Terms of Business

CommShare Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and is bound by the FSA’s rules. We are authorised to offer independent advice on and arrange life assurance, pensions, unit trusts/OEICs and non-investment insurance contracts. However, as we transact business on an “execution-only” and “direct offer” basis, you are advised to seek independent advice elsewhere if you are unsure as to the suitability of any particular investment.

You or your appointed agent have the right to inspect copies of contract notes, vouchers and entries in books or computerised records relating to your transactions. Records of business transactions are kept for at least six years. We are authorised to offer independent financial advice, but occasions can arise where we, or one of our other customers will have some form of interest in business that we transact for you. If this happens, or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other customers conflict with your interests, we will inform you in writing and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions. When we have arranged any investments for which you have given instructions, we will not give you any further advice. We may contact you by telephone during normal business hours in order to discuss your current investments.

We require our clients to give us instructions in writing to avoid possible disputes. We will however, accept oral instructions provided that they are subsequently confirmed in writing.

You, or we, may terminate our authority to act on your behalf, at any time, without penalty. Notice of this termination must be given in writing and will take effect immediately upon receipt of the notice. Termination will not prejudice the completion of transactions already initiated on your behalf or any rights or obligations already arising. We will tell you the amount of commission or any other form of benefit from the issuer of a security or from another intermediary. Where you instruct us to arrange a specific product from a particular insurance company or unit trust/OEIC manager without requiring advice from us, we will offer you reductions in the cost of purchasing such products. We will reinvest or rebate part or all of our initial commission, and where applicable, part of our ongoing renewal commission.

COMMSHARE LTD DOES NOT HANDLE CLIENTS’ MONEY. We never accept a cheque made out to us (unless it is a cheque in settlement of charges or disbursements for which we have sent you a bill/requested in a letter) or handle cash. We will make arrangements for all your investments to be registered in your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. We will forward documents of title to investments to you as soon, as is practicable after we receive them. Where a number of documents relating to a series of transactions is involved, we will normally hold the documents until the series is complete and then forward them to you.

We maintain professional indemnity insurance.

Information that we hold about you will be held on computer and/or in paper files. This information will be used to administer your application, to deal with queries and to bring to your attention additional services and products that may be of benefit to you. The information that you give us may be disclosed to third parties, such as product providers and credit reference agencies for the purpose of processing your application, to our Regulators, the Financial Services Authority, and to our Compliance Advisers. It will also enable further services to be provided to you, and so that your details can be best matched with the services available. You may ask us not to contact you about additional services and products by writing to us. In the course of providing our financial services we will not be acting contractually for you.

As a result of the implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive we will treat you as a Retail Client unless we agree with you otherwise. Retail clients have the highest level of protections under the new regime.

These Terms of Business will come into effect when provided to you.

If you do not understand any point please ask for further information.