Disclosure Information

The following information provides you with an important overview of Donaldson Brown, our duties to you, fees and how we manage complaints.

Licence Status and Conditions

Donaldson Brown Group Holdings Limited FSP711971, trading as Donaldson Brown, holds a financial advice providers licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority.

Nature and Scope of Advice

Donaldson Brown provides advice to our clients about their general insurance needs.  Our risk advisers provide financial advice in relation to:

• Domestic insurance, including but not limited to
• house,
• contents,
• landlords,
• motor vehicle,
• boat insurance
• Commercial insurance, including but not limited to
• commercial property,
• business interruption,
• commercial motor,
• marine,
• liability,
• professional indemnity
• cyber insurance
• Life and disability insurance, including but not limited to
• life,
• medical,
• commercial group schemes,
• key person,
• debt protection,
• total and permanent disability

When providing our advice, we access a wide range of insurance products from various insurance providers both in the local and overseas markets.

Fees, expenses, or other amounts payable

Donaldson Brown operate in a totally transparent and conflict free manner by disclosing all fees and/or commissions for providing financial advice, and for arranging, altering, or cancelling your general insurance programme.

In some circumstances we may recommend another service provider to assist us in providing appropriate financial advice.  These providers can include property valuers, property surveyors and motor vehicle valuers.  These providers will charge a fee for the work they do.  We will advise you of any related fees and charges prior to having them commence any work on your behalf.

Conflicts of interest and commissions or other incentives

Donaldson Brown has spent many years forging relationships with local and international insurance providers.  The benefits of these relationships are seen every day by our clients in the outstanding range, competitive pricing and coverage options and policy support services they receive.

Donaldson Brown removes all commissions from domestic and commercial insurance premiums received from insurers.  Instead, choosing to operate on a transparent fee model, based on the value we bring to the partnership with our clients.   For our life and disability clients, Donaldson Brown either receives a fee from the client or reduced commissions from the insurer premium, in all instances this income is fully disclosed to our clients. 

Our operating principal for all clients since inception is “no hidden fees, no hidden commissions”.

Donaldson Brown and its risk advisers may also receive indirect benefits such as business lunches, tickets to sporting &/or cultural events, corporate promotional merchandise, and other unquantifiable minor benefits.

Donaldson Brown’s policy is to only participate in such events where there is a direct benefit to be gained for our clients, otherwise, we will refuse them.  Donaldson Brown refuse to accept major incentives such as overseas trips.

Donaldson Brown have a clear conflict of interest policy.  To manage conflicts, our risk advisers follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made on the basis of your risk and financial goals and/or circumstances.  All our risk advisers undergo training about how to manage conflicts of interest.  We undertake compliance audits of our risk advisers and annually audit our conflict-of-interest compliance framework.

Complaints & Disputes Process

If you are not fully satisfied with the services provided by Donaldson Brown, please contact your financial adviser or Donaldson Brown directly. 

Donaldson Brown’s complaints officer will formally acknowledge your complaint in writing and will endeavour to resolve your complaint fairly and in a timely manner. Please click here for more details on Donaldson Brown’s complaints handling process.

Duties

We believe in customer centricity, understanding your risk and delivering the most appropriate advice.

We are bound by duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (Act), and are required to:

• Meet certain standards of competence, knowledge, and skill, as set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (Code of Conduct). These have been designed to ensure that we have the relevant expertise to provide you with advice.
• Take reasonable steps to ensure that you understand the nature and scope of the advice we give you and let you know if there are any limitations on the advice we provide. This will help you ensure that the advice provided meets your goals and objectives.
• Give priority to your interest, by taking all reasonable steps to make sure our advice isn’t materially influenced by our own interests.
• Exercise a prudent level of care, diligence, and skill.
• Meet certain standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care as required by the Code of Conduct. These are designed to ensure that we treat you as we should and give you suitable advice.
• Not offer or recommend a financial product that contravenes the Act or related regulations. This gives you peace of mind that the products we recommend are compliant with relevant laws.
• Make certain disclosure information available to you, at certain times, for example when advice is provided. We must not provide false, misleading, or incomplete information.  You can access the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services here.

Contact Details

Donaldson Brown Group Holdings Limited FSP711971 holds a financial advice provider licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority.

You can contact us at:

Phone:  09 215 3371

Email:  compliance@dbib.co.nz

Address: PO Box 37068, Parnell, Auckland 1151

Please click here to download a copy of this information.