Who are we?
EQ Wealth Management (“EQWM”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is a privately-owned company in Leicestershire, offering fully independent financial advice service to both individuals and businesses on how to best meet their financial objectives.
EQ Wealth Management Limited is an Appointed Representative of Vision Independent Financial Planning Ltd (“Vision”) who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm authorisation number: 487395.
We are committed to ensuring that we protect the information provided to us by our clients, prospective clients and our website visitors.
About this document
This privacy notice explains how we collect, use and share your personal data and your rights in relation to the personal data we hold. This privacy notice concerns our processing of personal data for past, prospective and present clients (“you”, “your”) of EQ Wealth Management Limited.
EQ Wealth Management Ltd is a UK registered company, registered in England and Wales with company number 11236062 and is the data controller of your personal data and is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA”) and the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).
Vision will issue us with instructions regarding the use or other processing of personal data. For example, they will require us to transfer client data within a certain timescale in order for them to meet their compliance and regulatory obligations. When this happens, we will be the data processor and Vision will be the data controller. Vision are also committed to compliance with the GDPR and their Privacy Policy is available at www.visionifp.co.uk/privacy-policy.
How do we gather and use your personal information?
We collect your personal information in a number of ways. This begins with any interactions we have with you, for example:
- when you communicate with us over the phone, via email or the website: www.valerewm.co.uk
- from information you provide to us when you interact with us, for example, when you contact us about our services;
- when you ask us to provide services to you and subsequently provide us with the necessary information;
- from third parties, such as your existing financial product providers in order to provide you our services;
- where you provide us with personal data relating to others (e.g. your family members), we understand that you either have their consent or are entitled to provide this information to us for subsequent use;
- in the other ways you interact with us during your time with us, for some of the reasons set out below.
What personal data do we collect?
We collect the following types of personal data about you:
- your name, and contact information such as address, email address and telephone number;
- your date of birth, national insurance number (or other tax identification number) and due diligence information;
- financial information (to establish what type of service you require);
- We may also collect special categories of personal data, including more sensitive personal data, such as information concerning your health and medical conditions (“sensitive personal data“).
Use of “Cookies”
Our website uses cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy (Please have something there for Cookies)
How we use your information and our basis for processing that information
We may process your personal data because it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract. Under these circumstances, we use your personal data for the following:
- to interact with you, for example, when you express your interest in our services (for example, to answer enquiries about our services);
- to provide you with the services as set out in our Client Agreement or any other contractual document (including, but not limited to, the provision of our services where applicable, the processing of your sensitive personal data, for example where your health and/or medical details are relevant to the calculation of annuities, pensions or other benefits);
- to deal with any concerns or feedback you may have;
- for any other purpose for which you provide us with your personal data.
Legitimate Interests
We may also process your personal data because it is necessary for our or a third party’s (this is a person or organisation external to EQWM) legitimate interests. Our “legitimate interests” include our commercial interests in operating our business in a client focused, efficient and sustainable manner, in accordance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements. In this respect, we may use your personal data for the following:
- to monitor and evaluate the performance and effectiveness of our services, including by training our staff or monitoring their performance, and for the monitoring of communications, as set out in the section below;
- outsourcing selected ‘back office’ functions to third parties (for example, vendors of hosted software solutions or cloud storage providers) for the purposes of efficient, fast and secure access to information across Valere and Vision;
- to seek advice on our rights and obligations, such as where we require our own legal advice;
- as part of a reorganisation, sale or negotiations for sale of all or part of our business;
- to follow up with you after you request information to see if we can provide any further assistance and for more general marketing purposes, including in order to keep you informed (by letter, telephone, email and other electronic means) of services from us which may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive such information, please let us know now or at any time in the future, and your details will be removed from our mailing list(s). We will not provide your personal data (or sensitive personal data) to any organisations to use for their own marketing purposes.
Compliance
We may also process your personal data for our compliance with our legal obligations. In this respect, we may use your personal data for the following:
- to confirm your identity and carry out background checks for anti-money laundering and ‘know your client’ purposes;
- in order to assist with investigations (including criminal investigations) carried out by the police and other competent authorities; and
- to meet our other compliance and regulatory obligations, including in order to comply with any requirement of any applicable statute, regulation, regulatory rule and good practice, whether originating from the UK or elsewhere.
Other Purposes
We may also process your personal data where:
- it is necessary to protect your or another person’s vital interests;
- it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (for example, to protect and defend our rights or property, and/or the rights or property of our clients, or of third parties, including where applicable relying on recordings or monitored observations from communications with you);
- we have your specific or, where necessary, explicit consent to do so.
Monitoring of communications
As a matter of course, we may monitor the use of company communications equipment by its employees and other staff. This means that the content of email communications may be monitored for the following purposes:
- for training purposes, allowing us to improve the quality of our communications;
- as evidence of your instructions and to ensure that we are providing a high-quality service to you; and
- in pursuit of our legal obligations or in compliance with regulatory rules or requirements;
- for the establishment, exercise or defence of disputes or legal claims (where relevant); and
- for preventing or detecting crime (including fraud).
Disclosure of your information (when it may be shared with others)
In addition to sharing your personal data with Vision, we may also disclose your personal data:
- to any other organisations that we may engage to perform, or assist in the performance of, our services or to advise us, provided that they will only be given access to your personal data (including your sensitive personal data, where applicable) to perform such assistance, services or advice and not for other purposes. We shall endeavour to ensure that any such organisation undertakes to adopt appropriate security measures in respect of your personal data;
- to counterparties where disclosure is reasonably necessary for the purpose of effecting transactions in connection with our Client Agreement or Terms of Business or any other contractual document or of establishing a dealing relationship with a view to such transactions;
- where we have your permission to reveal the information;
- to any ‘connected person’ as set out in our Client Agreement or Terms of Business or any other contractual document, unless you expressly instruct us in writing to do otherwise;
- if you are a joint client, to the other client named in any relevant Client Agreement or Terms of Business or any other contractual document;
- as part of a reorganisation, sale or negotiations for sale of all or part of our business (subject to appropriate security and confidentiality measures);
- in circumstances in which we are required or authorised by law (including, but not limited to, data protection legislation), court order, regulatory or governmental authorities to disclose your personal data; and
- where you are a beneficiary or policyholder in respect of a portfolio, fund or account which is legally owned by a third-party provider, to such third-party provider.
Transferring your information outside of Europe
We do not operate globally, and therefore your personal data will not be transmitted to and processed outside of the UK in countries that do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK.
How long your information is kept
We will retain your personal data for as long as we are providing you with the services referred to in any relevant Client Agreement, Terms of Business or any other contractual document, and for as long as permitted or required for legal, regulatory, fraud prevention and our legitimate business purposes after the closure of your account, if the relationship between you and us has terminated, or if your application for a particular service or services is declined or abandoned.
Your rights
You have the following rights:
- to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you;
- to require that we cease processing your personal data if the processing is causing you damage or distress;
- to require us not to send you marketing communications.
- to require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect;
- to require us to erase your personal data;
- to require us to restrict our data processing activities (and, where our processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal);
- to receive from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of you transmitting that personal data to another data controller;
- to require us to comply with your objection, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights.
Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.
If you have given your consent and you wish to withdraw it, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details set out below. Please note that where our processing of your personal data relies on your consent and where you then withdraw that consent, we may not be able to provide all or some aspects of our services to you and/or it may affect the provision of those services.
If you are not satisfied with how we are processing your personal data, you can raise a concern with the Information Commissioner. You can also find out more about your rights under data protection legislation from the Information Commissioner’s Office website available at: www.ico.org.uk.
Contact us
If you have any questions you would like to raise about how we process your Personal Data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer using the details listed below:
In writing:
Data Protection Officer
EQ Wealth Management Limited
57 Hinckley Road, Leicester Forest East, Leicestershire, LE3 3GL
By telephone:
By email:
