Privacy Policy

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What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you when you engage us for financial planning, financial advice and investment management services. This information will relate to your personal and financial circumstances. It may also include special categories of personal data, such as data about your health, if this is necessary for the provision of our services.

We may also collect information when you voluntarily complete client surveys or provide feedback to us.

Information relating to the usage of our website is collected using cookies. These are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. 

Information about connected individuals

We may need to gather personal information about your close family members and dependents to provide our service to you effectively. In such cases, it will be your responsibility to ensure that you have the consent of the people concerned to pass their information on to us. We’ll provide a copy of this privacy notice for them or, where appropriate, ask you to pass the privacy information to them.

Why do we need to collect and use your personal data?

The primary legal basis that we intend to use for the processing of your data is for the performance of our contract with you. The information that we collect about you is essential for us to be able to carry out the services that you require from us effectively. Without collecting your personal data, we’d also be unable to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations.

Where special category data is required, we’ll obtain your explicit consent in order to collect and process this information.

How will we use the information about you?

We collect information about you to provide you with the services for which you engage us.

Who might we share your information with?

We won’t share your information for marketing purposes with other companies.

To deliver our services to you effectively, we may send your details to third parties, such as those that we engage for professional compliance, accountancy or legal services, as well as product and platform providers that we use to arrange financial products for you.

Where third parties are involved in processing your data, we’ll have a contract in place with them to ensure that the nature and purpose of the processing is clear, that they are subject to a duty of confidence in processing your data, and that they’ll only act in accordance with our written instructions.

Where it’s necessary for your personal data to be forwarded to a third party, we’ll use appropriate security measures, including password-protecting documents and encrypting data being sent to providers, to protect your personal data in transit.

To fulfil our obligations in respect of the prevention of money laundering and other financial crime, we may send your details to third-party agencies for identity verification purposes.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

During our relationship with you, we’ll retain the personal data that is necessary to provide services to you. We’ll take all reasonable steps to keep your personal data up to date throughout our relationship.

We’re also subject to regulatory requirements to retain your data for specified minimum periods. These are, generally:

• Five years for investment business
• Three years for mortgage business
• Indefinitely for pension transfers and opt-outs
• Three years for insurance business
• These are minimum periods during which we have a legal obligation to retain your records.

We may keep your information after this period, but only where required to meet our legal or regulatory obligations. The length of time we keep your information for these purposes will vary depending on the obligations we need to meet. Once our relationship has ended with you, we will archive our records. Our paper files are securely archived with limited access, and any online records will be archived and stored securely again with limited access.

You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data. We’ll comply with this request, subject to the restrictions of our regulatory obligations and legal interests as noted above.

How can I access the information you hold about me?

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you’d like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email or write to us using the contact details noted below.

When your personal data is processed by automated means, you have the right to ask us to move your personal data to another organisation for their use.

We have an obligation to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Please ask us to correct or remove any information that you think is incorrect.

Automated decision-making and profiling

If you use our risk profiling tool, your personal information will be gathered through the information that you input into the system. Once on the Finametrica website, you are on a third-party website; please read their privacy agreement as to how they use your personal data. Your data is collected for us to carry out the service for which you engage us. If you’re unsure about the outcome of the automated process, you can contact us to discuss or challenge the outcome.

Marketing

We’d like to send you information about our products and services that may be of interest to you. If you’ve agreed to receive marketing information, you may opt out at a later date.

You have the right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please contact us by email or post.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review, and we’ll place any updates on our web page and/or inform you of any changes when they occur. This privacy policy was last updated on 1 February 2021.

What can you do if you are unhappy with how your personal data is processed?

You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority for data protection. In the UK this is:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you:

By email at: info@griffinsfs.co.uk

Or write to us at: Griffins Financial Solutions Ltd, Elizabeth House, 13-19 London Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1JL.