Privacy Policy - Johnston Carmichael Wealth

Our Privacy Policy - Johnston Carmichael Wealth

Use the quick links below to visit the section you require:

• Introduction
• Financial crime, money laundering and identification
• Complaints process
• What kind of personal data we may hold
• Using your personal data
• Online, portal and cookies
• Social Media
• Transfer of your personal information - including to locations outside the UK
• Your rights as a data subject
• Retention period
• Basis for holding personal data
• Keeping your information up to date
• Storage and management of information and sharing with other parties

Introduction

Johnston Carmichael Wealth Limited takes your privacy seriously.  We will only use your personal information to enable us to offer and provide our services.

Prospect information is held to assess the potential suitability for both parties prior to any Terms of Engagement being agreed. Thereafter, we collect personal data in order to perform any contractual obligations and in accordance with regulatory and compliance requirements for the various business activities we undertake.

We will hold limited personal data on business suppliers and contacts due to the nature of our business and these will be managed in line with our policies.

Where we have a direct agreement with you, we will hold your data under our capacity as Data Controller. Where we provide an indirect service to you through a mutual party, e.g. your employer, we will act as Data Processor/Sub-processor. The Data controller will have the obligation for notification under the Data Protection Regulations. Where appropriate, the nature of the information held might include both personal and special category data about your personal and financial circumstances.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. We are registered with the ICO. You can find out more information and guidance from the ICO. Their website which included their up to date contact details is www.ico.org.uk

As the legislation and guidance continues to be updated, particularly to reflect the increasing use of technology and data, we will ensure we continue to meet the latest requirements to give you with confidence to trust us with your personal information and therefore enable us to provide our services. We have policies, procedures & processes in place to control how we collect, retain and manage such information, if you would like to know more, please let us know.

We reserve the right to make changes to this statement as necessary. When we do so we will make previous versions available on request so you can see what these changes are.  If any such changes alter key provisions within this statement, or its meaning, we will notify you of those changes in advance.

This Privacy Notice sets out what information we may hold and how we will protect your data, in line with the current legislation, through appropriate organisation and technical security measures and processes. It also describes your rights in relation to that data.

If you need any further clarification, then please ask.

Financial Crime, Money Laundering and Identification

We are obliged to put in place controls to prevent our business being used to facilitate money laundering and other forms of financial crime. We will therefore verify your identity before undertaking any business with you. To do this we may use electronic identity verification systems and we may conduct these checks from time to time throughout our relationship, not just at the beginning. The check may leave a footprint on your credit file but it will not affect your credit rating.

Complaints process

If you wish to register a complaint, please write to Compliance Officer, Johnston Carmichael Wealth Limited, Bishop’s Court, 29 Albyn Place, Aberdeen, AB10 1YL or telephone 01224 259373.

A summary of our complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request.

If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4567.

What kind of personal data might we hold?

Voluntary information

Anything you choose to disclose to us during discussions and conversations, such as details of pets, holidays or other information will normally be recorded as part of the meeting notes, and may include details about other individuals who are not party to this agreement.

Using your personal data

Before a formal contractual relationship is established (e.g. before a Fee and Service Agreement is signed)

We will ask for your permission, through our Terms of Engagement, to capture your personal data and we will provide you with details of our regulatory and legislative responsibilities as an Independent Financial Adviser and take the necessary steps to complete our acceptance procedures including verifying your identity before developing our relationship further. We will record and share sufficient information to enable us to consider establishing any contractual relationship. Should you choose not to proceed with a contractual relationship, by not signing our Fee and Service Agreement, and therefore do not become a client, then any information previously supplied will be handled in line with our retention policy.

When agreement exists to provide financial planning advice

In order to carry out the terms of our engagement you agree to provide us with your personal information and understand that failure to do so will negatively impact the services we provide.

We will record and share sufficient information to enable us to complete any agreed recommendation. Unless you enter into an ongoing client agreement then we will not be responsible for updating and maintaining your details and related information. Where we are subsequently provided with further information, such as provider correspondence, we will not be required to retain this information in your file.

Where an ongoing service relationship is agreed

There is likely to be significant sharing of information between the different parties to ensure your information is up to date, including provider valuations, transactions etc. We will continue to keep your record active and up to date in line with our policy.

Disclosure to assist an assessment of independence for Group regulated activity

As a result of our group structure, there may be occasions where our client relationship, and the work undertaken for you, is required to be disclosed to our parent undertaking to ensure that their independent status remains uncompromised when undertaking audit, independent examinations, business restructuring and insolvency work.

For example, if you are, or become, a connected party of an audited entity to which our parent undertaking provides audit services, or is approached to provide audit services, we have a regulatory obligation to liaise with them and disclose relevant information. The information provided must be sufficient to ascertain the existence of the relationship and thereafter whether a threat to Auditor independence exists, as a result of our service provision.

A connected party of an audited entity includes affiliates (any undertaking, regardless of its legal form, which is connected to it by means of common ownership, control or management) and key members of management (including but not limited to directors and those charged with governance) of an audited entity and its significant affiliates, individually or collectively.

In order to assess the risk, the information provided may include basic personal data and details of the nature and value of work recently undertaken on your behalf.

Where such a relationship is confirmed to exist, we will also get in touch with you to discuss any future implications.

Online, portal and cookies

When visiting our website, via www.jcwealth.co.uk or www.johnstoncarmichael.com, we may use features that retain your IP address and record data on which pages you are visiting on our site. We may also issue cookies to enable certain features to function properly, track traffic on our website or improve user experience in other ways.

Where you are provided with access to the portal these will be subject to additional terms and conditions that will be presented when you log in for acceptance to enable you to use the service. An up to date version will also be available in your portal.

Cookies place certain information on your device to allow this to happen. For up-to-date information on this, please refer to our cookie policy at www.johnstoncarmichael.com/how-we-use-cookies. This allows us to tailor your experience and electronic marketing to what we think you want to see.

Any links to another website, including providers, are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing that service and we recommend that you familiarise yourself with their terms of use.

Social media

Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a 3rd party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing that service.

Depending on your own settings or the policies of social media and messaging services such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, you may be providing Johnston Carmichael Wealth and other organisations access to certain information. You should check with those services to ensure that you are happy with that information being shared.

Transfer of your personal information, including to locations outside the United Kingdom

Sometimes, we may need to pass your personal information to other organisations (e.g. if you apply to take out a financial product or service we’ll need to pass certain personal details to the product or service provider). Your personal information may be transferred electronically (e.g. by email or over the internet)

Each organisation to whom we may pass your details also have their own obligations to deal with your personal information appropriately.

Sometimes a product or service may be administered from a country outside the United Kingdom. Any country within the European Economic Area (“EEA”), or countries that have an equivalence agreement for Data Protection, is considered sufficient to be treated as if it is in the United Kingdom. If this does not apply to the country to where the data has been transferred, then we will put in place sufficient process and controls, which may include contractual obligations, to ensure that your information is adequately protected.

As part of our Terms of Engagement, you provide informed consent to the transfer of personal information in accordance with the protections outlined above. If you are concerned about any aspect of these privacy arrangements, please speak to us.

Your rights as a data subject

Under the Data Protection Regulations, as a data subject, you have the following rights;

• to apply for a copy of your information;
• to have any inaccuracies corrected;
• to restrict the processing of personal data;
• In certain circumstances, you have a right to have your personal data erased, subject to legal and regulatory compliance and crime prevention.
• You have a right to data portability - to obtain a copy of the data you provided us, held digitally, in a form that allows you to transfer it to another data controller.
• You have the right to change your marketing preferences, and can withdraw them entirely.
• You have the right to complain about the processing of your personal data.

To exercise any request associated with your rights as a data subject, please contact our Data Protection Team on 01224 259373 or in writing to Bishop’s Court, 29 Albyn Place, Aberdeen, AB10 1YL or jcw.dpo@jcwealth.co.uk.

If you are still unsatisfied you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.  Contact details can be found at www.ico.org.uk.

Should you wish to amend or withdraw your existing consent with regards data sharing, communications and marketing preferences you can do so at any time; please speak with your Financial Planner or contact the Data Protection Team as noted above.

Retention period

Data will be retained in line with our retention policy which states that this will be for the duration of our client relationship and thereafter a minimum of 5 years. Please be aware that, due to the regulatory environment in which we operate, it is possible, but should not be relied upon, that your information may be retained indefinitely. This approach would be in support of legal and regulatory requirements, or where it is felt that a legitimate interest remains.

Basis for holding personal data

We have considered the legal basis applicable to the retention and management of the personal data held within the business and will only hold such data in line with our policies and procedures.

Legal, regulatory, contractual and legitimate interest

Your agreement to our Terms of Engagement and Fee and Service Agreement provides a legal basis for us to collect and retain sufficient personal and special category data to deliver the agreed service and to meet our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations under that agreement.

You should only sign the Fee and Service Agreement where you are happy to be proceed on this basis.

Group relationships -  Johnston Carmichael LLP

If you become a client of either our parent company, Johnston Carmichael LLP, or its associated undertakings, we will not share more than limited information with them unless we have your permission to do so. Unless otherwise advised, any given instruction to share information will be applied both ways and will enable information to be shared in both directions. Any shared data will be collected and held specifically for the fulfilment of our service and in line with our Firm’s policies.

Where you provide additional information

Where you choose to provide voluntary information, you are giving your ‘Explicit Consent’ for this information to be recorded. You have the right to request that this information is deleted, however if we believe this voluntary information should be retained as being relevant to the service we provide, we are not obligated to delete such information.

Delivering our service to you

Out with any meetings, our minimum communication requirement to deliver our contractual, regulatory and legal obligations is by post. However, where possible we prefer to communicate with you by the most appropriate method and this may be by phone call, SMS message, email or online.

You are not required to agree to us communicating with you using these additional methods, however this would help to deliver a more timely and enhanced service and we invite you to provide details of your preferred methods of communication.

Sharing your data with a spouse / partner

Where we provide a service to both you and your spouse/partner, we are happy to accept your permission to liaise and share your data with the other party. Where a reciprocal consent is received, this can include portal access and will allow you, as a couple, to review your entire financial position.

Communication with third party connections

With regard to any third-party relationships that you may have with accountants, solicitors or other professional advisers, we are happy to accept your permission to liaise with them and to share certain information with them.

Relevant information services

Our contractual obligations to deliver financial planning and ongoing service provides the legal basis for much of the information we will share with you during our relationship, including relevant communications. Where we believe that relevant informative communications would enhance our service and provide additional value, we will carefully assess their relevance to your specific circumstance before providing these to you.

If at any time you consider such additional information to be no longer relevant, please let us know and we will cease similar communications thereafter.

Beyond these focussed communications, we also prepare various materials capturing insights into current topics, technical briefings, and market commentaries that we feel may be appropriate for you to be aware of more generally. These will be distributed in line with your preferences.

You can update your preferences at any time by contacting us.

Changing your mind including ‘withdrawing’ your consent

We will only communicate and share information where we have the necessary legal basis or consent to do so. Your preferences can be updated at any time.

We aim to honour your communication preferences in all dealings however, for the avoidance of doubt we may still record any details you have provided, and may contact you by such alternative means, regardless of your latest preferences, where we feel this is necessary to fulfil our legal, regulatory and/or contractual obligations.

Please be aware that the right to ‘withdraw’ consent does not apply to contractual, legal and/or regulatory required information.

Keeping your information up to date

Notification of change

Both parties have an obligation to ensure the information provided and recorded is accurate and up to date. As part of this agreement you are committing to providing accurate and up to date information.

Where we provide you with an ongoing service, you commit to notify us if things change, and we are committed to ensuring that we keep your information reflective of your current circumstances and position so we can continue to deliver the services agreed.

Where your information is not accurate

Please notify us immediately if you believe any of the information we hold is not accurate and we will review, verify and update appropriate.

How you can exercise your rights

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time and this will be provided, at no cost to you, in line with our policy. To exercise this right, please contact the Data Protection Team on 01224 259373 or write to Bishop’s Court, 29 Albyn Place, Aberdeen, AB10 1YL or jcw.dpo@jcwealth.co.uk.

Storage and management of information and sharing with other parties

Electronic records

We will primarily hold your information electronically. We use systems which are held locally, with third parties, and may use cloud solutions and these will be managed in line with our policies.

Manual records

We will hold manual records and paperwork from time to time and these will be managed in line with our policies.

Sharing records

Our policies and procedures state how we select, manage, and mitigate the data protection risk associated with sharing your information with other parties to enable us to fulfil our obligations to you.

Some of these solutions are ‘in house’, provided by the wider Johnston Carmichael LLP group, others are external and include specialists, back office support businesses, secure document storage, single product providers, multi-product providers or research tools and calculators. As part of our commitment to the protection of your personal data, we have undertaken due diligence on such third parties and reconfirmed the basis of our relationship where necessary.

The table below provides examples of the extent to which personal data could be shared with third parties.