Terms of Business

Promotions Direct Ltd trading as Sheridan Insurances

These Terms of Business set out the general terms under which our firm will provide business services to you and the respective duties and responsibilities 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.  We may update, amend these terms of business from time to time without prior notice.  An amended version will be on our website. (If any material changes are made to these terms, we will notify you.) Please note that by proceeding with your Insurance quotation or policy you agree to the terms as laid out in this Terms of Business document. By accepting these Terms of Business, you acknowledge that you have read and understand them; and you have read and understand the information contained within your chosen quotation and/or policy.

Authorisation with the Central Bank of Ireland

Promotions Direct Ltd trading as Sheridan Insurances Central Bank number 2700, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland 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 0818 681 681 or alternatively visit their website at www.centralbank.ie to verify our credentials.

Codes of Conduct

We are subject to the Consumer Protection Code 2012, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness & Probity Standards which offer protection to consumer’s. These Codes can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie

Our Services

Promotions Direct Ltd trading as Sheridan Insurances is a member of Brokers Ireland. Our principal business is to provide advice, service, support and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to life & pensions and general insurance products. A full list of insurers, product producers with which we deal with is available on request.

Insurance Intermediary Services

We act as a 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; and
2. b) you have the option to pay in full for our services by means of a fee.

The following policies are not offered on a fair analysis basis: Health Insurance is provided by Irish Life Health dac. We operate as a tied agent for Irish Life Health.

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, 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 reasonably be expected of a professional conducting business, taking into account the accessibility of information and product placement to intermediaries and the cost of the search.  

We research the products on your behalf with the Product Producers (Insurers/Insurance Providers) with whom we hold appointments.

We are remunerated by commission and/or professional fee for the advice we provide on our insurance based investment products.

We will provide advice, service, and support 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 policy 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, and raise any concerns or issues you may have with Sheridan Insurances.

Life and Pensions & Investments

We provide life assurance and pensions 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 in the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet 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 policy 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.

Sustainability Factors – Investment/Insurance based Investment Products and/or Investments/Pension Advice.

In accordance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’), we inform you that when providing advice on insurance-based investment products/Investments, we assess, in addition to relevant financial risks, relevant sustainability risks as far as this information is available in relation to the products proposed/advised on.

We assess these risks by reviewing product provider literature in relation to sustainability risks, we liaise with the providers in relation to any queries.

Non-Life General Insurance

We can provide advice on and arrange products from the following range: household, some classes of motor, health, commercial, public liability, product liability, employers’ liability, professional indemnity, cyber, employment practice liability insurance. We provide general insurance on a fair and personal analysis basis. (providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available in the market to enable the firm to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet your needs).

In some cases, we may be granted authority from an insurer undertaking to conduct tasks on their behalf, for which we will be remunerated.

We will also offer assistance to you in relation to processing claims on policies taken out with us and in seeking renewal terms on your cover.

To ensure continuity of cover, where you have an existing policy which is due to expire and where we have been unable to contact you, we may put continuing cover in force, where possible, whilst awaiting your instruction. You will be liable for any premiums payable to the relevant insurer for the period of time between renewal and when we receive your instruction. You have the right not to avail of this service, which needs to be notified to us immediately.

Statement of Charges

We earn our remuneration on the basis of fee, commission and any other type of remuneration, including a non-monetary benefit or on the basis of a combination of these methods.  A non-monetary benefit will only be accepted if it enhances the quality of the service to our clients.

You may choose to pay in full for our services by means of a Broker Advice, Service and Support fee. Where we receive recurring commission, this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided.  We reserve the right to charge additional fees, where both parties agree to ongoing research, advice, service and support.

Sustainability Factors – Investments/Insurance Based Investment Products and/or Investments /Pension Advice.

We take due care so that our internal remuneration policy with respect to investment or insurance advice on Insurance-based Investment products (‘IBIPs’) promotes sound and effective risk management and does not encourage excessive risk‐taking with respect to sustainability risks.

A summary of the details of all arrangements for any fee, commission other reward or remuneration paid or provided to us which have been agreed with product providers is available in our office or on our website www.sheridaninsurances.com

Where a Credit Agreement is put in place between you and Premium Credit Ltd, we may earn a commission on the premium amount financed.

We charge a professional fee for services provided.  These are listed below and under our schedule of Advice, Service and Support Fees on our website. www.sheridaninsurances.com

Schedule of Advice, Service and Support Fees

Our brokerage fees in relation to Initial placement, Renewal or Alteration of policies are listed below. The firm will charge you a fixed fee or a percentage of the insurance premium for the following services provided. For complex and non-standard cases, a pre agreed fee will be discussed on a case-by-case basis depending on the complexity of the case and level of work required. 

2% compliance charge on the premium will apply across all our policy types.  There are no charges on return premiums.

An hourly rate of up to €200 per hour will be pre agreed for advice without placement of policy.

It is Our policy to detail fees charged on our documentation. When as a result of a cancellation or an alteration a credit is returned from an Insurer, we will return this credit to you promptly. Where we arrange Insurance Premium Finance on your behalf a handling fee will apply.

Minimum and Deposit Premiums

If your policy is based on a minimum and deposit premium basis there will be no refund if the policy is cancelled during the term.   Minimum and deposit premiums are payable in full at inception and at year-end when your turnover and wages declarations are completed this may result in an additional premium due to your insurer as your initial premium was paid on a deposit basis.

Cancellation

The consumer can cancel their policy in writing at any time. If a premium or rebate is due this will be issued to you.  These may not be issued in certain circumstances depending on the insurer policy conditions.  If the policy is on a minimum and deposit basis no return will be allowed on the policy. For motor policies we need the certificate and disc returned to us to cancel the policy. Insurers normally reserve the right to cancel a policy at any time by sending written notification to the consumer’s last known address. Where there is an open claim on a policy no return of premium is payable by the Insurer.

Cooling Off Period

A consumer has the right to withdraw from an insurance policy within 14 days of the start date of the policy without penalty and without giving any reason. Exception travel policies whose operative period is one month or less.  An additional condition is that no claim or adjustment has been made or is intended to be made that is likely to give rise to a claim. The insurance company may charge for the period of time you have been on cover.  New Business and Renewal Fees paid to Promotions Direct Ltd trading as Sheridan Insurances are non-refundable even with in the 14-day cooling off period.

Clawback

If we receive commission from a product provider [and off-set the commission against the fee which we would otherwise have charged you] but the commission is subsequently clawed-back by the provider because of early encashment by you or because of the transferring of the assets or business to another provider or in any circumstances consequent on your actions or omissions, we will charge a fee to you that is equal to [100% of] the clawed-back commission. That fee will be owing in simple contract upon the claw-back of the commission. 

Premium Handling and Money Laundering

We will accept payment by cash, cheque and credit/debit card. Premiums are due on or before the inception/renewal date or before any policy changes that result in an additional fee. If we do not receive your payment on or before renewal date your policy will lapse and no cover will be in place. We reserve the right to request information from you which we may need to know to comply with our legal or other money laundering requirements.

Ongoing Suitability

Our services does not include ongoing suitability assessments.

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. which may result in you having insufficient insurance cover and/or inappropriate investments.  We would therefore advise that you contact us to ensure that you are provided with up-to-date advice and products best suited to your needs.

Consumer’s: Duty of Disclosure

When completing documentation for new business/renewals and/or midterm adjustments;

You are required to answer all questions posed by us or the insurer honestly and with reasonable care – the test will be that of the ‘average consumer’. Average consumer as per Directive No. 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, taking into account social, cultural and linguistic factors.

Before renewal of the contract of insurance, specific questions will be asked. Again, you will be required to answer honestly and with reasonable care.  Where you do not provide additional information (after being requested to do so) it can be presumed that the information previously provided remains unchanged. 

Failure to answer all questions honestly and with reasonable care can result in the Insurer being able to rely on proportionate remedies for misrepresentation, which include but are not limited to the insurer voiding the contract of insurance. If a policy is cancelled by an insurer for any reason including payment default you may encounter difficulty in purchasing insurance in the future.

Commercial Customers: Non-Consumer Disclosure of Information

It is essential that you should bring to our attention any material alteration in risk, such as, change of address or change of use of premises and other factors. Any failure to disclose material information may invalidate your claim and render your policy void.

Quotations

All quotations are valid for the day the quotation is offered and are issued subject to acceptance by the insurer/Insurance provider. A full copy of the insurers’ policy wording, terms and conditions is available upon request. You are required to answer all the questions posed by us or the insurer honestly and with reasonable care. You must inform us of any changes in circumstances which may affect the services we provide and cover provided by the Insurer/Insurance Provider.  Failure to disclose all relevant information, when asked or misrepresenting any fact which may influence the decision to accept the risks or the terms offered could result in your policy being cancelled, claims not being paid, difficulty in getting insurance elsewhere and in the case of property insurance failure to have property insurance in place could lead to a breach of the terms and conditions attaching to any loan secured on the property.  

Cover does not come into force until it has been confirmed to you by us.

You must check all details in the Assumptions, your Quotation(s) and on any proposal form or statement of facts and pay particular attention to any declaration you must sign. It is important that you read all documents issued to you and ensure that you are aware of the cover, limits, suspensive conditions and other terms that apply.

Completed Proposal Forms/Statement of Fact

Copies of completed Proposal forms or Statements of Facts will be provided to you.  These are important documents as they form the basis of insurance contract between the insurer and you the consumer.  You should review and confirm that the answers contained within are true and accurate.

Conflicts of interest

It is the policy of our firm 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.

Payment Default by clients and other reasons for cancellation 

We will exercise our legal rights to receive payments due to us from clients (fees and insurance premiums) for services provided. In particular, without limitation to 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. Please refer to your policy documents or product terms for the details of such provisions.

We reserve the right to instigate cancellation proceedings in the event of the following:

• Your non-payment of premium due at inception, renewal or following an alteration
• Your payment returned by bank due to insufficient funds or any other reason
• Direct Debit Default
• If you are a Non-Consumer, Non-Disclosure of relevant information
• Provision of relevant information
• Non return of necessary documentation within the timeframe
• Insurer imposed cancellation

In the event that you fail to pay and/or fail to provide us with a completed and signed direct debit mandate within the required timeframe, we will advise the insurance company involved and cover will be cancelled.

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 than 20 business days starting from the date on which the complaint is made.  We will attempt to resolve a complaint within 40 business days.  When the 40 days has elapsed, if the complaint is still not resolved, we will inform the complainant of the anticipated timeframe within which we hope to resolve the complaint. On completion of our investigation, we will provide you with a written letter. In the event that you are still dissatisfied with our handling of or response to your complaint, as a final step you are entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO). A full copy of our complaint’s 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.

We are 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 is available for review online at www.sheridaninsurances.com/privacy-statement and is easily accessible through our website.

If this medium is not suitable please email dataprotection@sheridaninsurances.com and we will ensure you can easily receive a copy.

If you have any concerns about your personal data please contact us at dataprotection@sheridaninsurances.com

All inbound and outbound calls are recorded for regulatory, quality, training, and verification purposes.

Consumer Insurance Contracts Act 2019

New consumer responsibilities arising out of the Consumer Insurance Contracts Act 2019 which was implemented to protect consumer’s;

Pre Contract Stage

Before you enter a contract of insurance you need to understand;

If an insurer asks a specific question, it must be presumed the matter to which it relates is material to the risk undertaken by the insurer or the calculation of the premium by that insurer, or both.

Also that you are under a duty to answer all the questions posed by the insurer honestly, accurately and with reasonable care.

New Business & Renewal

A consumer may cancel a contract of insurance, by giving notice in writing to the insurer, within 14 working days after the date the consumer was informed that the contract is concluded. The insurer cannot impose any costs on the consumer other than the cost of the premium for the period of cover.

The consumer is under a duty to pay their premium within a reasonable time, or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the contract of insurance.

A court of competent jurisdiction can reduce the pay-out to the consumer where they are in breach of their duties under the Act, in proportion to the breach involved.

Post-Contract Stage and Claims

If, in respect of the insurance contract the insurer is not obliged to pay the full claim settlement amount until any repair, replacement or reinstatement work has been completed and specified documents for the work have been furnished to the insurer, the claim settlement deferment amount cannot exceed;

• 5% of the claim settlement amount where the claim settlement amount is less than €40,000, or
• 10% of the claim settlement amount where the claim settlement amount is more than €40,000

An insurer may refuse a claim made by a consumer under a contract of insurance where there is a change in the risk insured, including as described in an “alteration of risk” clause, and the circumstances have so changed that it has effectively changed the risk to one which the insurer has not agreed to cover. 

Any clause in a contract of insurance that refers to a “material change” will be interpreted as being a change that takes the risk outside what was in the reasonable contemplation of the contracting parties when the contract was concluded.

The consumer must cooperate with the insurer in an investigation of insured events including responding to reasonable requests for information in an honest and reasonably careful manner and must notify the insurer of the occurrence of an insured event in a reasonable time.

The consumer must notify the insurer of a claim within a reasonable time, or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the contract of insurance. 

If the consumer becomes aware after a claim is made of information that would either support or prejudice the claim, they are under a duty to disclose it. (The insurer is under the same duty). 

If the consumer makes a false or misleading claim in any material respect (and knows it to be false or misleading or consciously disregards whether it is) the insurer is entitled to refuse to pay and to terminate the contract.

Where an insurer becomes aware that a consumer has made a fraudulent claim, they must notify the consumer advising that they are avoiding the contract of insurance.  It will be treated as being terminated from the date of the submission of the fraudulent claim.  The insurer may refuse all liability in respect of any claim made after the date of the fraudulent act, and the insurer is under no obligation to return any of the premiums paid under the contract. 

Investor Compensation Scheme

Promotions Direct Ltd Trading as Sheridan Insurances is a member of the Investor Compensation Scheme operated by the Investor Compensation Company dac. 

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 instruments 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; and

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; and

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. www.investorcompensation.ie  

Brokers Ireland Clients Compensation and Membership Benefits Scheme (BIC)

We are also members of the Brokers Ireland Clients Compensation and Membership Benefits Scheme (BIC). Subject to the rules of the scheme the liabilities of its member’s 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 member 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 from Brokers Ireland www.brokersireland.ie.

Terms of Business valid from: 11^th July 2023