FINANCIAL SERVICES AND CREDIT GUIDE
IMPORTANT
This Financial Services and Credit Guide (“FSCG”) is an important document that provides you with information about us to help you decide whether to use the financial and credit services that we provide. The preparation and distribution of this FSCG has been authorised by Baldry Financial Services Pty Ltd Trading as BFG Financial Services (“BFG”), also referred to as “we” or “us”.
This FSCG contains information on:
- who we are;
- the financial and credit services and products you can receive;
- how we, your financial adviser (and our associates) are paid and any conflicts that may exist;
- details of how to get advice and give instructions;
- how you can make a complaint about us, and
- what we can do and what we expect from you.
Our financial advisers, who are employees of BFG, offer the financial and credit services referred to in this FSCG. For further details on your financial adviser, who is one of our financial advisers, please refer to the “Your Adviser” flyer attached. For Initial Advice, we will provide you with a Statement of Advice (SoA) whenever we provide any personal advice to you. The SoA will contain the advice, the basis of the advice, information about fees, commissions, and associations we have that may influence the advice we provide to you. In some instances where advice is simple and of a small amount, we may provide you with a Record of Advice (RoA). If you require further advice, your financial adviser must ensure that your personal circumstances and the basis on which the original advice was given have not significantly changed. Therefore, your financial adviser may need to check your circumstances again prior to providing any further advice.
A record of this further advice will be kept for seven years. You may request a copy of the RoA from your financial adviser.
We are not required to provide you with a SoA or a RoA where the advice relates to certain basic deposit products, non-cash payment facilities or other approved financial products.
We will also provide you with an offer document, such as a Product Disclosure Statement or investment report if we:
- Make a recommendation to you to acquire a particular financial product; or
- Issue or arrange the issue of a financial product to you.
The offer document or investment report will contain information about the particular financial product to help you to make an informed decision about that financial product. The offer document or investment report will inform you about the features, costs, risks and benefits of the recommended financial product as well as other information that you may need to know before you decide to acquire the financial product.
For loan products, you will be given documents that explain the product’s features, the terms and conditions applying to the product and any fees and charges that are payable.
If you do not wish to receive our advice, we may deal on your behalf by carrying out your instructions.
If you do not obtain advice, you face the risk that the financial products that you select
may not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs.
CREDIT ASSISTANCE
In some circumstances, we may provide you with credit assistance; that is, we may suggest that you apply for a particular consumer credit contract or lease or increase your credit limit in a particular contract / lease, if it is suitable.
We must not provide you with credit assistance where we have assessed a particular contract as being unsuitable for you. Our assessment of suitability will be detailed in your SoA or RoA. To make this assessment, we must make reasonable enquiries about your requirements and objectives for the credit contract or credit limit increase. We must also make reasonable enquiries about your financial situation and take reasonable steps to verify this information.
Your Questions and Answers
- YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISER
a) Who is my financial adviser?
Please refer to the “Your Adviser” flyer for details of your financial adviser.
2. BEFORE YOU USE OUR SERVICES
BFG complies with Section 923A of the Corporations Act. The licensee provides independent advice because it does not take commissions or incentives of any kind, does not have any ownership or influence by any financial institution, and does not have a restricted product list.
a) Who will provide the financial and credit services referred to in this FSCG?
BFG is responsible for the financial and credit services provided, including the distribution of this FSCG.
Our details are as follows:
| Office: | Level 2 |
| 2 Banfield Road | |
| Macquarie Park NSW 2113 | |
| ABN: | 20 080 173 655 |
| Telephone: | (02) 8286 0000 |
| Postal Address: | PO Box 1464, Macquarie Centre NSW 2113 |
| Internet Address: | www.bfg.net.au |
| Australian Financial Services and Australian Credit Licence Number: | 237235 |
| Professional memberships: | Member of CPA Australia |
Importantly, we will provide the financial and credit services directly through our financial advisers.
b) What kinds of financial services are you authorised to provide and what kinds of financial
products do those financial services relate to?
We are authorised under our Australian Financial Services Licence to provide certain financial services.
These financial services include dealing in and providing financial advice regarding the following financial products:
- Deposit and payment products including transaction accounts, investment accounts and term deposits;
- Debentures, stocks or bonds issued or proposed to be issued by governmental bodies, corporations and other entities;
- Interests in managed investment schemes and wholesale funds;
- Retirement savings accounts;
- Securities, including shares;
- Standard margin lending facilities;
- Superannuation products; and
- Insurance products including life risk products.
c) What kinds of credit services are you authorised to provide?
We are authorised under our Australian Credit Licence to provide certain credit services.
These credit services permit us to engage in credit activities other than as a credit provider, and relate to:
- Credit contracts;
- Consumer leases; and
- Mortgages,
And more specifically, to provide services under our Australian Credit Licence relating to:
- Residential mortgages and home loans;
- Personal loans;
- Vehicle loans;
- Credit cards;
- Overdrafts; and
- Car leases.
d) Who do you act for when you provide financial and credit services?
We will act on our own behalf in the provision of the financial and credit services referred to in this FSCG.
e) How do you and my financial adviser get paid for the financial and credit services provided?
When we provide financial and credit services to you, certain fees are charged for providing these services. The amount of the fees charged obviously depends on the nature of those financial and credit services.
Initial Fees charged for the preparation of the SoA are quoted and paid for prior to us proceeding to prepare our advice. Other fees charged for implementation of advice and ongoing service are estimated before the preparation of the SoA is undertaken.
Your SoA will set out the final amount of fees we charge as well as any conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of the financial and credit services provided, including any financial product recommendations made to you.
From time to time, we and your financial adviser may also receive other benefits from product issuers such as sponsorship of conferences or subsidised training. As a member of CPA Australia, we maintain an Alternate Forms of Remuneration Register.
The Register which can be reviewed by contacting us, outlines some alternative forms of remuneration that we may receive from fund managers.
In addition, where you invest in certain financial products based on a Product Disclosure Statement describing each financial product, fees will be charged by the issuer of the financial product. The Product Disclosure Statement will set out in detail these fees.
Our financial advisers are paid a salary. The payment of a general bonus may be considered if the company reaches overall budgeted profit. The payment of this bonus does not relate to individual performance. As shareholders, Suzanne Haddan and Broderick Knowles are entitled to receive dividends that may be payable from time to time.
f) What specific charges will you be paid for the financial and credit services provided?
Our fees charged generally include the following:
- When you require personal financial product advice or credit services, a fee may be charged, based on the time involved, the expertise required and, the level of responsibility and complexity of the advice required. For the preparation and implementation of the advice the fees charged by us to you would generally be between $9,400 (incl. GST) and $21,600 (incl. GST).
- When you do not require personal financial product advice or credit services, you may be charged a fee ranging from $500 to $670 per hour when non-specific budgeting or structural advice is provided;
- When you choose to use our fixed term service, we will charge a fee which is explained in the SoA, this fee is generally between $8,500 p.a. (incl. GST) and $32,000 p.a. (incl. GST).
Any commission received from a fund manager or financial institution is rebated to you. We shall let you know if any other fees are charged to you.
g) What about risk insurance?
Whenever we recommend that you purchase an insurance policy, the insurance company will pay a commission to us from which you acquire the insurance policy.
The amount of the commission will depend on:
- The particular insurance company that issues that insurance policy; and
- The premium you pay for the insurance policy and will generally be a fixed percentage of the premium paid. This can range from 22% to 66% of the premium paid by you.
- We rebate all commission received to you.
h) Do you have any related services that may influence the advice?
BFG offer accounting and self-managed super fund administration services under the same entity that owns and provides the financial and credit services of the Australian Financial Services Licence and Australian Credit Licence.
Your adviser may recommend you use the related services of BFG if it is appropriate for your circumstances. Where you are referred to a related service by your adviser and take up the services your adviser does not receive any direct remuneration or benefit as a result of these referrals but the Directors of BFG do share in profits from their shareholding in BFG.
i) Will you pay anyone if they refer me to you?
We do not pay any referral fees in respect of any clients.
- WHAT WE DO AND EXPECT OF YOU
a) Are there any restrictions on what you can do?
For your own protection, we will not do any of the following:
- Ask you to sign blank documents;
- Act as your attorney or authorised signatory;
- Act on your behalf, unless we are specifically authorised to do so; and
- Advise you in relation to financial products which are not rated by us.
b) Is there anything that I should or should not do?
You should do the following:
- Give us complete, up to date and accurate details of your personal objectives, financial situation and needs;
- Keep us informed of any changes in your personal situation; and
- Use our advice to make your financial decisions.
For your own protection, you should not:
- Sign any blank forms;
- Appoint any financial adviser as your attorney or authorised signatory;
- Appoint any other person as your attorney or authorised signatory unless you have received legal advice; and
- Give us unclear or misleading instructions or false information.
- WHEN YOU GET OUR ADVICE
a) Will I be given advice and, if so, will your advice address my personal objectives, financial situation and needs?
In all cases where you seek financial product advice from your financial adviser, we will make reasonable enquiries about your relevant personal circumstances in order to fully understand your personal objectives, financial situation and needs.
The advice that your financial adviser provides will always be provided to you in writing in the SoA, unless it is further advice as outlined earlier.
However, you have the right not to tell us information about yourself if you do not wish to, but still require your financial adviser to provide you with personal financial product advice
In these cases, the SoA will contain a specific warning that draws your attention to the risks of not providing full information about yourself. The warning will state that if you do not give your financial adviser accurate and complete information relating to your personal circumstances, the advice you receive may not meet your intended objectives and that your financial adviser has not been able to determine whether the advice is appropriate.
Therefore, before acting on any advice you receive, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice and read carefully the warnings contained in the SoA before making any decision relating to the advice.
In all cases where your financial adviser provides an SoA to you and a recommendation is included in the SoA for you to acquire a financial product, an investment report for that financial product will be provided to you.
It is important that you read and understand the document before implementing any recommendation made in the SoA. Your financial adviser will readily explain any part of this document, which you do not understand.
If you do not wish to receive our advice, we may still act on your instructions to deal in financial products
However:
- you face the risk that the financial product you select may not be appropriate for you, and
- we will require you to sign a document which records your intention not to seek advice from us for the particular financial product(s).
b) Providing us with instructions
You can contact us directly with any instructions relating to your financial products. This includes giving us instructions via telephone, mail or email using the contact details provided in this Guide.
c) What information do you keep in my file and can I examine my file?
We keep a record of your personal profile that includes, if you provide them, details of your objectives, financial situation and needs. We also keep records of any financial product recommendations we make to you.
As a financial service provider, we have an obligation under the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Finance Act to verify your identity and the source of funds. This means that we will ask you to present identification documents such as passports and drivers licence. We will also retain copies of this information.
We will ensure the privacy and security of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, a copy of which can be provided on request. You may access your personal information we hold about you at any time in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
d) When will a credit contract be unsuitable?
A credit contract will be unsuitable if:
- The credit contract does not meet your needs and objectives.
- It is likely that you will be unable to comply with your financial obligations under the credit contract; or
- It is likely that you will only comply with your financial obligations under the credit contract with substantial hardship.
- IF YOU HAVE ANY COMPLAINTS
a) What can I do if I have a complaint?
If you have a complaint about any of the financial or credit services provided to you by your financial adviser, you should first contact your financial adviser who provided the service to you.
If the complaint is not satisfactorily resolved by your financial adviser within two (2) business days of making the complaint, you should contact us at the address set out below:
| In writing: | Complaints Officer |
| BFG Financial Services | |
| PO Box 1464, Macquarie Centre NSW 2113 | |
| Telephone: | (02) 8286 0000 |
When we receive your complaint, it will be entered in our complaints database. All details of the complaint will be sent to our Complaints Officer who will investigate the circumstances of the complaint.
If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, (AFCA).
AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.
| AFCA Website: | www.afca.org.au |
| Email: | info@afca.org.au |
| Telephone: | 1800 931 678 (free call) – select Option 1 |
| In writing to: | Australian Financial Complaints Authority |
| GPO Box 3 | |
| MELBOURNE VIC 3001 |
You can also make a complaint to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) at any time by contacting the infoline on 1300 300 630.
There is no charge to you for accessing the services offered by the above organisations.
b) What kind of compensation arrangements are in place and are these arrangements complying?
Baldry Financial Services Pty Ltd confirms that it has arrangements in place to ensure it continues to maintain Professional Indemnity insurance in accordance with the law. In particular our Professional Indemnity insurance, subject to its terms and conditions, provides indemnity up to the Sum Insured for Baldry Financial Services Pty Ltd and our representatives / employees in respect of our authorisations and obligations under our Australian Financial Services Licence and Australian Credit Licence. This insurance will continue to provide such coverage for any representative / employee who has ceased work with Baldry Financial Services Pty Ltd for work done whilst engaged with us.
A copy of this document can be found on our website at www.bfg.net.au.
Should you require additional copies of this document or have any further questions about the financial and credit services which BFG and our financial advisers provide, please call BFG Client Advisory Services on
(02) 8286 0000.
Please retain this document for your reference and any future dealings with BFG.
