Our Remuneration

We Hiney Financial Services Ltd. T/A Park Financial Planning, SwitchMyMortgage act as intermediary between you the consumer, and the product provider with whom we place your business.

The Background

Pursuant to provision 4.58A of the Central Bank of Ireland's September 2019 Addendum to the Consumer Protection Code, all intermediaries must make available in the public offices, or on their website if they have one, a summary of the details of all arrangements for any fee, commission, other reward or remuneration provided to the intermediary which it has agreed with its product producers.

What is Commission?

For the purpose of this document, commission is the payment earned by the intermediary for work undertaken on behalf of both the provider and the consumer. The amount of commission is generally directly related to the quantity or value of the products sold.

There are different types of commission models:

Single commission model: where payment is made to the intermediary shortly after the sale is completed and is based on a percentage of the premium paid/amount invested/amount borrowed.

Trail/Renewal commission model: Further payments at intervals are paid throughout the life span of the product.

Indemnity commission: Indemnity commission is the term used to describe a commission payment made before the commission is deemed to be 'earned'. Indemnity commission may be subject to a clawback (see below) if the consumer lapses or cancels the product before the commission is deemed to be earned.

Other forms of indemnity commission are advances of commission for future sales granted to intermediaries in order to assist with set up costs or business development.

General Insurance Products

General insurance products, such as motor, home, travel, health, retail or liability insurance, are typically subject to a single or standard commission model, based on the amount of premium charged for the insurance product.

Profit Share Arrangements

In some cases, the intermediary may be a party to a profit-share arrangement with a product provider and will earn additional commission. Any business arranged with these product providers on a client's behalf will be placed with the product provider because that product provider is at the the time of placement, the most suitable to meet the client's requirements, taking all the client's relevant information, demands and needs into account.

Life Assurance/Investments/Pension Products

For Life Assurance products commission is divided into initial commission and renewal commission (related to premium), fund based or trail relating to accumulated fund.

Trail commission, bullet commission, fund based or renewal commission are all terms used for ongoing payments. Where an investment fund is being built up though an insurance-based investment product or a pension product, the increments may be based on a percentage of the value of the fund or the annual premium. For a single premium/lump sum product, the increment is generally based on the value of the fund.

Life Assurance products fall into either individual or group protection policies and Investments/Pension products would be either single or regular contribution policies. Examples of products include Life Protection, Regular Premium Life Assurance Investments, Single Premium (lump sum) insurance-based Investments and Single Premium Pensions.

Investments

Investment firms, which fall within the scope of the European Communities (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2007 (the MiFID Regulations), offer both standard commission and commission models involving initial trail commission. Increments may be based on a percentage of the investment management fees, or on the value of the fund.

Credit Products/Mortgages

Commission may be earned by intermediaries for arranging credit for consumers, such as mortgages. The single, or standard, commission model is the most common commission model applied to the sale of mortgage products by mortgage credit intermediaries (Mortgage Broker).

Clawback

Clawback is an obligation on the intermediary to repay unearned commission. Commission can be paid directly after a contract is concluded but is not deemed to be 'earned' until after a specific period of time. If the consumer cancels or withdraws from the financial product within the specified time, the intermediary must return commission to the product producer.

Fees

The firm may also be remunerated by fee by the product producer such as policy fee, admin fee, or in the case of investment firms, advisory fees.

Preferred Provider Rate

We do not have a preferred provider for any product that we recommend to a customer. Our recommendation is based on the product that we feel best suits the customer.

Other Fees, Administrative Costs/Non-Monetary Benefits

The firm may also be in receipt of other fees, administrative costs, or non-monetary benefits such as: Attendance at product provider educational seminars or assistance with advertising/branding.

Effective Date: 1st March 2020

Life Insurance Providers

Aviva Life Click here to view details
Irish Life Click here to view details
New Ireland Click here to view details
Royal London Click here to view details
Standard Life Click here to view details
Zurich Life Click here to view details

Lender Providers

Avant Money Click here to view details
Finance Ireland Click here to view details
Haven Mortgages Limited Click here to view details
ICS Click here to view details
KBC Bank Ireland Click here to view details
Mortgage Store Click here to view details
Permanent TSB Click here to view details
Ulster Bank Click here to view details

General Insurance Providers

Allianz Click here to view details
Aviva General Click here to view details