Financial Advice Disclosure

It is important that you read this disclosure

This is important information to help you decide whether to obtain financial advice from MAS.

Licensing information

Medical Assurance Society New Zealand Limited (FSP35849, trading as MAS) holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide a financial advice service.

Nature and scope of our advice

MAS only provides advice on products offered by its subsidiary companies. Advice is provided by MAS or by its nominated representatives (who are all MAS employees). Those products are:

• General insurance provided by Medical Insurance Society Limited
• Life and disability insurance provided by Medical Life Assurance Society Limited
• Superannuation investments (including KiwiSaver) provided by Medical Funds Management Limited.

We may refer you to one of our external partners for enquiries and advice about lending products (Westpac New Zealand Limited (“Westpac”). We do not provide advice in respect of products offered by Westpac.

We cannot provide advice on your existing insurances or investments held elsewhere. You will need to consult with your existing provider or an independent adviser if you need advice on products offered by other providers.

We do not charge fees for providing financial advice

MAS does not charge fees, expenses, or other amounts for the financial advice provided to its Members, or prospective Members.

Conflicts of interest and incentives

The people who provide advice on behalf of MAS are employees of MAS. They are remunerated by way of salary and do not receive any commissions or material incentives for providing you with financial advice.

Where you are referred to one of our business partners, MAS may receive a commission (or other payment) for any product that you take out with them. Specifically:

• MAS receives a commission from Westpac upon the drawdown of any new loan under the MAS loan package Westpac offers to MAS Members

To ensure that MAS and its staff prioritise your interests we follow an advice process that ensures recommendations are made on the basis of understanding, and being suitable for, your goals and circumstances.

MAS is responsible for the advice provided by any person on its behalf. We carry out regular audits of financial advice provided. The MAS financial advice compliance programme is reviewed annually by our internal compliance team.

Our duties to you 

MAS, and any person who gives financial advice on its behalf, have duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 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 behaviour, conduct and client care set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (these are designed to make sure we follow a process to 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.

Complaints and dispute resolution

If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received from MAS you can make a complaint by contacting the person you have been dealing with, or their manager. You can also call us on 0800 800 627, or put your complaint in writing to MAS, PO Box 13042, Johnsonville, Wellington 6440

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 provide you with updates at least every 20 days throughout this period.
• 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.

Sometimes we can’t resolve complaints to your satisfaction after following our internal complaints process. If this happens you can complain to the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO).

IFSO provides a free, independent dispute resolution service that may help investigate or resolve your complaint.

You can contact IFSO by emailing info@ifso.nz, or by calling 0800 888 202. You can also write to them at: PO Box 10-845, Wellington 6143.