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Our Remuneration

We, Smart Financial act as intermediary between you, the consumer, and the product provider with whom we place your business.

 

The background

Pursuant to provision 4.58A of the Central Bank of Ireland’s September 2019 Addendum to the Consumer Protection Code, all intermediaries, must make available in their public offices, or on their website if they have one, a summary of the details of all arrangements for any fee, commission, other reward or remuneration provided to the intermediary which it has agreed with its product producers.

 

What is commission?

For the purpose of this document, remuneration is the payment earned by the intermediary for work undertaken on behalf of both the provider and the consumer. The amount of remuneration is generally directly related to the value of the products sold.

There are different types of remuneration/commission models:

Single commission model: where payment is made to the intermediary shortly after the sale is completed and is based on a percentage of the premium paid/amount invested/amount borrowed.

Trail/Renewal commission model: Further payments at intervals are paid throughout the life span of the product.

 

Indemnity commission

Indemnity commission is the term used to describe a commission payment made before the commission is deemed to be ‘earned’. Indemnity commission may be subject to a clawback (see below) if the consumer lapses or cancels the product before the commission is deemed to be earned.

Other forms of indemnity commission are advances of commission for future sales granted to intermediaries in order to assist with set up costs or business development.

 

General insurance products

General insurance products, such as motor, home, travel, health, retail or liability insurance, are typically subject to a single or standard commission model, based on the amount of premium charged for the insurance product.

 

Profit Share arrangements

In some cases, the intermediary may be a party to a profit-share arrangement with a product provider and will earn additional commission. Any business arranged with these product providers on a client’s behalf will be placed with the product provider because that product provider is at the time of placement, the most suitable to meet the client’s requirements, taking all the client’s relevant information, demands and needs into account.

 

Life Assurance/Investments/Pension products

For Life Assurance products commission is divided into initial commission and renewal commission (related to premium), fund based or trail (relating to accumulated fund).

Trail commission, bullet commission, fund based, flat commission or renewal commission are all terms used for ongoing payments. Where an investment fund is being built up though an insurance-based investment product or a pension product, the increments may be based on a percentage of the value of the fund or the annual premium. For a single premium/lump sum product, the increment is generally based on the value of the fund.

Life Assurance products fall into either individual or group protection policies and Investment/Pension products would be either single or regular contribution policies. Examples of products include Life Protection, Regular Premium Life Assurance Investments, Single Premium (lump sum) Insurance-based Investments, and Single Premium Pensions.

 

Investments

Investment firms, which fall within the scope of the European Communities (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2007 (the MiFID Regulations), offer both standard commission and commission models involving initial and trail commission. Increments may be based on a percentage of the investment management fees, or on the value of the fund.

 

Credit Products/Mortgages

Commission may be earned by intermediaries for arranging credit for consumers, such as mortgages. The single, or standard, commission model is the most common commission model applied to the sale of mortgage products by mortgage credit intermediaries (Mortgage Broker).

 

Clawback

Clawback is an obligation on the intermediary to repay unearned commission. Commission can be paid directly after a contract is concluded but is not deemed to be ‘earned’ until after a specified period of time. If the consumer cancels or withdraws from the financial product within the specified time, the intermediary must return commission to the product producer.

 

Fees

The firm may also be remunerated by fee by the product producer such as policy fee, admin fee, or in the case of investment firms, advisory fees.

 

Preferred Provider Rate

Other Fees, Administrative Costs/ Non-Monetary Benefits

The firm may also be in receipt of other fees, administrative costs, or non-monetary benefits such as:

  • Attendance at product provider educational seminars
  • Assistance with Advertising/Branding

 

Hive Initial commission Clawback Period Trail commission
Accident, Sickness & Hospitalisation Plan 20% 1 Year
Personal Accident Plan 22.5% 1 Year
Medical Cash Plan 40% 1 Year
Sports Accident Plan 22.5% 1 Year

 

Blue Insurance Initial commission Clawback Period Trail commission
Travel 30% 1 Year
Gadget Insurance 15% 1 Year
Pet Insurance 5% 1 Year
Car Hire Excess 20% 1 Year
Motor Breakdown 20% 1 Year
Wedding Insurance 20% 1 Year

 

MIS Initial commission Clawback Period Trail commission
Home 25% 1 Year
Key €18 1 Year
Travel 25% 1 Year
Motor Excess €14 1 Year

 

Single Contribution Products Initial commission Clawback Period Trail commission
Single Contribution Pension
Aviva 5% 1% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 5% 0.75% p.a.
Irish Life 5% 0.75% p.a.
New Ireland 5% 5 Years 1% p.a.
Standard Life 5% 1% p.a.
Zurich Life 5.5% 0.5% p.a.
BCP 0% 0.75% p.a.
Cantor FitzGerald 0% 1% p.a.
Davy 2% 0.5% p.a.
(ITC) Independent Trustee Company 5% 1% p.a.
Single Contribution PRSA
Aviva 4% 0.5% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 7.5% 0.25% p.a.
Irish Life 5% 0.75% p.a.
New Ireland 7% 5 Years 0.5% p.a.
Standard Life 5% 0.5% p.a.
Zurich Life 5.5% 0% p.a.
(ITC) Independent Trustee Company 0% 1% p.a.
Davy 2% 0.5% p.a.
ARF / AMRF
Aviva 5% 1% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 5% 0.75% p.a.
Irish Life 5% 0.75% p.a.
New Ireland 5% n/a 1% p.a.
Standard Life 4.5% 1% p.a.
Zurich Life 5% 0.5% p.a.
Annuity
Aviva 3% n/a
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 3% n/a
Irish Life 3% n/a
New Ireland 3% n/a n/a
Standard Life 2%
Zurich Life 3% n/a
Investment Bond
Aviva 5% 1% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 4% 0.75% p.a.
BCP 3%
BlackBee Investments 3%
Broker Solutions 2.5%
Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland Ltd. 3%
Irish Life 3% 0.5% p.a.
New Ireland 4% 3 Years 1% p.a.
 Standard Life 4.5% 1% p.a.
Zurich Life 5% 0.5% p.a.

 

 

Regular Contribution Products

Initial commission Clawback Period Renewal / Flat

Commission

 

Trail commission

Regular Contribution Pension
Aviva 15% 1% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 25% 0.75% p.a.
Irish Life 17.5% 5% 0.5% p.a.
New Ireland 25% 5 Years 8% 1% p.a.
Standard Life 25% 5 Years 5% 1% p.a.
Zurich Life 20% 4 Years 3% 0.5% p.a.
Regular Contribution PRSA
Aviva 22.5% 0.5% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 17.5% 0.25% p.a.
Irish Life 17.5% 5% 0.5% p.a.
New Ireland 25% 5 Years 6% 0.5% p.a.
Standard Life 5% 5 Years 5% 0.5% p.a.
Zurich Life 5% 4 Years 5% 0% p.a.
Savings
Aviva 15% 1% p.a.
Aviva (Heritage Friends) 10% 0.75% p.a.
Irish Life 5.5% 5.5% 0.5% p.a.
New Ireland 10% 5 Years 2.5% 0.5% p.a.
Standard Life 15% 5 Years 1% 1% p.a.
Zurich Life 10% 4 Years 1% 0.5% p.a.

 

Individual Protection Yr1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9+ Clawback Period
Aviva 200% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 2 Years
Irish Life 120% 28% 30% 28% 28% 30% 28% 28% 28%
New Ireland 225% 50% 20% 20% 20% 12.5

%

12.5

%

12.5

%

12.5

%

5 Years
Zurich Life 100% 12% 12% 12% 12% 12% 12% 12% 12% 1 Year
Royal London 225% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3% 3% 3% 3% 5 Years

 

Group Protection Death in

Service

Clawback

Period

Permanent Health

Insurance

Clawback

Period

Aviva 6% 12.5%

 

Irish Life 6% p.a. 12.5% p.a.
New Ireland 15% 1 Year 20% 1 Year
Zurich Life 6% n/a 12.5% n/a

 

Smart Financial Insurance Limited trading as Smart Financial is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.