Licensing Information

In certain situations, we may choose to charge you a service fee for financial advice we provide you, including where an upfront commission is not offered, or only a reduced commission is offered, by the product provider your loan or insurance will be sourced through.

Of course, if you do choose to take out a mortgage, you will need to make the loan repayments, along with the other costs associated with getting a mortgage, like legal fees and insurance.

The same applies to insurance taken out through us in that you will need to pay your premiums along with any other insurance related expenses.

If an insurance policy is cancelled before expiry by you, we will work with your insurer to refund any premium you have already paid.

If you repay or refinance any loan, or cancel or switch your insurance provider within a specified time period (“clawback period”), we may have to make a payment to the product provider to reimburse them some of the commission they have paid us (“commission clawback”). This fee is based on a sliding scale.

To ensure that Opes Mortgages is fairly compensated for the services originally provided to you, we may seek to recover some or all of this cost from you as a clawback recovery fee.We will provide more detail on this fee once we have identified the nature and scope of advice we will provide you.

Opes Mortgages accept no liability for losses arising as a result or consequence of the cancellation of insurance due to non-payment of premium.

Our advisers provide financial advice about mortgages and insurances provided by the following product providers:

Mortgages:

• AIA GO Home Loans
• ANZ
• ASAP Finance
• ASB
• Avanti Finance
• Bank of China New Zealand Limited
• Basecorp Finance
• Bluestone Mortgages
• BNZ
• Cressida Capital
• DBR Property Financiers
• First Mortgage Trust
• Funding Partners
• KiwiBank
• Liberty
• Lock Finance
• Unity (Formerly NZCU)
• Pepper Money
• Plus Finance
• Resimac
• SBS Bank
• Southern Cross
• Spotcap
• The Cooperative Bank
• TSB
• Westpac

Insurance:

• Accuro
• AIA
• Partners Life
• Fidelity Life
• Asteron Life
• nib
• Chubb

Mortgage Commissions:

If you decide to take out a loan through us, Opes Mortgages Limited will receive a commission from the lender that you choose. The amount of this commission is dependent on the lender and the amount of your loan. This commission is paid to us upon settlement of your loan. Your adviser is remunerated through wages paid by Opes Mortgages Limited, and also partially through the commissions that they help generate. Advisers receive a set percentage of the commission Opes Mortgages Limited receives as a result of the advice they give. We will provide more details about our commissions once we have talked to you and understand your financial needs.

Insurance Commissions:

If you decide to take out insurance through us, Opes Mortgages Limited will receive a commission from the insurer that you choose. The amount of this commission is dependent on the insurer and the amount of your policy. This commission is paid to us upon issue of your policy. Your adviser is remunerated through wages paid by Opes Mortgages Limited, and also partially through the commissions that they help generate. Advisers receive a set percentage of the commission Opes Mortgages Limited receives as a result of the advice they give. We will provide more details about our commissions once we have talked to you and understand your financial needs.

Related companies:

As well our mortgage and insurance advice business, our shareholders also have interests in the following other property related businesses:

• Property management businesses (Venture Management South Island Limited and Venture Management North Island Limited)
• A real estate business (Opes Licensee Services Limited t/a Opes Property)
• A property coaching business (Opes Partners New Zealand Limited)
• A property accounting business (Momentum Property Limited)
• Investment magazines – Informed Investor & NZ Property Investor (Opes Media Limited)

We may refer you to these companies as part of our recommendations – if you are getting a mortgage, often you may need help with some of these property services that our related companies can offer. However, Opes Mortgages will not receive any referral fee or commission if you do decide to use these services. Though of course, whether you choose to use one of these companies is entirely your choice.

Other conflicts:

Some product providers may provide our company and advisers with certain non-monetary benefits that support our business, such as subsidised training for our advisers. These benefits may also include bottles of wine during Christmas, tickets to sponsored events, or the occasional meal.

To ensure our advisers prioritise our clients' interests:

• We follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made appropriately, based on clients' goals and circumstances.
• All our advisers undergo annual training about how to manage conflicts of interest.
• We maintain registers of conflicts of interests and the gifts and incentives we receive. These registers are monitored regularly, and additional training is provided as required.
• We do not receive any commission or referral fee if you do decide to use the services of one of our related companies.
• We undertake an annual independent Compliance Assurance Review.

If you are not satisfied with our service or financial advice, please tell us as soon as possible.

Call: 0800 676 737

Email: [email protected]

Write to: Level 2, 236 High Street, Christchurch 8011

When we receive a complaint:

• We will consider your complaint and let you know how we intend to resolve it. Where possible, we try to resolve your complaint immediately.
• If we are unable to resolve your complaint immediately, we will acknowledge your complaint within 2 business days. We may contact you to get further information about your complaint.
• We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them. If we need more time to investigate your complaint, we will let you know when you can expect to receive a response to your complaint.
• We will contact you by phone, email or letter to let you know whether we can resolve your complaint and how we propose to do so.
• If we cannot agree on how to fix the issue, you can contact our external disputes resolution scheme, Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL). FSCL provides a free and independent dispute resolution service that may help to resolve your complaint.

To contact FSCL:

Call: 0800 347 257

Email: [email protected]

Visit: www.fscl.org.nz

Opes Mortgages and our advisers have duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 relating to the way that we give advice.

We are required to:

• Give priority to your interests
• Exercise care, diligence, and skill
• Meet standards of competence, knowledge and skill set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services
• Meet standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services.