披露義務
您有義務向保險人充分披露您知道或可能合理地知道的所有相關事實，資料及/或情況，以使保險人能夠準確地判斷實際承擔的風險。這義務在整個保險期內持續不變。
不披露或任何欺詐性的虛假陳述可能會導致保單自起保日失效。
承認或承擔責任或放棄任何分攤權或彌償權
在保單生效之前或之後，如果您未經保險人同意而承認或承擔責任或同意或免除責任人對你應賠償的損失或放棄任何分攤權或彌償權或保單所涵蓋的任何部分或全部不承擔任何責任損失，此類損失將不受保障。
被保險人代位權協議
若貴司是協議方 ，如果協議含排除或限制單對任何損失的責任，該協議排除或限制你就該損失向第三方追討賠償的權利，簽署此類協議可能會令致貴司的保單有失。
索賠通知和評估
貴司必須立即將可能引起索賠的任何事件通知我司或保險人。 在未獲得保險人的書面同意之前，貴司不得私下妥協或承認責任。你必須遵守保單中有關報告和處理索賠的條款，否則可能導致貴司的索賠失效。 在收到貴司的索賠通知後，我司將對該索賠進行評估並主動與各方處理貴司的索賠。
個人信息收集聲明
我司收集的個人信息用於代表你去安排保險和處理索賠。根據法律要求或允許，我司會傳遞給其他保險中介機構，保險公司，再保險公司，理賠師，顧問，代理商，推薦人，我司的關聯公司/合作夥伴/分包商以及相關之監管機構或政府。
但未經您的同意，我司不會將你的個人資料善自發放。
隱私聲明
我司根據相關法律和法規傳達和執行我司的隱私和安全準則。我司不會出於任何目的向任何人透露您的個人資料。只有需要知情的授權人員才能訪問或處理你的個人資料。我司只會將你的個人資料按相關部門的規定保留在我們的業務記錄中。
CLIENT’S AGREEMENT AND TERMS OF BUSINESS
We, Newstate Stenhouse Limited (hereinafter referred as “we”, “us” and “our”) are a member of the Hong Kong Confederation of insurance Brokers registered in Hong Kong since 1975, licensed and regulated by Hong Kong Insurance Authority under (#FB1001).
This Client Agreement and Terms of business is to establish with you, as a client, the basis on which we and our claim correspondent, act as agent for and on your behalf. Our licensed technical representatives (broker) are responsible for providing insurance advice to you, negotiating and placing insurance and; our claim correspondent is responsible for submitting, negotiating and resolving claims for you in accordance to your instructions.
“insurance”, includes contracts of surety or guarantee and other risk transfer products. “Insurers” includes any insurer, coinsurer, reinsurer or other category of risk bearer.
“claim” includes an incident which may give rise to a claim, as appropriate to the insurance.
CODE OF CONDUCT
We strive to present the best interests of our clients and provide expert and impartial advice according to the relevant authority’s Codes of Conduct.
We adhere to and comply with all applicable laws, rules, regulations and accounting standards in our own activities.
We act in your best interests at all times in providing services to you.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Proposal Form or Questionnaire
For certain classes of insurance, you may be required to complete a proposal form or questionnaire. We will provide you guidance but we are not able to complete the document for you.
Disclosure of Information
Insurers are not obliged to make enquiries of you. You are ordinarily under a duty to make full disclosure of all material facts and fully and frankly respond to any requests for information made by insurers. Failure to make full disclosure of material facts may allow insurers to avoid liability for a particular claim or to void the contract. Where applicable, this duty of disclosure applies equally during the insured period, at renewal of the contracts and on taking out new insurance contracts. We will not be responsible for any consequences which may arise from any delayed, inaccurate or incomplete information, or any misrepresentation made by you, your dependents, employees or representatives or agents.
All information which are material to the coverage requirements or which might influent insurers in deciding to accept your business, finalizing the terms to apply and/or the cost of cover must be disclosed.
Your Policy
You are responsible for reviewing the evidence of insurance cover to confirm that it accurately reflects the terms, restrictions, exclusions and conditions that you require. Particular attention should be paid to any policy conditions and warranties, as failure to comply may invalidate your coverage and the claims notification provisions.
Payment of Premium
You are responsible for premium and any applicable taxes, duties, levies or charges. You should review and pay insurance premium on time or your insurers reserve the right to terminate your insurance policy or in null for non-payment of premium without notice. We are under no obligation to pay insurance premium to insurers on your behalf.
Provision of Information
All activities undertaken by us as outlined in this document are provided by us for your exclusive use and all data, recommendations, proposals, reports and other information provided by us in connection with our services are for your sole use. You agree not to permit access by any third party to this information without our express written permission. We reserve our right to take action to protect proprietary information.
OUR SERVICES
Negotiating & Placing Insurance
We will discuss with you, gather and collate of relevant material risk information from you and get quotes from insurers on your behalf.
We may use other local or overseas insurance intermediaries to act on our behalf to place insurance if we consider it is appropriate and to your benefit but remain responsible for the services which we and the insurance intermediaries provide.
We will advise you of the terms, restrictions, exclusions and conditions proposed by Insurers and answer any questions you may have to enable you making an informed decision. We will incept, renew, extend, amend and cancel insurance on your behalf and e-mail you with quotation, notice, policy, endorsement and billing thereafter. You should check to ensure that insurance policy matches with your instructions and advise us if otherwise.
Selection & Security of Insurers
We use our best endeavours to recommend insurer(s) based on their financial standing, product coverage, knowledge, knowhow of the relevant market sector and claim experience and services.
We accept no responsibility for the financial standing of any insurer proposed and will not in any circumstances be responsible, guarantee or warrant in the event that they are unable for whatever reason to meet their obligations to you. As a consequence, the choice and decision regarding suitability of any insurer rests with you.
Claims
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the remuneration we earn is placing insurance for you; submitting, negotiating and resolving claim for you, collecting claim settlement from insurers by our claim correspondent until we satisfied that you have instructed another entity to assume our claims servicing or our appointment to act as your agent is terminated. Unless subject to mutual agreement and separate fee, claims services can be continued thereafter or you are assumed responsibility for handling, negotiating, resolving and settling any and all of your claim matters.
Our claim correspondent reserves the right to charge a separate claims service fee for negotiating and resolving complicate claims with insurer(s) for you. However, our claim correspondent or us will not and cannot take over conduct of your claim or guarantee or warranty claim result.
You are responsible for notifying us about incident(s) or potential circumstance(s) that may give rise to a claim. For your interests and benefits, you should familiarize yourself with the insurance coverage, terms, restrictions, exclusions, conditions and claim notification requirements. Failure to adhere to the notification requirements in time, as set out in the policy or other coverage document, may entitle insurers, (co)insurers and/or (re)insurers to deny your claim. It is your responsibility to disclose all facts which are material to the claim.
Claims may become unenforceable by way of legal proceedings if they are not pursued by legal proceedings in time. It is your responsibility to observe, monitor and commence legal proceedings within the relevant limitation period applying to your claim in the jurisdiction in question where this is necessary.
It is also your responsibility to enter into “standstill” or “tolling” agreements in order to suspend the application relevant limitation periods, where this is desirable. We will not commence legal proceedings or enter into standstill or tolling agreements on your behalf, nor will we advise you if and when to do so.
We do not offer advice about tax, accounting, regulatory (including FACTC, sanctions) or legal matters and you should take separate advice as you consider necessary regarding such matters.
OUR REMUERUATION & OTHER INCOME
We are remunerated for its services by the receipt of remuneration paid by Insurers. We and our claim correspondent may also receive additional fee, expenses, allowance, renumeration, commissions, share from insurers arising from placing, co-broking, reinsuring and handling claim of our overall business and services.
Your agreement to proceed with any insurance transaction shall constitute your consent to the receipt of such remuneration by us and by claim correspondent and will/may share with third party insurance intermediate or referrer (as the case may be).
In the ordinary course of business, we may receive interest on client and insurer monies before settling to those due to receive them. We shall retain that interest rather than paying it to you or the insurer (as the case may be).
ADDITIONAL CHARGES
We reserve the right to charge you for certain administrative services we undertake on your behalf, including but not limited to:
- for the issue of a [hard copy] of our invoice to you
- for any reminder letters we send you
- the production and printing of insurance certificates
- the issue of our own policies of insurance
Should there be any changes to the information as specified in items 1 to 4 above, we will notify you by e-mail without executing a new client agreement.
PAYMENT TERMS & METHODS
Our remuneration for placing insurance is considered fully earned when the insurance is incepted, irrespective of when the insurance premium is payable to the Insurers, and are not refundable in the event of cancellation or early termination of the insurance.
Payment by cheque is to be crossed and made payable to Newstate Stenhouse Limited.
Payment by remittance is to include bank charges at remitting and receiving bank. Same currency and full amount of insurance premium are to be credited to us. We will not responsible for or absorb any exchange deficiency or bank charges incurred or any other reasons resulting short receipt of full insurance premium by us or return of remittance.
DBS Bank Hong Kong Ltd.
Bank address: 16/F, The Center, 99 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong
Bank Code: 016
account number: 478-783190885 (HKD) 478-000537896 (USD)
SWIFT code: DHBKHKHH
Payment to or in trust of others (including your referrer) is not deemed to be received by us.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATOINS
We communicate e-mail with you, Insurers, referrers and other parties to provide services to you. We and you accept the inherent risks (including the security risks of interception of or unauthorised access to such communications, the risks of corruption of such communications and the risks of viruses or other harmful devices). Notwithstanding that we have reasonable virus checking procedures on our system, you will be responsible for virus checking all electronic communications sent to you and that e-mail received are complete. We accept no responsibility of information sent by you to us or vice versa by e-mail is incomplete or corrupted or with virus. In the event of a dispute, neither of us will challenge the legal evidential standing of an electronic document and our system shall be deemed the definitive record of electronic communications and documentation.
You should also be aware that our systems security devices block certain file extensions, including but not limited to the followings. Emails attaching such files will not get through to us and no message will be sent to telling you that they have been blocked.
.rar, .text, .vbs, .mpeg, .mp3, .cmd, .cpl, .wav, .exe, .bat, .scr, .mpg, .avi, .com, .pif, .wma and .mpg.
DATA PROTECTION & CONFIDENTIALITY
We treat all client information as private and confidential and will not disclose any confidential information about you to others without your prior consent except: (i) to the extent we are required to do so by law or a regulator; (ii) to insurers, surveyors, claim correspondent, loss adjustors, and other like persons to the extent necessary to provide our services to you (iii) to loss assessors, lawyers, and other like persons to the extent necessary to enable such third party to provide information or services you have requested; (iv) to premium finance or collection companies to the extent necessary to provide payment choices or collecting payment for us; and (v) to affiliated and non-affiliated service providers that support our business operation to the extent necessary to provide our services to you or to ensure the effective management, administration, and operation of our business.
We will treat your ‘personal data’ at all times in accordance with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap 486), and you agree that we may hold and process such information in accordance with the Ordinance.
You will also ensure that any such information you do provide to us is relevant for such purposes, and is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete and current.
We operate a paperless office system. We destroy any hard copy document that come into our possession after digested. You recognize that we may only ever be able to provide you digitized versions of any document that we hold on your behalf and you accept that we will not be able to destroy such documents that have become incorporated onto our hard drives or any other electronic data storage system only for the purpose of disaster recovery even you wish us to destroy or expunge your digitized document from our system.
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
We seek to avoid conflicts of interest but where conflict is unavoidable, we will refrain from performing unless you have agreed otherwise in writing.
Where we act as agent for two or more clients involved in the same or a related loss situation, we will advise the clients involvement of our conflicting interests (if any) and segregate the claim handling functions provided to each of the involved clients and seek for the clients consent before proceeding.
CLIENT MONEY
Client money is held separately from our own money.
We do not pay premium to underwriters on your behalf until we have received it from you, nor will we pay claim or other monies due to you before they have been received from underwriters (or other relevant third party). However, in the event that we make any payment on your behalf or make any payment to you prior to our receipt of relevant funds from either yourself, underwriters or other third party, we shall be entitled without prejudice to any other remedy available, to recover that amount by way of deducting that sum from any amount due to you, whether on the insurance upon which we’ve made payment to you or on your behalf, or on any other insurance we handle for you.
ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING
The Anti-money laundering regulations requires our clients to confirm their identity when checking details on proposal forms and transferring claims payments. We are prohibited from disclosing to you any report we may make based on knowledge or suspicion of money laundering, including the fact that such a report has been made.
We will identify, verify and protect our clients and ourselves against fraud and other crime. Client information can be used to prevent crime and trace those who is/are responsible. We may check your details against financial crime databanks. If false or inaccurate information is alarmed, we are obliged to pass such details to relevant regulators.
FATCA
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a U.S. law aimed at foreign financial institutions and other financial intermediaries to prevent tax evasion by U.S. citizens and residents through offshore accounts.
Please consult your tax adviser for full details of FATCA.
SANCTIONS
The applicability of sanctions regimes and Export Control legislation are complex, we are unable in any circumstances to give you legal or regulatory advice, nor can we guarantee or otherwise warrant the position of any insurer under existing or future sanctions regimes. Applicable sanctions and export control remain a matter for you and you should take such legal advice in this regard. You should inform us of any insurance requirements you have which touch upon or are linked to sanctioned territories.
We will comply with all applicable sanctions regimes and legislation (whether currently existing or implemented in the future) and you are advised that where obliged by applicable sanctions regimes and Export Control legislation we may have to take certain actions which include but may not be limited to:
- freezing the account concerned; and/or
- refusing to handle or administer a claim which would benefit (directly or indirectly) a sanctioned entity or person, subject to exemption or obtaining a licence (which we might not get); or
- refusing to administer the renewal of an existing insurance contract which would benefit (directly or indirectly) a sanctioned entity or person, subject to exemption or obtaining a licence (which we might not get).
We cannot be held or assumed with responsible for the actions of third parties (including but not limited to banks and exchange institutions) who may have their own sanctions policy restrictions and constraints.
LIIMITATOIN OF LIABILITY
If we, our claim correspondent and/or our affiliate’s (its holding companies, subsidiaries, associates or subsidiary undertakings of any such holding companies) are liable to you in respect of any losses, liabilities, damages, costs, expenses or claims arising out of or in connection with the Services (collectively “Losses”) and (subject to the following paragraph) any other person is liable to you in respect of some or all of the same Losses (on any basis), our liability and that of our claim correspondent and Affiliates in respect of such Losses shall be limited so as to be proportionate to the relative contribution of ourselves and our claim correspondent and Affiliates having regard to the extent of responsibility of such other person for those Losses.
In determining the existence and extent of the responsibility of such other person for Losses for the purposes of the preceding paragraph, no account should be taken of any agreement limiting the amount of damages payable by such person or of any actual or possible shortfall in recovery of this amount (whether this is due to settling or limiting claims, or any other reason).
To the extent permissible under applicable laws, regulations or rules, the aggregate liability of ourselves, our claim correspondent and our Affiliates to you and your Affiliates in respect of all Losses arising under or in connection with the Services provided, however caused, including arising as a result of breach of contract or statutory duty, negligence or any other act or omission or breach of duty or fraud, wilful default or gross negligence by us or any of our Affiliates shall be limited to HKD100,000. We will have no liability in any circumstances, in respect of loss of profit, loss of use, loss of market, loss of revenue, loss of opportunity, loss of chance, loss of time, loss of reputation, loss of anticipated savings, increase costs of doing business; or any special, direct, indirect consequential Losses.
You agree that we, our claim correspondent and our Affiliates have a legitimate interest in limiting the exposure of our, our claim correspondent and our Affiliates’ directors, officers and employees to litigation and that you will not bring or assist in bringing any claim against any of our, our claim correspondent or our Affiliates’ directors, officers or employees in their personal capacity arising out of or in connection with the Services provided.
For the avoidance of doubt, this section shall be for the benefit of ourselves, our claim correspondence, and our Affiliates and any of our or their respective directors, officers, employees, advisers or consultants involved in the provision of the Services. Any such person shall be entitled to rely upon and enforce its terms.
Your instruction to bind coverage and/or your payment related to your insurance placement will be deemed your signed, written agreement to be bound by the provisions of this section.
FEEDBACK, COMPLAINTS AND REDRESS
We take customers’ feedback and/or complaints seriously, and we aim to ensure that they are handled fairly, effectively and addressed and resolved promptly. Please contact the management at Tel: 6063-3707 / e-mail: admin@newstate.com.hk to air your feedback and/or complaints with details.
TERMINATING OUR APPOINTMENT
Our services may be terminated either by us or you upon the giving of one month’s notice in writing to the other or as otherwise agreed. It does not affect your or our rights, obligations or liabilities in relation to the insurance prior to the termination date. Yet, our remunerations deemed fully earned when the insurance incepts (whether or not the same have been received by us), any unpaid renumeration will become immediately due and payable to us upon termination of our appointment.
ENFORCEABILITY
In the event any portion of these terms of business is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder shall remain in full force and effect.
GOVERNING LAW & JURISDICATION
Governing law of this client agreement shall be Hong Kong law. All disputes under or arising in relation to this client agreement shall be decided by the exclusive jurisdiction of the Hong Kong courts.