Acceptance of these Terms
By asking us to quote for, administrate and arrange your (re)insurance policy you are providing your agreement to be contractually bound by our Client Agreement (‘this Agreement’).
Who we are
We are ‘Vento’, a trading name of Advent Solutions Management Limited, an insurance intermediary incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 04092670. Our registered office is 4th Floor, 107 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 5JF. Advent Solutions Management Limited (‘OneAdvent’) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and listed on the financial register under number 308751. These details can be referenced on the Financial Services Register here: https://register.fca.org.uk/
Your authority for us to act on your behalf
We will act as your agent in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. This document contains important information, for your own benefit and protection you should read these terms of business carefully before agreeing to them. If you have any questions about these terms of business please raise them with us as soon as possible, otherwise we will assume you are in agreement with them.
Our Insurance Services
We offer a range of insurance products, including Event Cancellation, Public Liability, Employers’ Liability, Property and Money, Professional Indemnity and Directors’ and Officers’ Liability, Travel, Fleet, Personal Accident, Non-Appearance, and Business Interruption.
We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs. We will arrange your (re)insurance cover and assist you with any ongoing changes you need to make during the lifecycle of your policy. We can also assist you with making a claim or we may outsource claims handling facilities to give you an enhanced service. Our authority can also change from time to time for example, if you use our services to apply for (re)insurance we act as your agent but act as the (re)insurers’ agent for passing refunds to you. We will make our personal recommendations to you on the basis of either a fair analysis of the available market or from a panel of insurers carefully selected for their expertise in the particular class of risk. We will advise you of which basis has been used in a Statement of Demands and Needs which will accompany our quotation or coverage documents.
Your duty to provide information
Consumers
If you are a Consumer (any natural person acting for purposes outside of their trade, business or profession), you must take reasonable care not to:
• make a misrepresentation to insurers
• fail to comply with an insurer’s request to confirm or amend information you have previously provided
Failure to comply with this duty may lead to your policy being cancelled or to the insurer not being liable to pay all or part of your claim(s).
Commercial Clients
If you are a commercial customer, you must make a fair presentation to us of the risk which is to be insured. This means you must:
- disclose to us every material circumstance which you know or ought to know or sufficient information to alert us that we need to make further enquiries; and
- disclose the information in a reasonably clear and accessible manner; and
- ensure that any material representation as to
- a matter of fact is substantially correct; and
- a matter of expectation or belief is made in good faith.
A circumstance or representation is material if it would influence the judgement of a prudent insurer in determining whether to take the risk and, if so, on what terms. This duty also extends to any variations or changes you wish to make.
If you fail to make a fair presentation of the risk this could affect the extent of your cover or could invalidate the policy. If you make a deliberate or reckless misrepresentation the insurer will be allowed to void your policy, which means that claims will not be met.
If a misrepresentation is deemed to be not deliberate or reckless then the insurer:
- might avoid the policy and return the premium
- might apply different terms if it would have accepted the risk but on different terms
- might reduce the amount paid on your customer’s claim if it would have accepted the risk but at a higher premium
Product Documentation
You should review the policy documents carefully to ensure they accurately reflect the cover, conditions, limits, and other terms that you require, and what to expect should you need to make a claim. Particular attention should be paid to policy conditions and warranties as failure to comply with these could invalidate your policy. Claims can arise, under certain types of insurance contract, for a period after the expiry of the policy. It is therefore important that you retain and keep safely all documents associated with your policy.
Insurers and Security
We do not guarantee the solvency of any insurer we arrange policies with and whilst we take care to deal with those that maintain reasonable solvency margins in accordance with our market security procedures, we cannot guarantee their financial ability to pay claims.
Notification of Claims
You must ensure that you notify us as soon as possible of any loss, claim or circumstance which may give rise to loss, and you must follow the notification provisions contained within the (re)insurance contract. Failure to notify (re)insurers promptly may entitle them to reject or reduce your claim.
What to do if you have a complaint?
Our aim is to provide the best service possible at all times. Should there be an occasion when we do not meet your expectations, please call us on 020 7648 4350 or contact OneAdvent Complaints Team at complaints@oneadvent.com.
In the unlikely event we cannot resolve the matter to your satisfaction we will promptly acknowledge your complaint in writing and where necessary provide a final response within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint.
Full details of the complaints procedure are available on request. If you have a policy issued by underwriters at Lloyd’s, there will be additional procedures to assist in the resolution of customer complaints which will be set out in the policy documentation.
If you are not happy with our response you may be eligible to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) which can be contacted on 0800 023 4567 or via this link: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us
Are we covered by The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCE). You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations.
Our Renumeration
We may be remunerated for our services in a number of ways, e.g. commission (brokerage), fees, administration fees or for services to insurers. You are entitled at any time to request information regarding any remuneration which we may have received as a result of placing your insurance business with the insurer.
Payment, Premiums and Client Money
OneAdvent is permitted to hold Client Money.
We will give you full information about the payment options before you buy the (re)insurance policy and when (where applicable) we invite renewal.
Premiums we collect from you are held in a Non-Statutory Trust client bank account used for the purpose of holding Client Money in accordance with the FCA’s CASS (Client Assets) rules.
In some instances, we may have agreed in writing with an insurer or reinsurer that we will hold insurance monies as their agent under a risk transfer arrangement. In such cases, premiums paid by you to us will be deemed to have been received by the (re)insurer. Similarly, the (re)insurer will remain liable for any claims or refunds of premium paid to us for onward payment to you until such a time as you receive them.
Where no risk transfer arrangement is in place, we hold all monies on a non-risk transfer basis, which means that when we hold your premiums and claims, we do so as your agent. We are under no obligation to fund any amounts on your behalf and you acknowledge that any funded amount is to be refunded to us immediately and we reserve the right to charge interest on the funded amounts for the duration of the funding.
You may request details of whether or not your (re)insurers allow us risk transfer arrangements by contacting us at any time.
All insurance premiums you pay to us are protected in accounts segregated from OneAdvent’s own monies. We will assume that you consent to us using the accounts in this way unless we hear from you to the contrary in writing. We will remit premium to (re)insurers, after deduction of our commission, in accordance with the terms of our agreements with (re)insurers. We do not pay interest on amounts accrued in the client accounts.
Renewal
Where an insurer offers renewal terms, we will send you your renewal notice in good time before the renewal of your policy and provide you with details of the premium and cover that is being offered.
If you do not provide us with instructions to renew your policy cover, the policy will lapse and there will be no cover in force.
Confidentiality
Each party will treat information received from the other relating to this agreement as confidential and will not disclose it to any other person not entitled to receive such information except as may be necessary to fulfil their respective obligations in the conduct of the insurance business or as may be required by law or a regulatory authority.
Data Protection
We want you to be confident that we take data protection and your privacy seriously. As a regulated company and data controller we are responsible for the security and management of the personal information we hold about an individual. We have systems and processes in place to ensure that the way we collect, use, share, and store your information meets the legal, regulatory and our own standards.
This section describes how Vento and/or OneAdvent collects and uses personal information under this Agreement and in accordance with GDPR and applicable data protection law. If you provide us with information about someone else, we will process their personal information according to this section. Please ensure you provide them with a copy of this notice.
The personal information provided to us and other information obtained from or about you in connection with any insurance business flowing under this policy, will be used by companies within OneAdvent group, your insurers and their group companies, agents and reinsurers for the purposes of insurance operations, which includes the process of underwriting, administration, claims management, insurance analytics, complaints and fraud prevention. Such parties may become data controllers in respect of your personal information. Your (re)insurers may, if operating as part of a global business, transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area for these purposes.
You have certain rights regarding your personal information including the rights to request access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and receipt of Your personal information in a usable electronic format and to transmit it to a third party (right to portability). If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information has been used, please contact OneAdvent at compliance@oneadvent.com
Financial Crime and Sanctions
We are obliged to conduct reasonable due diligence for the protection of ourselves and our clients in respect of all business relationships we enter into. At the commencement of our relationship, we will ask you to provide certain information to allow such due diligence to be carried out.
Neither party shall be involved in any activities which would be in breach of any applicable anti-financial crime laws, including the UK Bribery Act 2010 and Criminal Finances Act 2017. We are obliged to report suspicion of any such breach to the relevant authorities.
We shall not provide any brokerage or agency services nor enter into any financial transaction with any entity or individual which is subject to trade and economic Sanctions or embargos enforced by the European Union, HM Treasury in the UK, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control or any other relevant Sanctions and embargo control authority.
Limitation of Liability
Our aggregate limit of liability arising out of breach of this Agreement (save for fraudulent acts and death or personal injury caused by our negligence), shall be £5,000,000.
Third Party Rights
Other than where it is indicated, nothing in this Agreement shall confer any rights on any person who is not a party to the Agreement.
Law and Jurisdiction
These terms of business shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. In relation to any legal action or proceedings arising out of or in connection with these terms of business we both irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.