Terms of Business/Client Agreement

Whose products and what Services do we offer?

Pacific (Norwich) Limited is permitted to advise on and arrange investments in authorised collective investment schemes, pensions, unit trusts, Personal Equity Plans, ISA’s, non-investment insurance and mortgages. For the purposes of the client agreement, these are referred to as “products”.

We offer products from the whole market for investments, pensions, mortgages, term assurance, critical illness cover, income protection, long term care and private medical care.

We offer products from a limited number of insurers for accident, sickness and unemployment cover and buildings and contents insurance. Please ask us for details of the insurers we use.

When we have arranged products for which you have given us instructions, we will not give you any further advice unless you request it, but we will be glad to advise you at any time you ask us to do so.

We will advise you and make recommendations to you after we have assessed your needs and objectives in relation to your personal and financial circumstances. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, we will confirm to you in writing the basis of our recommendations and why we believe them to be suitable.

We offer a full financial planning service or alternatively can provide specific advice on:

• savings and investment
• protecting yourself and/or loved ones in the event of death, serious illness or disability
• retirement planning

We are required by our regulator to categorise our clients. When providing services to you, we will categorise you as a retail client. The client category determines the level of protection afforded to you under the regulatory system. As a retail client, the regulatory protection available to you will be the highest possible.

Where we have categorised you as anything other than a retail client, you may ask us to review this category with a view to you being recategorised thus benefiting from a higher degree of protection. Where we agree to do so, however, it does not necessarily mean that you will have the right of access to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

All investments will be registered in your name unless otherwise agreed in writing.  We will forward documents of title to products to you as soon as possible after we have received them.  Where a number of documents relating to a series of transactions is involved we will normally hold the documents until the series is complete and then forward them to you. 

We reserve the right to make enquiries in connection with any policy or investment made via or transferred to this firm whether this be by post, telephone or internet services provided by the individual insurance or investment companies and you expressly consent to this.
   
We require our clients to give us instructions in writing, to avoid possible disputes.  If the matter is urgent we will accept oral instructions provided they are confirmed in writing.   

How we charge for our services - your payment options

Not all firms charge in the same way. We provide our services on the basis of fees, commission and/or a combination of both fees and commission. We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you have. We will not charge you until we have agreed with you how we are to be paid.

We offer an initial discussion (without charge) when we will describe our services more fully and explain the payment options.  If you decide to go ahead, we will:

• Gather and analyse personal information about you, your finances, your needs and objectives.
• Recommend and discuss any action we think you should take and, with your agreement, arrange relevant investments for you.Paying by commission (through product charges)

If you choose the commission option, we will normally receive a commission on the sale from the product provider.  Although you pay nothing up front, that does not mean our service is free.  You still pay us indirectly through product charges.  Product charges pay for the product provider’s own costs and any commission.  These charges reduce the amount left for investment.  If you buy direct, the product charges could be the same as when buying through an adviser, or they could be higher or lower.  We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier.

The amount of commission we receive will vary depending on the amount you invest and (sometimes) how long you invest or your age.               
For example:

• If you invest £7,200 in an individual savings account (ISA) we would receive commission of 3% of the amount invested (£216) and 0.5% of the value of the fund (roughly £36 every year)
• If you pay £100 a month into a personal pension (with a term of 25 years) then we would receive a maximum commission of £756
• If you pay £100 a month towards a whole life policy then we would receive a maximum commission of  £1,720

Paying by a combination of fee and commission (through product charges)

If you choose the commission option, there may be occasions where the amount of commission received does not cover the work carried out on your behalf. Under the circumstances, we reserve the right to charge a fee in addition to the commission received.

Paying by fee

If you choose to pay us by fee, we will agree its basis, frequency and method in writing before we carry out any work for which we will charge you.

If we also receive commission from the product provider when you buy a product, we will pass on the full value of that commission to you in one or more ways.  For example, we could reduce our fee; or reduce your product charges; or increase your investment amount; or refund the commission to you.
               
You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge.  You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first.

Where we have agreed to act for you on a fee basis, the following terms apply.

• Fees must be paid in full within thirty days of the invoice date (without any deduction by way of set-off or counter claim or otherwise).
• If an invoice is not paid within thirty days of the invoice date:

• we reserve the right to charge interest (after as well as before any judgement) on the total amount payable at the rate of 1.5% per month from the invoice date until payment is made in full and
• all other invoices submitted shall immediately become due and payable.
• We shall be entitled to recover on a full indemnity basis any costs incurred by us in collecting overdue payments.
• We reserve the right to retain all documents and any other items in our possession relating to any matter until all invoices are paid in full.
• We reserve the right to stop work (and instruct our agents to stop work) on all matters if any invoice on any matter shall be overdue for payment.

Conflict of interest

We will not transact for you any business in which we or one of our other customers, have a personal interest unless that interest has first been disclosed to you in writing and your consent obtained.

Termination of Authority

You, or we, may terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time, without penalty.  Notice of this termination must be given in writing.

Who regulates us?

Pacific (Norwich) Limited, 1st  Floor, Woburn House, 84 St Benedicts Street, Norwich, NR2 4AB is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our FSA Register number is 136915.

Our permitted business is advising and arranging life insurance, pensions, unit trust business and mortgages.

You can check this on the FSA’s Register by visiting the FSA’s website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.

Our membership category does not permit us to handle clients’ money.

We never accept a cheque from you made out to this Company or handle cash (unless it is a cheque/cash in settlement of charges or disbursements for which we have sent you a fee note). 

What to do if you have a complaint

If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:

• Write to: Complaints Department, Pacific (Norwich) Limited, 1st Floor, Woburn House, 84 St Benedicts Street, Norwich, NR2 4AB
• Telephone: 01603 630684

If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?

We are covered by the FSCS.  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.

Most types of investment business are covered for 100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000 – so the maximum compensation is £48,000.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.
   
We maintain professional indemnity insurance.

Data Protection

The information you have provided is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act). By signing this agreement, you consent to us or any company associated with us processing, both manually and by electronic means, your personal data for the purposes of providing advice, administration and management.

“Processing” includes obtaining, recording or holding data, transferring it to other companies associated with us, product providers, the FSA and any other statutory, governmental or regulatory body for legitimate purposes including, where relevant, to solicitor and/or other debt collection agencies.

The information may contain sensitive personal data. Whilst the Act has an extensive list of what constitutes sensitive personal data any information we might require and might be obliged to pass on to other companies is likely to be confined to your sexual life, your physical or mental health or condition, any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you, any proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you, including the outcome or sentence in such proceedings.

We, and any company associated with us, undertake to treat all personal data as confidential and will not process it other than for legitimate purposes. We will take action to ensure that the information is accurate, kept up to date and not kept for longer than is necessary. Measures will also be taken to safeguard against unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction or damage to the data.

If at any time you want us or any company associated with us to cease to process your personal data or sensitive personal data, please contact The Data Protection Officer, Mr David Hurrell, either by post or telephone.

You are entitled to access the personal data we hold about you. You may be charged a fee to do so but this is subject to a statutory maximum.                                                   
We keep records of all our business transactions for seven years.  You (or your agent) may inspect contract notes, vouchers and entries in books (whether they are kept manually or electronically).  We treat all our clients’ records as confidential, so we reserve the right to give you copies of your particular records, rather than allowing access to files containing records about other clients.
                       
Disclosure of Information Prescribed

Your attention is drawn to the fact that In certain circumstances in the case of overseas business

• some or all of the rules, regulations and arrangements made under the Financial Services Act for the protection of investors do not or may not apply.
• Where relevant a client will not have the following rights under the United Kingdom regulatory system:
• The right to refer a complaint against us to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
• The right to have money which we hold on your behalf protected under the Client Money Regulations.
• The right to be informed in advance about any commission we will receive and any fees we will or may charge and for those fees not to be excessive.
• The right to receive recommendations which are suitable to you and your circumstances.
• The right to an explanation of the risks involved in any transaction.
• The right to have a transaction executed at the best price available in the relevant market at the time.

• Where a transaction takes place or relates to business investments or assets outside the territorial limits of the Financial Services Compensation scheme or any other compensation scheme then compensation under such scheme or schemes will or may not be available.