Licence status and conditions

Professional Financial Group Limited (FSP723191) "PFG", holds a license issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice.

Professional Financial Group Limited and its advisers comply with the Privacy Act 2020.

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Our duties

Professional Financial Group Limited, and anyone who gives financial advice on our behalf, have duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, relating to the way that we give advice. We are required to:

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• give priority to your interests by taking all reasonable steps to make sure our advice isn’t materially influenced by our own interests

• 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 behavior, 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).

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This is only a summary of the duties that we have. More information is available by contacting us, or by visiting the Financial Markets Authority website at https://www.fma.govt.nz

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The Code of Conduct standards we adhere to can be read here: https://www.fma.govt.nz/assets/assets/code-of-professional-conduct-for-financial-advice-services.pdf.

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Nature and scope of the financial advice given:

PFG provides advice to our clients about their home loans, car loans, investment property loans, business loans, life, trauma, income & mortgage protection, TPD and health insurances. We also run workshop based programs to educate our clients. One of those addresses lifestyle choices & strategic decision making.

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Product Providers we work with: 

As noted above, your financial adviser will confirm which product providers they are accredited with, this will be detailed within the Client Agreement between the client(s) and adviser or disclosed during the process of giving the required service and advice.

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Common providers that advisers are accredited with or those whose products they advise on include:

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Loans: ASB, ANZ, ASAP Finance, Avanti Finance, Bluestone, BNZ, Cressida Capital, DBR Finance, First Mortgage Trust, Liberty Financial, Lock Finance, SBS Bank, Southern Cross Partners,  Go Home Loan (ASB) & Private Lenders.

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Car loans - provided by either referral or processing through Simplify or we can raise against mortgaged property through above providers.

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Insurance - provided solely through AIA (Life, Trauma, TPD, Income & Mortgage Protection & Health).

 

We do not provide advice on investment products such as equities, managed funds, term deposits, but do refer our clients to suitably specialized people in these areas when applicable.

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Any financial advice provided by us, will take account only of the information you have given us about your particular needs, financial situation or goals.

 

How we are remunerated:

 

PFG and the acting financial adviser receive commission or fees from product providers on whose products we give advice. If you decide to take out insurance or a loan, the product provider will pay a commission or fee to PFG and your financial adviser. The amount of the commission or fee is based on the amount of the product, and its specific attributes. Further information will be disclosed during the process of giving the required service and advice.​ 

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PFG does not provide General insurance services such as house, contents, car, business risk. We opt to refer to a trusted third party, presently a colleague at Prosper Insurances. We receive a referral fee from them for each referral that results in business being written. This is presently $100 for every policy issued (per entity), $50 for every stand-alone vehicle policy & $50 for every travel insurance policy.

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PFG may charge fees for financial advice and services provided.

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Fees include: -

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• Pre-approval application & advisory fee of $495 per transaction. An additional complexity fee of $395 may also be charged where it's mutually agreed that a transaction is more complex than standard & requires additional time allocation/advice. These fees cover loan pre-approval extensions rolled over up to two times.

• Any advisory services provided that are independent from a commissionable transaction for PFG. Present cost being $325/hour + GST. There’s a minimum charge of $120 +GST to ensure we cover time related costs that happen post each discussion/advisory call. If a consult has GST exempt capacity, we will clearly advise you of that and it won't attract GST.

• AML certification & administration fee ($25+GST per entity)

• Valuation co-ordination fee ($35+GST per valuation)

• All client paid fees charged are outlined and mutually agreed before commencement of work, within email attaching our formal Scope of Advice (SoA) & Client Agreement which cover our standard T&Cs.

• Typically, PFG absorbs our advisory and time costs for establishing an insurance risk management strategy. This is subject to insurance being in place for 2 years minimum, otherwise PFG will look to recover our time and advisory service costs from the client.​

• PFG runs educational, customized workshops​ - our main one being Rules of the Game "ROTG". This workshop presently costs $450, but is discounted to $395, by way of a credit note, when bundled with PFG brokering your home/investment property loan after you've completed the workshop.

• PFG holds exclusive rights to run "The Bubbles Programme" - a personalized life & strategy workshop. The cost for this workshop based programme is $3,995 + GST per couple, or $2,995 + GST for singles.

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Cost Recovery Fee

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PFG and the acting financial adviser, may charge a service fee where a client cancels a loan or insurance policy within two years of inception. A service fee may also be agreed to when there is no provider remuneration to the acting adviser. Whether a service fee will be charged and the way it will be charged will be advised and agreed to prior, or at the time when advice is provided to the client.

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To ensure PFG is compensated for their advice and time associated with original services provided, PFG reserves the right to invoice each client to recover those associated costs. PFG's service fee is typically based on time spent on the transaction, calculated at PFG's flat rate of $325/hour - being our standard consultancy cost.

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PFG's adviser will attach a current schedule of Provider commissions & claw back timeframes,  when the adviser's Scope of Advice is provided. PFG will re-confirm to each client, the Provider's actual commission payment & claw back timeframe specific to the transaction, when we present our Statement of Advice for client acceptance. This document also covers solutions and our recommendations to help clients' make an informed decision.

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Conflicts of interest & conduct, commissions or other incentives

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Home / Investment Property & Commercial Loans

Any home loan will result in PFG receiving commissions from the lender we arrange this through. If you wish to proceed with the proposal the lender will pay a commission to PFG based on the amount and type of debt provided. The commission is predominantly an upfront commission payment, but we may also receive an ongoing trail commission payment. The upfront commission is calculated as a percentage of the loan at drawdown and the trail commission is calculated as a percentage of the loan outstanding at the relevant time. We may also receive a fixed rate rollover fee from a lender if we assist in re-fixing your loan, but only on those that do not earn trail commission.

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Insurance

For life and other personal insurance products, PFG and the financial adviser receive commissions from the insurance company on whose policies we give advice. If you decide to take out insurance, the insurer will pay a commission to PFG and your financial adviser. The amount of the commission is based on the amount of the premium.

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Our client’s best interests are always at the heart of our operation and any perceived or real conflict/s of interest are taken seriously. PFG has its own internal processes for dealing with conflicts of interest, so any conflicts of interest are avoided or disclosed so our client’s best interest are always prioritized. To ensure that our financial advisers prioritize the client’s interest above their own, we follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made on the basis of the client’s goals and circumstances. All our financial advisers undergo at least annual training about how to manage conflicts of interest. We undertake a compliance audit, and a review of our compliance programme annually by a reputable compliance consultancy firm organised by our aggregator, Prosper Group Limited.

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PFG is governed by the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 and Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019 "FSLAA" that administers guidance on how we provide advice. Please refer to their website for further information or contact us directly if you have any additional queries.

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Complaints & Dispute Resolution

If you are not satisfied with our financial advice or service you can make a complaint by emailing  neil.inns@pfgroup.co.nz or by calling 021 667 878.

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While we strive to not encounter any complaints, we are human and welcome any feedback. We take any complaint seriously in order to improve and grow the service we provide and would aim to remedy as quickly as possible to end up with a happy client.

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Once a complaint is received we will follow our internal complaints process, as follows: -

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1. Acknowledge receipt of complaint within 24 hours.

2. Provide resolution which may require further information to be provided.

3. We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them. If we can’t, we will contact you within that time to let you know we need more time to consider your complaint.

4. We will contact you by phone or email to let you know whether we can resolve your complaint and how we propose to do so.

5. If you are not satisfied with the way we propose to resolve your complaint, or if you do not wish to use our internal complaints process at that point, we will issue you with a Letter of Deadlock and you may choose to proceed to contact our dispute resolution scheme, as detailed below: -

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If we cannot jointly agree on how to fix the issue, you can contact our external disputes resolution scheme: Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO). IFSO provides a free and independent dispute resolution service that may help to resolve your complaint if we have not been able to do so to your satisfaction.

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To contact IFSO:

Call:                0800 888 202

Email:             info@ifso.co.nz

Write to:        PO Box 10-845, Wellington 6143, NEW ZEALAND

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