This Privacy Statement covers the following businesses: Synstrat Accounting Pty Ltd as trustee for the Synstrat Accounting Unit Trust (ABN 44 525 452 676), incorporating Synstrat Superannuation; and Synstrat Management Pty Ltd (ABN 57 006 295 325) which are collectively referred to hereafter as “Synstrat”.
At Synstrat, we are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This Privacy Policy describes our current policies and practices in relation to the collection, handling, use and disclosure of personal information. It also deals with how you can complain about a breach of the privacy laws, how you can access the personal information we hold about you and how to have that information corrected.
What information do we collect and how do we use it?
When we provide accounting, tax, financial planning, SMSF administration or consultancy advice, we ask you for the information we need to be able to provide the services that you have requested which include but are not limited to: preparing business valuations on your behalf preparing your income tax returns; preparing your business activity statements; preparing an Insurance and/or Superannuation recommendation; providing financial planning advice to you; recommending and implementing investment strategies; reviewing your financial plan; the administration of your SMSF; monitoring your investment portfolio; and liaising on your behalf with the ATO, banks, life insurance companies, superannuation funds and other financial institutions.
This can include a broad range of information ranging from your name, address, contact details and age to other information about your personal affairs including: your current employment and employment history; financial information about your business including historic financial performance, budgets and plans, and employee payroll information; your financial needs and objectives; your current financial circumstances, including your assets and liabilities (actual and potential), income, expenditure, insurance cover and superannuation; your taxation history including tax returns and assessments; your investment preferences and aversion or tolerance to risk; your family commitments, social security eligibility, and estate planning; any other information which helps build a picture of your particular needs and financial situation; and personal or sensitive information (associated with your health or lifestyle) for purposes of Life, and/or Income Protection and/or Crisis/Trauma and or any other associated Life insurances.
We provide the information that you provide to: the Australian Taxation Office to ensure ongoing compliance; CPA Australia, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, Financial Planning Association of Australia Australian Securities & Investments Commission, AFSL Compliance; or Austrac on request for their inspection to ensure ongoing compliance with mandatory professional standards and legal obligations; another Synstrat representative, consultant or contractor during periods when your consultant is away from the office, to ensure you receive a continued service or in circumstances where your consultant has referred you to another Synstrat Consultant for the provision of other services; superannuation fund trustees, insurance providers and product issuers for the purpose of giving effect to your financial plan and the recommendations made by us; administrative service providers in respect of your investments to assist them in reporting, providing distributions, and other administrative tasks relating to your investments; as required by law or directed by legal decision/process; the recommended stock broker and cash management product provider if you are utilising an SMSF or investment portfolio product that Synstrat administer and on which they advise; one or more of our panel of approved SMSF auditors to arrange for the audit of your SMSF; persons who provide finance or other products to you, or to whom an application has been made for those products; financial consultants, accountants, lawyers and advisers; and any industry body, tribunal, court or otherwise in connection with any compliant regarding our services.
We may provide sensitive health information to a Life Insurance Company and this may be in respect of new cover, increasing existing cover or be associated with a claim you have lodged with an insurer where we are assisting you with that claim.
From time to time we will use your contact details to send you offers, updates, events, articles, newsletters or other information about products and services that we believe will be of interest to you. We may do so by mail or electronically unless you tell us that you do not wish to receive electronic communications. 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.
We may also use your information internally to help us improve our services and help resolve any problems.
What if you don’t provide some information to us?
If you do not provide us with some or all of the information that we ask for, we may not be able to provide the services requested or may be limited in the scope of the services provided. Where that is the case we will make it clear in our advice documents that this is the case.
How do we hold and protect your information?
We strive to maintain the relevance, reliability, accuracy, 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 or ethical reporting or document retention requirements
We hold the information we collect from you at our office premises. In some cases, your file is archived and sent to an external data storage provider for a period of time. We only use storage providers in Australia who are also regulated by the Privacy Act.
All paper files are stored in areas that are locked out of hours. Access to our premises is controlled by an access control and alarm system that ensures only authorised personnel access the premises.
All electronically held information is protected through the use of access passwords (which limit the access to personnel who need to know and use the personal or sensitive information) on each computer and each system that holds personal data. Network firewalls and antivirus systems are in place to prevent unauthorised access to our network. Data is backed up each evening and stored securely off site.
Some authorised Synstrat personnel have remote access to personal and sensitive information via offsite computers (including laptops), but not through mobile phone or tablet devices.
Where we provide personal and sensitive information to third parties (such as for insurance applications, auditing of Self Managed Superannuation funds, in connection with investment and superannuation plans or secure destroying of such information, etc.) we determine from the third party's Privacy Statement that they have comply with Australian Privacy principles.
Will we disclose the information we collect to anyone?
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal or sensitive information to others.
We may disclose personal information between our related bodies corporate, or to others in the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganisation, dissolution or similar event where permitted under the Privacy Act. However, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that they protect your information in the same way that we do.
We may also disclose your personal information to external providers located in Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka to support our data processing activities. However, it is important to note that all personal information provided to us by you will be hosted on servers located in Australia and that the data processing activities does not cause the transfer of your information to an overseas server.
As at the date of this Privacy Policy, we are not likely to disclose personal information to other overseas recipients unless you direct us to send your information to a particular overseas recipient. By providing your personal information to us, you consent to us disclosing your personal information to any such overseas recipients for purposes necessary or useful in the course of operating our business and agree that APP 8.1 will not apply to such disclosures.
For the avoidance of doubt, in the event that an overseas recipient breaches the APPs, that entity will not be bound by, and you will not be able seek redress under, the Privacy Act.
We will not disclose personal or sensitive information to any third party(other than in the circumstances above) without your written approval.
We may provide your information to others if we are required to do so by law or under some unusual other circumstances which the Privacy Act permits.
How can you check, update or change the information we are holding?
Upon receipt of your written request and enough information to allow us to identify the information, we will disclose to you the personal information we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete any personal information that we agree is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date or incomplete.
If you wish to access or correct your personal information please write to:
The Privacy Officer
Synstrat
PO Box 14
DONCASTER VIC 3108
We do not charge for receiving a request for access to personal information or for complying with a correction request. We will endeavour to respond to any request for access within two to four weeks, depending on the complexity of the information or the request. In some limited cases, 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 about your Privacy?
If you have any concerns about whether we have complied with the Privacy Act or this Privacy Policy when collecting of handling your personal information, please write to us at:
The Privacy Officer
Synstrat
PO Box 14
DONCASTER VIC 3108
Tel: 03 9843 7777
Fax: 03 9843 7799
e-mail: privacy@synstrat.com.au
We will consider your complaint through our internal complaints resolution process and we will try to respond with a decision within 45 days of you making the complaint. However, if you are not satisfied with our response, you are entitled to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (www. oaic.gov .au) who may investigate your complaint further.
Your consent
By asking us to assist with your consulting requests, financial planning, SMSF administration, accounting or taxation needs you consent to the collection and use of the information you have provided to us for the purposes described above.
Tell us what you think
We welcome your questions and comments about privacy. If you have any concerns or complaints, please contact our Privacy Officer at the above address, telephone number or e-mail.
WEB SITE
Anonymous data – We use technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our website, for example when you browse our website our service provider logs your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages and links accessed and the type of browser used. It does not identify you personally and we only use this information for statistical purposes and to improve the content and functionality of our website, to better understand our clients and markets and to improve our services.
Cookies – In order to collect this anonymous data we may use “cookies”. Cookies are small pieces of information which are sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Sometimes they identify users where the website requires information to be retained from one page to the next. This is purely to increase the functionality of the site. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover the identity of the user. Cookies do not damage your computer and you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie so that you can decide if you want to accept it. Cookies allow the website to recognise your computer when you return in the future.
Web Forms – if you complete the contact web form on our web site you consent to Synstrat using the information you provide to us to send you marketing material (including newsletters). We may do so by mail or electronically unless you tell us that you do not wish to receive electronic communications. 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.