Commission Summary Document 

We, DW Financial Limited act as intermediary (Broker) between you, the consumer, and the product provider with whom we place your business.

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 commission?

For the purpose of this document, commission is the payment earned by the intermediary for work undertaken on behalf of both the provider and the consumer.   The amount of commission is generally directly related to the quantity or value of the products sold.
There are different types of 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.
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. 

Profit Share arrangements

In some cases, the intermediary may be a party to a profit-share arrangement with a product provider and will earn additional commission.  Any business arranged with these product providers on a client’s behalf will be placed with the product provider because that product provider is   at the time of placement, the most suitable to meet the client’s requirements, taking all the client’s relevant information, demands and needs into account.

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 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. 

Examples of products include Life Protection, Regular Premium Life Assurance Investments, Single Premium (lump sum) Insurance-based Investments, and Single Premium Pensions.

Investments

Investment firms, which fall within the scope of the European Communities (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2007 (the MiFID Regulations), offer both standard commission and commission models involving initial and trail commission. Increments may be based on a percentage of the investment management fees, or on the value of the fund. 

Credit Products/Mortgages

Commission may be earned by intermediaries for arranging credit for consumers, such as mortgages. The single, or standard, commission model is the most common commission model applied to the sale of mortgage products by mortgage credit intermediaries (Mortgage Broker).

The commission is paid by the mortgage lender. The actual amount of commission will be disclosed at a later stage in the ESIS (European Standardised Information Sheet) which will be forwarded to you. If the mortgage is redeemed or switched within three years of draw down DW Financial Ltd reserve the right to charge you up to 1% of the value of the original loan. We charge an application fee of €250, this fee is non-refundable. €100 of this initial fee is payable upfront for us to review your application and advise on your options. The balance of €150 is payable on submission of your application to a lender. This is not in any way an indication of mortgage/loan approval. Our fee will be notified to the lender who will include this fee into the calculation of the APRC (Annual Percentage Rate Charge).

Please note that lenders may charge specific fees in certain circumstances and if this applies, these fees will be specified in your Loan Offer. You have the right to pay a fee separately and not include it in the loan. Typically, this situation arises in relation to specialist lending. If we provide mortgage advice and obtain a Loan Offer for you and you subsequently do not proceed with your mortgage application through our firm, we will charge you an additional arrangement fee of €675 for our services. 

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. 

Fees 

The firm may also be remunerated by fee by the product producer such as policy fee, admin fee, or in the case of investment firms, advisory fees.
We offer advice on a fee basis. e.g.:

Principles / Directors €250
Senior Advisers €200
Support staff €125

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 €125 per hour to a maximum of €250 per hour. We will notify you in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged. DW Financial Ltd charges an administration fee where it gives advice which, either results in no product being placed, or the product being placed directly with a product producer or with a product producer with whom it has no agency.

Other Fees, Administrative Costs/ Non-Monetary Benefits

The firm may also be in receipt of non-monetary benefits such as:

  • Attendance at product provider seminars
  • Assistance with Advertising/Branding 
  • Industry Educational Seminars
  • Use of Product Providers resources
  • Co-branded literature
  • Product Provider hospitality

Click on a links below to access a list of the providers that our firm deals with, which for ease of reference is in alphabetical order.

Life Insurance Providers

Aviva Life & Pensions
Irish Life
New Ireland
Royal London
Zurich Life

Lender Providers

Brokers Ireland
Finance Ireland