Our privacy assurance to you
At MoneyLink Financial Planning your privacy is important to us. Privacy laws apply to how we collect maintain, use and disclose your personal information. We comply with these laws.
This brochure explains how the laws affect MoneyLink Financial Planning and you, including:
• the types of information that we keep on record and how we may use that information
• your privacy rights along with our general rights and obligations
• our policies in relation to how we collect, maintain, use and disclose your personal information.
Other privacy statements
When you apply for a new product or service through us, the application form will include notices about privacy and requests for consent. Those privacy notices (called privacy statements) will specify in more detail how any information about you may be used or disclosed in relation to the particular product or service.
When you apply for or use a product or service through us, you consent to us collecting, maintaining, using and disclosing personal information about you (provided by you or by another person) in accordance with the privacy statements in the Product Disclosure Statements and application forms, any Agreement you sign, and this brochure.
What information does MoneyLink Financial Planning hold?
The types of information we ask for will depend on the type of product or service requested by you.
Generally, we keep a record of one or more of the following types of information about you:
• information that identifies you, such as your name and address and other identification information provided by you and people nominated by you
• if you apply for insurance, information about what is being insured, including health information about you, your income and occupation, information about your beneficiaries, and information about your claims history
• if you apply for a superannuation or investment product or service, information about your employment, beneficiaries, bank accounts for funds to be transferred to or from and, in some cases, health information about you
• transaction information relating to the product or service acquired by you, such as details of contributions and distributions for investment products
• if you supply your Tax File Number (TFN) to investment and superannuation funds we will also keep a copy of your TFN in your file, unless you instruct us not to, which you are entitled to do.
All information sought is required for our business purposes, which are detailed generally in this brochure and more specifically in our application forms.
We do not actively seek to collect sensitive information (for example health information or information about any criminal record), unless it is necessary for our business purposes. If we do have to collect sensitive information, we will only collect, use and disclose it in accordance with privacy laws.
Sometimes we act as an agent for others when collecting information about you, such as for an insurer underwriting insurance products (the Insurer”), or on behalf of other parties (‘Institutional Business clients’) in our capacity as administrator. We will inform you when we do this.
How do we collect your information?
Generally, we only collect personal information about you from you, unless it is not reasonable or practical for us to do so, or if you consent. For example, we may collect information from a third party, such as your accountant, your employer for superannuation purposes, your legal guardian or power-of-attorney, or you may be named as a beneficiary in another application for another product or service. We may also collect information about you from a publicly available source.
Do we collect information from you electronically?
We collect and hold information about you electronically when you:
• complete an online Application or other type of form
• provide us with your email address
• access and use financial products or services through a website.
We do not collect any information electronically about you unless you or your authorised representative provide the information to us.
How may we use your personal information?
Generally, we use your personal information to:
• help us process your application for products or services and subsequent investment directions
• effectively monitor these products and services (including keeping records required under superannuation laws and the Corporations Act)
• ensure our internal business operations are running smoothly, which may include fulfilling legal requirements and conducting confidential systems maintenance and testing.
Unless you tell us not to or have previously told us not to, we may also use your personal information (excluding health information) to inform you of products and services offered by other financial services providers which we think may be of interest or value to you.
Any form used to collect your information may give further details about the way we use your information.
What rights do we have to disclose personal information?
Generally, we must obtain your consent before we tell anyone about you, or your investments. You can give us your consent expressly (by telephone or writing to us) or it may be implied by your conduct. Sometimes the law requires or allows us to give out information about you. For example, we may have to give your investment details to a court if we are ordered to do so under a subpoena.
Depending on the product or service we provide to you, if it is necessary we may also disclose your personal information to:
• our external service providers that provide services to us. This is on a confidential basis and includes organisations that provide us with financial, advisory, administrative or other services, such as investment managers of products you select, financial institutions you nominate, industry bodies, mail-houses contracted to mail information to you in relation to your products and services and archive companies
• anyone acting on your behalf, including your financial adviser or broker and their office staff
• anyone who holds amounts of money on your behalf which will be transferred to or from us
• any party acquiring an interest in our business
• a complaints body to whom a complaint relating to a product or service is referred
• where the law requires or permits us to do so if you consent.
Use of your personal information by an insurer
If you acquire an insurance product we may disclose personal information about you to the insurer without getting your consent. Insurers are required to comply with the privacy laws in using any such information.
If you acquire an insurance product underwritten by the Insurer; the Insurer may use personal information about you for purposes as disclosed in its own privacy policy and in the disclosure document for the product or service you choose.
You can obtain a copy of the Insurer’s privacy policy by contacting the Insurer directly or through us.
We may at other times give you more details about our disclosure practices in relation to specific products or services – for example on the disclosure documents and applications we use to collect personal information about you.
How we protect the security of your information
We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We have physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your information held by us. For example, your personal information is stored in secured office premises, in electronic databases requiring logins and passwords for access and/or at a secured warehouse. We require all staff to maintain the confidentiality of customer information.
We use secure methods to destroy or de-identify any personal information as soon as the law permits, provided the information is no longer needed by us for any purpose.
Changes to our privacy policies
We may amend this Privacy Brochure from time to time. Not all changes to our privacy policies will require your consent for example where office security procedures are changed. We will notify you of any change to our policies that require your consent before being implemented.
What are your rights?
Unless required by law (for example to comply with a legal duty of disclosure when applying for an insurance product) you need not give us any of the personal information about you or any other person which may be requested in our communications with you. However, without that information, we may not be able to process an application, fulfill your request or provide you with an appropriate level of service.
Where we collect information from you about another individual, for example your nominated beneficiaries, please make that individual aware of that fact and the contents of this Privacy Brochure.
Marketing opt-out
If you do not want the benefit of receiving information about products and services which may be supplied by suppliers other than the ones you have chosen, which we think may be of value or interest to you, please tell us. You can do this at any time by either writing to us or telephoning us at your personal MoneyLink Office or MoneyLink’s Head Office as set out at the end of this brochure.
Access to your information
You may request access at any time to personal information held by us about you. We will process your request within a reasonable time, usually 14 days for a straightforward request. More time may be needed in some cases depending on the nature of the request.
There is no fee for requesting access to your information, however we may charge you the reasonable costs of processing your request.
Sometimes we are not required to provide you with access. If we refuse you access to your personal information, we will tell you the reason why. If we are not required to provide you with access to the information requested, we will consider, if reasonable, whether the use of a mutually agreed intermediary would allow sufficient access to meet your needs and ours.
Correction of information
We try to ensure that all information held by us about you which we collect use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However you must promptly notify us if there are any changes to your personal information.
You may ask us at any time to correct personal information held by us about you that you believe is incorrect or out-of-date. We will deal with your request within a reasonable time.
If we disagree as to the accuracy of the information, you may request that we make an appropriate notation in relation to that information noting you consider it is not accurate, complete or up-to-date.
Who is MoneyLink Financial Planning?
MoneyLink Financial Planning Pty Ltd is an independently owned Australian Financial Services Licence holder. Its ABN is 25 003 937 719 and it holds AFS Licence No 247360. MoneyLink has no institutional shareholders and no obligations to recommend any particular providers’ financial products.
Reference to ‘we/us’ in this brochure means MoneyLink Financial Planning Pty Ltd and each of the MoneyLink offices, which may be independently owned by the local adviser/s.
If there is anything you would like to discuss, please contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy or practices, contact:
MoneyLink Financial Planning
56 Hill Street,
Orange NSW 2800
PO Box 2355
Orange NSW 2800
Phone 02 6362 0333
We will try to answer any questions you may have, correct any error on our part or resolve any complaint that you may have about our information handling practices. If we do not resolve a complaint to your satisfaction, you also have the right to complain to the Privacy Commissioner.