Privacy Statement
Privacy Policy – October 2019
Rockford Partners are committed to protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. Rockford Partners is subject to the Privacy Act 1988, Privacy Regulation 2013 and the Australian Privacy Principles.
Collection of personal information
Rockford Partners collects the personal information that we believe is necessary to deliver our services or products, or otherwise for our business functions or activities. Most of this information we are required to obtain in order to satisfy Government requirements. For instance, we are required to confirm your identity for the purposes of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act. In addition, since one of the services Rockford Partners provides is personal advice, Rockford Partners is required to collect important "know your client" information, which assists Rockford Partners in tailoring its services to you. Depending on your relationship with Rockford Partners, this may cover a large range of material.
Generally speaking, the types of personal information we collect include your name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, financial information, other contact or identification details and, in some cases, information necessary to make or receive payments to or from you or necessary to effect transactions in financial products on your behalf.
There may be occasions where we receive or need to source personal information about you from third parties such as:
Credit reporting (for instance, when we obtain a credit report);
Banks (for example, opinions about your creditworthiness);
Publicly available sources of information (e.g. financial product registries);
Your representative or agent; or
Government agencies.
In certain limited situations, Rockford Partners may collect from you sensitive information. Sensitive information includes race, political or religious beliefs, sexual preferences, criminal convictions, membership of professional or trade associations or unions and health information. Rockford Partners generally only collects sensitive information if it is required by laws or rules. In the event that you provide Rockford Partners with any unsolicited personal information of a kind which we would not normally collect and would not be entitled to collect, Rockford Partners will destroy this information.
Personal information about third parties
If at any time you supply us with personal information about another person, you should ensure that you are authorised to do so and you must agree to inform that person who we are, that we will use and disclose that personal information and that they may gain access to it should we hold that information. You acknowledge that we may be required to, or wish to, contact the person whose personal information was provided in order to confirm its accuracy.
How do we collect personal information?
Personal information about you will usually be collected by Rockford Partners, during face to face interviews and meetings, during telephone discussions, during discussions relating to service arrangements or our requirements.
You acknowledge that we may also collect personal information from your agent where they have introduced you to us or have arranged for Rockford Partners to provide certain services to you, subject to the terms of this Policy.
Use and disclosure of personal information
Rockford Partners will generally only use your personal information in relation to the provision of financial products or services to you. If considered appropriate we may also use your personal information for internal communication purposes such as sending you research and notifying you of new products and services that may be suitable in meeting your financial objectives, unless you have notified us that you do not wish to receive such communications.
You authorise Rockford Partners to disclose necessary information to related companies, affiliates and any agents or contractors who provide services to us in connection with the provision of the products or services. Rockford Partners will only enter these types of arrangements or disclose such information where we reasonably believe that the relevant party will only use your personal information for the specific purpose for which we supply it to them.
Subject to what is permitted at law, the types of third parties we may disclose your personal information may include:
Our agents, contractors, insurers, auditors and external advisers we engage from time to time to carry out, or advise on, our functions and activities;
Any person or organisation that introduces you to us;
Regulatory bodies, governmental agencies, law enforcement bodies and courts;
Debt collection agencies and credit reference agencies;
Underwriters, corporate advisers or issue managers where you are applying for financial products in an initial public offering or new issue;
Other product providers and financial institutions;
Insurers and reinsurers and their claims agents and assessors; and
Any person to the extent necessary, in our view, in order to carry out the instructions you give to us.
In some rare instances, we may need to transfer your personal information outside Australia. If we believe that the overseas third party is not subject to, or has not agreed to comply with, privacy obligations equivalent to those which apply to us, we will seek your consent to transfer the information, except where the Australian Privacy Principals do not require us to do so. If you have given us instructions which necessarily require us to transfer your personal information outside Australia, you will be deemed to have provided such consent.
Keeping information secure
Rockford Partners stores your information in a combination of computer storage facilities, paper based files and other records. Rockford Partners will take all reasonable steps to protect your information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access or unapproved disclosure. Access to and use of personal information within Rockford Partners is appropriately limited to prevent misuse or unlawful disclosure of the information.
If other organisations provide support services, to the extent reasonable practicable, we require them to appropriately safeguard the privacy of the information provided to them.
How you can access your information
You can contact us to request access to your information. In normal circumstances we will give you full access to your information. However, there may be some legal or administrative reasons to deny access. If access is denied, we will provide a reason why. The obligation to provide you access only extends to information supplied to us by you, and does not extend to Rockford Partners' own records created by Rockford Partners in our dealings with you.
How you can correct your information
If you believe the personal information that Rockford Partners holds is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date and Rockford Partners agrees, the information will be amended. We will also take such steps (if any) as are reasonable in the circumstances to give notification of this correction to any third parties to whom it has be previously disclosed by Rockford Partners. If we disagree with you about the accuracy, completeness or currency of the information, then we will inform you in writing of our reasons for this refusal (except to the extent it would be unreasonable to do so) and inform you of any appropriate complaint avenues. You should keep Rockford Partners informed of any changes to your personal information by notifying in writing. We also ask that you promptly advise us of changes to the personal information you have supplied.
Visiting Rockford Partners online
If you visit the Rockford Partners Website to browse, read or download information, our system may log these movements. These website logs are not personally identifiable and Rockford Partners makes no attempt to link them with the individuals who browse the website.
Rockford Partners cannot guarantee or accept responsibility for the privacy practices or the content of websites to which we provide links.
Complaints resolution
We are committed to providing our clients whose personal information we hold, a fair and reasonable system for handling privacy issues. If you have any concerns with regard to privacy, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing(see below for contact details). We will seek to address any concerns that you may have through our complaints handling procedures, but if you wish to take matters further you may refer your concerns to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (website www.oaic.gov.au).
Contact us
David Izzard
Founder/Director
Tel: (+61) 408 404 878
david@rockfordpartners.com.au