Disclosure

1. Important information about our business

SIMPLER Financial Limited (trading as Simpler Mortgages) is an Authorised Body under the Financial Advice Provider (FAP) licence held by Kiwi Adviser Network Limited (FSP763551), issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice services in New Zealand.

• Legal name: SIMPLER Financial Limited
• Trading name: Simpler Mortgages
• Financial Services Provider Number: FSP761131
• FAP Licence Holder: Kiwi Adviser Network Limited (FSP763551)

You can verify our registration on the Financial Service Providers Register at fsp-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz.

Our office contact details:

2. Nature and scope of our advice

Our services

We provide regulated financial advice on debt management, including borrowing for personal and investment property purposes.

Products we can provide financial advice about

• Home loans, including for first home buyers, refinancing, property investment, moving house, new builds, top-ups, bridging finance and development finance
• Investment property loans
• Reverse mortgages

We do not provide advice on KiwiSaver, managed investments, retirement planning, or insurance of any kind (including life, income protection, mortgage protection, trauma, house, contents and car). If you need advice on any of those, we'll refer you to a specialist who can help.

3. Product providers we work with

We can arrange home loans with more than 25 banks and non-bank lenders in New Zealand through Kiwi Adviser Network. The current lender panel is published and kept up to date by KAN at kiwiadvisernetwork.co.nz/PrivacyPolicy. We can also email you a current copy on request.

If we ever recommend a lender that isn't on the standard panel, we'll tell you in writing and explain why before you proceed.

4. Our fees

We don't charge our clients fees, expenses or anything else directly for the financial advice we provide. Our advice is free to you.

We're paid by the lender through commission. See the next section.

5. Other costs

There are no other costs payable to us in the process of providing our advice and services to you.

If a third party charges you for something connected with your loan application (for example, a property valuation, a builder's report, or a lawyer's fee), those costs are between you and that third party. We don't receive any portion of them.

6. Commissions

For arranging home loans, commissions are paid to us by the lender as follows:

Initial commission

A percentage of the loan amount, paid by the lender at settlement: between 0.55% and 0.90% of the loan amount.

Ongoing (trail) commission

A percentage of the outstanding loan balance, calculated at the end of each month in which you hold the loan: between 0.10% and 0.30% per annum on the outstanding balance.

The specific commission we'll receive on the loan you've chosen will be disclosed to you in writing before you sign anything.

If a loan is repaid, refinanced away, or restructured within a clawback period (usually the first 24 to 28 months after settlement), we may have to repay some or all of the initial commission we received. We never pass that clawback on to you.

7. Conflicts of interest and incentives

We're here for our clients and to advise you as best we can. Your interests are our priority, although we do have business relationships with lenders.

The main potential conflict in our business is that we're paid commission by lenders, not by you. Different lenders pay slightly different commission rates.

From time to time our lenders may assist with funding so advisers can attend conferences and professional development training, or may provide non-monetary benefits such as discounted access to industry tools.

We do not have any volume targets, set sales quotas, or volume-based bonus agreements with any lender.

8. How we manage conflicts of interest

To ensure our advisers prioritise our clients' interests:

• We follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made appropriately, based on each client's goals and circumstances.
• All our advisers undergo annual training on how to identify and manage conflicts of interest.
• We maintain registers of conflicts of interest and the gifts and incentives we receive. These registers are monitored regularly, and additional training is provided where required.
• We undertake an annual independent Compliance Assurance Review through Kiwi Adviser Network.
• The specific commission we'll receive on any loan we recommend is disclosed to you in writing before you decide.

9. Our duties and obligations to you

We are bound by the duties of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (sections 431I, 431K, 431L and 431M) to:

• Meet the standards of competence, knowledge, and skill set out in the Code of Conduct
• Give priority to the client's interests
• Exercise care, diligence and skill
• Meet the standards of ethical behaviour, conduct, and client care set out in the Code of Conduct

These duties apply to every adviser at Simpler, every time we give you advice.

10. Internal complaints process

If you have a problem, concern, or complaint about any part of our advice or service, please tell us so we can try to fix it.

Our internal complaints manager is Sebastian Pierce, who can be reached:

You'll receive an initial response within 24 hours, with a written acknowledgement within 2 business days.

Our internal complaints handling process:

• We acknowledge your complaint in writing within 2 business days of receiving it.
• We investigate the issue and gather any relevant information from you and our records.
• We respond with our findings and any proposed resolution within 10 business days. If we need longer, we'll let you know why and how long we expect it to take.
• If you're satisfied with the resolution, we'll close the complaint and record the outcome in our complaints register. If you're not satisfied, we'll refer you to our external dispute resolution scheme (see below).

11. External complaints process

If we cannot agree on how to fix the issue, or if you decide not to use our internal complaints process, you can contact our external dispute resolution scheme. This service will cost you nothing, and they'll help us resolve the complaint.

FSCL is approved by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Their decisions are binding on us.

12. Contact us

For information about how we handle your personal information, see our privacy policy.