GAUNTLET HERITAGE INSURANCE
SERVICES
TERMS OF BUSINESS
Definitions
a) “We/us” means Gauntlet Heritage Insurance Services Ltd of
Wigglesworth
House
London,
SE1 9HH
Tel: 020 7394 2400
E-Mail:
ins@gauntlet.uk.com
b) “Financial Services Authority” (FSA)
25 The North Colonnade,
Canary Wharf
London
EC4N 6EU
Tel:
020 7066 1000
E-Mail: consumerhelp@fsa.gov.uk
Regulation
We are regulated by the
Financial Services Authority (FSA) as stated in our ‘Key Facts’ document.
Status
We act as an
Independent Intermediary (Broker) on your behalf. We offer a full range of insurance products and our service
includes: advising you on your insurance needs, arranging your insurance cover
with insurers to meet your requirements and helping you with any subsequent
event or alteration to your insurance that we have placed on your behalf. We place insurance with a number of Insurers
and we will advise you should you have to deal directly with the insurer for
ongoing policy administration. We may
issue policies and handle claims on behalf of some insurers.
Confidentiality
Unless required by law,
public interest, virtue of our being authorised by FSA or you give your
consent, all information you supply will be kept confidential to us and parties
involved in the normal course of arranging and administering your
insurance. Under the Data Protection
Act 1998 you have the right to see personal information about you that we hold
in our records. Should you have any
queries please write to us at the above address.
Disclosure of
Information
It is important that
you understand that any information, statements or answers made by you to us or
your insurer are your responsibility throughout the term of your policy and
must be correct. Your attention is particularly drawn to the importance of the
declaration and signature on any Insurers’ Proposal Forms. Any failure to disclose facts material to
the insurance or any inaccuracies in your answers may invalidate your insurance
cover in part or in whole, and could mean that part or all of a claim may
not be paid. Facts material to the
insurance are matters or information which may influence your insurer as to the
acceptability or otherwise of your Proposal or Renewal and must be disclosed at
the earliest opportunity and certainly at each Renewal. You are advised to keep copies of
documentation sent to you or received from us for your protection. Please do consult us if you are in doubt on
any aspect.
Negotiation and Placing
We will discuss with you
your insurance requirements, the insurance markets to be approached, the scope
of cover, limits to be sought and potential prices.
Upon receipt of your
instructions, we will conduct negotiations with insurers on matters including
coverage, policy form and premium. We
will assess the financial soundness of the proposed insurers and markets using
industry recognised rating guides and will discuss with you any concerns that
may arise. However, we will not in any
circumstances act as an insurer nor will we guarantee or otherwise warrant the
solvency of any insurer or market.
During the course of
the placement of your insurance we will keep you informed of the progress of
our negotiations and identify any inability to fulfil the proposed coverage. We
will use reasonable endeavours to implement your insurance coverage before the
intended date of inception, renewal or extension of cover (whichever is
appropriate).
Insurers may from time
to time grant us a binding authority or similar facility under which we will
accept business on the insurers’ behalf.
These arrangements, which assist in the prompt and efficient placement
of risks and service of business, could be used where they match your insurance
requirements/instructions.
Claims
If you have occasion to
claim on your policy you must notify us immediately and we will promptly advise
you and, if appropriate, issue you with a claim form and pass all details to
your insurer. You should not admit
liability nor agree to any course of action, other than emergency measures
carried out to minimise the loss, until you have agreement from your
insurer.
Premium Payment
We accept payment by
cheque or bank transfer or by debit card or credit card. For payments made by credit card a 1.53%
administration charge will apply to the amount paid. Please complete and return the attached schedule if you wish to
pay by either credit card or debit card.
You may be able to spread your payments through insurers’ instalment
schemes or a credit scheme which we could arrange on your behalf through a
finance provider. Payment terms are
strictly thirty days, unless otherwise agreed by us in writing.
Notice
Insurers pass
information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange run by Insurance Database
Services Ltd and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register run by the
Association of British Insurers. The
aim is to check information provided and also prevent fraudulent claims.
Motor insurance details
are added to the Motor Insurance Database run by the Motor Insurers’
Information Centre which has been formed to help identify uninsured drivers and
may be searched by the Police to help confirm who is insured to drive. In the event of an accident the database may
be used by insurers and the Motor Insurance Bureau to identify relevant policy
information.
Remuneration
Our remuneration is a
percentage of the insurance premium paid by you and given to us by the insurer
with whom the insurance contract is placed.
We make no additional charges to the payment made by you for the
premiums charged by the insurer.
We provide services to
insurers that are not directly related to the services provided to you and we
receive usual and customary remuneration in recognition of those services.
This remuneration may
be a management or administration fee or revenue based upon the profitability
of insurance business placed with a given insurer over a specific period. These payments recognise the services we
provide to the insurer over that given period.
The level of our
remuneration is determined by the terms of confidential business agreements
with insurers but may be, for example, in the form of management/administrative
expenses allowed to us by insurers to cover our costs in administering Binding
Authorities and Line slips, and similar facilities for them.
In the handling of
positive premium balances for our clients, we may earn interest/investment
income or benefit from foreign exchange differentials.
It may be appropriate
and for your benefit for us to use another intermediary to assist us in
fulfilling your insurance requirements.
These companies may also receive usual and customary remuneration for
the services they provide.
Quotations
Unless otherwise agreed
any quotation given will remain valid for a period of thirty days from the date
of issue of the quotation.
Note
The parties to any
agreement of which these Terms of Business form a part do not intend (save
where expressly stated in such an agreement) that any of its terms will be
enforceable by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 by
any person not a party to it.