Remuneration – what do our services cost?

Costs for Insurance Advice
My initial consultation (the Needs Analysis Meeting) is always free of charge.

For written advice, and our second meeting, a fee of $195 p/h +GST depending on complexity (capped at 2.5 hours unless pre-agreed) will apply for:
- the Insurance Statement of Advice I’ll prepare for you
- the Planolitix lifetime cashflow modelling I’ll prepare for you
- your personal Planolitix subscription access

The standard process from that point is for services to be provided at no fee to you as remuneration for services will be received via commission (this includes support from our administrative staff advice from Rees-Thomas Financial regarding any administrative or claim related matters going forward).

Analysis and preparation of an Insurance Statement of Advice, insurance application and underwriting management takes approximately 10 - 30 hours, depending on complexity. Should new insurance/s be arranged as part of my advice to you, commission will be paid to Rees-Thomas Financial by the insurer.

Alternatively, I can provide Fee-based advice by request only.
As an alternate option, we can in some cases operate on a hybrid fee/commission basis, which may result in a 10% discount on some insurance premiums. Our hourly rate is $195.00 + GST.

Fees also regularly apply where I am providing advice for restructuring a business' insurance portfolio with a range of existing policies in place (requiring restructuring), and no commission is paid to Rees-Thomas Financial Services Ltd (i.e. primarily a consulting service).

Costs for standalone Planolitix consultation, report and advice
A fee of $300 + GST applies for your initial consultation, your report and subscription/login access. Depending on your needs I recommend review consultations every 1-3 years.

Cancellation of new insurances within two years
All insurers include a clause in their commission payment terms called ‘commission claw-back’. This essentially means that should a new insurance policy be cancelled within two years of implementation - the commission paid to the adviser for their work will be reversed in the form of a bill payable back to the insurance company. Typically, this will cost the adviser business the equivalent of the remaining months of payable premiums until the two-year period is reached.

To protect Rees-Thomas Financial against early cancellation of covers we provide advice on - we reserve the right to charge a fee equivalent to the claw-back fee charged by the insurance company.

All of our insurance advice is based on implementation of cover for mid to long-term purpose.
If you intend on keeping your new insurances for less than two years, please advise us so that we may work for you on a fee basis rather than a commission basis.

The above terms do not apply to:
- Clients engaging us on a fee basis
- Claims (where a policy is paid out and comes to term)

Commissions

Typically, we are remunerated by way of commissions received directly from product providers once a new policy is implemented. As we get to know you and what is important, we will provide more specific information in relation to any remuneration we receive as a result of any advice we provide. In line with the spirit of professional disclosure below are some guidelines.

As an insurance adviser holding direct agency agreements with most major insurers I have the ability to select a commission structure for each new set of policies implemented. Generally speaking the varying structures reflect the below table (though there a slight differences across each insurer). In the interest of remaining impartial in my advice process, I use independent research from Quality Product Research Limited in Auckland, and dedicated software to provide you an overview of the options available to you market wide.

Aggregator group
Rees-Thomas Financial is a member shareholder of co-operative Plus4 Insurance Solutions, a Financial Adviser association dedicated to continual professional development, client advocacy and adviser advocacy. Remuneration in the form of 10-20% commission may also paid the business from product providers via the Dealer Group, this is based on production of the group as a whole and Rees-Thomas Financial. The Business can also receive other services or benefits Rees-Thomas Financial from the dealer group such as discounted software and systems.