At Rhodes Docherty & Co, we are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This Policy describes our policies and practices for collecting, handling, storing, using and disclosing personal information. It also deals with how you can complain about a breach of the privacy laws, access the personal information we hold about you and have that information corrected (where necessary).
What personal information do we collect and hold?
When we provide accounting, tax, audit or financial advice we ask you for the information we need to enable your accountant or financial adviser to provide you with the service and/or advice that you have requested. We collect your information through our client fact find, risk profile, application forms, the ATO portal, your identification documents, website enquiry forms, meetings and when we speak to you by telephone. This can include a broad range of information from your name, address, contact details and age to information about your personal affairs including your employment status, assets, liabilities, income, expenses, superannuation, insurance cover, social security, financial situation and any other information that we consider necessary.
We may also collect your information from third parties such as your Lawyer, Mortgage Broker, bank, managed fund provider, insurance company, superannuation fund, share broker and/or registry, accountant and financial adviser.
We only collect sensitive information such as health information and memberships of professional or trade associations with your agreement and it is necessary for us to do so to provide accounting or financial advice services.
How do we use your information?
We use your personal information to understand your financial situation, formulate our professional advice and assist you to apply for relevant products.
We also use your personal information to manage your ongoing requirements and our relationship with you, e.g. ongoing reviews, tax returns, marketing and other services. This includes contacting you by mail or electronically (unless you tell us you do not wish to receive electronic communications).From time to time we will use your contact details to send you offers, updates, articles, newsletters or other information about products and services that we believe will be of interest to you. We may also send you regular updates by email or by post. We will always give you the option of electing not to receive these communications and you can unsubscribe at any time by notifying us that you wish to do so.
What if you don't provide information to us?
If you do not provide us with some or all the information that we ask for, we may not be able to provide you with accounting, tax, audit or financial planning services.
Web and mobile data
Personal data - If you complete your details in the 'contact us' section of our website we will capture your name, email address, phone number, company name and the message you post. This information will be stored on our servers. We will use this information to contact you to set up a meeting with one of our accountants or advisers or for marketing purposes.
Other data - We may use technology such as cookies, beacons, tags, scripts and tracking pixels to collect, store and use anonymous data about how you use our website / mobile technology. This includes your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages and links accessed, the type of browser used and other information about your browsing activities. This data is used to increase functionality and can also enable us to display information and content that is tailored to our understanding of your interests. This information alone cannot be used to discover your identity.Information you send to us by posting to a forum or blog may be stored on our servers. We do not specifically use that information except to allow it to be read, but we reserve a right to use it in any way we decide.
How do we store and protect your personal information?
We strive to maintain the relevance, accuracy and completeness and currency of the personal information we hold and to protect its privacy and security. We keep personal information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with any applicable legal reporting or document retention requirements.
Your personal information is generally held in client files on our server or a computer/cloud database (e.g. MYOB, BGL 360, XPlan and mailchimp). Your personal information may also be held in a secure archiving facility.
We will seek to ensure that we take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we hold is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. Some of the measures that we have adopted are having facilities for the secure storage of personal information, having secure offices and access controls for our computer systems.
We will also take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information that we no longer need for any purpose for which may be used or disclosed under the Australian Privacy Principles.
Will we disclose your personal information to anyone?
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. The types of service providers that may be provided with your personal information are:
- your representatives such as your accountant, solicitor, tax agent, stockbroker, mortgage broker, financial adviser or bank;
- other organisations involved in providing the financial advice you have requested (which may include ongoing service) such as fund managers, wrap account providers, master trust providers, insurance companies, share registries, paraplanners Mills, Rachel Emma, Rachel Mills Consulting (ABN 84 092 778 266) and Scale Up Paraplanning Pty Ltd (ABN 91 658 128 431), ASV Wadeson (ABN 97 154 809 453) and Opex Consulting Pty Ltd (ABN 16 159 081 866);
- software providers or database marketing tools such as MYOB, BGL 360, XPlan, Advant Plus and mailchimp;
- insurance providers, superannuation trustees and product issuers in connection with the provision to you of the financial advice you have requested;
- organisations that assist in operating an accounting and financial planning business such as those that provide administrative, financial, insurance, research, legal, computer or other business services;
- organisations involved in a business restructure or a transfer of all or part of the assets of our business or the due diligence procedures prior to any such sale or transfer;
- The Australian Tax Office;
- Australian Securities and Investment Commission;
- government authorities and other organisations when required by law; and
- organisations that you have consented to your personal information being disclosed to.
We may provide your information to others if we are required to do so by law or under some other unusual circumstances which the Privacy Act permits.
We will not disclose your information to overseas recipients unless you have agreed to this in writing.We may store your information in the cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage. As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries via an internet connection, it's not always practicable to know in which country your information may be held. If your information is stored in this way, disclosures may occur in countries other than those listed. Overseas organisations may be required to disclose information we share with them under a foreign law. In those instances, we will not be responsible for that disclosure.
How can you check, update or change the information we are holding?
You may ask us for access to your personal information and to correct it at any time.
Upon receipt of enough information to allow us to identify the information, we will tell you what personal information we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete your personal information if we agree is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date or incomplete.
To access or correct your personal information, please write to:
Rhodes Docherty & Co
Locked Bag 1011
Gordon NSW 2072
In some limited situations, we may need to refuse access to your information or refuse a request for correction. We will advise you as soon as possible after your request if this is the case and the reasons for our refusal.
What happens if you want to complain?
We welcome your questions and comments about how we manage your privacy. If you have any concerns about whether we have complied with the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles or this Privacy Policy, please write to our Privacy Officer at:
Rhodes Docherty & Co
Phone: (02) 9988 4033
Your consent
By asking us to assist with your accounting, tax, audit and financial planning needs needs, you consent to the collection and use of the information you have provided to us for the purposes described above.
Updating this policy
This Privacy Policy was prepared on 26th July 2018. We may update it at any time. The new version will be published on our website.
