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Commissions Statement 

We, One Direct (Ireland) Limited, trading as An Post Insurance, act as an intermediary between you (“the consumer”), and the insurance product providers 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, which comes into effect on 31st March 2020, intermediaries like An Post Insurance, must make available in their public offices, or on their website, 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 insurance product providers.  This income is what we at An Post Insurance use to keep our business thriving while continuing to offer you great value products. Because we want to be as transparent as possible, below are details of all the commissions we receive from our insurance product providers. We believe the information contained within this Statement to be transparent and clear, however, If you are having difficulty interpreting any of the information, or would like some clarification, please contact us by emailing [email protected] or by calling 0818 33 33 33, and we will be happy to clarify information for you.

An Post Insurance employs a team of over 120 people to provide customer service and support in our Athlone based Customer Service Centre. It is important to note that the commissions we receive are used to fund the costs associated with the services we provide to both our customers and our insurance product providers. An Post Insurance provides quotation, policy fulfilment, as well as midterm adjustment and renewal offer services on all our General Insurance Products.

These services include the following:

  1. Updating and maintaining our Call Centre and Online processing system for the completion of Customer new business quotations, midterm adjustments and preparation of Customer renewal offerings.
  2. Validating Customer addresses and Customer vehicles and providing such information in a specific manner as required by Insurance providers. In order to do so, An Post Insurance utilises the services of external providers to validate such information for our Insurance providers at a cost to An Post Insurance.
  3. Issuing quotation, new business policy, midterm adjustment and renewal offer documentation to Customers on behalf of our Insurance product providers, including issuing proposal forms, statements of fact, policy documentation, Insurer Insurance Product Information Documents, Road Traffic Act Certificates of Insurance and Insurance Discs.
  4. Maintaining a supply and record of Road Traffic Act Certificate Paper to facilitate the printing of Road Traffic Act Certificates on behalf of our Insurance providers.
  5. Maintaining a Customer facing network of employees at several locations across the country to enable Customers to obtain An Post Insurance services on a face to face basis as needed.
  6. Providing a New Business administration team to review and verify Customer licences and No Claims Bonus documentation, as and when received.
  7. Completing new business account reconciliation and renewal reconciliation processes on behalf of our Insurance providers, ensuring that correct payments have been received and reconciled for each insurance policy.
  8. Offering and Managing a payment plan facility for those Customers who wish to pay their Annual Premium in instalments over the term of the policy. Providing mobile phone text message reminders to Customers to ensure Customers avoid situations of insurer cancellation as a result of arrears in premium payments.
  9. Offering an online payment facility method for those Customers who wish to pay their premiums at a time convenient to them.
  10. Administering cancellation proceedings on behalf of our Insurance providers if documentation and/or payment is not completed or in order on a Customer policy.
  11. Providing refusal to quote letters to Consumers on behalf of our Insurance providers where the Insurer is declining to provide a quotation for a particular risk, ensuring compliance with the Central Bank of Ireland Consumer Protection Code.
  12. Providing a fully operational Customer service team in our Athlone, Co Westmeath office, to facilitate required amendments to existing policies, as well as updating Customer records for onward transmission to our Insurance providers.
  13. Uploading relevant information to our Customers files based on daily and weekly reports received from our Insurance providers.
  14. Reviewing required alterations to Customers files and updating the file before renewal offers are issued on behalf of our Insurance providers.
  15. Facilitating Renewal Offers on behalf of our Insurance providers on fully branded An Post Insurance Customer documentation thus meeting the obligations of the relevant Provision of Information Regulations.
  16. Providing Customers with details of their premium breakdown as required by relevant Central Bank of Ireland regulations on both new business and renewal policies of Insurance.
  17. Issuing “Statements of No Claims Bonus” in the standard required format as stipulated by the relevant Central Bank of Ireland regulations on behalf of our Insurance providers. 
  18. Administering required changes to our computer infrastructure processes where required by our Insurance providers.
  19. Providing daily reports on all our activities for our Insurance providers.
  20. Providing an onsite referral team of personnel that manages specific requests from our Insurance providers to alter and or amend the terms and conditions of individual policies of insurance.
  21. Providing marketing material which can be designed within the An Post Insurance business, as well as updated and amending that marketing material as requested by our Insurer providers from time to time. 

We believe the below information to be transparent and clear, however, If you are having difficulty interpreting any of the information, or would like some clarification, please contact us by emailing [email protected] or by calling 0818 33 33 33.

What is commission?

For the purpose of this Statement, commission is the payment earned by An Post Insurance for work undertaken on behalf of both the Customer and our insurance product providers.

There are different types of commission models:

Single commission model: where payment is made to An Post Insurance shortly after the sale is completed and is based on a percentage of the premium paid.

Trail/Renewal commission model: Further payments at intervals are paid throughout the life span of the product.

Indemnity commission model: 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.

Personal and Commercial General insurance products

Personal and Commercial General insurance products, such as motor, home, farm, small business, pet, travel, key, and legal expenses insurance, are typically subject to a single or standard commission model, based on the amount of premium charged for the insurance product.  

Life Assurance products

For our Life Assurance products commission is divided into initial commission and renewal commission (related to premium), or trail commission.

Trail commission and renewal commission are terms used for ongoing payments.

Profit Share arrangements

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

Clawback

Clawback is an obligation on An Post Insurance 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 insurance product within a specified time, An Post Insurance must return commission to the Insurance product provider.

Fees

An Post Insurance may also be remunerated by fees such as policy set up fees, policy mid-term adjustment fees, policy renewals fees, policy cancellation fees, policy suspension fees, fees for duplicate policy documents, and policy premium payment plan agreement fees. All our fees are displayed on our Terms of Business document.

Other Fees, Administrative Costs/ Non-Monetary Benefits

The firm may also be in receipt of other agreed fees, administrative costs and non-monetary benefits such as:

  • Attendance at insurance product provider seminars and/or continuous professional development training updates; and
  • Assistance with Advertising/Marketing/Promotions.

Click on the links/icons below to access details of the commission An Post Insurance received from each of our Insurance product providers, which for ease of reference is in alphabetical order.