Financial Control - Terms of Business

Terms of Business

These Terms of Business set out the general terms under which our firm

will provide business services to you and the respective duties and

responsibilities of both the firm and you in relation to such services.

Please ensure that you read these terms thoroughly and if you have any

queries we will be happy to clarify them. If any material changes are

made to these terms we will notify you.

Authorisation with the Financial Regulator

John Nicholson t/a Financial Control Services is regulated by the Financial

Regulator as a Multi-Agency Intermediary under the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995; as a Mortgage Intermediary authorised under the Consumer Credit Act,

1995; and as an insurance intermediary registered under the European

Communities (Insurance Mediation) Regulations, 2005. Copies of our

regulatory authorisations are available on request. The Financial

Regulator holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the

Financial Regulator on 1890 200 469 or alternatively visit their

website at www.financialregulator.ie to verify our credentials.

Codes of Conduct

John Nicholson  t/a Financial Control Services is subject to the Central Banks Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness and Probity standards which offer protection to consumers. These codes can be found on the Central Banks Website www.centralbank.ie.

Our Services

Financial Control is a member of the Professional Insurance Brokers Association

(PIBA). As a member of PIBA we must be in a position to place insurance

with at least five insurers of the relevant form (life/non-life) and

therefore can generally give consumers greater choice than agents and

tied agents.

Our principal business is to provide advice and arrange transactions on

behalf of clients in relation to life & pensions and mortgages. A full list of insurers, product producers and lending agencies with which we deal is available on request.

Life & Pensions

As a Multi-Agency Intermediary, we can provide advice in relation to

products for which we hold an agency, and can place business on your

behalf with those product producers. Financial Control can provide advice on and

arrange products from the following range:

life cover, serious illness cover, income protection, savings, investments and pensions.

With your agreement, we may review the policies you take out on a

periodic basis to ensure that you are kept informed as to their benefits

and to check whether they are still suitable for your needs.

We will provide assistance to you for any queries you may have in

relation to the policies, or in the event of a claim during the life of the

policies and we will explain to you the various restrictions, conditions

and exclusions attached to your policy. It is however, your responsibility

to read the policy documents, literature and brochures to ensure that

you understand the nature of the policy cover, particularly in relation to

PHI and serious illness policies.

Mortgages

Through the lenders or other undertakings with which we hold an

agency, Financial Control can provide advice on and arrange products from the

following range: fixed-rate loans, variable rate mortgages, capital &

interest mortgages, interest only mortgages, endowment mortgages,

pension mortgages, residential investment property.

We will need to collect sufficient information from you before we can

offer any advice on housing loans. This is due to the fact that a key issue

in relation to mortgage advice is affordability. Such information should

be produced promptly upon request.

Disclosure of Information

Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim

and render your policy void.

Financial Control is remunerated by commission and other payments from

product producers or lenders on the completion of business. In certain

circumstances, it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided.

We will notify you in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged.

Life Fees (optional) and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) – Fees

You may elect to deal with us on a fee basis.

Advisor fees: €100 per hour.

Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value,

specialist skills or urgency. We will give an estimate of this rate in

advance of providing you with services. If we receive commission from a

product provider, this will be offset against the fee which we will charge

you. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission

will become the amount payable to the intermediary unless an

arrangement to the contrary is made.

Mortgages

We may receive up to 1% (or whatever maximum is applicable) of the

loan for arranging mortgage finance. This commission is paid by the

mortgage lender.

Please note that lenders may charge specific fees in certain

circumstances and if this applies, these fees will be specified in your

Loan Offer. Typically, this situation arises in relation to specialist

lending.

If we provide mortgage advice and obtain a Loan Offer for you, and you

subsequently do not proceed with your mortgage application through our

firm, we can charge you an arrangement fee of €500 for our services.

Conflicts of interest

It is the policy of our firm to avoid conflicts of interest in providing

services to you. However, where an unavoidable conflict of interest

arises we will advise you of this in writing before providing you with any

service.

Default on payments by clients

Our firm will exercise its legal rights to receive payments due to it from

clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In

particular, without limitation of the generality of the foregoing, the firm

will seek reimbursement for all payments made to insurers on behalf of

clients where the firm has acted in good faith in renewing a policy of

insurance for the client.

Product producers may withdraw benefits or cover in the event of

default on payments due under policies of insurance or other products

arranged for you. We would refer you to policy documents or product

terms for the details of such provisions.

Mortgage lenders may seek early repayment of a loan and interest if you

default on your repayments. Your home is at risk if you do not maintain

your agreed repayments.

Complaints

We ask that you make any complaint against our firm relating to services

provided by us in writing. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5

business days and we will fully investigate it. On completion of our

investigation, we will provide you with a written report of the outcome.

In the event that you are still dissatisfied with our handling of, or

response to your complaint, you are entitled to refer the matter to the

Financial Services Ombudsman or the Pensions Ombudsman. A full copy

of our complaints procedure is available on request.

Data Protection

Financial Control is a Data Controller and complies with the Data Protection Acts 1988

and 2003. The data which you provide to us will be held on a computer database

and paper files for the purpose of arranging transactions on your behalf.

We would also like to keep you informed of mortgage, insurance,

investment, and any other services provided by us or associated

companies with which we have a formal business arrangement, and

which we think may be of interest to you. We would like to contact you

by way of letter, email, telephone call or personal visit. If you do not

wish to receive such marketing information please tick the box in the

Terms of Business acknowledgement letter.

We may receive referrals from such firms and may advise them of any

transactions arranged for you.

Compensation Scheme

We are members of the Investor Compensation Scheme operated by the

Investor Compensation Company Ltd. See below for details.

Investor Compensation Scheme

The Investor Compensation Act, 1998 provides for the establishment of a

compensation scheme and the payment, in certain circumstances, of

compensation to certain clients (known as eligible investors) of

authorised investment firms, as defined in that Act.

The Investor Compensation Company Ltd. (ICCL) was established under

the 1998 Act to operate such a compensation scheme and our firm is a

member of this scheme.

Compensation may be payable where money or investment instruments

owed or belonging to clients and held, administered or managed by the

firm cannot be returned to those clients for the time being and where

there is no reasonably foreseeable opportunity of the firm being able to

do so.

A right to compensation will arise only:

*If the client is an eligible investor as defined in the Act; and

*If it transpires that the firm is not in a position to return client money

or investment instruments owned or belonging to the clients of the

firm; and

*To the extent that the client’s loss is recognised for the purposes of

the Act.

*Where an entitlement to compensation is established, the compensation

payable will be the lesser of:

90% of the amount of the client’s loss which is recognised for the

purposes of the Investor Compensation Act, 1998; or

*Compensation of up to €20,000.

For further information, contact the Investor Compensation Company

Ltd. at (01) 410 4955.