FINANCIAL
SERVICES GUIDE

THE PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE

This Financial Services Guide (FSG) is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of our services and contains important information about:

The services we offer you
How we and our associates are paid
Any potential conflicts of interest we may have
What to do in the event of a complaint

RESPONSIBILITY FOR SERVICES PROVIDED

We hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (No.: 474 829) and are authorised to advise and deal in the full spectrum of general insurance products to wholesale and retail clients. We will do this for you as your broker unless we tell you otherwise.

We are responsible for the financial services provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG.

We are required to meet high standards for staff training, organisational competence, management expertise, financial control and compliance disciplines.

WHO DO WE ACT FOR

We usually act on your behalf and in your interests in all matters. Sometimes, it may be more appropriate for us to access insurance or manage claims where we act as an agent of the insurer. If and when this situation arises we will explain and highlight this to you.

OUR SERVICES

We have extensive market knowledge and experience in relation to general insurance products and we offer a comprehensive range of services to assist you to protect your assets and guard against unexpected liabilities including:

Reviewing and advising on your insurance needs
Identifying risk factors to avoid claims
Seeking competitive premium quotations
Arranging premium funding, if required
Assisting with insurance claims

HOW TO CONTACT US

You are able to contact us by phone, in writing, email or in person.

RETAIL CLIENTS

Under the Corporations Act 2001 (The Act) Retail Clients are provided with additional protection from other clients. The Act defines Retail Clients as:

Individuals or a manufacturing business employing less than 100 people or any other business employing less than 20 people and that are purchasing the following types of insurance covers:

Motor vehicle, home building, contents, personal and domestic, sickness/accident/travel, consumer credit and other classes as prescribed by regulations.

Some of the information in this FSG only applies to Retail Clients and it is important that you understand if you are covered by the additional protection provided.

RETAIL CLIENT ISSUES

Typically, we provide Persona Advice to our Retail Client. Personal Advice takes into account your particular circumstances and in these cases we are required to provide you with additional information. This information will be provided in a Statement of Advice (SOA) or where an SOA is not required to be provided, it will be included on any relevant invoices. A SOA sets out the advice provided and the basis on which the advice is made and our remuneration should you purchase the product.

General Advice does not take into account your particular needs and requirements and you should consider the appropriateness of this advice to your circumstances prior to acting upon it. If we provide you with General Advice we will provide you with a General Advice Warning.

When you ask us to recommend an insurance policy for you, we will usually only consider the policies offered by the insurance providers that we deal with regularly. In giving you advice about the costs and terms of recommended policies we have not compared those policies to other policies available, other than from those insurance providers we deal with regularly.

If we recommend the purchase of a particular financial product, we will also give you a Product Disclosure Statement at that time, which sets out details specific to that product and the key benefits and risks in purchasing the product.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act.) and the Privacy Amendment Act 2012 which sets out standards for the collection and management of personal information. With your consent, we will only use your personal information for general insurance services.

COMPLAINTS

Clients not satisfied with our services should contact our Complaints Officer. We are a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), a free consumer service.

Further information is available from our office or contact AFCA directly on 1800 367 287 or visit afca.org.au. We are also members of NIBA and subscribe to the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice. Information about the Code can be located at: www.niba.com.au/codeofpractice/

COMPENSATION

We hold a Professional Indemnity Policy. This policy is designed to pay claims by Third Parties (including our clients) arising out of our Professional Negligence. The policy extends to covers us for work done for us by representatives/employees after they cease to work for us and satisfies the requirements for compensation arrangements under Section 912B of The Act.

CONTACT AGREEMENT

To ensure that we provide you with appropriate products and services, you agree to us calling you to discuss any new products and services. If you do not wish to receive such calls please advise us and we will place you on our Do Not Call Register.

ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF DISCLOSURE NOTICES

Please note that where possible we prefer to provide all correspondence and disclosure notices (including Financial Services Guides and Product Disclosure Statements) to you electronically, via email or links to websites etc. If you have provided your email address to Us we will typically use that email address for all correspondence and disclosure notices. Should you not wish to be sent disclosure documents electronically please advise us and we will update our records accordingly.

OUR SOURCES OF INCOME

When placing your insurance we usually receive a commission from the insurer. The amount varies between 0% and 30% of the base premium you pay. Where a policy is cancelled before the period of insurance has ended we will usually retain the commission on any return premium involved.

If you are a Retail Client and we give you Personal Advice, commission amounts will be provided in any SOA or (where an SOA is not required to be provided) included on any relevant invoices. When we give you General Advice, full commission information (including dollar amounts) will be provided on request.

We have a set of standard non-refundable Broker Fees that we charge you for services such as:

Market research on products available.
Assessing the claims service of insurers.
Sourcing alternative quotations and coverage.
Risk analysis and portfolio co-ordination.

All fees payable for our services will be advised to you at the time of providing the advice or service.

We may receive additional remuneration from insurers with whom we have profit share or volume bonus arrangements. This remuneration is payable if we meet certain agreed sales and/or profitability targets set by the insurer. If we have profit share arrangements with an insurer that apply to a product we recommend to you, we will advise you of this at the time of making any such recommendation if the amount involved is material.

We retain the interest on premiums paid by you that are held in our trust account before paying the insurer.

If you pay by credit card we may charge you a credit card (incl. arrangement & handling) fee, which is disclosed and shown separately on our invoices, they are non-refundable. This fee covers the cost of bank charges etc. associated with such facilities.

Premium funding products enable you to pay your premiums by instalments. Premium funders do charge interest. We can arrange premium funding if you require it. We may receive a commission based on a percentage of the premium from the premium funder for doing so. We will tell you the basis and amount of any such payment if you ask us.

STEADFAST MEMBERSHIP

We are a Steadfast Group Limited (Steadfast) Network Broker. Steadfast has exclusive arrangements with some insurers and premium funders (Partners) under which Steadfast will receive between 0.5 – 1.5% commission for each product arranged by us with those Partners. Steadfast is also a shareholder of some Partners.

As a Steadfast Network Broker we have access to member services including model operating and compliance tools, procedures, manuals and training, legal, technical, banking and recruitment advice and assistance, group insurance arrangements, product comparison and placement support, claims support and group purchasing arrangements. These member services are either funded by Steadfast, subsidised by Steadfast or available exclusively to Steadfast Network Brokers for a fee. You can obtain a copy of Steadfast's FSG at www.steadfast.com.au

HOW OUR REPRESENTATIVES ARE PAID

Our representatives do not receive any benefit directly from the sale of a product to you. Our representatives may receive bonuses payable based on the overall performance of our business.

If a person has referred you to us, we may pay them a part of any fees or commission received. If you are a Retail Client and receive Personal Advice full remuneration details will be disclosed in the SOA or invoices related to the advice.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

As a business we have relationships with and receive income from various third parties as detailed in this FSG. For Retail Clients receiving Personal Advice, details of relationships that impact the advice will be included in any SOA or invoice documentation we send you. All material conflicts that impact our advice, that are not mentioned in this FSG, will be advised to you on the invoices related to that advice.

Woods & Associates Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd

T/as Woods Insurance Brokers

ABN: 74 603 908 121

AFSL 474 829

Peninsula Place, Level 2

9/57 Labouchere Road, South Perth WA 6151

PHONE: (08) 9460 0060

EMAIL: enquiries@woodsib.com.au

WEBSITE: www.woodsib.com.au

FINANCIAL SERVICES GUIDE

This FSG applies from 1st February 2021