Terms of Business – Effective from 1st January 2026
SON Financial Planning Limited trading as Shefflin O’Neill.
These Terms of Business set out the general terms under which our firm will provide business services to you and the respective duties and responsibilities of both the firm and you in relation to such services. Please ensure that you read these terms thoroughly and if you have any queries, we will be happy to clarify them. If any material changes are made to these terms, we will notify you.
Authorisation with the Central Bank of Ireland
SON Financial Planning Limited trading as Shefflin O’Neill (C563966) is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an insurance intermediary registered under the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations 2018 and as an Investment Intermediary authorised under the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995. Copies of our regulatory authorisations are available on request. The Central Bank of Ireland holds registers of regulated firms. You may contact the Central Bank of Ireland on 1890 777 777 or alternatively visit their website at www.centralbank.ie to verify our credentials.
Codes of Conduct
SON Financial Planning Limited is subject to the Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and Fitness & Probity Standards which offer protection to consumers. These Codes can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie
Our Services
SON Financial Planning Limited is a member of Brokers Ireland.
Our principal business is to provide advice and arrange transactions on behalf of clients in relation to life & pensions. A full list of insurers, product producers and lending agencies with which we deal is available on request.
Insurance Intermediary Services (except for Insurance based Investment Products)
a. the principal regulated activities of the firm are provided on the basis of a fair and personal analysis of the market; and
Fair and Personal Analysis
The concept of fair and personal analysis describes the extent of the choice of products and providers offered by an intermediary within a particular category of life assurance, general insurance, mortgages, and/ or a specialist area. The number of contracts and providers considered must be sufficiently large to enable an intermediary to recommend a product that would be adequate to meet a client’s needs.
The number of providers that constitutes ‘sufficiently large’ will vary depending on the number of providers operating in the market for a particular product or service and their relative importance in and share of that market. The extent of fair analysis must be such that could reasonably be expected of a professional conducting business, taking into account the accessibility of information and product placement to intermediaries and the cost of the search.
In order to ensure that the number of contracts and providers is sufficiently large to constitute a fair and personal analysis of the market, we will consider the following criteria:
the needs of the customer,
the size of the customer order,
the number of providers in the market that deal with brokers,
the market share of each of those providers,
the number of relevant products available from each provider,
the availability of information about the products,
the quality of the product and service provided by the provider,
cost, and
any other relevant consideration.
Investment Intermediary Services (IIA firms providing Article 3 services)
We are renumerated by commission for our investment intermediary services.
Insurance based investment product
We are remunerated by commission for the advice we provide on our insurance-based investment products
Life & Pensions/Deposits & Life Wrapped Investments
We provide life assurance and pensions on a fair and personal analysis basis i.e. providing services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available in the market to enable us to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract would be adequate to meet your needs.
We will provide assistance to you for any queries you may have in relation to the policies or in the event of a claim during the life of the policy and we will explain to you the various restrictions, conditions and exclusions attached to your policy. However, it is your responsibility to read the policy documents, literature and brochures to ensure that you understand the nature of the policy cover; particularly in relation to PHI and serious illness policies.
Specifically on the subject of permanent health insurance policies we will explain to you; a) the meaning of disability as defined in the policy; b) the benefits available under the policy; c) the general exclusions that apply to the policy; and d) the reductions applied to the benefit where there are disability payments from other sources.
For a serious illness policy, we will explain clearly to you the restrictions, conditions and general exclusions that attach to that policy.
Sustainability Factors – Investment/IBIPs/Pension Advice
In accordance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’), we inform you that when providing advice on insurance-based investment products/Investments, we do not assess, in addition to relevant financial risks, relevant sustainability risks as far as this information is available in relation the products proposed/advised on.
This means that we do not assess environmental, social or governance events/conditions that, if they occur, could have a material negative impact on the value of the investment.
Considering Principal Adverse Impacts on sustainability factors in the advice:
When providing advice on insurance-based investment products (‘IBIPs’) or investment advice we do not consider the impacts of our advice that result in negative effects on sustainability factors (namely environmental, social and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters), because currently there is limited relevant products on the market which meet these criteria. The area of sustainable is relatively new and as the issue progresses, we will review our position.
The firm will review this approach on an annual basis in January each year
Impact on Return
If sustainability risks are not deemed relevant:
We have not assessed the likely impacts of sustainability risks on the returns of Investment/Pensions since we have not been able to identify any sustainability risks that are relevant.
Statement of Charges
We may earn our remuneration on the basis of fee, commission and any other type of remuneration, including a non-monetary benefit or on the basis of a combination of these methods. A non-monetary benefit will only be accepted if it enhances the quality of the service to our clients.
You may choose to pay in full for our services by means of a fee. Where we receive recurring commission, this forms part of the remuneration for initial advice provided. We reserve the right to charge additional fees if the number of hours relating to on-going advice/assistance exceeds 10 hrs.
Pursuant to Regulation 68 of the Consumer Protection Code, a summary of the details of all arrangements for any fee, commission other reward or remuneration paid or provided to us which have agreed with product providers is available in our office or on our website – www.shefflinoneill.ie
If we receive commission from a product provider, this may/will be offset against the fee which we will charge you. Where the commission is greater than the fee due, the commission may become the amount payable to the firm unless an arrangement to the contrary is made.
Life and Pensions
You may elect to deal with us on a fee basis.
Principles / Directors €200 per hour
Additional fees may be payable for complex cases or to reflect value, specialist skills or urgency, our scale of fees for such cases range from a minimum of €250 per hour to a maximum of €350 per hour. We will notify you in advance and agree the scale of fees to be charged.
Ongoing Remuneration
We wish to inform you that we receive ongoing remuneration from Product Providers in respect of the financial service provided to you.
Clawback
If we receive commission from a product provider but the commission is subsequently clawed-back by the provider because of early encashment by you or because of the transferring of the assets or business to another provider or in any circumstances consequent on your actions or omissions, we will charge a fee to you that is equal to 100% of the clawed-back commission.
Complaints
Upon receipt of an oral complaint, we will provide the option to have the complaint addressed through the firms established complaints procedure.
Data Protection
SON Financial Planning Limited is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
Compensation Scheme
We are members of the Investor Compensation Scheme operated by the Investor Compensation Company Ltd.
Where an entitlement to compensation is established, the compensation payable will be the lesser of:
90% of the amount of the client’s loss which is recognised for the purposes of the Investor Compensation Act, 1998; or
Compensation of up to €20,000.
Brokers Ireland Clients’ Compensation and Membership Benefits Scheme (BIC)
We are also members of the Brokers Ireland Clients’ Compensation and Membership Benefits Scheme (BIC).
