Disbursements

Taken from Policy Manual Part D: Professional Practice.

Disbursements are supplementary costs which advisers may charge, and can include:

Code of conduct requirements and additional considerations

The following clauses of the code of conduct either must, or should be, taken into account when calculating disbursements:

An adviser must ensure that:
fees and disbursements (including Immigration New Zealand fees and charges) to be charged are set out, including the hourly rate and the estimate of time it will take to perform the services, or the fixed cost for the services	8b
payment terms and conditions are set out	8c
fees, disbursements and payment terms and conditions are provided	8d
In relation to disbursements, an adviser should also:
disclose any financial or non-financial interests in goods or services recommended or supplied to the client	7a
work in a manner that does not unnecessarily increase costs	1.1d
obtain agreement in writing from the client, to any material increase in costs, as soon as the increase is known to the adviser	3c

Some hints for calculating and processing disbursements are outlined below:

Steps	Actions
Calculating disbursements	Ensure that: disbursements to clients are charged at the actual amounts, and are not ‘marked up’ general disbursements (e.g. international telephone calls, photocopying and other such items) should be charged at a reasonable rate of what it costs to provide the service. Be practical, as a lot of time and effort can be spent analysing costs, which is not good use of an adviser’s chargeable time.
Processing disbursements	Disbursements can be paid either directly by the client, or by the adviser, in the following ways: directly by the client to the supplier (e.g. the Immigration New Zealand application fee is paid directly to Immigration New Zealand) directly by the adviser (e.g. organising to send a client’s application to Immigration New Zealand via courier), who then seeks reimbursement from the client by the adviser through the client account (i.e. from client funds received in advance of either the supply, or the payment of a disbursement, that have been held in a separate client account) which can be drawn upon by the adviser, once an invoice has been issued.

Steps

Actions

Calculating disbursements

Ensure that:

disbursements to clients are charged at the actual amounts, and are not ‘marked up’
general disbursements (e.g. international telephone calls, photocopying and other such items) should be charged at a reasonable rate of what it costs to provide the service.

Be practical, as a lot of time and effort can be spent analysing costs, which is not good use of an adviser’s chargeable time.

Processing disbursements

Disbursements can be paid either directly by the client, or by the adviser, in the following ways:

directly by the client to the supplier (e.g. the Immigration New Zealand application fee is paid directly to Immigration New Zealand)
directly by the adviser (e.g. organising to send a client’s application to Immigration New Zealand via courier), who then seeks reimbursement from the client
by the adviser through the client account (i.e. from client funds received in advance of either the supply, or the payment of a disbursement, that have been held in a separate client account) which can be drawn upon by the adviser, once an invoice has been issued.