GSA Insurance Brokers (GSA) – Standard Service Agreement

GSA strives to add value with a great level of care and professionalism. This standard service agreement represents a basis for the terms and standard of service GSA commits to providing you.

Beyond this agreement, GSA operates to a documented“Little Blue Book” which expresses our values, rights, and responsibilities to our staff, clients, partners, and community. You can see more about our LittleBlue Book and view the document here. https://www.gsaib.com.au/about-us/the-little-blue-book

We subscribe to and are bound by the InsuranceBrokers Code of Practice. A full copy of this is available from the NationalInsurance Brokers Association (NIBA) website, www.niba.com.au.

Where GSA and you may have entered into a bespoke Service level agreement (SLA) or similar, that agreement will supersede this arrangement as per the terms of that Agreement.

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Our Service/s to you

We will provide you with some or all the following services:

Broking and Insurance Program Management

• Review your insurance needs with you
• Advise and make recommendations as to your insurance requirements
• Discuss and/or communicate our recommendations to you
• Prepare underwriting submissions
• Negotiate terms with any existing insurers and with alternative insurers where broking the risk to alternate insurers is part of our recommendation
• Place the insurance agreed upon
• Confirm placement and renewal of the insurances to you
• Calculate, invoice, and collect the premiums
• Prepare policy wordings and obtain signed policies from insurers
• Adjust premiums on prior year policies
• In relation to the renewal of your insurances we will contact you well before and at least fourteen (14) days prior to your insurance cover expiry date to engage you on the next steps to be taken prior to the expiry of the policy, and we will take appropriate, professional, and timely steps to seek insurance cover terms and conditions and advise you of available options(if any) for their consideration.
• Review your insurance arrangements:
• when you inform us about material changes to your circumstances;
• at the time of any scheduled Status Reviews as agreed with you;
• upon renewal of your insurances.

Claims

If required, assist you to manage any claims you may need to make:

• We will assist clients to provide relevant information to lodge a claim under their insurance policies
• We will lodge the client’s claims in a timely manner after the relevant information has been supplied
• We will liaise with the insurer on a client’s behalf with respect to the claim
• We will provide clear and timely communication to clients on claims
• We will notify clients of claim outcomes as soon as it is reasonably practical to do so
• We will outline claim settlements and seek client’s instructions before agreeing to any settlement or compromise of a claim
• We will act as claim advocates on behalf of clients if a claim is unreasonably denied or reduced by an insurer
• We will explain an insurer’s claim decision in plain language and outline steps to be taken including how to make a complaint to the insurer on a declined claim
• We will aid a client to make a complaint to their insurer on a declined claim
• If for any reason an actual or perceived conflict is identified, we will disclose, avoid and/or manage that conflict. We will do so acting in your best interest.
• In the event, you terminate our appointment as an Insurance Broker we will provide details of any claim(s) to your new insurance broker so that they may continue to negotiate a settlement on your behalf.
• Where Claims volume and time allocated to claims excessively exceeds expected levels, we may talk to you about additional service fees to factor this. We will only do this with prior discussion and your approval.

Additional Services

• If required, refer to, assist on, and sometimes coordinate various additional services, such as: risk management services, risk engineering, workers' compensation return to work services, premium funding, surveys, valuations, life insurance lines management, etc.

Other Terms

Invoices - We will invoice you for the premium, statutory charges (e.g. stamp duty, fire services levy, etc), and any fees we charge for arranging your insurances. You must pay us within 14 days of the date of the invoice or, in the case of a renewal, before the expiry date of the contract of insurance.

If you do not pay the premium on time, the insurer may cancel the contract of insurance and you will not be insured. The insurer may also charge a short-term penalty premium for the time on risk.

In the event of you terminating our appointment, any fees for the services carried out or resources allocated to such services will be charged to you at the full amount or a fair and reasonably calculated pro-rata amount.  

Premium funding - Premium funding products enable you to pay your premiums by installments. Premium funders do charge interest and they have a power of attorney over your insurance policy.

We can arrange premium funding on your behalf if you require it. We may receive a commission based on a percentage of the premium from the premium funder for doing so.

Credit card fees - If you pay by credit card, we may charge you a non-refundable credit card fee.

Acting on your behalf - We usually act on your behalf and in your interests in all matters. Sometimes, it may be more appropriate for us to access insurance where we act as an agent of the insurer. When this situation arises, we will explain and highlight this to you. GSA rarely undertakes business with you in this manner, where we do, it will be clearly disclosed.

Providing documents via email - We will issue you policy documents via email. Unless otherwise advised, you will not receive policy documentation or communication via post.

Corporate Governance

At GSA, we recognize the importance of corporate governance, and are continually working to improve our policies and processes that keep us running smoothly. We perform a variety of regular, routine processes to ensure that GSA is continuously running to the high standard that we’ve set for ourselves, and that we believe our stakeholders deserve.

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Complaints process

Clients who are not fully satisfied with our service should:

1.  Contact us and tell us about your complaint. We will do our best to resolve it quickly.

2. If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved within 20 days, please contact Rocco Pirrello at 02 8274 8162 or put your complaint in writing and send it to Rocco Pirrello at GSA’s address. We will try and resolve your complaint quickly and fairly.

3. GSA is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority(AFCA ). If your complaint cannot be resolved to your satisfaction by us, you have the right to refer the matter to the AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to customers. The AFCA can be contacted at:

Australian Financial Complaints Authority

GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC 3001
1800 931 678
info@afca.org.au  
‍www.afca.org.au

Other Documents

·       Financial Services Guide (FSG)- You can view our FSG here - https://www.gsaib.com.au/about-us/corporate-governance

·       Privacy Policy - You can view our privacy policy here - https://www.gsaib.com.au/about-us/corporate-governance

·       Modern Slavery - View our latest modern Slavery statement here - https://www.gsaib.com.au/about-us/corporate-governance

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