This information is provided to help you decide whether to obtain or act on financial advice from UniMed.

Last updated: January 2023

Licence status and conditions

Union Medical Benefits Society Limited (UniMed) holds a financial advice provider licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority. 

We are permitted to provide a financial advice service to our Members and prospective Members, within the terms of that licence.

You can view UniMed's financial services registration details online, here:
Financial Service Providers Register

Information only service

UniMed provides a predominantly ‘information only’ service.  In most cases, that means our staff will not make any recommendations or give any opinion in relation to purchasing, cancelling or retaining any health insurance product offered by UniMed.

However, all UniMed staff can provide you with factual information, such as the cost and/or terms and conditions of any UniMed product.

Limitations: nature and scope of our financial advice

Where we do provide a financial advice service, it is limited to health insurance products offered by UniMed.

We are unable to provide financial advice relating to products provided by other insurers or financial institutions, including product comparisons with another insurer.

If you need advice on plans offered by other health insurers, you may wish to seek advice from an independent financial adviser.

Financial advice fees and expenses

UniMed provides its financial advice service free of charge.

Our Product Advisors

Only certain UniMed employees (‘Product Advisors’) who have been appropriately trained and appointed by UniMed, are able to provide financial advice on our behalf.

Our Product Advisors are required to follow UniMed’s policies and processes relating to financial advice. This includes prioritising your interests before giving financial advice.

UniMed provides ongoing training to our Product Advisors and undertakes regular checks to ensure the financial advice they provide is appropriate and meets our legal obligations.

Information and Privacy

Our Product Advisors may request certain information from you, so that they understand your personal, health and financial situation and goals.

For employer group schemes, UniMed may also consider any relevant information provided to us by your employer.

Personal and health information we collect, will assist our Product Advisors in helping you to decide what type of UniMed plan best suits your needs.

We value the trust you place in us to protect, use and disclose this information appropriately. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Statement

Conflicts of Interest | Commission | Other incentives

Product Advisors are required to comply with our Conflict of Interest Procedure and raise any actual, perceived or potential conflict of interest with their manager, so that it can be resolved appropriately.

No commission or other specific incentive is paid, or given, to UniMed Product Advisors relating to the financial advice they provide.

Our duties

UniMed and our Product Advisors are bound by the duties set out in the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 to:

Complaints process

If you are unhappy with a decision, service, or other interaction with UniMed, please let us know. UniMed will take any complaint we receive, seriously.  We will acknowledge the receipt of a complaint and work with you to resolve it.

Our Complaint Process provides the opportunity to provide feedback and/or request that we review a decision:

How to notify us of a complaint

We encourage complaints to be made in writing - 

By email - feedback@unimed.co.nz
We also encourage you to attach any documentation that supports your complaint.

By post - Complaints Officer, UniMed, PO Box 1721, Christchurch 8140.

We also encourage you to include any documentation that supports your complaint.

By using our online feedback form
  

Prefer to call?

Freephone: 0800 600 666 or call our Christchurch Office: 03 365 4048
(Office hours: 8am - 5pm, Monday - Friday)

Please note, we encourage you to email or post any documentation that supports your complaint. 

What happens next?

UniMed will acknowledge receipt of your complaint as soon as possible. If you email your complaint to us, or use our online form, we will do our utmost to acknowledge receipt of your complaint, within two business days of the date we receive it. 

If we are unable to resolve your complaint immediately, it will be followed up by UniMed, in the order shown below:

  1. Frontline staff
  2. Team Leader
  3. General Manager
  4. Chief Executive
  5. Board

UniMed aims to resolve a complaint within 10 business days. Please be aware though, we may need to wait for information from third parties (e.g. Doctors), when we are considering your complaint.

If we can’t resolve your complaint within 10 business days, we will contact you to talk through the next steps.

To request a copy of our Complaint Process, which can be emailed or posted to you, please contact UniMed:

Freephone: 0800 600 666 or call our Christchurch office: 03 365 4048
Email - feedback@unimed.co.nz

Complaint resolution: IFSO Scheme

If your complaint has been fully investigated by UniMed and you’re not satisfied with the outcome, you can refer your complaint to the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) for review.

The IFSO Scheme is a free, independent service which helps resolve disputes between financial service providers and their customers.

How to contact the IFSO:

  • Call 0800 888 202
  • Email info@ifso.nz
  • Write to: IFSO, PO Box 10- 845, Wellington 6143

Learn more about the IFSO



Changes to Financial Advice Disclosure

UniMed reserves the right to change the Financial Advice Disclosure. This was last updated in January 2023.

Contact us

If you have questions, or to request a copy of the Financial Advice Disclosure (emailed or posted to you):

Freephone: 0800 600 666 
Or call our Christchurch Office: 03 365 4048
(Office hours: 8am - 5pm, Monday - Friday)

Email - feedback@unimed.co.nz