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About

My name is Chris George (FSP209525). I am the owner and sole adviser for Bridge Financial. I have been in the financial services industry since January 2011 with experience in the United States and New Zealand. I hold the New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services (Level 5) and maintain the financial adviser standards set by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

Lifeline Assured Ltd (FSP745691) trading as Bridge Financial is a Financial Advice Provider licensed and regulated by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice.

Nature & Scope

The following are the areas of financial advice that can be provided:

  • Cashflow, retirement modelling

  • Investment planning

  • Kiwisaver planning

  • Life & Health Insurance planning, specifically:

    • ACC planning & restructures

    • Income and/or Mortgage Repayment cover(s)

    • Trauma/Critical Illness cover

    • Total Permanent Disability cover

    • Life & Terminal Illness cover

    • Health/Medical cover

    • Key Person/Business Preservation planning

    • Shareholder/Business Succession planning

    • Group Health Insurance

    • Group Life Insurance

Providers

Bridge Financial holds agencies with and sources insurance products from the following life and medical insurance companies:

ACC, AIA/Sovereign, Accuro, Asteron Life, Fidelity Life/Tower, Generate Wealth, Milford, NZ Funds, Partners Life and Southern Cross Health Society.

Duties Information 

We have duties and obligations under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 relating to the way we give advice. We are required to:

  • Ensure you understand the nature and scope of advice you ask us to provide.

  • Provide a service that is relevant to that agreed scope of advice and suitable to your circumstances and needs.

  • Listen to your needs, concerns, preferences and to treat you fairly and with respect.

  • Act with integrity and give priority to your interests and not our own.

  • Exercise care, diligence, and skill.

  • Meet the necessary standards of competence, knowledge, and skill required.

  • Ensure you understand our recommendations and any associated risks.

  • Keep you informed along the way and communicate in a timely, clear, and effective manner.

This is only a summary of the duties that we have. More information is available by visiting the Financial Markets Authority website at www.fma.govt.nz/compliance/role/financial-advice-provider/#dapDuties

Remuneration & Fees 

Our service is holistic in nature. We aim to not only design and implement a retirement, investment and/or insurance plan for you, but to assist you with ongoing reviews, maintenance, and claims over time.

You will also have free access to the Planolitix software to model ideas you may have and keep track of your expenses in detail. Please understand that we can only grant you access to the software once you have implemented a product through us or transferred the product to our agency.

To make our service possible, Bridge Financial receives servicing and advice remuneration from the providers on whose products we give financial advice. We are independent and are not tied to a sole provider. Your personal situation, preferences, objectives and requirements will determine the investment provider we recommend. It is ultimately your decision as to where you place your products.

We feel the better we assist with your retirement success and the products that make that retirement successful, the better your situation and ours will be over time so a percentage-based remuneration that incentivises us to retain your enthusiasm in our service long term is a much better outcome for you than charging you a fee directly on an annual basis.

Our remuneration will be clearly disclosed to you in the Statement of Advice (report) you will receive however the structure of our remuneration is explained below.

Fund management providers:

Servicing & Advice (Kiwisaver and/or Investment fund(s)):

  • For some fund management providers, our servicing and advice remuneration of 0.50% is included within their fees to you. For others, only a portion of our fee is included within their fees to you (0.20% as an example). In the instance the provider that is best suited to your needs includes a fee less than 0.50%, a top-up fee would be added. e.g. If a fund manager is remunerating us 0.20%, a 0.30% top-up would be applicable. This is paid directly to us from your fund balance, so you won’t receive an invoice to pay us directly.

  • In the instance you only require an investment fund and not a kiwisaver fund, our servicing and advice remuneration would be 1.00% in total. The same principal would apply as above. e.g. If a fund manager is remunerating us 0.50%, a 0.50% top-up would be applicable. This is paid directly to us from your fund balance, so you won’t receive an invoice to pay us directly.

Implementation (Kiwisaver only):

  • Similarly, some providers include an implementation and administration payment to us within their fees to you when your kiwisaver fund has been setup. For some others, there is no payment to us to cover our time spent with implementation. In the instance the provider that is best suited to your needs does not include an implementation fee, a fee of $150 per kiwisaver fund would be charged. This is paid directly to us from your fund balance upon transfer or setup, so you won’t receive an invoice to pay us directly.

Investment Property Providers, Real Estate Agents and/or Finders:

We do not accept remuneration or incentives from investment property providers, real estate agents and/or finders and offer property investment advice inclusive of our holistic retirement planning service.

Life & Health Insurance(s) providers:

  • If you are implementing or transferring life and/or health insurance under or to our agency, we do not charge fees or expenses directly from you. Instead, the provider pays us a percentage of your annual premium as the policy is implemented and is continued over time.

  • This percentage differs from provider to provider but is generally within the range of between 130-170% upon implementation and 5-20% ongoing. This remunerates us to build a recommendation for you, manage the implementation of the policy(ies), maintain the policy(ies), and manage claims for you over time.

Circumstances where a direct fee may apply:

  • The amount of Life or Health Insurance remuneration is based on the amount of your premium and will be disclosed in the report we write for you (Statement of Advice). We have a 24-month responsibility period whereby our remuneration is clawed back by the insurer if the benefits are reduced or terminated within 24 months. In this case, you would be asked to pay a fee at the amount of the remuneration we have clawed back.

  • If you are wanting financial advice such as retirement planning but do not require the products i.e. life insurance, health insurance, kiwisaver or investment funds. In this instance, we can quote a price based on our time spent assisting you. Please ask if this is of interest.

Conflicts Of Interest

To ensure that we prioritise your interests above our own, we follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are based on your objectives, needs and circumstances. We further manage possible conflicts of interest by:

  • Utilising financial planning software technology which clearly outlines your risks and therefore erases potential bias towards over or underinsurance

  • Choosing product providers based on your needs and not on the commission we may receive

  • Avoiding any production requirements for one product provider. As a boutique service, we do not set sales targets

  • Not accepting any gifts or incentives offered by product providers

  • Having access to a range of product providers

  • Undergoing regular training to retain and build on our knowledge

Terms Of Engagement

  • Any advice provided as a result of this needs analysis can only be as good as the information received from you so we ask that you provide us with the information requested. If you are unsure as to why we need certain information, please ask so that we can explain.

  • For any planned meetings, we ask for notification of confirmation or postponement with as much notice as possible. This gives us enough time to prepare your work proficiently.

  • Please return any communications we make to you in a timely manner. This helps us serve you best within a reasonable timeframe.

  • We may require financial statements, existing insurance or health details.

Privacy Statement

We are committed to your privacy

This document sets out how we collect, hold, use and share your personal information. This does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.

If you provide us with personal information through this website, we will protect your information as set out below. ,We may amend this privacy statement from time to time.

Collection of your Information

We may collect personal information about you when you provide information to us directly, and when you obtain services from us. We may also collect personal information about you from third parties where authorised by you and from public sources.

The type of personal information we may collect may include:

  • your contact details: name, address, phone number, email

  • documents that confirm your identity: your driver’s licence, passport etc.

  • other information relevant to the service we will provide to you

Use of Your Information

We only collect and use personal information from you to be able to provide you with the products and services you have requested from us. We may provide you with information on our other services from time to time. We do not sell our client information or share it with third parties without your permission.

Retention and Security

We will not hold your personal information for longer than is required for the purpose(s) for which it was collected (subject to any obligations at law to hold the information for longer periods).

We have cyber security safeguards in place to protect the information and we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that information will not be disclosed to any unauthorised person or organisation. Our security measures include:

  • Security software – Windows Security

  • Anti-virus software – Windows Security

  • Back up process – Google Drive Cloud storage plus monthly copy to hard drive

  • Other security measures such as Password keeper on all computers, phones, and applicable documents

Where is information hosted?

Our website and customer relationship management systems are hosted in New Zealand. We also use Gmail, Streak, Mailchimp, Google Drive and Documents which are hosted in the USA and are compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

When we share your data with a third party, we have contracts in place with them which requires them to have in place the technical and organisational measures necessary to protect your personal data, however many such providers are subject to different privacy laws and controls to New Zealand and hence we cannot provide absolute surety that those providers will not comply with their obligations to us, and divulge your personal data.

Your right of access and to correction

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information held by us is accurate and up-to-date. You are entitled to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not we hold personal information about you and you are entitled to reasonable access to this information, and to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong.

If you’d like to ask for a copy of your information and have it corrected, or would like to be removed from any of our subscription lists at any time, then please contact us at chris@bridgefinancial.nz.

Internet use

While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, any information you provide over the internet is provided at your own risk.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites. Please note that those websites will have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility for the actions of those websites.

Reliability History, Complaints & Disputes

Bridge Financial has no history of any complaints that we have not been able to resolve directly with our client. We welcome open communication, positive or not positive as we understand that finding resolve is the basis of a healthy long-term relationship.

If you are not satisfied with our service or financial advice, please tell us as soon as possible so that we can try and resolve this for you to the best of our ability. It is our intention to provide the best possible service we can for our clients and will do our best to try and resolve any complaint received as quickly and effectively as possible.

You can make a complaint by calling Chris on 021 028 26357 or emailing chris@bridgefinancial.co.nz. You can also write to us at P.O Box 49, Leigh, Auckland 0947.

We will follow our internal complaint process:

  • We will consider your complaint and let you know how we intend to resolve it. Where possible, we try to resolve your complaint immediately.

  • If we are unable to resolve your complaint immediately, we will acknowledge your complaint within 2 business days. We may contact you to get further information about your complaint.

  • We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them. If we need more time to investigate your complaint, we will let you know when you can expect to receive a response to your complaint.

  • We will contact you by phone, email, or letter to let you know whether we can resolve your complaint and how we propose to do so.

If we cannot agree on how to fix the issue, or if you decide not to use our internal complaints scheme, you can contact our external disputes resolution scheme, Financial Service Complaints Ltd. They provide a free and independent dispute resolution service that may help to investigate or resolve your complaint if we have not been able to do so to your satisfaction.

Call: 0800 347 257 | Email: complaints@fscl.org.nz | Write to: FSCL, PO Box 5967, Wellington 6145