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Important Information About Us

As of March 15th, 2021, we are required to either hold a license or sit under another license in order to offer financial advice in New Zealand. We have taken the choice of sitting under another license. This provides us as a business and you as a client, a source of client focused advice and support tools, to ensure our clients are left with great outcomes following any engagement with us.

The license holder we have chosen is called Advice Qual Limited. More information about Advice Qual and how you are protected as a consumer can be found below within their disclosure statement.

If you would like an electronic copy of the disclosure statement (free of charge), please request that here.

 

ADVICEQUAL PUBLIC DISCLOSURE

Who are we?

AdviceQual Limited (AdviceQual) is a subsidiary of AIA Services New Zealand Limited and part of the AIA Group, one of the world’s largest life insurers. We are authorised to provide a financial advice service under a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to AIA Services New Zealand Limited.

Our contact details are as follows:

    Private Bag 92499
    Victoria Street West 1142
    0800 828 200
    nz.advicequal@aia.com

What service do we offer?

We specialise in providing life insurance solutions from our approved insurance providers to help you manage life’s bumps in the road. Some of our financial advisers also advise on home loans from our approved lenders, and on AIA and Sovereign investment products.

Our financial advisers can advise on Risk and Health products from the following product providers:
  • AIA (including Sovereign)*
  • Cigna
  • AMP/Resolution Life
  • Asteron Life
  • Fidelity Life
  • nib
  • Southern Cross

*AdviceQual is a related company of AIA, AIA has no influence on the advice that our financial advisers provide and are under no obligation to recommend AIA products.

Our financial advisers can advise on Home Loan products from the following lenders:
  • ASB (including Sovereign)
  • ANZ
  • BNZ
  • Kiwibank
  • SBS
  • TSB
  • Westpac

Our financial advisers do not advise on products from providers other than those listed above.

Please note that not all of our financial advisers are accredited to advise on all of the above-mentioned products. Your financial adviser will inform you of the products they are accredited to advise on during your first meeting with them.

What does our service cost?

Insurance

You will not be charged a fee, at any time, for any advice given even if you do not take any of the insurance cover recommended for you.

Home Loans

You may be charged a fee for advice given in respect of your home loan even if you do not take out a home loan. Your financial adviser will provide you with details of their fees and any other amounts payable by you before proceeding with their service.

How are our financial advisers remunerated?

Commissions from product providers

Our approved product providers pay AdviceQual and our financial advisers a commission when you purchase a financial product (such as an insurance product) and on an ongoing annual basis. In some cases, our approved product providers may also pay an additional variable commission.

During the advice process your financial adviser will inform you of all commissions payable and who will receive them.

Referral commissions

In some circumstances your financial adviser may refer you to another professional (for example, an investment adviser). In return, your financial adviser may receive a share of the commission payable to the professional. Likewise, if another professional refers you to a financial adviser, they may receive a share of the commission payable to the financial adviser.

Other incentives

From time to time our product providers may offer your financial adviser other forms of incentives. These may include, for example, tickets to an event such as a rugby game. During the advice process your financial adviser will inform you of any material incentives that they receive as a result of the advice provided to you.

How do you know you’re getting the right advice?

We pride ourselves on the high standards we require of our financial advisers.

All of our financial advisers receive training on ethical conduct and must also follow our advice process. Our advice process is designed to ensure that your financial adviser’s recommendations are made based on your goals and circumstances and are suitable for you.

To make sure that you are getting the right advice we also have quality assurance processes in place to monitor our financial advisers and, if we find something that’s not quite right, we will fix it for you.

These processes help us to manage conflicts of interest relating to the commissions our financial advisers receive.

What duties do our financial advisers have?

Your financial adviser has legal duties relating to advice they give. They are required to:

  • give priority to your interests by taking all reasonable steps to make sure their advice isn’t materially influenced by their interests, or ours
  • exercise care, diligence, and skill in providing you with advice
  • meet standards of competence, knowledge and skill set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (these are designed to make sure that we have the expertise needed to provide you with advice)
  • meet standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (these are designed to make sure we treat you as we should, and give you suitable advice).

This is a summary of these duties. More information is available by contacting us or by visiting the Financial Markets Authority website.

What if I’m not happy with the service provided?

We are committed to providing you with quality advice that meets your needs. If you are not happy with any aspect of our service we will do our best to put it right for you. If you have a complaint you can choose to raise this directly with your financial adviser or you can lodge it directly with us by either phone, email or post.

 

Complaints

At AdviceQual we do all we can to provide you with the best service. We value your feedback and will do our best to resolve your complaint within a fair and reasonable timeframe. In most cases, your adviser should be able to resolve the matter with you. In some cases, a more in-depth investigation may be needed.

If you have any queries about a complaint raised, you can contact us by calling 0800 828 200, or emailing nz.advicequal@aia.com

How our complaints process works

Step One: After we receive your complaint, we’ll send an initial response acknowledging your complaint and setting out information about how our complaints process works.

Step Two: We’ll conduct an investigation into your complaint. Depending on complexity, this may take time, so please allow up to one month for us to review and explore all possible resolutions before coming to a final decision.

Step Three: If a resolution can’t be reached, we’ll escalate your complaint to our Resolution and Privacy team. They will independently review your complaint, ensuring all areas of resolution have been explored. Where a resolution can’t be reached, deadlock will be agreed, and you’ll receive a letter of deadlock. This means that we are unable to take your complaint any further.

What happens if you have been issued a letter of deadlock

If we cannot resolve the issue to your satisfaction you can contact the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme which is a free independent dispute resolution service, and may help investigate or resolve your complaint.

INSURANCE & FINANCIAL SERVICES OMBUDSMAN SCHEME

PO Box 10-845
Wellington 6143
New Zealand
Telephone: 04 499 7612 or Freephone: 0800 888 202
Email: info@ifso.nz
For more information on the IFSO and when they can help, please refer to www.ifso.nz.