Client Terms of Business
The purpose of this Terms of Business Agreement (thereafter referred to as ‘Agreement’) is to determine the professional relationship and the services that Buttigieg Insurance Brokers (thereafter referred to as ‘BIB’ or ‘Us’ or the ‘We’) will provide to you as the Client (thereafter referred to as ‘You’).
We recommend that you read this Agreement carefully and discuss with Us should you require any further clarification or disagree with any provision of this Agreement. This Agreement also sets out some of Our regulatory and statutory responsibilities towards you as Our Client together with your rights and obligations.
We kindly ask you to sign this Agreement before providing you with our brokerage services by sending a signed copy on the address or via email in the section ‘Who We Are?’. You may also opt to confirm understanding and agreeing to this Agreement by confirming this in writing by email on insurance@buttigieg.mt.
Who We Are?
Buttigieg Insurance Brokers is a Maltese insurance broking firm with its registered office at 211-213, Zabbar Road, Fgura FGR1010, Malta (T: +356 21802298) and a Branch office at 87, Naxxar Road, Birkirkara BKR9047, Malta (T: +356 21492973).
We can be reached by email on insurance@buttigieg.mt
Authorisation
We are enrolled in the Brokers List, and authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority (‘MFSA’), of Triq l-Imdina, Zone 1, Central Business District, Birkirkara, Malta, CBD 1010, to transact business of insurance broking in Malta under the Insurance Distribution Act (Cap 487). Details of our registration can be found within the MFSA’s Financial Register on https://www.mfsa.mt/financial-services- register.
Our Services
As an Insurance Broker, we act on your behalf, in providing You with a range of insurance products that meet your insurance demands and needs. We do so by drawing upon our insurance expertise and through a fair product analysis of available solutions. Our insurance brokerage services include all types of general insurance ranging from Motor to Professional & Indemnity, Property & Liability, Health Insurance, Contractors ‘All Risks’ and any other specialised insurance requirements. We do not provide insurance brokerage services in relation to Life Insurance Products.
We receive brokerage from the insurer with which we place the policy which is a percentage of the premium. We do not charge You with a fee for our insurance brokerage services.
Independent Broker
As independent intermediaries we offer a wide range of insurance products that is representative of the insurance market and have no contractual obligation to make arrangements with any specific insurance provider. Should a fair analysis of the market not be possible, we will inform you accordingly together with the list of insurers considered to cover your specific insurance needs.
How we will serve you?
Following a demand and needs assessment, we offer you a range of products and services so that you may choose the insurance product that best meet your demands and needs. During this process, we will provide you with objective information in relation to each product offering, including the respective quotations, to assist you in taking an informed decision for your insurance needs.
Once you choose your insurance provider, we will contact the insurer of your choice for the issuance of the relevant policy documents so that we can provide you with the said policy documents. Should you need to submit a claim in relation to the brokered policy through Us, We will assist you in the completion of the Claim Form and liaise with Your Insurer as necessary. Please be guided that insurers usually settle claims directly with You and not through Us.
Should your insurance needs and demands change, you are required to notify us immediately to ensure that we update your insurance coverage accordingly or else provide you with a different insurance product offering for your consideration.
In order to facilitate communication and efficiency, we sometimes place business under computer link arrangements with insurers subject to MFSA authorization. This facility allows the securing of quotations and placement of cover. We will inform you whether quotations submitted are through such computer links.
We have not entered into any underwriting agreements and do not place any business with Lloyd’s.
Non-Advisory Basis
We do not provide insurance brokerage services via advice, defined as a personal recommendation.
Applicable Law
Governing Law for this Agreement is the Maltese Law.
Product Documentation
You should review the policy documents, that We provide to you, carefully to ensure they accurately reflect the cover, conditions, limits and other terms that you require. Particular attention should be paid to policy conditions and warranties as failure to comply with these could invalidate your policy. Claims can arise or be brought to light, under certain types of insurance contract, long after the expiry of the policy. It is therefore important that you retain and keep safely all documents associated with your policy, even after expiry.
Summary of Cover and Quotations
We shall provide you with a Quotation Report, Cover Note, Renewal Notice, a Summary of Cover and similar documents containing an outline of the insurance protection and include the main values, limit insured, additional terms, exclusions and salient policy terms, amongst others. Full description and details of the protection is included in the full policy wording. You should refer to such full policy document to have all information on the scope of protection and ask us for such document should you not hold such document. It is important that you familiarize yourself with such a document and contact us immediately should you need further clarifications or modification.
Unless otherwise agreed, any quotation provided by Us will normally remain valid for a period of 30 days from the date it is provided to you. We reserve the right to withdraw a quotation in certain circumstances, for example, where the insurer has altered their premium or terms for the insurance since the quotation was given or if a claim/ incident has occurred since the terms were offered.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the sums insured are maintained at adequate levels throughout the policy period in accordance with policy requirements. We urge you to contact us should any such sums insured need to be updated to ensure you have full insurance coverage in case of a claim.
Claims Conditions
It is recommend to familiarise yourself with the claims conditions applicable under your insurance policy so as to adherence to the conditions laid in the policy. You are to immediately advise Us with any claim or circumstance that may or is likely to give rise to a claim under your policy in accordance with the conditions of your policy. Failure to notify insurers promptly may entitle them to repudiate your claim. You should not admit liability or agree to any course of action until you have obtained agreement from your insurer. When you notify Us of a claim you should provide Us with details of all material facts concerning the claim.
You will find the claim procedures and conditions in connection with your insurance policy within the full policy documentation. We shall be assisting you in your claim notification to the insurer and also collect claim excess necessary to open the claim.
In the event that an insurer becomes insolvent or delays making settlement of a claim, We do not accept liability for any such unpaid amounts.
Material Facts and Disclosure
It is Your responsibility to ensure that the information provided to Us, to complete your Insurance Policy, is full, true and correct. Accordingly, You are to disclose every material circumstance, the latter defined as a circumstance wherein it would influence the judgement of an insurer in determining whether or not to underwrite the risk and the respective premium. Duty of such disclosure is of a continuous nature operating before the policy of insurance takes place, at renewal stage and when lodging a claim as well as throughout the duration of the policy. Failure to do so may lead insurers to avoid liability for future claims or to void the insurance contract. If you are in doubt as to whether a circumstance is material, then you should disclose it. We do not have any obligation to verify the veracity, completeness and accuracy of the information provided and accordingly are not liable for any errors and omissions.
In view of the above, it is recommended for You to check the details and information provided to Us before the final documentation is submitted to Us for the insurer.
Premium Payment and Clients’ Monies
Once your contract of insurance has been concluded, We will send you an invoice for payment which is to be settled in accordance with the amounts and payment dates specified in the invoice sent from our end. Where insurers have specified that the premium must be received by a certain date, failure to comply can result in automatic termination of your insurance contract. No payment shall be deemed to have been received until We have received cleared funds from your end. We have no obligation to fund any premiums on your behalf or settle any claims and cannot be held responsible for any loss which you may suffer as a result of a policy being cancelled or otherwise prejudiced due to the late payment of a premium where the delay is attributable to you.
We receive and hold on Your behalf, premium payments, premium refunds and claim excess payments.
As per regulatory requirements, we hold Clients’ monies separate from our Company’s accounts and specifically in a Business of Insurance Intermediaries account. This ensures protection of Your monies in the event of a potential financial insolvency from our end. Any monies standing to the credit of this account is to be at all times protected against the risk of the Company’s default in its own obligations to other parties. In such cases, such monies will not be part of Our balance sheet and hence no creditor would be able to make claims on clients’ money. In line with regulatory requirements, We only hold clients’ monies with approved banks.
Protection and Compensation Fund
The aim of this Fund is to pay for any claims against an insurer which have remained unpaid because the insurer became insolvent. These claims must be in respect of protected risks situated in Malta or protected commitments where Malta is the country of commitment and to compensate victims of road traffic accidents in certain specified circumstances. For policies issued by insurers authorised by the MFSA under the Insurance Business Act, the Protection and Compensation Fund provides for payment of claims in the event of an insolvent insurer as per provisions of the Protection and Compensation Fund Regulations.
Payment Settlement
We normally accept payments by cheque, credit or debit card or by bank transfer. Cash payments, although accepted, are not encouraged.
Renewal notices
In good time, prior to the expiry, we shall advise you with the renewal notice prior to expiry of the policy. Unless you advise otherwise, renewals are issued on the basis of no changes in the risk or cover required unless you specifically notify us of any changes or as advised by your Insurers. We kindly remind you to notify us of any changes immediately and prior to renewal to ensure that the policy offered remains suitable with your demands and needs. Failure to notify us with any material changes may lead to your policy being cancelled or claim to be repudiated should a claim be submitted to your insurer.
Policy cancellation
You have the right to cancel your policy and hence may be entitled to a partial refund of your premium as long as no claims have been submitted during the time of the policy in force. The refund due may not necessarily be proportionate to the remaining period of cover and it is subject to insurer’s terms and conditions for refunds and also conditional upon the return of your original certificate of insurance to Us or your insurer.
Termination or amendments of these terms and conditions
You or We may terminate our authority to act on your behalf by providing at least 30 business days notice in writing, unless otherwise agreed. Nevertheless, We retain the entitlement to terminate with immediate effect if you are in violation of any material obligation under these Terms of Business.
We reserve the right to amend this document at any time. Any amendment will apply in respect of any service transaction entered into by Us after notice of the amendment is given in writing, and may take effect either immediately or at such later date as the notice may specify.
Written Instructions
We will not take any responsibility unless instructions are in written form and not verbal.
We do not consider instructions to arrange or change cover which are sent to Us by post, electronic mail or any written manner, to have been received until they reach the relevant personnel in Our offices. We do not consider instructions sent by text message to have been received until We have sent an acknowledgment to the specific message.
Complaints Handling
We endeavor at all times to provide the highest possible levels of service to our clients. However, should anyone have a complaint about any aspect of our service, it would be ideal if such complaint is lodged through one of the below channels so that our Complaint Handler, namely Mr Paul Buttigieg whose contact number is (+356) 21690935 or email on pb@buttigieg.mt. Otherwise send Us Your complaint on insurance@buttigieg.com.mt or submit your complaint directly on https://buttigieg.mt/complaints/
All written complaints will be acknowledgement if in writing by us within five (5) working days of receipt and you will be informed when to expect our response following your complaint submission. Following an investigation of your complaint, we will try to provide you with a final response within fifteen (15) working days. Where this is not possible, we shall be informing you with the cause of the delay and provide an indication as to when the investigation is likely to be completed.
During this time, we will discuss your complaint with your insurer, when the complaint relates to the insured risk and revert with a decision. If in the event you are still unsatisfied with the decision, you have a right to take your complaint further to the Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services through:
Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services, 1st Floor, St Calcedonius Square, Floriana FRN 1530. Phone: +356 2124 9245 | Freephone: 8007 2366 | Email: complaint.info@financialarbiter.org.mt
LIMIT OF LIABILITY
Our liability to you for breach of contract, negligence, breach of statutory duty or other claim arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or the services provided shall be limited to €1,300,500. You shall not hold Us liable , including Directors and Employees of the Company, indemnify and keep indemnified Buttigieg Insurance Brokers Limited against any and all liability that may arise and against all claims, demands, actions, proceedings, damages, losses, costs and expenses arising out of or in relation to or a consequence of any act, omission or breach for which you are directly or indirectly responsible and which are made and/or filed against Us.
DATA PROTECTION STATEMENT AND PRIVACY NOTICE
We shall gather and process personal information that you provide in accordance with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27th April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the handling of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation, ‘GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act (Chapter 586 of the Laws of Malta , ‘DPA’). We shall at all times treat Your personal information as private and confidential.
The GDPR (the ‘Regulation’) defines ‘personal data’ as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (a data subject); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or by one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of that natural person. For the purposes of this statement, any reference to ‘personal data’ includes a reference to ‘sensitive personal data’, as applicable, where ‘sensitive personal data’ means ‘personal data that incorporates such categories of data as are listed in the GDPR’.
Data protection Principles
All personal data must be:
1. processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject;
2. collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific, regulatory or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes;
3. adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed;
4. accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that is inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which it is processed, is erased or rectified without delay;
5. kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data is processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific, regulatory or historical research purposes or statistical purposes subject to implementation of the appropriate technical and organisational measures required by the Regulation in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the data subject;
6. processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.
How we will collect Your information?
We will not disclose any information We hold about you to others without your prior consent except: i. to the extent We are obliged to do so by law or where entreated or required to do so by a regulator (the MFSA) or other public bodies and governmental agencies, in order to preclude and uncover crime;
ii. to insurers, other insurance suppliers, surveyors, loss adjusters, IT service providers, administrative support service providers, and other like persons to the extent necessary to provide Our services to you in a timely manner;
iii. to loss assessors, lawyers, employee benefits management systems providers, and other like persons to the extent needed to enable such third party to provide information or services you have requested;
INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU
We may collect, store, and process the following categories of personal information about you (“Personal Information”):
Basic personal details such as your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, date and place of birth and age, gender, marital status, nationality, ID Card Number, Passport Number;
Additional information about you and your insurance requirements, such as details of your car, your home, your household or your travel arrangements, amongst others.
Other details collected from Our end may include:
• Details on your dependents/spouse/partner and family, as necessary for the insurance coverage;
- Information about your current and previous employment and occupation;
• Identification document information (e.g., ID Card, Driving License, Passport);
• Signature.
We may also obtain from third party insurers information about you in relation to insurance including, but not limited to, information about your other policies, such as claims history, quotes history, payment history, claims data.
We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information such as health information (for example current state of health, existing conditions, family or personal history in relation to medical conditions). The information We collect, store and process, will depend on the type of policy you will be requiring.
By using our services you consent to us processing your personal data for the purposes as described in this Notice, unless you otherwise inform us in writing. Kindly note this Data Protection Notice can also be downloaded from our Company website xxxx[RL1]
FORCE MAJEURE
We shall not be liable to You if We are unable to perform Our services as a result of any cause beyond Our reasonable control. In the event of any such occurrence affecting us we shall notify you as soon as reasonably practicable.
Membership
We are also a member of the Association of Insurance Brokers (https://www.insurancebrokers.mt/) and of the Malta Association of Credit Management (‘MACM’) (https://www.macm.org.mt/)
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