Donna Marks has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Much of that time was spent working for a major bank in retail lending and management, as well as three years working with a trustee company handling estate planning including Wills, EPOA’s, Estates, and Family Trusts.

Best described as a friendly, interested, empathetic and caring individual, Donna prides herself on taking the time to get to know her clients while building strong and lasting relationships with them. She is dedicated to helping her clients achieve their own financial goals.

“I care about my clients and genuinely want to make a difference in their lives. I believe that it’s about what’s good for them not me, and I take pride in building trusted relationships with my clients which often continue long after they’ve bought their home.”

As well as a long history in the mortgage industry, years of experience and knowledge, Donna has personally owned several investment properties, so understands the risks and knows what to look out for.

Donna has completed a Diploma in Business Studies with an endorsement in Financial Planning, Certificate IV in financial Services (Personal Trust Administration).

Donna has been married for 38 years, and is the mother of two very successful children and three adorable grandchildren.

“I am excited about being able to help my clients achieve their goals with access to all the different lenders who can provide the solutions that fit their individual needs.”

With a focus on first home buyers and investors, Donna will be providing residential lending advice and is based in Wellington.

Important information about SMX Financial Solutions Limited FSP 718571

My advice is provided through my company SMX Financial Solutions Limited that trades using the Mortgage Express brand owned by Mortgage Express Limited (MX).

MX is engaged in the business of supporting financial advisers to access financial products, and to market and promote, their finance, mortgage and insurance broking and facilitation services.

Licence status and conditions

Astute Financial Management Limited FSP641829 (Astute) holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice service.

SMX Financial Solutions Limited FSP 718571 is authorised by that licence to provide financial advice service.

Our contact details are:

Address:           516 High Street, Hutt Central, Lower Hutt, 5010, New Zealand

Telephone:     0800 226 226

Email:               donna@mx.co.nz

We provide financial advice on Mortgage Products and Consumer Credit Contracts.

We encourage you to read the important information given below. It may help you decide whether your financial needs may be met by engaging with us.

Nature and scope of financial advice service

We engage financial advisers to provide financial advice on the following financial products:

Residential and personal loan products
We, through our advisers, provide financial advice service about loan products only from the following providers (also known as lenders):

We do not provide financial advice service related to:

1. Investment products (e.g., shares, bonds, managed funds, etc.) and KiwiSaver products; and

2. Estate planning (such as Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney, and trusts of any description); and

3. General Insurance products; and

4. Personal Risk Insurance products.

You will need to consult appropriate specialists if you would like advice on the products above.

Fees, expenses, or other amounts payable

In the majority of cases we do not charge any fee, expense or other amount for the financial advice provided to you or for implementing that advice. Our remuneration is paid by the product providers by way of commission.

However, we may charge a fee for the financial advice service provided to a client where a client repays a residential home loan within a defined time up to 28 months from the date it is drawn down.

Whether a fee will be charged, the manner in which it will be charged and the date by which the fee will be payable will be advised when the financial advice service is provided to the client.

Conflicts of interest and commissions or other incentives

We and Astute will receive commission from the lenders who provide residential and personal loan products. If you decide to take out a residential or personal loan, then the lender will pay commission based on the amount of loan settled with that lender or lenders.

Our adviser takes drawings from SMX Financial Solutions Limited.

From time to time, various product providers (described previously) may also reward us and/or Astute for the overall business provided to them. They may give tickets to sports events, hampers, or other incentives. To ensure that our financial advisers prioritise the client’s interests above their own, we follow an advice process that ensures our recommendations are made based on the client’s personal goals and circumstances. All our financial advisers undergo annual professional development refresher training about how to manage conflicts of interest. We maintain registers of conflicts of interests, and the gifts and incentives received.

Complaints handling and dispute resolution

We take all complaints seriously and work to resolve them as quickly as possible.

If you are unhappy with our financial advice service, and wish to make a complaint, please contact your financial adviser so he or she can try to put things right.

If you do not feel comfortable discussing your concerns with your adviser, you can:

• Call David Gopperth, General Manager, Mortgage Express on 027 3489248 between the hours of 8:30 am - 5 pm week days

• Email complaints@mx.co.nz

• Write to David Gopperth at Mortgage Express, PO Box 9268, Newmarket, Auckland 1023.

 How your Complaint will be handled

We will deal with your complaint using our internal complaints handling process. Accordingly,

• We will investigate your complaint by analysing the information you provided us; and

• We may contact you to get additional information about your complaint.

We aim to resolve your complaint within 40 days of its receipt and advise you, in writing, our proposed resolution to your complaint.

If we cannot resolve your complaint within 40 days of receipt (or any additional time you have given us thereafter, at our request) you can contact the Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL).

FSCL provides an independent external dispute resolution service to consumers with complaints about their financial service providers. This service will cost you nothing and will help us to investigate or resolve your complaint if it is not resolved to your satisfaction using our internal complaints process.

You can contact the FSCL Scheme at:

Email:                                  complaints@fscl.org.nz

Website:                              www.fscl.org.nz

Telephone:                          0800 347 257 or +64 4 4723725

Address:                              Level 4, 101 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6011

                                             P O Box 5967, Wellington 6140

Duties

We, Astute and our financial advisers are bound by the following duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 to:

• meet the standards of competence, knowledge, and skill set out in the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (Code of Conduct), which form part of the wider regulatory regime for financial advice and ensure we have the expertise necessary to provide you with advice; and

• give priority to your interests by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the advice given to you is not materially influenced by our own interests or the interests of any other person connected with the giving of advice; and

• exercise care, diligence, and skill that a prudent person engaged in the occupation of giving related financial advice would in the same circumstances; and

• meet the standards of ethical behaviour, conduct, and client care set out in the Code of Conduct, to treat you as we should and to provide you with suitable advice.

Client Testimonials:

Without Donna on my side there's no way I could have navigated through the incredibly complicated process of buying a home. As a first home buyer I didn't have a clue about what was involved but Donna explained everything simply and calmly, guiding me through every aspect of the process, from my initial search to settlement day. She handled everything to do with the bank, put me in contact with a great lawyer and did so much other homework on my behalf. When you have Donna in your corner you don't just have an excellent Mortgage Adviser, you also have a supportive friend, a personal assistant, a cheerleader and a counsellor to talk you down when things get stressful. I feel great knowing she's in my corner to help me manage my mortgage moving forward. - Rachel Moerman

Donna is absolutely amazing! Our experience trying to deal with our bank directly had been terrible, especially considering one of us is staff. I called Donna and she was sitting down with us with 24hrs and 24hr after that everything was sorted, finance in place AND we had cash refund from the bank on settlement. I cannot recommend Donna highly enough, with banks pushing services out of the branches, services from professionals like Donna are becoming more and more valuable. House buying is stressful enough so anything that can make it easier is worth it and Donna does it brilliantly. On top of all of that she also is a really nice person to work with. Give her call, make your life easier, you will not be disappointed. - Steve Tucker