DATA PRIVACY NOTICE

Please read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal data, your rights in relation to your personal data and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.Italicised words in this privacy notice have the meaning set out in the Glossary of Terms at the end of this document.

Who we are

Michael Forward Financial Services Ltd collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal data held about you. When we do hold data we are required to comply with data protection regulation and we are responsible as a data controller of that personal data for the purposes of those laws.When we mention “we”, “us” or “our” we are referring to Michael Forward Financial Services Ltd.We are a company registered in England and Wales (company number 6299498) whose registered office is at Burlington House, 369 Wellingborough Road, Northampton, NN1 4EU. Michael Forward Financial Services Ltd are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our Financial Services Register number is 630157.We provide you with financial advice, retirement planning, mortgages and general insurance.

The personal data we collect and use

In the course of providing our service to you we may collect the following personal data when you provide it to us:

[contact information]

[identity information]

[financial information]

[employment status]

[lifestyle information]

[health information]

[data about criminal convictions or offences]

[details of any vulnerability]

[details of your dependents and/or beneficiaries under a policy (If you are providing information about another person we expect you to ensure that they know you are doing so and are content with their information being provided to us. You might find it helpful to show them this privacy notice and if they have any concerns please contact us in one of the ways described below.)]

[product details]

Information collected from other sources

We also obtain personal data from other sources in the course of providing our intermediary services. Where we obtain this information from another party it is their responsibility to make sure they explain that they will be sharing personal data with us and, where necessary, ask permission before sharing information with us.

[The personal data we obtain from other sources may include the following:

[From lenders and/or product providers:

product details]

[From identification and verification checking agencies:

identity information

sanction check information]

How we use your personal data

The below table sets out:

how we use your personal data

the lawful bases upon which we collect and use your personal data

who we routinely share your personal data with

Rationale/Reason for Processing	Lawful Basis for Processing	Third party recipients linked to that activity
·       Provide advice in connection with arranging a mortgage contract.	Entering/performing a contract with the data subject.	Mortgage Lenders.
·       Provide advice in connection with arranging an insurance contract.	Entering/performing a contract with the data subject.	Insurance Companies.
·       Provide advice in connection with arranging a pension plan.	Entering/performing a contract with the data subject.	Insurance Companies and Pension Scheme Administrators.

Special category data

Certain types of personal data are considered more sensitive and so are subject to additional levels of protection under data protection legislation. These are known as ‘special categories of data’ and include data concerning your health, racial or ethnic origin, genetic data and sexual orientation. Data relating to criminal convictions or offences is also subject to additional levels of protection.

We may process:

[health information and lifestyle information when providing intermediary services in relation to a protection insurance product, equity release or a pension plan]

[criminal conviction or offence information when providing intermediary services in relation to mortgages or a general insurance product]

In addition to the lawful basis for processing this information set out in the above table, we will be processing it either (i) for the purpose of advising on, arranging or administering a pension, insurance or mortgage contract or (ii) for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

[In the course of our activities relating to the prevention, detection and investigation of financial crime, we may process criminal conviction or offence information. Where we do so, in addition to the lawful basis for processing this information set out in the above table, we will be processing it for the purpose of compliance with regulatory requirements relating to unlawful acts and dishonesty.

Marketing

We may use personal data we hold about you to help us identify, tailor and provide you with details of products and services from us that may be of interest to you. We will only do so where we have obtained your consent and then will do so in accordance with any marketing preferences you have provided to us.

You can opt out of receiving marketing at any time. If you wish to amend your marketing preferences please contact us:

By phone: 01604 635435

By email: enquiries@michaelforward.co.uk

By Post: Burlington House, 369 Wellingborough Road, Northampton, NN1 4EU.

Whether information has to be provided by you, and if so why

We will tell you if providing some personal data is optional, including if we ask for your consent to process it. In all other cases you must provide your personal data in order for us to provide you with intermediary services.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal data for differing periods of time depending upon the reason we have for processing it. These retention periods are set out below.

Type of Record	Retention Period
Mortgages	3 Years
Insurance Business	3 Years
Investment Business	5 Years
Pensions	Indefinitely

The above are minimum periods, during which we have a legal obligation to retain your records. We reserve the right to retain data for longer where we believe it’s in our legitimate interests to do so.

Transfer of your information out of the EEA

We will not transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area or to any organisation (or subordinate bodies) governed by public international law or which is set up under any agreement between two or more countries.

Your rights

You have legal rights under data protection regulation in relation to your personal data. These are set out under the below headings:

To access personal data

To correct / erase personal data

To restrict how we use personal data

To object to how we use personal data

To ask us to transfer personal data to another organisation

To find out more about how we use personal data

We may ask you for proof of identity when making a request to exercise any of these rights. We do this to ensure we only disclose information or change your details where we know we are dealing with the right individual.We will not ask for a fee, unless we think your request is unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Where a fee is necessary, we will inform you before proceeding with your request.

We aim to respond to all valid requests within one month. It may however take us longer if the request is particularly complicated or you have made several requests. We will always let you know if we think a response will take longer than one month. To speed up our response, we may ask you to provide more detail about what you want to receive or are concerned about.

We may not always be able to fully address your request, for example if it would impact the duty of confidentiality we owe to others, or if we are otherwise legally entitled to deal with the request in a different way.

To access personal data

You can ask us to confirm whether or not we have and are using your personal data. You can also ask to get a copy of your personal data from us and for information on how we process it.

To rectify / erase personal data

You can ask that we rectify any information about you which is incorrect. We will be happy to rectify such information but would need to verify the accuracy of the information first.

You can ask that we erase your personal data if you think we no longer need to use it for the purpose we collected it from you.

You can also ask that we erase your personal data if you have either withdrawn your consent to us using your information (if we originally asked for your consent to use your information), or exercised your right to object to further legitimate use of your information, or where we have used it unlawfully or where we are subject to a legal obligation to erase your personal data.

We may not always be able to comply with your request, for example where we need to keep using your personal data in order to comply with our legal obligation or where we need to use your personal data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To restrict our use of personal data

You can ask that we restrict our use of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example

where you think the information is inaccurate and we need to verify it;

where our use of your personal data is not lawful but you do not want us to erase it;

where the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected but we need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or

where you have objected to our use of your personal data but we still need to verify if we have overriding grounds to use it.

We can continue to use your personal data following a request for restriction where we have your consent to use it; or we need to use it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or we need to use it to protect the rights of another individual or a company.

To object to use of personal data

You can object to any use of your personal data which we have justified on the basis of our legitimate interest, if you believe your fundamental rights and freedoms to data protection outweigh our legitimate interest in using the information. If you raise an objection, we may continue to use the personal data if we can demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate interests to use the information.

To request a transfer of personal data

You can ask us to provide your personal data to you in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or you can ask to have it transferred directly to another data controller (e.g. another company).

You may only exercise this right where we use your personal data in order to perform a contract with you, or where we asked for your consent to use your personal data. This right does not apply to any personal data which we hold or process outside automated means.

You can contact us for more information

If you are not satisfied with the level of information provided in this privacy notice, you can ask us about what personal data we have about you, what we use your information for, who we disclose your information to, whether we transfer it abroad, how we protect it, how long we keep it for, what rights you have, how you can make a complaint, where we got your data from and whether we have carried out any automated decision making using your personal data.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please:

mail or write to our Data Protection Officer, Michael Forward at michael@michaelforward.co.uk or Burlington House, 369 Wellingborough Road, Northampton, NN1 4EU;

let us have enough information to identify you, e.g. name, address, date of birth;

let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and

let us know the information to which your request relates.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Our supervisory authority

If you are not happy with the way we are handling your information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office. It has enforcement powers and can investigate compliance with data protection regulation (www.ico.org.uk).

We ask that you please attempt to resolve any issues with us before the ICO.

How to contact us

Please contact our Data Protection Officer, Michael Forward if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you.

If you wish to contact our Data Protection Officer, please send an email to michael@michaelforward.co.uk or write to Burlington House, 369 Wellingborough Road, Northampton, NN1 4EU.

Glossary of Terms

we, us or our	Michael Forward Financial Services Ltd A company registered in England and Wales (company number 6299498 and having its registered office at Burlington House, 369 Wellingborough Road, Northampton, NN1 4EU
contact information	These are details that can be used to contact a person, including title, first name, surname, personal telephone number, fax, email address, home address, country, postcode or city of residence. This may also include work contact information such as work telephone number, fax, work email and work address
data controller	Means a natural or legal person (such as a company) which determines the means and purposes of processing of personal data. For example, we are your data controller as we determine how we will collect personal data from you, the scope of data which will be collected, and the purposes for which it will be used in the course of us providing you with intermediary services
data protection regulation	applicable data privacy and protection laws
employment status	this is information about your work, if you are employed, self-employed, unemployed, a student or on job seeker allowance
FCA	the Financial Conduct Authority, being the independent watchdog that regulates financial services
financial information	this is information relating to your financial status, including salary/income, outgoings/expenditure, tax rate and P60
health information	This is information relating to your medical history, including symptoms, diagnoses, procedures and outcomes, as well as information about your height and weight. This could include previous and current or persistent medical conditions and family medical history
identity information	this is any information that can be used to distinguish a person or verify their identity, such as name, date of birth, place of birth, gender, marital status, national identity card/number, passport, drivers licence and national insurance number.
intermediary services	these are the services we provide to you in relation to the products, which may include: ·        pensions ·        mortgages ·        general insurance
lenders	a mortgage lender (for a list of current lenders which we work with, please contact us – see How to contact us above)
lifestyle information	This includes both work and leisure behaviour patterns. Most relevant to your products may be your smoker status, alcohol consumption, health, retirement age and exercise habits
product	this is an investment, pension, mortgage, protection and/or general insurance product in respect of which we provide intermediary services to you
product provider	a company which provides investment, pension, protection and/or general insurance products (for a list of product providers which we work with, please contact us – see How to contact us above)
sanction check information	this is information relating to your politically exposed persons (PEPs) status and Her Majesty’s Treasury financial sanctions status, which is recorded to prevent fraud and money laundering
vulnerability	A vulnerable consumer is someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to detriment, particularly when an advisory firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care.  These customers are more likely to suffer severe detriment if something goes wrong. Details of vulnerability fall in to the following categories: health; resilience (financial); life events; and capability (financial knowledge/ confidence)

Cookies Policy

Michael Forward Financial Services is the Operator and Copyright Holder respectively of this website (“the Site”). Michael Forward Financial Services uses technology to collect information about the use of the Site in order to improve your experience when you browse the Site.
In order to collect the information this Site uses (“Cookies”). A Cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is sent to your browser and stored on the hard drive of your computer (or internet enabled device) when you visit the Site.
Analytical/Performance Cookies – These Cookies collect information in an anonymous form about how visitors use our Site. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they are using it.
This Site may link through to third-party websites which may also use Cookies over which we have no control. We recommend that you check the relevant third-parties privacy policy for information about any Cookies that may be used. You can configure your web browser to refuse Cookies, to delete Cookies, or to be informed if a Cookie is set.
You should note that by deleting or blocking Cookies, the Site may not function correctly and you may not be able to access certain areas. This Site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics sets a number of Cookies (default is 4) in order to evaluate your use of the Site and compile reports for us on activity on the site.
Google stores the information collected by the Cookie on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third-parties where required to do so by law, or where such third-parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
Google Inc are members of the US Safe Harbour Scheme. This scheme allows the transfer of data from within the EEA to countries that are outside of the EEA without having to enter into a specific data transfer agreement. Companies that sign up to the scheme are deemed to provide adequate protection for personal data transmitted from Europe. The Google Inc registration is at https://safeharbor.export.gov/companyinfo.aspx?id=10543