Commisions & fees
Our Remuneration
Where a specific product is recommended, we, SMP Financial LTD, act as intermediary (broker) between you, the consumer, and the product provider with whom we place your business.
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You can view and download our maximum commission summary document by clicking here.
The Background
Pursuant to provision 4.58A of the Central Bank of Ireland’s September 2019 Addendum to the Consumer Protection Code, all intermediaries, must make available in their public offices, or on their website if they have one, a summary of the details of all arrangements for any fee, commission, other reward or remuneration provided to the intermediary which it has agreed with its product producers.
What is Remuneration?
Remuneration is the payment earned by the intermediary for work undertaken on behalf of both the provider and the consumer. The amount of remuneration is generally directly related to the value of the products sold.
What is Commission?
Commission is payment that may be earned by an intermediary for work undertaken for both provider and consumer.
There are different types of remuneration and different commission models:
Single commission model: where payment is made to the intermediary shortly after the sale is completed and is based on a percentage of the premium paid/amount invested/amount borrowed.
Trail/Renewal commission model: Further payments at intervals are paid throughout the life span of the product, this covers continuing service, ad-hoc advice and reviews. These may also remunerate us for the initial cost of advice where an upfront commission would have been inappropriate (eg necessitating a reduced allocation rate).
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Indemnity Commission
Indemnity commission is the term used to describe a commission payment made before the commission is deemed to be ‘earned’. Indemnity commission may be subject to a clawback (see below) if the consumer lapses or cancels the product before the commission is deemed to be earned.
Other forms of indemnity commission are advances of commission for future sales granted to intermediaries in order to assist with set up costs or business development.
Life Assurance/Investments/Pension Products
For Life Assurance products commission is divided into initial commission and renewal commission (related to premium), fund based or trail (relating to accumulated fund).
Trail commission, bullet commission, fund based, flat commission or renewal commission are all terms used for ongoing payments. Where an investment fund is being built up though an insurance-based investment product or a pension product, the increments may be based on a percentage of the value of the fund or the annual premium. For a single premium/lump sum product, the increment is generally based on the value of the fund.
Life Assurance products fall into either individual or group protection policies and Investment/Pension products would be either single or regular contribution policies. Examples of products include Life Protection, Regular Premium Life Assurance Investments, Single Premium (lump sum) Insurance-based Investments, and Single Premium Pensions.
Fees
In certain circumstances, it will be necessary to charge a fee for services provided. These are listed below for life, pensions & investments, non-life business and Standard PRSAs. In other circumstances where fees are chargeable or where you choose to pay in full for our service by fee, we will notify you in writing in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged if different from fees outlined below.
If we receive commission from a product provider, this may/will be offset against the fee which we will charge you. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission may become the amount payable to the firm unless an arrangement to the contrary is made.
Life, Pensions & Life-wrapped Investment Fees
In some circumstances we may recommend, or you may prefer to deal with us on an hourly fee basis.
These fees are as follows, and will be agreed in advance:
Directors €250
Senior Advisers €175
Associates €125
Admin €60
Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency, our scale of fees for such cases range from a minimum of €175 per hour to a maximum of €300 per hour. We will notify you in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged.
Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) – Fees
Where advice is requested for PRSAs, the following hourly fees will apply:
Advisor fees: €175 per hour.
Admin: €55 per hour.
Clawback
Clawback is an obligation on the intermediary to repay unearned commission. Commission can be paid directly after a contract is concluded but is not deemed to be ‘earned’ until after a specified period of time. If the consumer cancels or withdraws from the financial product within the specified time, the intermediary must return commission to the product producer.
Other Fees, Administrative Costs/ Non-Monetary Benefits
The firm may also be in receipt of other fees, administrative costs, or non-monetary benefits such as:
Attendance at product provider seminars
Promotional items such as calendars
Below is list of the providers that our firm deals with, clicking on each provider will allow you to view their commission rates , these rates are also disclosed in your statement of suitability:
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Canada Life Assurance (Ireland) Limited – now part of Irish Life
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Friends First Life Assurance Company Limited - now part of Aviva Life & Pensions
Inheritance planning
Our standard inheritance planning session is charged at €950. This will suffice for the vast majority of clients. For more complex cases we will agree a fee in advance. Please also allow for implementation costs which will at a minimum entail meeting with your solicitor to update your will.
Pension and investment business
On fee based investment and pension business we charge based on our standard schedule of fees and charges. We charge an on-boarding fee based on a percentage of assets you place under advisement with SMP. We also charge an ongoing fee for continuing service, ad-hoc advice and review. These are set out below:
