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Maher Digby Securities

Privacy Policy

At Maher Digby Securities, our financial advisors in Nambour understand that the privacy of your information is important to you and we respect the confidentiality of the information that you provide to us. Protecting your information is an important part of maintaining trust between us and our clients and by handling information in a secure manner we build strong business relationships.

This document provides information and details about how our Wide Bay and Sunshine Coast financial planning firm manages the personal information that we collect, hold, use and disclose about individuals.

The Privacy Policy applies to all organisations within the Licensee and all subsidiary companies which are set out at the end of this policy. We are bound by the Privacy Act and we manage and protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Why we collect and use personal information

Our financial planners in Sunshine Coast collect, hold, use and disclose personal information so we can provide you with financial and credit products, advice and service relevant to your needs. We may also collect, use and disclose your information for related purposes such as:

  • Complying with our legal obligations, such as verifying your identity
  • Assisting with your questions and complaints
  • Arranging for services to be provided by third parties
  • Internal operations, such as record keeping, data analytics, auditing or training
  • Promotion of other products and services that may be of interest to you

We collect, use, hold and sometimes disclose personal information about financial advisers, credit representatives and other people who we do business with (including employees) in order to administer and manage our business operations. This information is afforded the same standard of care as that of our clients.

What personal information we collect

We ask people for a range of personal information to assist us in providing relevant products and services. The information we collect could include (but is not limited to) your name, date of birth, contact details, financial information, employment details, residency and citizenship status. We may also collect the personal information of your family members where it is relevant to the advice being provided.

We may also collect sensitive information about your medical history and their health and lifestyle to provide financial advice about life insurance products.

In most instances, we collect personal information directly from that person when they:

  • complete a financial product or credit product application form,
  • complete an identification form,
  • complete data collection documentation,
  • interact with an online interactive tool, such as a budget financial planner,
  • provide documentation to us, or
  • when you communicate with our Nambour financial planners in person, over the telephone, fax, email, internet or by using other electronic devices.

Situations where we collect personal information from other people and organisations include (but are not limited to):

  • a financial adviser,
  • a mortgage broker or other credit representative,
  • other professionals who act on your behalf, such as a lawyer or accountant,
  • health professionals,
  • other organisations, who jointly with us, provide products or services to you, and
  • social media and publicly available sites.

It’s your choice whether to provide your personal information to our financial advisers in Nambour. You have the right to not to provide personal information, including about your identity. However, in this case, your financial advisor will warn you about the possible consequences and how this may impact on the quality of the advice provided. Your financial planner may also decline to provide advice if they feel they have insufficient information to proceed. In some instances, we will decline to provide services or advice if we feel we have insufficient information for the scope of the service or advice requested.

Further, in some circumstances the law requires us to obtain and verify details of photographic and non-photographic identification documents.

Website technologies our Nambour financial planning firm uses

Maher Digby is committed to the protection of personal information. Our financial planners on the Sunshine Coast understand that visitors and users of our website are concerned about their privacy, and the confidentiality and security of any information that is provided. Some information is automatically collected whenever anybody accesses this website. Additional information may be voluntarily supplied through on-line forms and e-mail for specific service delivery purposes.

We will only use such information collected for the purpose for which it was supplied and such information will not be disclosed to any third party unless required by law. When you visit this website our internet Service Provider's standard web logs record anonymous information for statistical purposes only, including: date and time of your visit to the site, pages you accessed, type of browser you are using, referring site and internet address of the server accessing our site.

The website does not provide facilities for securely transmitting information across the internet. We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of all information that we collect, however no data transmission over the internet or information stored on servers accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure. These activities are undertaken at your risk.

Accessing and updating personal information

You can request access to personal information held by our local financial planning firm. There may be a cost involved with locating, copying or sending you the information you request. The cost will be discussed and agreed with you at the time.

There may be circumstances where we refuse to provide you with the information you request, for example when the information is commercially sensitive. In these situations, our financial advisors will inform you and provide an explanation as to why.

We will deal with requests for access to your personal information as soon as possible and aim to respond within 30 days. The time we require will depend on the type of information requested.

We will update your personal information if you contact us. In most cases, you can update your personal information over the phone, by contacting your adviser or broker or electronically.

If you wish to remain anonymous or to use a pseudonym when dealing with our team, we may only be able to provide you with limited information or financial services. In many cases it will not be possible for us to assist you with your specific needs if you wish to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym.

Who we share personal information with

From time to time our Sunshine Coast financial planning firm may share your personal information with other entities both within and outside of the Licensee. This will vary according to the product or service involved, but could include:

  • any person acting on your behalf, including your financial advisor, solicitor, accountant, executor, administrator, trustee, guardian or attorney
  • financial product and service providers, including financial planning software providers and paraplanners
  • for corporate superannuation members, your employer or your employer's financial adviser
  • lenders and other credit providers
  • other organisations within the Licensee including related bodies corporate and advice firms we have authorised,
  • medical practitioners and health service providers, such as pathology services
  • companies involved in the payments system including financial institutions, merchants and payment organisations
  • organisations who assist us with certain business functions, such as auditors, compliance consultants, direct marketing, debt recovery and information and communication technology support
  • our solicitors, our insurers, courts, tribunals and dispute resolution organisations
  • other organisations who provide us with products and services so that they may provide their products and services to you or contact you on our behalf, and/or
  • anyone to whom we, or our service providers, are required or authorised by law to disclose your personal information to (for example, law enforcement agencies, Australian and international government and regulatory authorities).

We may also disclose your information to a third party where you have given your consent or where you would reasonably expect us to disclose your information to that third party.

We may also disclose the personal information we hold about our local financial advisers to professional organisations, companies and consultants that we work with.

The only circumstances in which our firm would collect, use or disclose your government related identifiers is where we are required or authorised by law to do so. For example, we may be required to disclose your Tax File Number (TFN) to the Australian Taxation Office, a superannuation or retirement income product provider.  Likewise, we may need to disclose your Medicare number to Centrelink in order to assess your social security eligibility. Drivers licence numbers and passport numbers may also be collected when we are required to verify your identity.

Personal information collected may also be used for direct marketing purposes to promote events, products or services that may be of relevance to you. Please contact us should you wish not to receive direct marketing.

Disclosure of personal information overseas

Although our Sunshine Coast financial advisers don’t send personal information overseas, you should be aware of the following:

  • your personal information may be accessed by our Nambour financial planning firm's staff, representatives, or agents in other countries, if that becomes necessary to deliver our services to you. This access is via secure internet connection or, in some instances email;
  • from time to time, information may be loaded to the cloud for storage or access through programs such as Dropbox etc; and
  • it is possible that product and financial services providers we recommend may outsource functions using overseas contractors or companies that process these services using offshore resources.  Where this is a concern to you, we suggest that you carefully read their privacy policy to determine the extent to which they send information overseas.

We allow access to relevant personal information for external organisations that help us provide services.  These organisations are bound by confidentiality arrangements.  From time to time we may use service providers whose staff accesses our data outside of Australia to provide services.  Where this is the case, these service providers have committed to adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles.  These service providers may be located in a number of countries including Philippines and India.

How we protect personal information

We strive to ensure that the personal information that you provide to our Nambour financial planning team is stored safely and securely. We take a number of precautions to protect the personal information we hold about you from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Our financial planning firm on the Sunshine Coast has a range of practices and policies in place to protect personal information we hold, including:

  • educating our staff and representatives about how to protect your personal information and updating them about cybersecurity developments, threats and scams,
  • requiring our staff and representatives to use passwords when accessing our systems,
  • where appropriate, using strict confidentiality arrangements restricting third parties’ use or disclose of personal information for any unauthorised purposes,
  • employing physical and electronic means, including access controls (as required) to protect against unauthorised access to buildings,
  • employing firewalls, intrusion prevention systems and virus scanning tools to protect against unauthorised persons, malware and viruses from entering our systems,
  • some of the systems we use are on dedicated secure networks or transmit electronic data via encryption, and
  • providing secure storage for physical records and securing paper files in locked cabinets and physical access restrictions.

Where personal information is no longer required, we take steps to de-identify or destroy the information in a secure manner.

Complaints about privacy

If you have any queries or are concerned about how your personal information has been collected, used or disclosed and you wish to make a complaint, please contact the Privacy Officer on the information below:

Mail             PO Box 1156 Nambour 4560

Phone          07 5441 1266

Email           invest@maherdigby.com.au 

Website       www.maherdigby.com.au

We will acknowledge receipt of a complaint immediately, however, where this is not possible, acknowledgement will be made as soon as practicable. We will then investigate the complaint and respond to you within 45 days. Some complex matters may require an extension to thoroughly investigate the complaint and bring it to resolution.

If you are not fully satisfied with our response, you can contact an external body. In cases of privacy related complaints, this is generally the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

The contact details for OAIC are:

Mail             GPO box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001

Phone         1300 363 992

Email          enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Online         www.oaic.gov.au

You may also direct privacy complaints related to financial advice to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). The contact details for AFCA are:

Mail             GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC 3001

Phone         1800 931 678 (free call)

Email          info@afca.org.au

    Online  www.afca.org.au 

 

About this Policy

We may amend or update our Privacy Policy as required by law or as our business processes or technology changes. We will post the updated policy on our website – www.maherdigby.com.au  We encourage you to check our website from time to time to view our current policy or contact us for a printed copy.

The Privacy Policy applies to the following organisations which are all part of the Licensees Group:

  • Maher Digby                                         ABN  56 471 127 413

 

Changes to this Privacy Statement

This privacy policy may change from time to time particularly as new rules, regulations and industry codes are introduced.