Frank Ryan trading as Frank J. Ryan Financial Services

These Terms of Business set out the general terms under which our firm will provide business services to you and the respective duties and responsibility of both the firm and you in relation to such services. Please ensure that you read these terms thoroughly and if you have any queries we will be happy to clarify them. If any material changes are made to these terms we will notify you.

Authorisation with Central Bank of Ireland

Frank Ryan trading as Frank J. Ryan Financial Services is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland C44425 as an Insurance intermediary registered under the European Union Insurance Distribution Regulations, 2018; as an Investment Intermediary authorised under the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995.  Copies of our regulatory authorisations are available on request. The Central Bank of Ireland holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the Central Bank of Ireland on 1890 777 777 or alternatively visit their website at www.centralbank.ie to verify our credentials

Codes of Conduct

Frank Ryan trading as Frank J. Ryan Financial Services is subject to the Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness & Probity Standards which offer protection to consumers. These Codes can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie

Our Services

Frank Ryan trading as Frank J. Ryan Financial Services may be contacted at 45A Rossmore Lawns, Templeogue, Dublin 6W, telephone 0872764506, email fjryanfinancial@eircom.net.

Our principal business is to provide advice and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to life & pensions products. A full list of insurers, product producers and lending agencies with which we deal is listed at the end of this Terms of Business Letter.

Frank Ryan trading as Frank J Ryan Financial Services acts as a regulated Financial Broker which means that:

1. a) The principal regulated activities of the firm are provided on the basis of a fair and personal analysis of the market;
2. b) You have the option to pay in full for our services by means of a fee.

Fair and personal Analysis

The concept of fair and personal analysis describes the extent of the choice of products and providers offered by an intermediary within a particular category of life assurance, general insurance, mortgages, and/ or a specialist area. The number of contracts and providers considered must be sufficiently large to enable an intermediary to recommend a product that would be adequate to meet a client’s needs. The number of providers that constitutes ‘sufficiently large’ will vary depending on the number of providers operating in the market for a particular product or service and their relative importance in and share of that market. The extent of fair analysis must be such that could be reasonably expected of a professional conducting business, taking into account the accessibility of information and product placement to intermediaries and the cost of the search. In order to ensure that the number of contracts and providers is sufficiently large to constitute a fair and personal analysis of the market, we will consider the following criteria:

Investment Intermediary Services

We provide investment Intermediary services on a fair and personal analysis basis i.e. providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet the your needs. We are remunerated by commission for our investment intermediary services.

Insurance based Investment Products

We provide insurance based investment products on a fair and personal analysis basis i.e. providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet the your needs. We are remunerated by commission for the advice we provide on our insurance based investment products.

Life & Pensions/Deposits & Life Wrapped Investments

Frank Ryan trading as Frank J Ryan Financial Services provides life assurance/pensions and life wrapped investments on a fair and personal analysis basis i.e. providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet the your needs. We will provide assistance to you for any queries you may have in relation to the policies or in the event of a claim during the life of the policies and we will explain to you the various restrictions, conditions and exclusions attached to your policy. However, it is your responsibility to read the policy documents, literature and brochures to ensure that you understand the nature of the policy cover.  Specifically on the subject of permanent health insurance cover, it is our practice to explain to you:   

For a serious illness policy, we will explain clearly to you the restrictions, conditions and general exclusions that attach to that policy.

Disclosure of Information

Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.

Statement of Charges

Frank Ryan trading as Frank J. Ryan Financial Services is remunerated by commission and other payments from product producers or lenders on the completion of business. You may choose to pay in full for our services by means of a fee. Where we receive recurring commission, this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided. We reserve the right to charge additional fees if the number of hours relating to on-going advice/assistance exceeds 10 hrs. In certain circumstances, it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided. These are listed below for life, non-life business and Standard PRSAs. In other circumstances where fees are chargeable or where you choose to pay in full for our service by fee, we will notify you in writing in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged if different from fees outlined below. Where it is not possible to provide the exact amount, we will provide you the method of calculation of the fee.

If we receive commission from a product provider, this will be offset against the fee which we will charge you. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission will become the amount payable to the firm unless an arrangement to the contrary is made.

Life  and Investment Fees

You may elect to deal with us on a fee basis:

Advisor fees:  €150.00 per hour or part of hour.  Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency. Minimum €800.00 up to a maximum of €1,500.00

Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) –  Fees

Where advice is requested for PRSAs, the following hourly fees will apply:

Advisor fees: €150.00 per hour or part of hour. Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency. We will give an estimate of this rate in advance of providing you with services. If we receive commission from a product provider, this will be offset against the fee which we will charge you. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission will become the amount payable to the intermediary unless an arrangement to the contrary is made. We will inform you of the amount of fee to be charged.  Where it is not possible to provide the exact amount, we will provide you the method of calculation of the fee.

Ongoing Suitability Investments

We will provide periodic assessments of the suitability of the investment product which we have recommended to you.

Insurance based Investment Products

We will provide periodic assessments of the suitability of the insurance based investment product which we have recommended to you.

Regular Reviews

It is in your best interests that you review, on a regular basis, the products which we have arranged for you. As your circumstances change, your needs will change. You must advise us of those changes and request a review of the relevant policy so that we can ensure that you are provided with up to date advice and products best suited to your needs. Failure to contact us of changes in your circumstances, or request a review, may result in you having insufficient insurance cover and/or inappropriate investments.

Disclosure of Information

Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.

Conflict of Interest

It is my policy to avoid conflicts of interest in providing services to you. However, where an unavoidable conflict of interest arises we will advise you of this in writing before providing you with any service. A full copy of our conflicts of interest policy is available on request.

Default on payments by clients

Our firm will exercise its legal rights to receive payments due to it from clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In particular, without limitation of the generality of the foregoing, the firm will seek reimbursement for all payments made to insurers on behalf of clients where the firm has acted in good faith in renewing a policy of insurance for the client. Product producers may withdraw benefits or cover in the event of default on payments due under policies of insurance or other products arranged for you. We would refer you to policy documents or product terms for the details of such provisions.

Complaints

Whilst we are happy to receive verbal complaints, it would be preferable that any complaints are made in writing.   We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 5 business days and we will fully investigate it.  We shall investigate the complaint as swiftly as possible, and the complainant will receive an update on the complaint at intervals of not greater 20 business days starting from the date on which the complaint was made.  On completion of our investigation, we will provide you with a written report of the outcome.  In the event that you are still dissatisfied with our handling of or response to your complaint, you are entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Services & Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO).  A full copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.

Data Protection

We are subject to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.

Frank J. Ryan Financial Services is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We wish to be transparent on how we process your data and show you that we are accountable with the GDPR in relation to not only processing your data but ensuring you understand your rights as a client. 

The data will be processed only in ways compatible with the purposes for which it was given and as outlined in our Data Privacy Notice, this will be given to all our clients at the time of data collection.

We will ensure that this Privacy Notice is easily assessable.  We will ensure you can easily receive a copy by hard copy or by email.

Please contact us at fjryanfinancial@eircom.net if you have any concerns about your personal data.

Compensation Scheme

We are members of the Investor Compensation Scheme operated by the Investor Compensation Company Ltd. See below for details.

Investor Compensation Scheme

The Investor Compensation Act, 1998 provides for the establishment of a compensation scheme and the payment, in certain circumstances, of compensation to certain clients (known as eligible investors) of authorised investment firms, as defined in that Act.

The Investor Compensation Company Ltd. (ICCL) was established under the 1998 Act to operate such a compensation scheme and our firm is a member of this scheme. Compensation may be payable where money or investment instrument owed or belonging to clients and held, administered or managed by the firm cannot be returned to those clients for the time being and where there is no reasonably foreseeable opportunity of the firm being able to do so.

A right to compensation will arise only:

• If the client is an eligible investor as defined in the Act;
• If it transpires that the firm is not in a position to return client money or investment instruments owned or belonging to the clients of the firm to the extent that the client’s loss is recognised for the purposes of the Act. Where an entitlement to compensation is established, the compensation payable will be the lesser of:

90% of the amount of the client’s loss which is recognised for the purposes of the Investor Compensation Act, 1998; or Compensation of up to €20,000.  For further information, contact the Investor Compensation Company Ltd. at (01) 224 4955. 

Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund

We are also members of the Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund.  Subject to the rules of the scheme, the liabilities of its members firms up to a maximum of €100,000 per client (or €250,000 in aggregate) may be discharged by the fund on its behalf if the members firm is unable to do so, where the above detailed Investor Compensation Scheme has failed to adequately compensate any client of the member. Further details are available on request.