Commission and indemnity FAQs

Our standard commission rate tables can be found in our commission guide:

• Commission guide (233.5 KB/PDF)

• Initial commission is the payment offering from Zurich Assurance Ltd (ZAL) for the sale of a new plan or ad hoc increase
• Indemnity initial commission is paid as a lump sum on plan commencement and is then earned over its initial period as premiums are received and retained. Should the plan lapse or cancel during its initial period for any reason other than an accepted claim a proportional clawback would be applied. Zurich Assurance Ltd (ZAL) reserves the right to restrict, limit or withdraw the indemnity option at any time
• Non-indemnity initial commission sometimes referred to as 'drip' is paid in instalments over the plans initial period as premiums are received and retained
• Escalating products such as annual indexation, attract an additional layer of commission paid in line with the initial commission basis. The plan won’t attract further new initial commission each time the scheduled annual increase is applied, however any ad hoc increases will continue to pay new initial commission as they occur
• Renewal commission is sometimes referred to as 'trail' is paid for each premium received beyond a plans initial period where this element is applied at the point of sale

Note: Policies submitted via the ‘interactive’ journey attract a higher rate of commission.

You can choose to give up some or all of your commission to reduce the customer premium. This is done by inputting the desired percentage of your entitlement you wish to receive.

If commission flex is chosen, the whole premium will be reduced, including any premiums for additional benefits such as fracture cover, and any multi policy discount.

This can be done at either the quote or decision stage of the online application journey, but cannot be amended once you proceed past the ‘Decision’ screen.

Commission can only be paid on a non-indemnity basis for own life cases, with checking in place to confirm this. Where an own life case is submitted on an indemnity basis we will cancel the policy and ask you to re-submit a new application selecting non-indemnity commission terms.

As well as your own life, the following relationships are also deemed within the ‘own life’ definition. They apply to the submitting adviser, as well as any other adviser, employee or director of the adviser firm:

• Spouse or partner
• Children or step children
• Parents or step parents
• Brother, sister, step brother or step sister
• Spouse of any person listed above
• Business associate or employee of your adviser firm

We have changed the way this works for business submitted on the platform. An additional 10% Lautro commission may be payable for business submitted using the ‘Interactive’ underwriting route (subject to your distributor arrangement).

Your adviser portal provides everything you need to know, all in one place.

Simply select the ‘My Account’ option from your portal menu and then toggle across to the ‘My Account’ option shown on screen.

By selecting ‘Terms of Business’ you’ll be able to see information about the commission style available and maximum initial and renewal commission terms by product.

By selecting ‘Commission options’ will show you whether you’re eligible for indemnity commission (‘Yes’ or ‘No’) and your commission disclosure.

A commission clawback typically occurs where a policy sold on an indemnity basis comes to an end during its initial period for reasons other than an accepted claim.

The amount of commission clawback will be calculated based upon the number of premiums received and retained.

For a transfer by client signed letter of authority (LOA), only the ongoing renewal commission will transfer with servicing rights.

For transfers through a firm-to-firm novation agreement, the outstanding initial commission or initial commission liability will transfer along with renewal commission.