• User privacy and data protection are human rights in the digital age
• We have a duty of care to the people contained within our data
• Data is a liability, it should only be collected and processed when absolutely necessary
• We loathe spam as much as you do!
• We will never sell, rent or otherwise distribute or make public your personal information.

We respect your privacy and value the trust you place in us when you share your personal information with us.This privacy notice explains how we use any personal information we collect about you.

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 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. We’ll use your information collected from our website to personalise your repeat visits to the site.

Information about connected individuals

We may need to gather personal information about your close family members and dependants in order 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?

We rely on your consent as provided when you sign up to using our services as the lawful basis on which Investment & Retirement Solutions Ltd collect and use your personal data. Our legitimate interests in this data are to fulfil our contractual obligations to you and to fulfil our legal obligations as authorised and regulated firms.

How will we use the information about you?

• To provide our ongoing service to you
• To ensure that content on the website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for the device(s) you use to access and view the website;
• To provide you with information and offers that you request from Investment & Retirement Solutions Ltd or which we feel may interest you.
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and Investment & Retirement Solutions Ltd.
• Provide information to investment providers or life assurance firms for the purposes of arranging products and services for you
• To notify you about changes to our service.
• Meet our regulatory obligations in the services we provide to you.

Where we are providing an ongoing service we will update the information as part of our review process and note our records.

Information may be obtained from you face to face, on the phone or through e mail or completion of online documentation. As the information is required to enable us to provide our services if you opt not to provide it we may not be able to continue to advise you

There may be situations where the information we require is a special category of personal data under the legislation. In this case we will explain why we need it and obtain your consent to obtain the data. This situation most commonly occurs where we are arranging life assurance products and need to obtain medical information from you.

Who might we share your information with?

If you agree, we may email you about other products or services that we think may be of interest to you.

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

In order 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 to protect your personal data in transit. Where possible, this data will be transmitted using a secure internet connection, or with the use of password protection and/or encryption, etc.

To fulfil our obligations in respect of 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 the course of our relationship with you we’ll retain personal data which 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 are are also subject to regulatory requirements to retain your data for specified minimum periods following the end of the you holding the subject (ie pension or investment) of our advice. 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 reserve the right to retain data for longer where we believe it’s in our legitimate interests to do so. In any case, we’ll not keep your personal data for longer than 6 years after our relationship with you has ended. Other than when we obliged by regulation or law to do so.

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

Contacting you

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

You have a 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. 

Cookies

We use cookies to track visitor use of our website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences.  Turning cookies of may result in a loss of functionality when using our and other websites.

Other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

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
0303 123 1113 (local rate)

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we’ll place any updates on our website or inform you of any changes when they occur. 

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you: by email at team@investretire.co.uk