Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice explains how HFL Advisory Services use any personal information we collect about you.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you when you engage us for financial planning, mortgage and protection planning services. This information will relate to your personal and financial circumstances. It may also include special categories of personal data such as data about your health, if this is necessary for the provision of our services.  We may also collect information when you voluntarily complete client surveys or provide feedback to us.

Information relating to usage of our website is collected using cookies. These are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. We will use your information collected from the website to personalise your repeat visits to the site.

Information about connected individuals

We may need to gather personal information about your close family members and dependants in order to provide our service to you effectively. In such cases it will be your responsibility to ensure that you have the consent of the people concerned to pass their information on to us. We will provide a copy of this privacy notice for them or, where appropriate, ask you to pass the privacy information to them.

Why do we need to collect and use your personal data?

The primary legal basis that we intend to use for the processing of your data is for the performance of our contract with you. The information that we collect about you is essential for us to be able to carry out the services that you require from us effectively. Without collecting your personal data, we would also be unable to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations.

Where special category data is required, we will obtain your explicit consent in order to collect and process this information.

How will we use the information about you?

We collect information about you in order to provide you with the services for which you engage us.

Who might we share your information with?

If you agree, we may email you about other products or services that we think may be of interest to you.

We won’t share your information for marketing purposes with other companies.

In order to deliver our services to you effectively, we may send your details to third parties such as those that we engage for professional compliance, accountancy or legal services as well as product and platform providers that we use to arrange financial products for you.

Where third parties are involved in processing your data, we will have a contract in place with them to ensure that the nature and purpose of the processing is clear, that they are subject to a duty of confidence in processing your data and that they’ll only act in accordance with our written instructions.    

Where it’s necessary for your personal data to be forwarded to a third party we will use appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in transit.

To fulfil our obligations in respect of prevention of money-laundering and other financial crime, we may send your details to third party agencies for identity verification purposes.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

During the course of our relationship with you we will retain personal data which is necessary to provide services to you. We will take all reasonable steps to keep your personal data up to date throughout our relationship.

We are subject to regulatory requirements to retain your data for specified minimum periods. These are, generally:

• Five years for investment business
• Three years for mortgage business
• Indefinitely for pension transfers and opt-out business
• Three years for insurance business 

These are minimum periods, during which we have a legal obligation to retain your records.  However, we reserve the right to retain data indefinitely where we believe it is in our legitimate interests to do so and for the possibility that it may be required to defend a future claim against us.

You have the right to request deletion of your personal data. We will comply with this request, subject to the restrictions of our regulatory obligations and legitimate interests as noted above. 

How can I access the information you hold about me?

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you’d like a copy of some, or all, of your personal information, please email or write to us using the contact details noted below.

When your personal data is processed by automated means you have the right to ask us to move your personal data to another organisation for their use.

We have an obligation to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Please ask us to correct or remove any information that you think is incorrect.

Marketing

We would  like to send you information about our products and services which may be of interest to you. If you have agreed to receive marketing information, you may opt out at a later date.

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes.  If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please contact us by email or post

Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

What can you do if you are unhappy with how your personal data is processed?

You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority for data protection. In the UK, this is: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review, and we will place any updates on our website or inform you of any changes when they occur.  This privacy policy was last updated on 9th March 2021.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you:
In writing: HFL House, 1 Saxon Way, Melbourn, Hertfordshire, SG8 6DN
By phone: +44 (0)1763 261366
By e-mail: info@hflfinancial.com

Important Information and Cookies

Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

Consumers in the UK benefit from a range of protections including access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).  FOS is a free service for consumers that helps to resolve complaints that clients and financial services business cannot agree on.  To find out more about the service, visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

Consumers in the UK also benefit from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).  The scheme is the compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms who are unable to meet their commitments.   Further information about the FSCS can be found at www.fscs.org.uk

Cookies

This website uses cookies.  By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.  For further information, please see our Privacy and Cookies Policy below.

What is a cookie

Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer’s hard drive.

Like many sites, we use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Site.

How we use cookies

Session cookies are stored during a browsing session but are deleted from the user’s device as soon as a browser is closed. These cookies store a session ID and will allow a user to move from page to page without having to login in repeatedly.

We use this cookie to collect anonymous information about how visitors use our site.

The information collected includes the number of site visitors, where visitors come to the site from and the pages they visited, to help identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes, this cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us, and we do not collect or store any data from you.

We currently use Google Analytics to track anonymous usage of the website.

Information Cookies collect

We do not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging your IP address and session information such as how long your visit lasted and the type of browser used. This is recognised by the web server and is only used for system administration and to provide statistics, which we use to evaluate how the site is used.

From time to time we may collect the following information, for example, if you wish us to contact you:

• full name, and, if applicable, company name and job title;
• contact information including email address and postcode;
• the nature of your query.

What we do with the information we gather

Where you provide personal information, we will only use it to deliver the services you have requested, for example to send you information or telephone you.

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and, in particular, for the following reasons:

• for internal record keeping;
• to use the information internally to improve our products and services;

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

If you believe that any information we are holding about you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to us at the above address or email craig.doel@hflfinancial.com as soon as possible.

We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.