Privacy Policy

1.    Overview

Protecting our clients’ privacy is very important to us. To ensure our compliance with the Privacy Act and as part of our commitment to ensuring the safety of your private and confidential information, we have established and implemented this Policy.

1.1 Introduction

The Privacy Act requires that we handle your personal information in accordance with a set of national principles, known as the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which regulate the collection, use, correction, disclosure and transfer of personal information about individuals by organisations like us in the private sector.

1.2 Policy Statement

The Policy explains our policies and practices with respect to the collection, use and management of your personal information and our approach to the APPs.

1.3 Scope and application of the policy

This Privacy Policy applies to information collected by the following operating entities:

MBA Wealth Solutions Pty Ltd

MBA Wealth Solutions and it’s related entities are referred to in the Policy as “MBA”, “us”, “our”, or “we”.

In the event of any inconsistencies between the Policy requirements and MBA’s statutory duties under Australian law, the latter shall prevail.

2.    General obligations

2.1 Collection

2.1.1 What information do we collect?

We will collect and hold your personal information for the purposes of:

• providing advice, products and services to you
• managing and administering your products and services
• verifying your identity
• letting you know about our other products and services.

The type of information collected from you includes information that is necessary to operate your account or for us to provide advice to you. We may ask you to provide personal information such as your:

• name
• e-mail address
• residential and/or postal address
• date and place of birth
• telephone number
• occupation
• bank account details
• financial details
• employer
• tax file number (TFN).

This information is primarily collected from application forms you have completed, your use of our online facilities or through ongoing communications with you.

There are specific circumstances in which we will ask for your consent to provide sensitive information such as:

• personal health information from you when you apply for insurance or from medical practitioners when you make a claim
• income information from employers when you apply for additional insurance protection or salary continuance insurance
• details of your dependents, as defined at section 10 of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993(Cth), to pay benefits in the event of your death.

We will inform you of any legal requirements for us to ask for information about you and the consequences of not giving us that requested information. For example, in addition to the personal information we will obtain from you, whenever you acquire a new product or service from us, we will require documents evidencing your identity. Such evidence may include a certified copy of your driver’s licence, passport or birth certificate.

We will only solicit personal information about you where you have knowingly provided that information to us, we believe you have authorised a third party to provide that information to us, or we are obligated by law to obtain such information. Third parties that we may need to collect information from include your financial adviser, product issuer, employer, accountant or solicitor. To verify your identity for Know Your Customer (KYC) purposes, we may also solicit personal information about you from reliable identity verification service providers.

2.1.2 What if you do not give us the information we request?

You are not obligated to give us the information that we request. However, if you do not give us the information that we ask for, or the information you give is not complete or accurate, this may:

• prevent or delay the processing of your application or claim
• affect your eligibility for specified insurance cover
• prevent us from contacting you
• impact the taxation treatment of your account.

For example: if you choose to not give us your TFN, you may be subject to higher tax charges on your superannuation and they may not be able to accept personal contributions.

2.2 Use of information

2.2.1 How do we use the information that we collect from you?

We use your personal information for the purpose for which it has been obtained. For example, we collect your personal information so that we are able to act on your request to:

• provide financial advice to you
• establish and manage your investments and accounts
• implement your investment instructions
• establish and maintain insurance protection
• process transactions on your behalf
• report the investment performance of your account
• keep you up to date on other products and services offered by us.

2.3 Disclosure

2.3.1 Who do we give your information to?

We may provide your information to other related companies within the MBA Group or external parties. Where personal information is disclosed, there are strict controls in place to ensure information is held, used and disclosed in accordance with the APPs.

The types of external organisations to which we may disclose your personal information include:

• organisations involved in providing, managing or administering our products or services such as actuaries, custodians, external dispute resolution services, insurers, investment managers, or mail houses
• your financial adviser
• your employer (relates only to employer sponsored superannuation arrangements)
• funds (administrators or trustees) to which your benefit is to be transferred or rolled over
• medical practitioners and other relevant professionals, where you have applied for insurance cover or made a claim for disablement benefit
• your personal representative, or any other person who may be entitled to receive your death benefit, or any person contacted to assist us to process that benefit
• financial institutions that hold accounts for you
• professional advisers
• businesses that may have referred you to us (for example your accountant).

Like other financial services companies, there are situations where we may also disclose your personal information where it is:

• required by law (such as to the Australian Taxation Office or pursuant to a court order)
• authorised by law (such as where we are obliged to disclose information in the public interest or to protect our interests)
• necessary to discharge obligations (such as to foreign governments for the purposes of foreign taxation)
• required to assist in law enforcement (such as to a police force).

We may also disclose your information if you give your consent.

2.3.2 Will my information be disclosed overseas?

It is generally unlikely that we will disclose your personal information overseas. However, our product providers occasionally use third-party or offshore outsourcing services to provide services to you. Depending on the circumstances, the relevant countries will vary such that it is not practicable to list them here.

Any overseas disclosure does not affect our commitment to safeguarding your personal information and we will take reasonable steps to ensure any overseas recipient complies with the APPs.

Where we may be transferring your personal information overseas, we will either seek your consent or inform you and ensure that appropriate contractual measures are in place requiring the overseas entity to protect your personal information in accordance with our obligations under Australian privacy law.

2.4 Access and correction of information

2.3.1 Can I access my information and what if it is incorrect?

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you. We may charge a reasonable fee to cover our costs.

There may be circumstances where we are unable to give you access to the information that you have requested. If this is the case we will inform you and explain the reasons why.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, hold, use or disclose is accurate, complete, up to date, relevant and not misleading.

You have a right to ask us to correct any information we hold about you if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, irrelevant or is misleading. If we do not agree with the corrections you have supplied and refuse to correct the personal information, we are required to give you a written notice to that effect and a statement if requested.

If you wish to access or correct your personal information, you may contact us through our offices or by writing to the Privacy Officer, whose contact details are set out in section 4.

2.5 Protection of the personal and sensitive information that we hold

2.5.1 How do we protect the security of your information?

We have security systems, practices and procedures in place to safeguard your privacy. We may use cloud storage or third party servers to store the personal information we hold about you. These services are subject to regular audit and the people who handle your personal information have the training, knowledge, skills and commitment to protect it from unauthorised access or misuse.

2.5.2 Risks of using the internet

You should note that there are inherent security risks in transmitting information through the internet. You should assess these potential risks when deciding whether to use online services.

2.6 Retention of your personal information

We are required by law to retain certain records of information for varying lengths of time and, in certain circumstances, permanently. Where your personal information is not required to be retained under law and is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected, we will take reasonable steps to irrevocably destroy or de-identify it.

2.7 Sensitive Information

Sensitive Information is subject to a higher level of privacy protection than other personal information and can mean personal information about an individual’s:

• racial or ethnic origin
• political, philosophical or religious beliefs or opinions
• memberships or affiliations
• sexual preferences or practices
• criminal record
• health or genetic information
• biometric information
• health Information

In the context of providing you with financial advice and ongoing management, it is unlikely we would require Sensitive Information from you, except for health information in the course of an insurance application or claim.

2.8 Data Breaches

A data breach happens when personal information is accessed, disclosed without authorisation or is lost or stolen. We are required to notify you if a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm.

3.    Roles and Responsibilities

The Directors of MBA are ultimately responsible for overseeing the Policy.

The Privacy Officer is responsible for updating this Policy and for managing the business impacts of privacy laws and policies across the IOOF group of companies.

3.1 Contacting the Privacy Officer

Privacy Officer
MBA Wealth Solutions
PO Box 1496
BATHURST  NSW  2795

Ph: 02 6331 1192

email: admin@mbawealthsolutions.com.au

3.2 Complaints

If you believe that we have breached the APPs by mishandling your information, you may lodge a written complaint addressed to the Privacy Officer, whose contact details are set out in section 4.1.

The Privacy Officer will respond to your complaint within 30 days of its receipt.

In the event that the Privacy Officer is unable to resolve your complaint, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner.

You can lodge a written complaint with the Information Commissioner by:

• submitting an online or hard copy form which may be accessed through the Information Commissioner’s website at oaic.gov.auor obtained from https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/privacy-complaint-/
• fax to 02 9284 9666
• email at enquiries@oaic.gov.au

4.     Policy governance

4.1 Review and approval

Unless required earlier, this Policy is reviewed and updated annually by the Privacy Officer.

Material amendments to this Policy must be approved by the Directors of MBA.

The most current version of the Policy can be obtained from our website www.mbawealthsolutions.com.au

4.2 Policy owner

Questions about this policy should be directed to the Privacy Officer or to Customer Service. Refer to section 3 of this Policy for contact details.

Last updated: 1 September 2021

Last Reviewed: 1 September 2021