McKinnon Financial Group Privacy Policy

1. Privacy Policy

1.1 At McKinnon Financial Services Pty Ltd and McKinnon Financial Planning Pty Ltd ('McKinnon Financial Group'), we are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This Policy describes our current policies and practices in relation to the collection, handling, use and disclosure of personal information. It also deals with how you can complain about a breach of the privacy laws, how you can access the personal information we hold about you and how to have that information corrected.

2. What Information Do We Collect and How Do We Use It?

2.1 When we prepare a financial recommendation for you, we ask you for the information we need to develop our financial advice for your particular circumstances, needs and objectives.This can include a broad range of information ranging from your name, address, contact details and age to other information about your personal affairs including specific details of your personal assets, liabilities, income, expenditure, insurance policies, and your personal health history (for making life insurance recommendations).

2.2 We may provide some, or all of the information that you provide to us, to other professional advisers, such as accountants and solicitors, as well as investment account administrators and managers, and life insurance companies, to enable them to provide to us with specific advice that will assist us to develop your Financial Plan.

2.3 We also use your information to enable us to manage your ongoing requirements and our relationship with you, e.g. bookkeeping, administering your investment accounts, or your life insurance policies, as well as administering our own internal management systems, such as client analysis reports, client surveys, issuing invoices, establishing payments systems, and preparing financial analysis reports. We may do so by mail or electronically unless you tell us that you do not wish to receive electronic communications.

2.4 From time to time we will use your contact details to send you offers, updates, events, articles, newsletters or other information about products and services that we believe will be of interest to you. We may also send you regular updates by email or by post. We will always give you the option of electing not to receive these communications and you can unsubscribe at any time by notifying us that you wish to do so.

2.5 We may also use your information internally to help us improve our services and help resolve any problems.

3. What If You Do Not Provide Some Information To Us?

3.1 If you do not provide us with some or all of the information that we ask for, we may not be able to provide you with comprehensive financial advice, which may adversely affect your financial position, and or cause you financial loss.

4. How Do We Hold and Protect Your Information?

4.1 We strive to maintain the relevance, reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of the personal information we hold and to protect its privacy and security.

4.2 We keep personal information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with any applicable legal or ethical reporting or document retention requirements.

4.3 We hold the information we collect from you primarily in our electronic data client file management systems, including, but not limited to the following:

  • Microsoft Office365 (cloud-based Outlook emails; calendars; task lists; journal entries; etc.)

  • Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint (cloud-based electronic data storage systems)

  • Dropbox (cloud-based electronic data storage systems)

  • Apple iCloud (cloud-based electronic data storage systems)

  • EziDebit (Direct Debit Payments)

  • XPLAN (cloud-based client data management system; Financial Planning Modelling; Life Insurance assessment)

  • BASECAMP (cloud-based client project management system)

  • Reckon and MYOB (cloud-based accounting systems)

  • Bloomtools (our website: client data collection forms; website usage statistical analysis; client mailing databases, etc.)

  • Veda Australia (credit reports)

  • Adobe EchoSign (digital document signing)

4.4 In addition to holding your information electronically, we may also temporarily hold hard copy files of your personal information, until returning same to you.

4.5 We do not hold hard copy files of your personal information indefinitely.

4.6 Whilst we endeavour to ensure the security of your personal information being stored with our external cloud-based data storage providers (listed in section 4.3 above), by not intentionally authorising the use of your personal information by the contracted providers, and by only contracting internationally-recognised and reputable providers, and by implementing and maintaining our own password protection procedures, we cannot absolutely guarantee the unintentional, unauthorised and or illegal disclosure and or use of your personal information by the providers, and or any unauthorised persons or entities.

4.7 Any of your hard copy documents we may physically store on our premises and that contains your personal information is protected by restricting access to only those team members that require access and by using lockable document storage systems.

4.8 Our website uses technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our website, for example when you browse our website our service provider logs your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages and links accessed and the type of browser used. It does not identify you personally and we only use this information for statistical purposes and to improve the content and functionality of our website, to better understand our clients and markets and to improve our services.

4.9 In order for our website to collect the anonymous data (detailed in section 4.8) we may use "cookies". Cookies are small pieces of information which are sent to your browser and stored on your computer's hard drive. Sometimes they identify users where the website requires information to be retained from one page to the next. This is purely to increase the functionality of the site. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover the identity of the user. Cookies do not damage your computer and you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie so that you can decide if you want to accept it. The cookies our website uses allow the website to recognise your computer when you return in the future.

4.10 If you use our website to request a 'Free Financial Assessment Appointment', the name and email address you enter into the relevant fields will be added to our website contact database for the primary purpose of our firm contacting you to arrange a suitable appointment with you. The name and email address you enter into these fields will be automatically added to our website Contact Database, for the purposes of informing you of the services we offer, as well as other promotional material we may send to you. You can change the contact details we have recorded or request to be removed from our website Contact Database at any time by clicking on the 'Edit My Details', located at the bottom of any emails we send to you from our website Contact Database.

4.11 If you complete any forms located on our website, the data entered will be kept in our databases and used to assist us to provide you with the financial advice you have instructed us to provide to you.

4.12 We do not sell to any third party any of the information collected from you using our website.

5. Will We Disclose The Information We Collect To Anyone?

5.1 We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. We will disclose your information to providers to undertake the activities and processes listed in section 4.3 above and may need to provide your information to contractors who supply services to us, e.g. legal firms, accounting and taxation firms, life insurance companies, superannuation and investment managers and administrators, banking and finance institutions, to obtain the advice and or financial products you have engaged us to arrange on your behalf, as well as other firms to handle mailings on our behalf, external cloud-based data storage providers, or to other companies in the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganisation, dissolution or similar event. However, where possible and practicable, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that they protect your information in the same way that we do.

5.2 We may also provide your information to others if we are required to do so by law or under some unusual other circumstances which the Privacy Act permits.

5.3 We may disclose your information to recipients in countries other than Australia (including India) for the purpose of activities and processes listed in section 4.3 above. If they are not regulated by laws which protect your information in a way that is similar to the Privacy Act, we will seek your consent before disclosing your information to them.

5.4 If you do not pay our fees within our credit terms, we may provide your information to Veda Australia, http://www.veda.com.au.

6. How can you check, update or change the information we are holding?

6.1 Upon receipt of your written request and enough information to allow us to identify the information, we will disclose to you the personal information we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete any personal information that we agree is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date or incomplete.

6.2 If you wish to access or correct your personal information please write to Dean McKinnon, Privacy Officer, for both McKinnon Financial Services Pty Ltd and McKinnon Financial Planning Pty Ltd, Reply Paid 85992, East Brisbane, Qld, 4169, or email Dean via our Contact Us page on this website, or phone Dean at 1300-261-373.

6.3 We do not charge for receiving a request for access to personal information or for complying with a correction request, and we do not charge for providing access to personal information.

6.4 In some limited cases, we may need to refuse access to your information or refuse a request for correction. We will advise you as soon as possible after your request if this is the case and the reasons for our refusal.

7. What happens if you want to complain?

7.1 If you have any concerns about whether we have complied with the Privacy Act or this Privacy Policy when collecting of handling your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer, as detailed in section 6.2 above.

7.2 We will consider your complaint through our internal complaints resolution process and we will try to respond with a decision within 45 days of you making the complaint.

8. Your consent

8.1 By asking us to assist with your Financial Planning, Business Planning, Bookkeeping, Life Insurance, Superannuation, Investment, Mortgage, and or Finance needs, you consent to the collection and use of the information you have provided to us for the purposes described above.

9. Tell us what you think?

9.1 We welcome your questions and comments about privacy. If you have any concerns or complaints, please contact our Privacy Officer, as detailed in section 6.2 above.