1.     INTRODUCTION

Wentworth Williamson Management Pty Limited ACN 164 774 814 and its related bodies corporate (Wentworth Williamson, we, our, us) respect the importance of protecting your privacy. We comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including Part IIIA of the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

This Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how Wentworth Williamson collects, handles, uses, holds and discloses your personal information when we provide services to you.

By visiting our website or otherwise interacting with us, you agree to the collection, use, disclosure and handling of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will update this Policy when our information handling practices change, or when required. Any revised Policy will take effect when it is published on our website and your continued use of our website or services will constitute your agreement to those changes. Please note that any external websites that are linked to our website are subject to their own privacy policy.

2.     Our functions and activities

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information so that we can carry out our business functions and activities and provide the best possible customer service. Our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information will depend on our relationship with you, the types of services you request from us, and our obligations at law.

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to establish and manage your investment in our investment funds;
  • to administer and manage the services provided to you or other relationships and arrangements in relation to those services or our business;
  • to detect and prevent instances of fraud, unlawful conduct, and other risks to you or our services;
  • to protect legal rights and comply with legal obligations;
  • for quality assurance and training purposes;
  • to process payments and invoices as well as attending to our internal accounting and administration requirements;
  • to provide customer support, including conducting and responding to enquiries, feedback, comments and complaints about our services;
  • to distribute our newsletters and other communications about us, either alone or with the assistance of third party service providers (however we do respect the right of individuals to ask us not to do this);
  • to inform and conduct marketing activities including data analytics and promoting products and services from us and our related entities;
  • to undertake review and maintenance of our systems and infrastructure and conduct research about our services to improve our services, marketing activities and customer experience;
  • to manage and carry out our business and operational functions, including HR management, business decisions and to assess your suitability for appointment as a contractor or supplier;
  • to maintain records and comply with our domestic and foreign legal and regulatory reporting and compliance obligations. Legislation which may apply includes:
    • Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No. 1) (Cth) and other anti-money laundering legislation;
    • Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 (Cth) and other regulatory legislation; and
    • Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth), the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and 1997 (Cth) and other taxation laws and regulation,
  • for any other purpose to which you consent or that is disclosed at the time the information is collected.

3.     Information we collect

Personal information is any information about you from which you can be identified. The types of personal information that we may collect include identity and contact information such as your name, residential and business address, driver licence and passport number for identification purposes, email address, date of birth, tax file number, bank account details, gender and telephone number, residency status and financial and related information such as payment details, details about your authorised signatories on your investments, contact information about your financial advisers, copies of any relevant trust deeds, partnership agreements or constitutions that may be relevant to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. We may collect additional personal information from you from time to time. For example, information relating to powers of attorney or for probate and estate administration.

We generally do not collect sensitive information about you, unless you provide it to us voluntarily. You may provide sensitive information when you interact with us, such as racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious or philosophical beliefs or political opinion and membership or affiliation information. You consent to us collecting sensitive information which you provide to us voluntarily.

If you are an employee or prospective employee, we may need to collect personal information including sensitive information about you and you consent to us collecting this information. For example, personnel records may include sensitive information such as racial or ethnic origin, criminal record, health information or membership or affiliation information. Recruitment records may include employment history and experience, referees and other employment related information.

You don’t have to give us all the information we request. However, if you do not provide us with some or all of the personal information required, we may be unable to consider or approve your application or provide a service to you or information you request, to the requested standard or at all, and you may also miss out on receiving valuable information about us and our services.

4.     How we collect information

Where we can, we will collect information directly from you. We collect personal information when you:

  • request us to provide services or make an enquiry about our services;
  • subscribe to communications from us such as updates, publications or newsletters;
  • have entered into a business relationship with us and we are managing services we provide to you;
  • contact us to provide feedback, comments or suggestions on our functions and activities;
  • interact or engage with us through our websites or social media platforms;
  • apply for a job with us or become an employee, or become a supplier or contractor that provide a product or service to Wentworth Williamson; or
  • otherwise interact with us or disclose your personal information to us.

As well as collecting information directly from you, there may be occasions when we may collect information about you indirectly from other people or organisations, including from our related bodies corporate. Where we receive information about you indirectly from third parties, we require that where applicable, the third party has collected and shared that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Third parties we collect information about you from may include:

  • agents of Wentworth Williamson that provide services on our behalf;
  • law enforcement agencies and government agencies to verify your identity;
  • your representatives (lawyers, executors, administrators, real estate agents, guarantors, brokers, insurers, accountants and financial advisors);
  • your nominated bank when you apply for a service;
  • supplier, service providers and contractors that provide services to us such as debt collection agencies;
  • third parties that provide marketing leads, marketing and data analysis services to us; and
  • reputable data sources and publicly available sources of information; or
  • if you are a prospective employee, your nominated referee, law enforcement agencies for police checks or intermediaries such as recruitment agents and personnel providers.

5.     Cookies and how we use them

We (and authorised third parties) may use cookies and tools, such as web beacons and web server logs, to collect, store and monitor visitor traffic information and actions on our website. Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer that allows our websites to “remember you” when you return to our websites. These cookies and tools are not used to record any personal information but are only used to identify generic preferences and behavioural patterns of how our website and online resources are being used. The information we collect from you in this way is aggregated and anonymous and will not be used to personally identify you.

Third party service providers may have their own privacy policies in relation to their cookies and tools.

The information collected by these tools may include geolocation data, the IP address of the device you are using and information about websites that IP address has come from, the pages accessed on our website and the next website visited. We may use and combine this information to maintain, secure and improve our websites, enhance your experience when using our websites, display and deliver relevant content, services and advertising and understand the effectiveness of our marketing and advertising (including direct marketing and online ads on third party websites).

If you want to prevent cookies being used, you can change your browser settings to disable cookies or to notify you when you receive a new cookie. However, you may not be able to access all or parts of our websites, or you may experience reduced functionality when accessing certain services. For more information, visit www.youronlinechoices.com.au.

6.     Disclosure of personal information

Where the Privacy Act permits, we may disclose your personal information to our officers, employees, contractors, our related bodies corporate and other third parties in connection with our functions and activities, including:

  • fund and investment administrators / managers;
  • organisations involved in providing, managing or administering our services such as custodians, registries, administrators, mail houses and software and information technology providers;
  • auditors;
  • insurance providers;
  • to legal personal representatives, attorneys or any other person who may be entitled to receive the proceeds from your investment or account with us and other authorised representatives (e.g. lawyers, executors, administrators, accountants and financial advisors);
  • to other financial institutions who hold an account in an investor’s name, for example, where amounts have been transferred to or from that account;
  • to regulatory bodies, government agencies and law enforcement bodies in any jurisdiction;
  • to debt collectors and utility companies;
  • to external dispute resolution schemes; or
  • when we may be required by law from time to time.

We may also disclose personal information to our suppliers and service providers that provide products and services to us in connection with our functions and activities, including third parties who:

  • deliver marketing and digital marketing services;
  • mailing, courier and print service providers;
  • conduct data analysis and data matching services;
  • conduct market research, surveys and analysis;
  • host our servers and websites;
  • provide IT services;
  • data processing, storage and back-up;
  • process payments;
  • are our lawyers, financial advisors and accountants;
  • provide recruitment consultant services; or
  • manage HR information such as payroll and superannuation.

Some of the third-party service providers we disclose your information to may have servers located overseas in various countries, including Singapore.

Before we disclose your information to our overseas recipients, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is only used for authorised purposes and adequately protected using appropriate technical, organisational and contractual means. You consent to us disclosing your personal information to overseas recipients on this basis.

7.     Direct Marketing

Wentworth Williamson may, from time to time, send direct marketing communications to you about us and our services and other material that we consider you would find interesting or useful. If you do not wish to receive such direct marketing communications, you can always opt out. If you are receiving email communications from us, there will be a mechanism to opt out contained in each of those emails. To stop receiving other communications from us, you can contact us via any of the channels listed below.

If you choose to opt out of all direct marketing communications, please note that Wentworth Williamson may still contact you for other reasonable purposes, including information that Wentworth Williamson is legally required to send, notifications of changes to Wentworth Williamson products and services or policies and information regarding the use, rights, benefits or obligations of customers of our products and services.

8.     How we hold information and keep it secure

Wentworth Williamson holds your personal information both electronically, on our own servers and those of our service providers, and in hard copy at our secured offices or secure offsite storage facilities.

Wentworth Williamson takes the security of your personal information seriously and we implement a range of technical, administrative, personnel and physical measures to safeguard your personal information against loss, interference and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, and misuse, including using electronic (such as firewalls, password protection, encryption and secured systems) and physical (such as locked cabinets, offices and secured premises) access restrictions to files containing personal information and ensuring encryption of information sent and received.

We require that all third parties who may have access to personal information, have appropriate controls to protect your information in a manner that is consistent with our Policy, including in relation to security and confidentiality. These third parties must only use your personal information for authorised purposes.

Wentworth Williamson retains your personal information while it is required for any of our business functions, or for any other lawful purpose. We use secure methods to destroy or to permanently de-identify your personal information when it is no longer needed or if we determine that the personal and information received is required to be destroyed or permanently de-identified.

9.     Access and correction of information about you

It is important to us that the information we hold about you is up-to-date, accurate and complete. If you believe we are holding information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please ask us to correct it.

If you would like to access your personal information or ask us to update, correct or delete it, you can do so by contacting us in writing and verifying your identity. We will do our best to respond to your request within 30 days.

We will only refuse access to the information we hold about you in exceptional circumstances, and if this is the case, we will advise you of our reasons for doing so. We may charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to, your information on a per request basis.

10.   Privacy complaints

We take your complaints seriously and will attempt to resolve your issue quickly and fairly.

If you believe that Wentworth Williamson has breached the Privacy Act in relation to the way in which we manage personal information about you:

  • you may make a complaint addressed to the Wentworth Williamson Privacy Officer using the contact details below. The complaint must identify you and be in writing;
  • you will receive an acknowledgement of receipt of your complaint from us as soon as reasonably practicable after we receive it and in any case within 7 days of receipt. We will let you know if we need any further information from you to resolve your complaint;
  • the Wentworth Williamson Privacy Officer will investigate your complaint and will endeavour to provide a response setting out Wentworth Williamson’s decision in writing within 30 days of receipt of your complaint. If we cannot resolve your complaint within this period, we will write to you notifying you as to the reasons why, specifying when we expect the matter to be resolved and seeking your agreement to extend the 30-day period. If you do not agree, we may then not be able to resolve your complaint; and
  • if Wentworth Williamson is unable to satisfactorily resolve your concerns you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on their website www.oaic.gov.au.

11.   Our contact details

If you require any further information or have any questions about this Policy or if you wish to access or correct your personal information or make a complaint about our handling of that information, please contact the Wentworth Williamson Privacy Officer as follows:

Email:

we@wentworthwilliamson.com.au

Telephone:

+02 9145 2988

Post:

Level 13, 3 Spring Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Last Updated 5 May 2023