Primary Disclosure:
We hold a FAP license issues by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice.
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd (FSP635869)
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd advisors provide advice about:
Personal insurance (risk), including health insurance.
Business Risk Insurance (Key Person, Shareholder Protection benefits, Business Overheads/Expenses)
KiwiSaver
ACC restructuring
We provide advice in relation to the following insurance products:
Life insurance
Trauma insurance
Total and permanent disability insurance
Income protection insurance
Mortgage and household expenses cover
Health/medical insurance
Our financial advisors provide financial advice in relation to these financial advice products. We only provide financial advice about products from certain providers:
For life insurance, we work with five providers – Partners Life, Fidelity Life, Chubb Life, Asteron Life, and AIA.
For health insurance, we work with three providers – Partners Life, nib, and AIA.
For Kiwi Saver, we work with four providers – Generate, Pathfinder, Milford Asset, and Booster.
In providing you with financial advice, we will only consider existing term life, trauma, income protection and health insurance policies (if any). We will not provide advice on existing whole of life or endowment products, so you will need to consult a specialist if you would like advice on those products.
Our Duties
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd, 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:
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).
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.
Conflicts of Interests and Incentives
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd and our financial advisers receive commissions from the providers on whose products we give financial advice (insurers, banks, and KiwiSaver providers). If you decide to take out insurance or a mortgage, or to take our KiwiSaver advice, the provider will pay a commission to Essential Financial Solutions Ltd.
Your financial adviser is paid by salary and a possible bonus by Essential Financial Solutions Ltd. The amount of commission is based on the amount of the insurance premium or mortgage, or the KiwiSaver balance.
The amount of the commission is based on the amount of premium associated with your cover; specific commissions will be advised to you when advice is provided.
From time to time, product providers may also reward us for the overall business we provide to them. They may give us tickets to sports events, hampers, or other incentives.
To ensure that our financial advisers prioritise our clients’ interests above their own, we follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made on the basis of each client’s goals and circumstances.
All our financial advisers undergo annual training about how to manage conflicts of interest. We maintain registers of conflicts of interests, and the gifts and incentives we receive.
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd monitors these registers and provides additional training where necessary. Essential Financial Solutions Ltd performs an annual review of our compliance program.
Fees and Expenses
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd may charge a fee for the financial advice provided to a client where a client cancels a life or health insurance policy within two years of inception. Whether a fee will be charged and the manner in which it will be charged will be advised when the advice is provided to the client.
Any fee will be payable by the client by the 20th of the month after the policy is cancelled.
Essential Financial Solutions Ltd generally do not charge you a fee if you decide to take up KiwiSaver advice. In some instances, an initial advice fee or an ongoing additional advice fee will be charged. These will be clearly disclosed when the advice is provided to the client.
All KiwiSaver fees are deducted directly from the clients KiwiSaver account.
We may charge clients for the financial advice provided if they close or transfer their KiwiSaver accounts within 24 months of taking up the advice.
Our Internal Complaints Process
If you are not satisfied with our financial advice service you can make a complaint by:
Emailing: admin@efsnz.co.nz
Calling: 07 282 0791
Write to us at: PO Box 1132 Cambridge, 3450.
Use our feedback button below
When we receive a complaint, we will consider it following our internal complaints process:
We will consider your complaint and let you know how we intend to resolve it. We may need to contact you to get further information about your complaint.
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.
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.
Our External Complaints Process
If we cannot agree on how to fix the issue, or if you decide not to use the internal complaints scheme, you can contact our external disputes resolution scheme – Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme Inc (IFSO). Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO) provides a free, independent dispute resolution service that may help investigate or resolve your complaint.
Their contact details are:
Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO) by emailing info@ifso.nz, or by calling: 0800 888 202.
You can also write to them at: IFSO, PO Box 10845, Wellington 6143.
