Do your clients have the Best Financial Protections for Peace of Mind?
As a travel advisor, what protections can you offer your clients if a supplier suffers an insolvency? At TravelManagers, we’ve created a multi-layered, comprehensive system of financial protections that provide peace of mind for our personal travel managers (PTMs) and their clients. It encompasses the following elements:
- The TravelManagers Customer Fund (TCF): a self-financed fund which serves as an additional layer of protection in the unlikely event that one of our Approved Suppliers fails financially and a client is unable to obtain a refund through their travel insurance or banking institutions. As at December 2023 TravelManagers had accumulated over $AUD900,000 into its TCF.
- Credit Card Chargeback Insurance (CCCBI) to help protect PTMs from loss in the event that a supplier collapse results in any chargebacks.
- A separate client trust account into which all client payments are required to be paid directly by credit card or direct deposit. This is independently audited on a quarterly basis, with the audits made publicly available on our website.
- A Trust Account Fidelity Risk insurance (TACTAFI) policy to protect client funds in the unlikely event that they are missing from, or not paid into, the insured trust account as a result of fraudulent or dishonest activity.
We believe we have built the most robust, comprehensive and transparent system of financial protections in the Australian travel industry. We asked some of our personal travel managers (PTMs) to explain how it makes a difference in their businesses:
Karen Whitehead – Thurgoona, NSW
The TCF (TravelManagers Customer Fund) provides me with peace of mind in my business because my clients feel confident working with me. It’s important for both sides to know that their funds are safe if anything goes wrong – because we all know that sometimes that can happen.
When clients ask, I can explain exactly how their money is protected: through our client trust account, the TCF and the other components that make up our peace of mind protections. They can see for themselves that our protections are completely transparent because all the relevant details are right there in black and white on our website.
Julianne Gazal-Rizk – Willoughby, NSW
It’s easy to talk about consumer protections in theory, but what’s important is how they perform when put to the test. I had several deposits on file with an Approved Supplier that became insolvent. However, because of TravelManagers’ system of financial protections, my clients’ funds were completely safe. As soon as I heard the news, I was able to contact my clients and say, “This is what has happened, but don’t worry: I’m already twenty steps ahead, your money’s safe. It’s a non-issue.”
When I start working with a client, I always attach a little blurb about our TCF fund and I get a lot of people saying, “Wow, that’s very unique.” I don’t think people really think about it much, but once you put it under their nose, they recognise its value. For me, that’s another affirmation that TravelManagers is the right model for me.
Joanne Miller – Greystanes, NSW
I joined TravelManagers in July of 2021. I had a long-term, established client base and I needed to be able to say to them, “This is my decision, this is why I’ve chosen to join TravelManagers.”
The timing of my decision, in relation to the pandemic, meant that many clients needed extra reassurance that their money would be protected. That’s why TravelManagers’ financial auditing and its TCF fund were a big part of my decision to join the brand – it gave me confidence that I was offering my clients a model which promised (and delivered) peace of mind. What’s more, TravelManagers has been operating for eighteen years as a home-based specialist. It wasn’t a brand-new concept – it was a well-established, highly-regarded, multi-award-winning group of home-based advisors.
Carli Hester – Armstrong Creek, VIC
I joined TravelManagers around seven years ago, and one of the main things that attracted me was the dedicated, independently audited trust account. Having come from a small, local agency that didn’t have a trust account (because it’s no longer a mandatory requirement), it was a big deal for me to know that my clients’ funds would be protected.
If having peace of mind is important to you and your clients, click here to learn more about our multi-layered financial protections or call for a confidential chat with one of our state-based Business Partnership Managers.
