Terms of Business

Bruce Burke & Co Ltd

v.27.11.2024

Contact Detail

Registered Address: 1st Floor Unit 16-22 Abbey Trading Estate Canning Road LONDON E15 3NW

Tel No: 020 8597 2515

Company Registration No: 1494855

Registered in England Customer Service Manager: Mr Athol Burke

Accepting our Terms of Business

By asking us to quote for, arrange or handle your insurances, you are providing your informed agreement to these Terms of Business. We draw your particular attention to:

The section headed ‘Use of personal data’ and specifically the paragraph explaining how ‘sensitive personal data’ will be used; and
The section headed ‘Handling money’, which explains our terms for handling client money in a Non-Statutory Trust Client account

For your own benefit and protection, you should read these terms carefully. If you are unsure about any aspect of our Terms of Business or have any questions regarding our relationship with you, please contact us at the above address.

The Financial Conduct Authority

Bruce Burke & Co Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Our permitted business is introducing, advising, arranging and dealing as an agent and assisting in the administration and performance of general insurance contracts.

You may check this on the FCA’s register by visiting the FCA website, www.fsa.gov.uk/register/ or by contacting the FCA on 0845 606 1234. Our FCA Register number is 141800

Our Service

In providing our service, we may sometimes act as an agent of the insurer. We will confirm the capacity in which we will act for you before undertaking any relevant transactions on your behalf.

Our role is to advise you and make a suitable recommendation after we have assessed your needs. In situations where we are able to arrange insurance for you but do not offer advice, we shall confirm the position to you in writing. We will not in any circumstances act as an insurer nor guarantee or warrant the solvency of any insurer.

If you are eligible to claim from the FSCS, compensation is available in relation to insurance advising and arranging as follows:

90% of the claim, without any upper limit;
100% of the claim without any upper limit for
compulsory classes of insurance (such as Third Party Motor or Employers Liability); and
‘pure protection’ contracts, professional indemnity insurance, and general insurance claims arising from the death or incapacity of the policyholder owing to injury, sickness or infirmity, all where the insurance intermediary has failed to pay money to an insurer, pay away money it has received from an insurer, or has failed to take steps to allow the insurer to affect the contract of insurance.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS on 0800 678 1100 (freephone) or 020 7741 4100 or www.fscs.org.uk.

Payment for our services

We normally receive commission from the insurers or product providers and make charges for handling your insurances as attached.

You will receive a quotation which will tell you the total price to be paid, showing any fees, taxes and charges separately from the premium before your insurance arrangements are concluded. We also draw your attention to the sections headed ‘Cancellation of insurances’ and ‘Ending your relationship with us’. In good time before the conclusion of each insurance contract, or upon renewal, we will remind you of your right to be informed of the level of commission which we receive from underwriters. You are entitled, at any time, to request information regarding any commission which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business.

Credit Checks

To make sure you get our best deal and to ascertain the most appropriate payment options for you and to protect you from fraud, some insurers use public and personal data from a variety of sources, including a credit reference agency and other organisations. The search will appear on your credit report whether or not your application proceeds. If you have any questions about this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

Handing Client Money

Our financial arrangements with most insurance companies are on a ‘Risk Transfer’ basis. This means that we act as agents of the insurer in collecting premiums and handling refunds due to clients. In these circumstances such monies are deemed to be held by the insurer(s) with which your insurance is arranged. You will be notified if Risk Transfer does not apply, and such monies will then be held by us in a Non-Statutory Trust account pending payment. The establishment of the Non-Statutory Trust account follows the rules which the FCA introduced to protect money held by authorised intermediaries. However, you should be aware that, under the Non-Statutory Trust account rules, we are permitted to use such monies temporarily held to advance credit to clients generally. We do not earn interest on these monies.

Personal insurances:

We no longer provide Insurance for personal lines, motor vehicle Insurance. We may quote household Insurance for commercial clients, and this would be from a range of Insurers.

Commercial insurances:

We select commercial insurance products from a range of insurers but, for certain products, we may only deal with a single insurer or select from a limited number of insurers.

Customers can ask for a list of insurers we deal with on these products.

If we propose using another intermediary to help place your business, we will confirm this to you in good time before any arrangements are finalised.

Complaints and compensation

We aim to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times, but if you are not satisfied, contact us:

in writing… Bruce Burke & Co Ltd 1st Floor Unit 16-22 Abbey Trading Estate Canning Road LONDON E15 3NW

by phone… Telephone 020 8597 2515

by email athol.burke@bruceburke.co.uk

When dealing with your complaint, we will follow our complaint handling procedures; a summary of these procedures is available on request. If you are still not satisfied, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). For further information you can visit FOS website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Access to the FOS is available for complainants coming within one of the following categories at the time we receive their complaint:

Consumers (private individuals acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft, or profession)
Businesses employing fewer than 10 persons and with a turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2 million
Charities with an annual income of under £1 million
Trustees of a trust with a net asset value of under £1 million

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for our insurance mediation activities. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim.

A copy of the Deed of Trust is available on request or may be inspected at our premises during normal office hours. If you object to your money being held in a Non-Statutory Trust account, you should advise us immediately. Otherwise, your agreement to pay the premium together with your acceptance of these Terms of Business will constitute your informed consent to our holding your money in a Non-Statutory Trust account. Interest earned on monies held in such a Non-Statutory Trust account will be retained by us. If we propose using another intermediary to help place your business, we will confirm this to you in good time before any arrangements are finalised.

Cancellation of Insurances

You should make any request for the cancellation of a policy in writing and any relevant certificate of insurance should be returned to us or to the insurer concerned. In the event of cancellation, charges for our services will apply in accordance with the Tariff of Fees attached. The terms of your policy may allow insurers to retain the premium in full or to charge short- period premiums in the event of cancellation before the policy expires.

Ending Your Relationship with us

Subject to your immediate settlement of any outstanding premiums and fees, you may instruct us to stop acting for you and we will not impose a penalty.

Your instructions must be given in writing and will take effect from the date of receipt.

In circumstances where we feel we cannot continue providing services to you, we will give you a minimum of 7 days notice.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, if our relationship ends, any transactions previously initiated will be completed according to these Terms of Business. You will be liable to pay for any transactions concluded prior to the end of our relationship and we will be entitled to retain commission received for conducting these transactions, together with all fees charged by us for services provided.

Your responsibilities

If you are a consumer, you are responsible for answering any questions in relation to any proposal for insurance cover honestly and to the best of your knowledge, providing complete and accurate information which insurers will require. This also applies to your responses in relation to any assumptions you may agree to in the process of applying for insurance cover. This is particularly important before taking out a policy but also at renewal or if you make a mid-term amendment to your policy.

If you fail to disclose information or misrepresent any fact which may influence the insurer’s decision to accept the risk or the terms offered, this could invalidate the policy and may result in claims not being paid.

If you are a commercial customer, you have a duty to give a fair presentation of risk to the insurer. This means that you should disclose every material circumstance relevant to the risk being insured following a reasonable search within your business to identify and verify such information. This should include information which you, and where applicable your senior management, persons

responsible for arranging your insurance and/or other relevant third parties know or ought to know and should include all information that would influence the judgement of the insurer or that would put the insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries.

Examples of material circumstances are:

Special or unusual circumstances relating to the risk;
Any particular concerns which led you to seek insurance cover for the risk; and
Anything which those concerned with the class of insurance and field of activity in question would generally understand as being something that would be dealt with in a fair presentation of risks for this type of insurance.

The information must be presented in a way which would be reasonably clear and accessible to a prudent insurer. If you are unsure whether to disclose any information you should speak to us. You need to take into account the size and complexity of your business and allow yourself sufficient time before your renewal date to consider and / or assess your insurance requirements.

Failure to provide a‘fair representation’ may result in a number of remedies by the insurer. If the breach was deliberate or reckless the insurer can void the contract and keep the premium. If the breach was not deliberate or reckless the insurer can void the contract, proportionately reduce a claim settlement or amend the insurance policy terms and conditions then review the merits of a claim on this basis.

You should therefore always provide complete and accurate information to us when we ask you about the insurance risks your business faces before taking out a policy, at renewal and throughout the life of the policy. This also applies to your responses in relation to any assumptions you may agree to in the process of applying for insurance cover.

The processing of your personal data

In your dealings with us you may provide us with information that may include data that is known as personal data. Where we process personal data, we comply with statutory data processing requirements as set out by the Data Protection Act 2018. The personal data we will collect will include information relating to your name, address, date of birth, contact details and ‘health’ or ‘criminal offences’.

We will process your personal data to allow us to provide you with our services as your insurance broker in quoting for, arranging and administering your insurances (and in arranging insurance premium finance where applicable). Your personal data will also be used to manage future communications between ourselves. Where you have agreed, or in circumstances where to do so will be in our mutual interests, your personal data will be used to provide you with further information about our wider products and services. You can opt out from receiving such communications by e-mailing (athol.burke@bruceburke.co.uk).

Terms of Business Appendix 1

Additional to the premium, the following scale of charges will apply

New Business fee	£25.00
Liability Policies	£25.00
Referred Cheques	£25.00
Referred direct debit payments	£25.00
Mid Term Adjustments	£50.00
Renewal Fee	£35.00
Lost certificate replacement	£35.00
Larger Commercial Risks Minimum	5% of the premium – maximum 20% Minimum £100.00

Mid Term Cancellations

£50 Fee plus deduction of the intermediary commission from the refund.

Minimum retained premium of 50% following cancellation due to non-return of the policy documents and/or 50% of any premium due.

Where policies sold at Nil or minimal commission a charge will be applied and will be included in our quotation. This will be discussed prior to conclusion of the contract.

Where your policy is described as being on a “Minimum & Deposit basis” your insurer will not allow any refund, and you are responsible for the entire premium. If instalments have been allowed you will need to continue making payments until the account is settled, otherwise action can be taken to recover the debt.

Direct Debit Charges

Interest and number of instalments vary according to insurer.

In some instances, we may offer the use of a finance house if they are more competitive than the insurer and, in these circumstances, we can add up to 4% commission to the interest charged.

This is to contribute towards the extra cost of our administration work.

The amount of interest charged by the finance house may depend on the Bank of England base rate.

In processing personal data for insurance purposes about health or criminal offences, we will only do so to enable us to provide our service to you and on the basis of it being in the public interest. We will only use your data for the purpose for which it was collected. We will only grant access to or share your data within our firm or other firms associated with us with other authorised third parties and product and service providers such as insurers and premium finance where we are entitled to do so by law under lawful data processing.

The Data Protection Act 2018 provides you with Access Rights that allow you to gain an understanding on the data being processed, who we share it with, for what purpose, why we need to retain it and retention periods, to object to the processing and to place restrictions on the processing, to request copies of your data and to request the deletion of your data.

If you require further information on how we process your data or you wish to exercise your rights, please contact our data privacy representative – Athol Burke by emailing athol.burke@bruceburke.co.uk, by writing to us or by telephoning 0208 5972515. How we process your personal data is detailed further within our Privacy Notice (http://www.bruceburke.co.uk/privacy/)

Conflicts of Interest

Occasions can arise where we, or one of our clients or product providers, may have a potential conflict of interest with business being transacted for you. If this happens, and we become aware that a potential conflict exists, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions and we will detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment.

Claims handling arrangements

You should take note of the required procedures in the event of a claim, which will be explained in the policy documentation. Generally, insurers require immediate notification of a claim or circumstances which might lead to a claim. We will employ due care and skill if we act on your behalf in respect of a claim.

Terms of Business

Bruce Burke & Co Ltd