These Terms of Business (ToB) relate to the terms under which our services are provided to you and are effective from the date of issue.
These are our ToB upon which we intend to rely.
For your own benefit and protection you should read our ToB carefully before consenting to them. If you do not understand any point, please ask for further information.
The expressions “we”, “us” and “our” are taken to mean Chase de Vere Independent Financial Advisers Limited. The expressions “you” and “your” are taken to mean you, our client.
1. Chase de Vere
Chase de Vere Independent Financial Advisers Limited
60 New Broad Street
London, EC2M 1JJ
(Registered in England No. 2090838)
2. Client classification
Unless we notify you in writing to the contrary, we will be treating you as a retail client. This means that you are afforded the highest level of protection under the regulatory system and should have the right to take any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Details of our complaints procedure are available on request.
3. Charging structure
3.1 Direct offer
We will let you know about different offers available through providers. You will be provided with full information in order for you to make a decision whether to take up the offer or not. No advice will be given. We will normally be paid by commission received from the life insurance company. The amount of commission payable can vary and depends on a number of factors, for example the type of product, term of insurance and your age when you start the product.
3.2 Execution-only/non-advised services
You may ask us to act upon your instructions only, whereby we will not make a personal recommendation. If we provide you with services on this basis, we will tell you how we will be paid and the amount before we carry out any transaction for you.
3.3 Direct transactions
If you transact directly with a product or platform service provider, outside our services, should that transaction relate to an existing product for which we are the recognised servicing agent, this may result in a payment by that provider to us. In this situation we are not able to disclose that payment and consequently it will not be counted towards our agreed charge.
3.4 Other benefits we may receive
We may receive minor non-monetary benefits from other financial institutions such as product and investment platform providers with the purpose of enhancing the quality of the service that we offer to you. Typically we would expect to receive support towards the continuing professional development of our advisers, such as participation in conferences, seminars and other training events where the benefits and features of a specific investment or service are explored in detail. We may also receive modest contributions towards food and drink during business meetings or conferences as described above. Any support received is entirely without prejudice to the unbiased and unrestricted nature of our financial advice and associated services.
4. Taxes
There may be other taxes and/or costs that are not imposed or paid via Chase de Vere. Any personal taxation liability will have to be paid directly by you.
5. Cancellation rights
In most cases you can exercise a right to cancel by withdrawing from the contract. In general terms you will normally have a 30-day cancellation period for life and pension policies and a 14-day cancellation period for all other policies. For life or pension policies, the start of the cancellation period will normally begin when you are informed that the contract has been concluded or, if later, when you have received the contractual terms and conditions. In other cases, the cancellation period will begin on the day the contract is concluded or, if later, the day on which you receive the contractual terms and conditions. Instructions for exercising the right to cancel, if applicable, will be contained in the relevant product disclosure information which will be issued to you. If you cancel a single premium contract you will have to bear any loss incurred in cancelling it which is caused by market movements. This means that, in certain circumstances, you might not get back the full amount you invested if you cancel the policy.
6. Our regulator
Chase de Vere Independent Financial Advisers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 12 Endeavour Square, Stratford, London E20 1JN. Our FCA Register number is 137914. Our permitted business is advising and arranging investments, insurance, mortgage and pension business. You can check this on the FCA’s Register by visiting the FCA’s website https://register.fca.org.uk/ or by contacting the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
7. Complaints
In the event that you are dissatisfied with a recommendation or service that we have provided, you may be entitled to make a complaint. We have a complaints procedure that is available on request. If you wish to register a complaint, please contact:
The Complaints Department
Chase de Vere
6th Floor, 8 Exchange Quay,
Salford Quays, Manchester, M5 3EJ
Tel: 0161 848 3498
Email: complaints@chasedevere.co.uk
The Financial Ombudsman Service
can be contacted at:
Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR
Tel: 0800 0234 567
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
8. 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 up to a maximum limit of £50,000. However, on occasion we may advise on other financial instruments which are not regulated by the FCA under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The FSCS does not apply to any of these and in other situations where the investment company counterparty is not located in the UK. We will inform you in which circumstances the FSCS protections do not apply.
Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim on long term policies and claims arising from death or incapacity due to injury, sickness or infirmity of the policy holder. All other types of insurance are covered up to 90% of the claim without any upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from FSCS, call 0800 678 1100 or visit www.fscs.org.uk
9. Conflicts of interest
We will always endeavour to act in the best interests of our clients. However, circumstances can arise where we or one of our other clients may have some form of interest in business being transacted for you. If this happens or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other clients conflict with your interests, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions, and detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment.
Swiss Life Holding AG has a direct holding representing 10% or more of the voting rights or capital in Chase de Vere Independent Financial Advisers Ltd. This shareholding does not alter our regulatory responsibility to provide you with impartial advice, and so should not influence our advice to you. Please ask if you want to discuss this in further detail.
10. Best execution
As a financial intermediary Chase de Vere does not physically buy or sell financial instruments on your behalf, however, we are highly involved in this process by transmitting the order to entities for execution. Where we transmit orders we will take all sufficient steps to obtain the best possible outcomes for our clients by taking into account various factors such as the price, costs, speed and other considerations that are relevant.
One of the key decisions in this process is where the order will be placed and the product provider and/or asset management firm that we work with will decide upon the location or “venue” they feel is the most likely to achieve the best outcomes and place the order accordingly – this is known as “best execution”. In most cases best execution for the majority of client orders will be a case of achieving the best price.
As the world’s financial systems have developed, many investments can be traded at more than one venue. The entities involved in executing trades will give careful consideration to a variety of possible execution venues and select those which they consider will provide best execution for the orders in the majority of cases. Most of the investments recommended by Chase de Vere will be unit trusts and the venues considered will be selected by the individual unit trust managers (via a platform service provider). Other investments, such as UK equities and UK Exchange Traded Funds will be traded on the London Stock Exchange and ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange.
Chase de Vere is unable to influence a firm’s approach to best execution, their choice of venue and ultimately the price achieved but we will consider their methodology as part of our research and due diligence process to ensure our clients gets the best outcomes. We will explain the details of the investments traded, the different parties involved in the execution of the order and the venue selected as part of your personal recommendation.
At least once a year we will undertake a formal review of our approach to best execution to ensure that it’s both suitable in terms of achieving the best outcome for clients and that it is being implemented correctly.
11. Prevention of financial crime
We are subject to legislation and regulation designed to prevent financial crime. We will check and verify your identity before conducting any business with you. In order to verify the information you provide, we may make searches with an identity authentication and address verification agency and/or fraud prevention agency. This will search against information from the electoral roll and any other database to which they have access.
The agencies may record the details of the search with an electronic footprint showing it was done for anti-money laundering purposes. Companies may share these details in order to prevent fraud and to provide other companies with verification services. We may ask you to supply at least one original document of confirmation of your identity, address or both, which we will use along with any electronic checks we may perform. Any documents provided to us will be recorded and copied for audit purposes as part of our anti-money laundering requirements.
12. Rights of third parties
These ToB exclude any rights which may be conferred upon third parties by the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
13. Jurisdiction
These ToB and all our dealings with you are formed on the basis of English law and the English language (or Scottish law and language for the purposes of contracts and services arranged in Scotland).
14. Data protection
We comply with current legislation and best practices through our established personal information policies, which govern our handling of your personal information. Further information about how we retain and use your personal information is available in our privacy notices. If you would like any further information, please ask your financial adviser.
15. Distance marketing
When it is necessary to provide our services without any personal contact, we will advise you if this requires the establishment of a separate agreement. In this instance you will be provided with additional information as required by the Financial Services (Distance Marketing) Regulations 2004.
16. Future changes
Any substantive changes to this ToB document will be notified to you in writing.