Privacy Policy

PRIVACY AND SPAM POLICY

Our Commitment

Aperio Financial Services is committed to providing you with the highest levels of client service. We recognise that your privacy is very important to you. The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act, 2000 sets out a number of National Privacy Principles (NPPs). Our aim is to both support and ensure that we comply with these principles. Further information on privacy in Australia may be obtained by visiting the website of the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner at http://www.privacy.gov.au.

Aperio Financial Services believes that this Privacy Policy discloses the purpose, and how the personal information you provide to us and our representatives, is collected, used, held, disclosed and disseminated.

Aperio Financial Services is required to meet particular legislative and regulatory requirements. In order to provide advice to you, we are required to collect certain personal information from you.

We encourage you to check our website regularly for any updates to our Privacy Policy.

Your Personal Information

As an organisation we are subject to certain legislative and regulatory requirements which necessitate us to obtain personal information about you, including s945A of the Corporations Act eg.

• your name, contact details, date of birth, tax file number;
• information regarding your dependents and family commitments;
• your occupation,  and employment history;
• your financial needs and objectives;
• your assets, liabilities, income, expenses insurances, and social security entitlements;
• health status.

How We Collect Personal Information

Aperio Financial Services collects personal information directly from you or from third parties once authorisation has been provided by you. You have a right to refuse us authorisation to collect information from a third party.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Primarily, your personal information is used in order to provide advice to you. We may also use the information that is related to the primary purpose and it is reasonable for you to expect the information to be disclosed.

From time to time, we may provide you with direct marketing material. If, at any time, you do not wish to receive this information any further, you may contact us with this request. We will endeavour to meet your request within 2 weeks. We maintain a Register for those individuals not wanting direct marketing material.

When We Disclose Your Personal Information

In line with modern business practices common to many financial institutions and to meet your specific needs we may disclose your personal information to the following organisations:

• superannuation fund trustees, insurance providers, fund managers and other product providers in order to manage or administer your product or service;
• compliance consultants
• paraplanning contractors or temporary staff to handle workloads during peak periods;
• mailing houses;
• your professional advisers, including your solicitor or accountant as authorised by you;
• information technology service providers
• government and regulatory authorities, as required or authorised by law
• another authorised representative of Aperio Financial Services Ltd if necessary;
• a potential purchaser/organisation involved in the proposed sale of our business for the purpose of due diligence, corporate re-organisation and transfer or all or part of the assets of our business. Disclosure will be made in confidence and it will be a condition of that disclosure that no personal information will be used or disclosed by them.
• a new owner of our business that will require the transfer of your personal information.

Our employees and the outsourcing companies/contractors are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by Aperio Financial Services.

As a Principal Member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia, we are required to meet a level of professional standards. From time to time, we may need to provide the Association with access to your personal information to ensure that we are meeting our compliance requirements.

The Corporations Act has provided the Australian Securities and Investments Commission with the authority to inspect certain personal information that is kept on our files about you.

We collect information about you for the purpose of reporting to AUSTRAC under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.

Aperio Financial Services takes its obligations to protect your information seriously, this includes when we operate throughout Australia and overseas, as part of our operations some uses and disclosures of your information may occur outside your State or Territory and/or outside of Australia. In some circumstances we may need to obtain your consent before this occurs.

How We Store and Secure Your Personal Information

We keep your personal information in your client files or electronically. These files are accessible to authorised personnel only and are appropriately secured and subject to confidentiality requirements.

Personal information will be treated as confidential information and sensitive information will be treated highly confidential.

It is a legislative requirement that we keep all personal information and records for a period of 7 years. Should you cease to be a client of ours, we will maintain your personal information on or off site in a secure manner for 7 years. After this, the information will be destroyed.

Ensure Your Personal Information Is Correct

Aperio Financial Services takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. To ensure we can maintain this level of accuracy and completeness, we recommend that you:

• inform us of any errors in your personal information; and
• Update us with any changes to your personal information as soon as possible.

If you provide inaccurate or incomplete information we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you are seeking.

Access to Your Personal Information

You have a right to access your personal information, subject to certain exceptions allowed by law. We ask that you provide your request for access in writing (for security reasons) and we will provide you with access to that personal information. Access to the requested personal information may include:

• providing you with copies;
• providing you with the opportunity for inspection; or
• providing you with a summary.

If charges are applicable in providing access to you, we will disclose these charges to you prior to providing you with the information.

Some exceptions exist where we will not provide you with access to your personal information if:

• providing access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of a person;
• providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
• the request for access is frivolous or vexatious;
• the information is related to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between us and would not be discoverable in those proceedings;
• providing access would reveal our intentions in relation to negotiations with you in such a way as to prejudice those negotiations;
• providing access would be unlawful;
• denying access is required or authorised by or under law;
• providing access would be likely to prejudice certain operations by or on behalf of an enforcement body or an enforcement body requests that access not be provided on the grounds of national security.

Should we refuse you access to your personal information, we will provide you with a written explanation for that refusal.

Using Government Identifiers

Although in certain circumstances we are required to collect government identifiers such as your tax file number, Medicare number or pension card number, we do not use or disclose this information other than when required or authorised by law or unless you have voluntarily consented to disclose this information to any third party.

Tax File Number

• By law we are required to ask for your TFN;
• You do not have to provide your TFN if you do not want to;
• If you do not provide your TFN, the ramifications may be taxation at highest marginal rate, loss of imputation credits etc.
• Unless otherwise stated you authorise the licensee to retain my/our and related entities TFN on file numbers on file.

Dealing with us anonymously

You can deal with us anonymously where it is lawful and practicable to do so. For example, if you telephone requesting our postal address.

Your sensitive information

Without your consent we will not collect information about you that reveals your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or afflations, membership of professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, details of health, disability, sexual orientation, or criminal record.

This is subject to some exceptions including:

• the collection is required by law; and
• when the information is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.

Complaints Resolutions

Please contact our Privacy Officer if you wish to complain about any breach or potential breach of your privacy rights. Your complaint will be responded to within 7 days. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you are entitled to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Our Website

Aperio Financial Services website provides links to third party websites. The use of your information by these third party sites is not within the control of Aperio Financial Services and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of these organisations. Other websites are not subject to our privacy standards. You will need to contact or review those websites directly to ascertain their privacy policies.

You may register with us to receive newsletters and other information. By doing so, your name and email address will be collected and stored on our database. We take care to ensure that the personal information you give us on

Our website is protected. For example, our website has electronic security systems in place, including the use of firewalls and data encryption.

If you do not wish to receive any further information from us, or you wish to update your registration details, please email your request to us. We will endeavour to meet your request within 5 working days.

Our Website utilises cookies to provide you with a better user experience. Cookies also allow us to identify your browser while you are using our site – they do not identify you. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can instruct your web browser to refuse them.

Spam Policy

Spam is a generic term used to describe electronic ‘junk mail’- unwanted messages sent to a person’s email account or mobile phone. In Australia, spam is defined as ‘unsolicited commercial electronic messages’.

‘Electronic messaging’ covers emails, instant messaging, SMS and other mobile phone messaging, but not cover normal voice-to-voice communication by telephone. Aperio Financial Services complies with the provisions of the Spam Act when sending commercial electronic messages.

Equally importantly, Aperio Financial Services makes sure that our practices are in accordance with the National Privacy Principles in all activities where they deal with personal information. Personal information includes our clients contact details.

Internal Procedure for dealing with complaints

The three key steps Aperio Financial Services follows:

• Consent – Only commercial electronic messages are sent with the addressee’s consent – either express or inferred consent.
• Identify – Electronic messages will include clear and accurate information about the person and the Aperio Financial Services that is responsible for sending the commercial electronic message.
• Unsubscribe – We ensure that a functional unsubscribe facility is included in all our commercial electronic messages and deal with unsubscribe requests promptly.

Comply with the law regarding viral messages

Aperio Financial Services ensures that Commercial Communications that include a Forwarding Facility contain a clear recommendation that the Recipient should only forward the Commercial Communication to persons with whom they have a relationship, where that relationship means that person could be said to have consented to receiving Commercial Communications.

Comply with the age sensitive content of commercial communication

Where the content of a Commercial Communications seeks to promote or inspire interaction with a product, service or event that is age sensitive, Aperio Financial Services takes reasonable steps to ensure that such content is sent to Recipients who are legally entitled to use or participate in the product service or event.