Indian Ocean Financial Services abides by the National Privacy Principles established under the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act, 2001. A summary of the National Privacy Principles is available on www.privacy.gov.au.

As a financial services organisation, we are subject to certain legislative and regulatory requirements which require us obtaining and holding detailed information which personally identifies you and/or contains information or an opinion about you ("personal information").

In addition, the success of providing you with a comprehensive financial planning and advice service is dependent on us obtaining current personal and financial information about you which might be considered private in nature, including:

• Employment and medical history;
• Details of your financial needs and objectives;
• Details of your (and associated entities) current financial circumstances, including you and your family income, assets and liabilities, expenditure, insurance cover and superannuation;
• Details of your investment preferences and attitude towards investment risk;
• Information about your employment history, employment circumstances, family commitments and social security eligibility.

Failure to provide the personal information referred to above may result in our advice being not appropriate to your circumstances and may expose you to higher risks in respect of the recommendations made to you.

We are required by law (the Corporations Act) and Industry Standards (Rules of Professional Conduct of the Financial Planning Association of Australia) to ensure that you receive appropriate advice, also known as “the know your client” rule. If you elect not to provide us with the personal information referred to above, we may elect to terminate our retainer with you if we believe we are unable to provide you with a complete service or meet our compliance standards.

Generally, the lion share of your Personal information will be collected by the use of a fact finding document and additional information may be required at the implementation phase of our advice or our review process.

We will only disclose, gather, maintain and use your Personal Information in the following circumstances:

• If it is necessary for us to adequately provide to you the services you have requested;
• Unless specifically communicated otherwise, to assist with the services provided by Adam Hunter Accountants;
• Where the National Privacy Principals or other laws requires us to disclose your financial information to an enforcement body;
• For compliance reasons, to our Licensee and our regulator the Australian Investment and Securities Commission;

 

We are further required under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Financial Planning Association of Australia to make certain Personal information available for inspection by the Association on request to ensure ongoing compliance with mandatory professional standards.

In the even that we propose to sell our business, we may disclose your personal information to potential purchases for the purpose of them conducting due diligence investigations. Any such disclosure will be made in confidence and it will be a condition of that disclosure that no personal information will be used or disclosed by them. In the event that a sale of our business is effected, we may transfer your personal information to the purchaser of the business. As a client, you will be advised of any such transfer and given the opportunity to object against such transfer. 

Your personal information is generally held in your client file. Information may also be held in a computer database.

We will at all times seek to ensure that the personal information collected and held by us is protected from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. At all times, your personal information is treated as confidential and any sensitive information is treated as highly confidential. All papers and files are stored in lockable cabinets and/or secure lockable offices which are locked out of hours. All record movements off premises are recorded in a central register. Access to our premises is controlled by allowing only personnel with security codes to access the premises. All computer based information is protected through the use of access passwords on each computer and screen save passwords. Data is backed up each evening and stored securely off site.

In the even you cease to be a client of this organisation, any personal information which we hold about you will be maintained in a secure off-site storage facility for a period of 7 years in order to comply with legislative and professional requirements, following which time the information will be destroyed.

You may at any time contact us to request access to your personal information and we will generally provide you with access to that information either by providing you with copies of the information requested. We will, prior to providing access in accordance with this policy, require you to provide evidence of your identity.

If you wish to complain about any breach or potential breach of this privacy policy or the National Privacy Principals, you should contact us and request that your complaint be directed to the Managing Director. Your complaint will be considered within 7 days and responded to. It is our intention to use our best endeavours to resolve any complaint to your satisfaction however if you are unhappy with the outcome you are entitled to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner who may investigate your complaint further.