Transfers and novations FAQs
To support you in managing your agency account as effectively as possible, we have answered your most frequently asked commission and indemnity questions for our Life Protection Platform.
Zurich Assurance Ltd is part of Origo's Agency Administration service, which allows you to submit novation requests across multiple providers at the same time.
At Zurich Assurance Ltd (ZAL), agreements for the transfer of business can be split into three categories, firm-to-firm novations, firm-to-firm client transfers and client signed letters of authority (LOA).
On our Life Protection Platform a novation covers the transfer of all business, commission and commission liability for a specific firm registration or adviser(s).
A client transfer only targets a limited range of specific client policies along with the linked commission and commission liability. The request would be accompanied by a list of the policies and note that the scope of the request is only for the policies listed.
A firm-to-firm transfer is an adviser firm level agreement, approved by the directors of the losing and gaining directly authority (DA) firms. This results in the transfer of ongoing servicing rights, initial commission/liability and renewal commission.
A letter of authority (LOA) is a client level agreement, approved by the client to appoint a new servicer. This results in the transfer of ongoing servicing rights and renewal commission.
While the Origo agency administration service can support this. You also have the option to contact us directly, meeting these requirements:
- Director signed documents, on company headed paper for both the losing and gaining directly authorised (DA) principal firms involved
- Confirm that all clients have been informed of the change
- Agree to the transfer of business, commission and commission liability
- A list of policies if performing a client transfer
We do not accept firm-to-firm transfer requests from appointed representative (AR) firms, without the approval of the DA principal firms.
If you are not using the Origo administration service, please email the director signed paperwork:
Zurich does have standard templates available for both information access rights as well as the appointment of a new financial adviser. These can be accessed through our website
Letters of authority are managed by our life servicing team, please email the client signed paperwork to:
For our Life Protection Platform products we do not offer a firm-to-firm transfer arrangement that does not include commission liability. In order to transfer only servicing rights and renewal commission you will need to arrange for client signed LOAs.
Liability for the information provided by the adviser at the point of sale remains with the original adviser firm and cannot be transferred.
Provided there is no movement of business between firm FCA registrations, a simple movement from one adviser to another can be requested by a manager at your adviser firm. Please ask them to contact us by email to request this change:
For duplicate adviser accounts under the same FCA registration, please contact us by email noting the agency/username the adviser wishes to continue using and we will merge any business in from duplicate profiles:
