Privacy Policy

Here at Wise Owl Accountants we recognise that your privacy is very important to you. That’s why we are committed to complying with the National Privacy Principles established under the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act, 2001.

As a financial planning organisation we are subject to certain legislative and regulatory requirements, which necessitate us obtaining and holding detailed information, which personally identifies you and/or contains information or an opinion about you. In addition, our ability to provide you with a comprehensive financial planning and advice service is dependent on us obtaining certain personal information about you, including:

employment details and employment history
details of your financial needs and objectives
details of your current financial circumstances, including your assets and liabilities (both actual and potential), income, expenditure, insurance cover and superannuation
details of your investment preferences and aversion or tolerance to risk
information about your employment history, employment circumstances, family commitments and social security eligibility

As we are required pursuant to the Corporations Act and Rules of Professional Conduct of the Financial Planning Association of Australia to collect sufficient information to ensure appropriate advice can be given in respect of recommendations made to our clients, if you elect not to provide us with the personal information referred to above, we may elect to terminate our retained with you if we believe we are unable to provide you with a complete service.

We will only collect, maintain and use Personal Information about you if it is necessary for us to adequately provide to you the services you have requested including:

the preparation of your financial plan
the provision of financial planning advice to you
making securities and investment recommendations
reviewing your financial plan
reviewing securities and investment recommendations
completion of associated documentation and application forms
to provide agreed services to assist in meeting your goals and objectives

We may also ask for your personal information because we are obliged to collect it for legal purposes under the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 and the new Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. These Acts require us to ask you for information to check your identity (for instance, by referring to your driver’s licence, birth certificate or passport). We will not use any information collected under these Acts for any other purpose.

We will not use or disclose Personal Information collected by us for any purpose other than:

the purposes for which it was provided or secondary related purposes in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure or
where you have consented to such disclosure or
where the National Privacy Principles authorise use or disclosure where required or authorised under law, in circumstances relating to public health and safety and in connection with certain operations by or on behalf of an enforcement body

We are required under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Financial Planning Association of Australia to make certain information available for inspection by the Association on request to ensure ongoing compliance with mandatory professional standards. This may involve the disclosure of your personal information. We are also obliged pursuant to the Corporations Act to maintain certain transaction records and make those records available for inspection by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

We may use the personal information collected from you for the purpose of providing you with direct marketing material such as articles that may be of interest to you, however you may, by contacting us by any of the methods detailed below, request not to receive such information and we will give effect to that request.

In order to ensure that you receive a personal and tailored service, your Personal Information may be transferred to one of our agents or authorised representatives who will be your primary point of contact with the organisation. It is a condition of our agreement with each of our representatives that they adopt and adhere to this privacy policy. You can be assured that your information will be maintained by any agent or representative in accordance with this policy. If you have any concerns in this regard, you should contact us by any of the methods detailed below.

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.

In the event you cease to be a client of this organisation, any personal information which we hold about you will be maintained in a secure of 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, request access to your personal information and we will provide you with access to that information either by providing you with copies of the information requested, allowing you to inspect the information requested or providing you with an accurate summary of the information held. We will, prior to providing access in accordance with this policy, require you to provide evidence of your identity.

We will endeavour to ensure that, at all times, the personal information about you which we hold is up to date and accurate. In the event that you become aware, or believe, that any Personal Information which we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated, you may contact us and provide to us evidence of the inaccuracy and we will, if we agree that the information requires correcting, take all reasonable steps to correct the information.

If you wish to complain about any breach or potential breach of the privacy policy or the National Privacy Principles, you should contact us and request that your complaint be directed to the Privacy Officer. 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 our response, you are entitled to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner who may investigate your complaint further.

Wise Owl Accountants Financial Planning contains links to other Web sites whose operator may or may not adhere to a privacy policy or be governed by the National Privacy Principles.