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Privacy Policy

Date of Last Modification: August 17th, 2020

 

Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how Guidant Financial Group, Inc. (“Guidant”, “we” or “us”) collects, shares, uses, and protects information when you visit any of Guidant’s websites or engage Guidant for any services. This policy covers all of Guidant’s online services and websites, including our client portals, Guidant branded social media sites or pages, as well as any interactions you may have while viewing content provided through one of Guidant’s digital advertising campaigns. This policy also covers when you communicate with us by phone, text, direct message, social media, or other similar functionality. Finally, this policy also applies to the personal information about you that we receive from a third party, unless specifically covered by such third party’s privacy policy.

As you review our policy, here are a few general principles to keep in mind:

  • Our services are intended for a United States audience. If you visit or use one of our websites or online services, your information may be transferred or processed in the United States.
  • Our services and products are not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
  • If you are a California resident, you may have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Collection of Information

When you visit our website, certain information is collected automatically. Guidant’s main purpose in collecting information from clients and potential clients is for communication and to respond to your questions and requests. For example, we may capture the IP address of the device you use to connect to the online service, the type of operating system and browser you use, information about the site you came from, the parts of our online service you access, and the site you visit next, device you may using, and location. We or our third-party partners may also use cookies, web beacons or other technologies to collect and store other information about your visit to, or use of, our online services. In addition, we may later associate the usage and other information we collect online with personal information about you.

In addition, personal non-public information is required for several of our products and we may ask you to provide them to us. These include:

  • Collection personal information from or about you such as your name, email address, mailing address, and telephone number(s);
  • Completing contracts and related forms, which include social security number, information about existing retirement accounts a customer holds;
  • Retirement account history, including information about the transactions and balances in a customer’s accounts;
  • Financial information to determine availability of financing solutions for you.
  • Correspondence, written, telephonic or electronic between a customer and Guidant or service providers to Guidant.
  • If you purchase our services, we will ask you to provide payment information.
  • Additional sources of Information: We may also collect information about you, from additional online and offline sources including partner sites or commercially available third-party sources, such as credit reporting agencies. We may combine this information with the personal and other information we have collected about you under this Privacy Policy.

Use of Information

We will use the above collected information in a number of ways including:

  • Qualifying customers for Guidant’s products and services;
  • Processing applications and transactions;
  • Verifying your identity (such as when you access your account information);
  • Preventing fraud and enhancing the security of your account or our services;
  • Responding to your requests and communicating with you;
  • Managing your preferences;
  • Performing analytics concerning your use of our services, including your responses to our emails and the pages and advertisements you view;
  • Providing you tailored content and marketing messages;
  • Operating, evaluating and improving our business (including developing new products and services; improving existing products and services; performing data analytics; and performing accounting, auditing and other internal functions);
  • Complying with and enforcing applicable legal requirements, relevant industry standards, contractual obligations and our policies; and
  • For any other purposes that we may specifically disclose at the time you provide or we collect your information.

We may also use data that we collect on an aggregate or anonymous basis (such that it does not identify any individual customers) for various business purposes, where permissible under applicable laws and regulations.

Disclosure of Client Information

We may disclose personal information to third parties who are not affiliated with Guidant in certain circumstances. Examples may include:

  • As Authorized – if you request or authorize the disclosure of the information
  • As Permitted by Law – for example, sharing information with companies who maintain or service customer accounts for Guidant is permitted and is essential for us to provide clients with necessary or useful services with respect to their accounts. Furthermore, we may disclose or report personal information, such as account and transaction data, where we believe in good faith that disclosure is required or permitted under law (e.g., to cooperate with regulators, receivers, or to resolve client disputes).
  • Outside Counsel – Guidant products/contracts generally include consultation with outside counsel. Your information will be available to the Outside Counsel in order to facilitate prompt communication and completion of your contract.
  • Partners – If you were referred to Guidant by one of Guidant’s Partners (a Franchisor, a Business/Franchise Broker or Consultant, a Lender, or a Financial Professional), we may provide information to the Partner as to your qualification towards Guidant’s products, your status in our processes, and/or other information that is helpful for the parties unless you specifically direct us otherwise.
  • Guidant Third Party Service Providers
  • Third parties or affiliates in connection with a corporate transaction, such as a sale, consolidation or merger; and
  • Guidant affiliated websites and businesses in an effort to bring you improved service across our family of products and services, when permissible under relevant laws and regulations.

By providing your information to Guidant, you consent to receive information and offers from Guidant at the email address or telephone numbers you have provided, including autodialed calls, and SMS or MMS messages. If you do not wish to receive offers for additional products or services, you should not provide your personal information or contact information through our website.

Security of Client Information

We train our staff to safeguard personal information of our clients, and they are required to use such information for business purposes only. Guidant maintains the following policies and procedures regarding privacy with its staff:

  • Sensitive information stored electronically in our databases, such as Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Credit Card Numbers, etc . . . are encrypted. Access to this information is controlled and stored on secured servers to protect against unauthorized use and access.
  • Paper files containing sensitive information are kept in secure areas where access is closely controlled and monitored.
  • Staff receives training on the types of information we can and cannot disclose to individuals and/or organizations outside Guidant.

California Privacy Rights

If you reside in California, you may also make the following more specific requests with respect to your personal information in accordance with applicable law:

  • Access – You can request by clicking here, we disclose to you the categories of personal information collected about you, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the categories of personal information sold or disclosed, the business or commercial purpose for collecting and selling the personal information, the categories of third parties with whom we share the personal information, and the specific pieces of personal information collected about you over the past 12 months.
  • Deletion – You can request that we delete your personal information that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions by clicking here.
  • Opt-out – You can request to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to an outside party by visiting our Do Not Sell My Personal Information page. For purposes of this privacy policy, “sell” means the sale, rental, release, disclosure, dissemination, availability, transfer, or other oral, written, or electronic communication of your personal information to an outside party for monetary or other valuable consideration, subject to certain exceptions in applicable law. We may also use cookies and related technology which could constitute a sale of your personal information. Your opt-out of cookie-based tracking for advertising purposes is specific to the device, website, and browser you are using, and is deleted whenever you clear your browser’s cache.

As is the case for all consumers regardless of residency, we will not discriminate against you because you exercised any of these rights. Note that for purposes of these rights, personal information does not include information about job applicants, employees and other of our personnel; information about employees and other representatives of third-party entities we may interact with; or information we have collected as a service provider to our clients.

California residents can exercise these rights online by mailing or calling us. We may deny certain requests, or fulfil a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests.

We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us.

California residents may designate an authorized agent to make a request on their behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent is identified as an authorized agent and ensure the agent has the necessary information to complete the verification process.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will let you know by appropriate means such as by posting the revised policy on this page with a new “Last Updated” date. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when posted unless indicated otherwise.

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