Privacy Policy

Version 1.0 Adopted November 2023

 

PURPOSE AND CONTENT OF THIS POLICY

The collection of personal information about individuals by organisations is governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act) which contains the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) for the collection, use, correction, disclosure and transfer of personal information.

Under the legislation, an organisation must set out in a document clearly expressed policies on its management of personal information. The organisation must make the document available to anyone who asks for it.

On request by a person, an organisation must take reasonable steps to let the person know, generally, what sort of personal information it holds, for what purposes, and how it collects, holds, uses and discloses that information.

Where an individual requests access to personal information that the organisation is holding about them, a reasonable fee may be charged for the provision of this information. This must not be excessive and must not be charged in relation to the lodgement of the application (that is, a lodgement fee).

The Policy explains our approach with respect to the collection and management of your personal information

RESPECTING YOUR PRIVACY

Zone Financial understands the importance of how we deal with your private and financial information. We are committed to manage any personal information we collect from our clients in an open and transparent way. Protecting our clients’ privacy is very important to us.

In order to provide financial services to our clients, we need to request and retain some personal information. This allows us to process applications, administer your accounts and provide you with information. We may also use your personal details to communicate with you about products and services and comply with relevant laws. We consider all information about our clients to be private and confidential.

This policy tells you what information we collect and keep, what we do with it, and what your rights are in relation to that information.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Wherever practicable, Zone Financial will collect information about you directly from you. We generally collect your information through application forms, the use of online facilities, directly from you on the phone and ongoing communications or via electronic means such as an email.

However, it may be necessary at times to collect information about you from other external sources, such as:

• your other professional advisers e.g. accountants and legal professionals;
• your authorised representatives, such as executors or administrators; and;
• identity verification service providers.

WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION WILL WE COLLECT AND HOLD

The type of information collected from you includes information that is necessary to provide financial advice and managing your financial adviser’s relationship with you. We may collect all or some of the following:

• your full name, date of birth, gender and contact details including telephone, address and e-mail;
• copy of your driver’s licence and /or passport for the purpose of verifying your identity and to ensure compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act;
• your tax file number and bank account and statement details for the purpose of administering your accounts;
• financial details (Income and Expenses, Assets and Liabilities, insurance cover, superannuation);
• employment details and history;
• details about authorised signatories;
• copies of any relevant trust deeds, partnership agreements, constitutions or articles of association, which may be needed to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act; and
• details of services you are interested in and about your investment needs, for the purpose of gathering demographic information.

There are also specific circumstances in which we will ask for additional sensitive information such as:

• personal health information and information from medical practitioners for the purposes of insurance products or claims;
• income information from employers in instances where you are applying for additional insurance protection or salary continuance insurance;
• details of your dependants for the purposes of paying benefits in the event of your death.

If we do not receive the information requested, we may not be able to process or accept applications from you and may not be able to provide some or all of the services you want us to provide to you. For example, when you become a member of a superannuation product, if you choose not to give us your TFN for passing on to the provider of the product, you may be subject to higher tax charges on your superannuation and the provider may not be able to accept personal contributions.

As part of our recruitment process, we may collect personal information from potential employees and their referees. We may also collect sensitive information about potential employees as part of a background checking process. With consent, this information may be disclosed to and obtained from third party agencies that we engage to conduct probity checks on our behalf.

Unless otherwise advised by a potential candidate, we may keep information on file for any future vacancies.  Candidates can request at any time, for us to destroy their personal information.

THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED, HELD, USED AND DISCLOSED.

Generally, we only use and disclose information about you for the purpose for which it was disclosed to us or related purposes which would reasonably be expected. Those purposes include:

• to provide financial services and advice to you;
• to establish and manage your investment accounts;
• to communicate with you;
• to implement your investment instructions;
• establish and maintain insurance protection;
• process contributions, transfer monies or pay benefits;
• to keep you up-to-date on other products and services offered by us;
• to comply with our reporting and tax obligations;
• to handle any relevant enquiries or complaints.

HOW WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We store your personal information in a variety of ways which includes both electronic and paper form. The security of your personal information is paramount, and we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We do this in a number of ways including:

• security systems, procedures and training;
• confidentiality requirements of our employees and contractors;
• security measures for access to our systems;
• restricting access to personal information only to persons who require access to carry out their responsibilities;
• secured access to our offices; and
• electronic security systems such as firewalls, MFA, and data encryption on our websites.

Zone Financial engages third parties to provide services on behalf of our Australian Financial Services Licence.

Zone Financial uses software, systems, technology and products supplied by third parties (whether disclosed or not). This includes information and portfolio management systems (Xplan by IRESS), and other online information access systems.

You should note that there are inherent security risks in transmitting information via email, online or through the internet. You should assess these potential risks when deciding how you want to transmit information.

WHO MAY WE DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION TO

There are circumstances under relevant legislation where we are required to disclose certain information and there are other circumstances where some information may also be provided.

We may be required by law to disclose your personal information. For instance, we may be required to provide details to:

• Australian Government regulators such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian Tax Office (ATO), the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), and to other regulatory or government entities;
• Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) (to allow a complaint you have made about our provision of financial services to be resolved);
• as required by a court order; and
• your spouse in accordance with the Family Law Act requirements.

In order to meet your needs and provide some financial services, such as administering your accounts, it may be necessary to release information or provide access to external service providers, for instance:

• any organisations involved in providing, managing or administering our products or services such as administrators, third party clearers, mail houses and software providers;
• contractors we have engaged to assist us in managing your accounts;
• organisations who assist us with certain business functions such as external compliance, marketing consultants and market research companies;
• medical practitioners and other relevant professionals, where you have applied for insurance cover or made a claim for disablement benefit;
• your personal representative, or any other person who may be entitled to receive your death benefit or any person contacted to assist us to process that benefit;
• businesses that may have referred you to us;
• auditors, consultants and other professional advisers;
• any fund (administrator or trustee) to which your investment or superannuation balance is to be transferred or rolled over;
• your Legal Personal Representative, attorney or any other person who may be entitled to receive your account balance following your death and any person contacted to assist us in that process;
• other financial institutions (such as banks) who hold an account in your name, for example, where amounts have been transferred to or from that account;
• authorities investigating (or who could potentially investigate) alleged fraudulent or suspicious transactions in relation to your account.

OVERSEAS DISCLOSURE

We may need to share some of your information with organisations outside Australia in order to provide you with services.

We may store your information in “the Cloud” or other types of networked or electronic storage. As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries via an internet connection, it’s not always practicable to know in which country your information may be held. If your information is stored in this way, disclosures may occur in countries other than those listed.

Overseas organisations may be required to disclose information we share with them under a foreign law. In those instances, we will not be responsible for that disclosure.

DATA QUALITY – KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION UP TO DATE

Zone Financial relies on the accuracy of the personal information provided by its clients. We aim to ensure that it is accurate, up-to-date and complete. If any of your details change, or you have any concerns regarding its accuracy you should contact us.

HOW AN INDIVIDUAL MAY ACCESS THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND SEEK ITS CORRECTION

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee to cover our costs. Generally, if it is incorrect, we will correct it at your request.

If access is denied by law for any reason, we will provide you with the reason why.

To contact us about access to and correction of your personal information, please contact us (see contact details at the end of this page).

DATA BREACH RESPONSE

We consider the safety and security of your personal information as important and take all reasonable steps to minimise unauthorised access, loss or misuse.

In the event that your personal information was to be accessed or compromised in any way we would follow our internal procedures in accordance with relevant legislation.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT A BREACH OF THE AUSTRALIAN PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

If you are not happy with our handling of your personal information, you can seek to have the issues addressed.

You should initially contact Zone Financial in writing with the details of your complaint, together with the rectification you are seeking.

If you are not satisfied with our response after 30 business days, you may in some circumstances, take your complaint to;

Australian Financial Complaints Authority

GPO Box 3

Melbourne VIC 3001

(Australia)

Telephone: 1800 931 678

Finally, if you are also not happy with the outcome of the hearing from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, you may take your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner;

Enquiries telephone: 1300 363 992

Enquiries email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

CONTACTING ZONE FINANCIAL

If you have any questions relating to this privacy statement, or concerns about the way in which we have handled your personal information, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Zone Financial Pty Ltd.

PO Box 301 St Leonards NSW 1590

Telephone: (02) 8358 5580

Email: team@zonefinancial.com.au