does not guarantee the financial viability or solvency of any of the insurers with whom the risk is placed. Where we consider it appropriate, we may request another more specialist insurance broker or intermediary to assist us in the placing of the insurance.

Cooling Off Period

We will give you enough information and help so that you can make an informed decision before you make a final commitment to buy your insurance. However Retail customers (non Commercial) are given fourteen days to change their minds and cancel the insurance contract from the date that policy documentation is received.

Payment of Premium

We will be responsible for:-

Issuing demands for all new and renewal premiums and mid-term alterations as soon as is practicable, after inception or renewal or of receipt of closing documentation from the market.
Remitting premiums to insurers in accordance with the agreed Terms of Trade.

You are responsible for paying promptly, all of our invoices, to enable us to make the necessary payments to insurers in respect of your insurances. For the avoidance of doubt, we have no obligation to fund any premiums, duties, fees etc. on your behalf. We have no responsibility for any loss that you may suffer as a result of your insurers cancelling the policy, or taking any other prejudicial steps as a result of a late payment of such premiums, duties, fees etc. if such delay is substantially attributable to you. Your insurance Premiums are paid into a Statutory Trust account. Where you have elected to pay by post dated cheques, the initial cheque is deemed a deposit for insurance and the remaining cheques are deemed to be repayment of credit rather than payment of insurance premium. These latter cheques are deposited into a credit account, which is also in trust. As previously mentioned, in 2013 Plymouth Insurance Brokers became Plymouth Ins. Brokers t/a Plymouth Insurance Brokers and any monies collected by the former were transferred to the latter. In taking out an insurance policy with us, you are deemed to have accepted our terms of business and agreed to the transfer of monies between the two Plymouth Insurance Broker entities.

Confirming Cover

We will provide written confirmation of cover confirming the details of the insurance that has been effected on your behalf and if requested identifying the insurer or panel of insurers underwriting it. We will also forward full policy documentation and endorsements without avoidable delay.

Our Ongoing Service

We will:-

Respond promptly to queries and correspondence.
Deal promptly with your requests for amendments to cover and provide you with details of any premium or charges to be paid or to be returned.
Provide written confirmation when amendments are made.
Remit any returned premiums and charges due to you without avoidable delay subject to receipt from insurers
Notify you of the renewal or expiry of your policy in time to allow you to consider and arrange any continuing cover which you may need.

Confidentiality and Security

We acknowledge that in the course of conducting business on your behalf we shall acquire confidential information from you and accordingly agree that: We will not use or disclose that information except in the normal course of negotiating, maintaining or renewing insurances on your behalf. We will not use it for our own purpose or for any other purposes unless we have your consent. We will not cause or permit any unauthorised disclosure of such information of which we shall become possessed. These confidentiality provisions shall not apply to any information:

Which, at the time it is provided to us, is already in the public domain.
Which is disclosed to us or by a third party not subject to similar duties of confidentiality.
Which enters the public domain through no fault or breach by us of our obligations under this provision.
Which is required to be disclosed by us pursuant to a legal obligation or to enable the Financial Conduct Authority to fulfil its regulatory function.

To make sure you get the best possible price offer from our insurers, now or at any time and to protect their customers from fraud and verify your identity, the insurers may use publicly available data which they obtain from a variety of sources, including a credit reference agency and other external organisations. Insurance companies may use a credit check to ascertain the most appropriate payment option for you. Any credit check will appear on your credit report whether or not a policy is actually incepted with us.

Pursuant to the Data Protection Act 1998 and it’s successor the General Data Protection Rules of 2018, our data handling procedures comply with all requirements. We are registered with the Information Commission.

Claims

We will provide a claim handling service for as long as you remain a customer and we will:

Give you guidance in pursuing a claim under the policy, should you so wish.
Handle claims fairly and promptly and keep you informed of their progress.
Inform you in writing if we are unable to deal with any part of a claim.
Account to you, without avoidable delay, once a claim has been agreed and settled.

You must notify us promptly of the circumstances of the claim and you must not admit liability or agree to any course of action until you receive confirmation that you may do so from your insurers.

Complaints

It is always intended that we provide a first class standard of service. However, if you have any cause for complaint you should, in the first instance, contact Paul Barry at the address to which you would normally write. Please be ready to give your policy reference. We have procedures in place to deal with any complaint and details of how we will deal with it are given below. You may make your complaint either orally or in writing at any time and if we can resolve the matter straight away to your complete satisfaction we will do so. If we think that the complaint should more appropriately be referred to the FCA or another organisation we will tell you within five business days of your complaint being received by us. (This might be because the complaint is about your insurers or the person who advised you rather than us). If we cannot resolve your complaint immediately, we will write to you and tell you so within five business days of its receipt. We will also tell you the name of the person who is looking into your complaint and when you should expect to have a full reply.You will normally receive a full response to your complaint within twenty working days of making it. However if we need longer, we will tell you during the twenty working day period and tell you why we need the extra time. The written response that we will make to you will either:

accept the complaint and offer compensation where appropriate, or other form of redress.
or reject the complaint and give full reasons why we are rejecting it.
or be a combination of both of the above.

If we cannot satisfy your complaint you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The fact that we have these procedures in place does not affect any other right of action you may have.

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 is dependent on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Insurance advising and arranging is covered for the first £2,000 and 90% of the remainder of the claim without any upper limit. Further information about the scheme can be obtained from the FSCS