Our Commitment

We greatly value the trust that others place in us.  We are therefore committed to maintaining the privacy of any personal information that we hold and to meeting our obligations under the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)(Privacy Act).  This Privacy Policy sets out our policy and practises about the way we do this. It extends to how we collect, handle, use and disclose personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information includes any information or opinion about an identified individual or an individual who can be reasonably identified from their information.

The collection of sensitive information is restricted by the Privacy Act. This includes information about religion, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, criminal record, and sexual orientation. It also includes health information and biometric information, unless necessary to provide specific services and consent has been obtained.

We may collect personal information about the following ‘persons’:

• Clients including but not limited to Natural persons, Sole traders, Partnerships, Companies, Trusts, Trustees, Self-Managed Superannuation Funds, and Companies;
• Prospective clients;
• Service providers or suppliers;
• Prospective employees, employees and contractors; and
• Other third parties with whom we come into contact.

Why do we need your personal information?

First Samuel’s integrated and tailored wealth management service incorporates personal financial advice, investment management and investment administration & reporting.  To deliver the high level of service expected by our clients’ we need to have a deep understanding of their circumstances, objectives and needs, and how these change over time.  This means we need to collect certain personal information, including information that could identify you or be used to establish your identity.

In addition, some laws require us to collect personal information.  These include the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), and the U.S Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

You do not have to provide the personal information requested.  However, if you do not, we may not be able to provide you with the information or services you have asked for.  Where you are seeking personal financial advice, we may be unable to provide it to you or may need to limit its scope.

How do we collect personal information?

Wherever practical and reasonable, we will collect personal information directly from you.  For example, this may be when you meet with us for the purpose of obtaining personal financial advice, when we ask you for information required to prepare a contract, when you request information from us about our services or when you respond to an invitation to a First Samuel event. It may also occur if we solicit or engage with you as a provider of services, or on the basis of making or considering offering an engagement of employment.

We may also receive personal information about you from a third party that you have authorised us to deal with, for example your accountant or another financial adviser, your employer or from publicly available sources such as company or government websites.

Where we receive unsolicited personal information about you, if possible, we will return the unsolicited personal information to the person who provided it. In all other cases, we will destroy the information, unless the personal information is relevant to the provision of our services to you.

What kind of information might we collect?

We may collect all or some of the following information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, the following is not an extensive list:

• full name, date of birth, gender, occupation and contact details including telephone, address, e-mail and fax;
• identification documentation (for example, a driver’s licence or passport) for the purpose of verifying identity and to ensure compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and/or other legislation and regulations regarding identification verification, and tax reporting and withholding;
• certified copies of any relevant documents including trust deeds, partnership agreements, constitutions or articles of association, which may be required to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act;
• tax file number and bank account details for the purpose of administering your investments, paying tax and other bills, paying pensions and tax reporting and withholding;
• details of your personal circumstances, investment objectives and needs, insurance arrangements, estate planning arrangements and tolerance to investment risk for the purposes of providing you with personal financial advice;
• details of your employer(s) to record and monitor employer superannuation contributions;
• details about authorised signatories or joint investors on your account;
• detailed contact information about your other advisers, e.g. another financial adviser, your accountant or lawyer; and,
• tax residency and taxpayer identification number used outside Australia, information and documentary evidence about place of birth, residency and citizenship for the purpose of compliance with intergovernmental agreements regarding international tax information sharing and taxation and tax information reporting legislation of Australia and other jurisdictions.

For what purposes do we use personal information?

Generally, we will only use and disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was collected.  We may also use and disclose personal information for other related purposes which we consider an individual would reasonably expect.

The purposes for which we may use and disclose personal information include:

• to establish your relationship with us and to set up and administer your investments;
• to provide the services set out in our contract with you;
• for communication purposes, including handling any relevant enquiries or complaints;
• to provide market commentary, information about products and services that may be of interest, and marketing;
• to conduct analysis about our products and services to enhance our service offerings;
• to protect legal rights and comply with our legal obligations including, but not limited to, record-keeping, reporting, tax withholding, and client identification requirements under applicable laws which may include the following legislation: Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), Income Tax Assessment Act 2006 (Cth), Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth); and
• to prevent fraud or abuse and to maintain the integrity of our business systems and infrastructure.

We may also use personal information to comply with legal obligations of any applicable jurisdiction including to prevent fraud, crime or other activity that may cause harm in relation to First Samuel and our services. We may also use information to tell you about products or services we feel may be relevant to you.

Who may we disclose information to?

As required by law:

We may be required by law to disclose your personal information, for example to:

• Australian Government regulators such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA), Australian Tax Office (ATO), Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and to other regulatory or government entities;
• Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA);
• as required by a court order;
• to other regulatory or governmental entities outside of Australia as may be required; and
• your spouse in accordance with the Family Law Act requirements.

Account administration:

In order to provide some services, such as investment administration and mailing of investment related reports, we may need to disclose personal information to external service providers.

Disclosure may be made to the following persons for the purpose of account administration:

• organisations involved in supporting the provision of our services such as custodians, banks, mail houses and software & information technology providers;
• auditors, consultants and other professional advisers such as accountants or lawyers;
• a representative who is entitled to instruct on, or receive, the proceeds from a deceased client’s account (for example a Legal Personal Representative, executor, or administrator) or any person we contact to assist us in that process;
• other financial institutions who hold an account in an investor’s name, for example, where amounts have been transferred to or from that account, or,
• authorities investigating (or who could potentially investigate) alleged fraudulent or suspicious transactions in relation to an investor’s account.

Market research and marketing:

We may also provide some information to third parties to undertake research on our behalf.  For example, we may undertake client satisfaction surveys or other research.  These third parties must return to us, destroy or retain all records of this information in accordance with privacy laws.  We retain ownership of this information at all times.

When will we disclose your information outside Australia?

We will not disclose your personal information with any party outside Australia unless expressly instructed by you or as required by law.

Information quality and security

We rely on the accuracy of the personal information you provide and aim to ensure that it is accurate, up to date and complete.  If any of your details change or you have any concerns regarding its accuracy you should contact us.

We take such steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to protect personal information from unauthorised access, misuse, interference, modification, and disclosure including requiring use of passwords, user logins, or other security procedures. Developments in security and encryption technology are reviewed regularly.

Where lawful to do so, if we no longer need your Personal Information for any purpose for which it may be used and disclosed, we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to destroy such Personal Information that we hold or to ensure that the information is de-identified.

Access to & correction of information

You may generally request access to any personal information we hold about you, although, there are some exceptions to this.  Generally, if it is incorrect, incomplete or out of date we will correct it at your request.  

The exceptions allowed by law include:

• if access to information would pose a serious threat to the life or health of an individual, or to public health or public safety;
• if access to information would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
• if the request is frivolous or vexatious;
• if the information relates to a commercially sensitive decision making process;
• if providing access would be unlawful;
• if access would prejudice enforcement activities relating to criminal activities and other breaches of revenue, or a security function;
• if providing access would reveal our intentions in relation to negotiations with you in such a way to prejudice those negotiations;
• if there are legal proceedings and the information would not be accessible through discovery in those proceedings;
• where a third party has given us health information about you in confidence;
• denying access is required or authorised by or under law.
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If access is denied we will provide you with the reason why, unless it is unreasonable to do so. If we refuse your request to correct your personal information, you have the right to request that a statement be associated with your personal information noting that you disagree with its accuracy.

If we refuse your request to access or correct your personal information, we will also provide you with information on how you can complain about the refusal.

Notification

If a data breach occurs that raises a risk of unauthorised use or access to Personal Information that we hold, we will follow the requirements of the Data Breach Notification scheme under the Privacy Act.  The requirements include notifying affected individuals and the Privacy Commissioner in some circumstances.

Contact us

If you have any further questions relating to this Privacy Policy, wish to request access to or correct personal information we hold about you, or wish to lodge a complaint about the way in which we have handled your personal information, please contact us:

Complaints

First Samuel treats any complaints about our handling of personal information seriously.  We will fully investigate any complaint you lodge with us and seek to provide a response as soon as practicable and, in general, no later than 30 days after the receipt of the initial complaint.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) can consider most privacy complaints involving providers of financial services. We will provide you with further details when we respond to your complaint.

For further details on our complaints and dispute handling procedures, please read our Public Complaints Policy here. 

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may change the way we handle personal information from time to time for any reason. If so, we will update this Privacy Policy which will be updated on the website accordingly.