Ernest Grant

Our Privacy Policy

This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) applies to the information we collect about you and/or your business when you use our services, or otherwise interact with us (for example, by the collection of your information via our website or social media), unless a different policy is displayed.

This privacy policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you and/or your business.
Ernest Grant, we and us refer to Ernest Grant Ltd and any trading styles of Ernest Grant Ltd.

Ernest Grant is the sole owner of the information collected throughout your client journey, or on www.ernestgrant.com. Ernest Grant collects information from our clients at several different points in your client journey or via the enquiry form on our Website.

Your personal data may be collected and processed by Ernest Grant when you engage with us as a client or interact with the functionalities offered by our Website.

This Privacy Policy has been drafted in accordance with regulatory and General Data Protection Regulation, adopted on the 25th May 2018 in line with the minimum requirements for the collection of data on-line within the European Union. This Privacy Policy also represents our information statement to the data subjects according to the European Union privacy law rules and principles (the “Privacy Law”), with which the processing carried out by Ernest Grant complies.

The Privacy Policy specifies the identity of the data Controller that controls and manages the personal data collected and processed, specifies what is the personal information collected, the data processing purposes and conditions, the extent of personal data communication to third parties, the data security measures adopted in order to protect and safeguard data and the ways in which you may verify the processing of data relating to you and enforce your rights as recognised under the Privacy Law.

Who controls the processing of my personal data? Who is accountable for it?

The Controller of the personal data processing is: Ernest Grant Ltd operating from

Stowe House, 1688 High Street, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0LY.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you and/or your business when you request us to provide you with quotes for our services and engage us for personal financial planning; corporate financial planning & consultancy services; financial advice; mortgage advice; investment management services; group benefits and workplace pension advice.

This information will relate to your personal/business and financial circumstances. It may also include special categories of personal data such as data about your health, if this is necessary for the provision of our services.

We may also collect information when you voluntarily complete client surveys or provide feedback to us.

Information relating to usage of our website is collected using cookies. These are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. We’ll use your information collected from the website to personalise your repeat visits to the site.

We try at all times to keep all personal data collected and processed accurate and up-to-date. We check the accuracy of data when it is collected and at regular intervals thereafter. Where any inaccurate or out-of-date data is found, all reasonable steps will be taken to amend or erase that data, as appropriate.

Information about connected individuals or employees

Corporate Clients:

We may need to gather personal information about your employees in order to provide our service to you effectively. In such cases we will seek acceptance of these terms from an authorised individual with the business and if necessary offer guidance to ensure that the business has the consent of the people concerned to pass their information on to us. We’ll make available a copy of our privacy policy for them or, where appropriate, ask you to pass our privacy information to them through your own communication channels.

Personal Clients:

We may need to gather personal information about your close family members and dependants in order to provide our service to you effectively. In such cases it will be your responsibility to ensure that you have the consent of the people concerned to pass their information on to us. We’ll provide a copy of this privacy policy for them or, where appropriate, ask you to pass the privacy information to them.

Why do we need to collect and use your personal data?

The primary legal basis that we intend to use for the processing of your data is for the performance of our contract with you. The information that we collect about you is essential for us to be able to carry out the services that you require from us effectively. Without collecting your personal data we’d also be unable to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations.

Where special category data is required we’ll obtain your explicit consent in order to collect and process this information.

Who might we share your information with?

If you agree, we may email you about other products or services that we think may be of interest to you. If you agree, we’ll pass on your personal information to other Ernest Grant trading-styles, so that they may offer you their products and services.

We use tools supplied by 3rd parties for profiling customers and agreements are in place to protect your data in accordance with data protection laws and policies.

We won’t share your information for marketing purposes with companies outside our group of companies. In order to deliver our services to you effectively we may send your details to third parties such as those that we engage for professional compliance, accountancy or legal services as well as product and platform providers that we use to arrange financial products for you.

Where third parties are involved in processing your data we’ll have a contract in place with them to ensure that the nature and purpose of the processing is clear, that they are subject to a duty of confidence in processing your data and that they’ll only act in accordance with our written instructions.

Where it’s necessary for your personal data to be forwarded to a third party we’ll use appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in transit. Please refer to our Data Security Policy for further information on security measures we use to best protect the data being transferred.

To fulfil our obligations in respect of prevention of money-laundering and other financial crime we may send your details to third party agencies for identity verification purposes.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

During the course of our relationship with you we’ll retain personal data which is necessary to provide services to you. We’ll take all reasonable steps to keep your personal data up to date throughout our relationship.

We are also subject to regulatory requirements to retain your data for specified minimum periods. These are, generally:

• Five years for investment business
• Indefinitely for pension transfers and opt-outs
• Three years for insurance business
• Three years for mortgage business

These 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. In any case, we’ll not keep your personal data for longer than necessary after our relationship with you has ended.

You have the right to request deletion of your personal data. We’ll comply with this request, subject to the restrictions of our regulatory obligations and legitimate interests as noted above.

In relation to our Website, we ask for information from the user on our enquiry form. Information gathered through this form will be held in compliance with our Data Protection Policy and may be used periodically to assist in the various marketing activities of Ernest Grant, but primarily to provide the necessary permission for us to contact you.

How can I access the information you hold about me?

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you’d like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email or write to us using the contact details noted below.

You may make a subject access request (“SAR”) at any time to find out more about the personal data which we hold about you. We are usually required to respond to SARs within one month of receipt (this can be extended by up to two months in the case of complex and/or numerous requests, and in such cases the data subject shall be informed of the need for the extension).

All subject access requests must be sent to our Data Protection Officer.

We do not charge a fee for the handling of normal SARs. The Company reserves the right to charge reasonable fees for additional copies of information that has already been supplied to a data subject, and for requests that are manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly where such requests are repetitive.

You also have the following rights in respect of your personal data:

• The right to be informed of the processing;
• The right to rectification;
• The right of erasure;
• The right to restrict processing;
• The right of data portability;
• The right to object to processing;
• The right to understand automated decision making and profiling.

For more details on how to exercise these rights please contact us.

When your personal data is processed by automated means you have the right to ask us to move your personal data to another organisation for their use.

We have an obligation to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Please ask us to correct or remove any information that you think is incorrect.

Marketing

We’d like to send you information about our products and services and those of other companies in our group which may be of interest to you. If you’ve agreed to receive marketing information, you may opt out at a later date.

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes or giving your information to other members of the group. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please contact us by email or post, or by clicking here.

Does this website use cookies? What are they for?

We use cookies to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. Our cookies do not run programs on users’ devices nor upload viruses on it, and do not allow any kind of control over the device.

For further information visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.

Please click here to accept cookies on this website.

Once you have accepted the use of cookies on the Site, your preferences stored in the form of a cookie for your future visits to the Site for as long as you do not remove the cookies stored on your device.

Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

What can you do if you are unhappy with how your personal data is processed?

You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority for data protection. In the UK this is:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

0303 123 1113 (local rate)

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we’ll place any updates on this web page when they occur.  This privacy policy was last updated on 09/05/2018.

Business Transitions

In the event Ernest Grant goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. If as a result of the business transition, the users’ personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choice consistent with our notification of changes section.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you: by email at info@ernestgrant.com
Or write to us at Ernest Grant Ltd, Stowe House, 1688 High Street, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0LY