Heath-Jaynes, LLC -
Privacy
Policy
Statement
This statement
describes Heath-Jaynes, LLC's
privacy policy and the practices that will be followed to respect the
privacy of individuals who deal with Heath-Jaynes, LLC
. Your privacy is
important to us, and maintaining your trust and confidence is one of our highest
priorities. We respect your right to keep your personal information confidential
and understand your desire to avoid unwanted marketing solicitations and
invasions of your privacy. Federal
and State laws requires us (along with other companies, including banks,
brokerage houses, and other financial institutions) to disclose our Privacy
Policy to you which is contained in the balance of this document. We have prepared this policy to explain
what types of information we collect, how we use it, under what circumstances we
may share it, and other important information. This policy covers all the
entities and activities controlled by Heath-Jaynes, LLC, Jeffrey Heath, Richard
Jaynes, and all other personnel of Heath-Jaynes, LLC (hereinafter collectively
referred to as “HJ”).
Under no circumstance do we provide personal
information to non-HJ entities for the purpose of independent telemarketing or
direct mail marketing of any product or service of these companies. In fact, we do not disclose any
information except in the limited situations described in this document.
This notice takes effect August 12, 2006 and will remain in effect
until we replace or revise it. If
we change our privacy policy and practices, we will prepare written notice as
well as post it on our website. We
reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice
at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. You may request a copy of our privacy
policy notice at any time. For more
information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this
notice, please contact us using the information listed at the end of this
notice. If you received this notice
at our Internet website or by electronic mail, you are entitled to receive this
notice in written form if you contact us using the information listed at the end
of this notice.
Collection
of Information
The type of
information collected by Heath-Jaynes, LLC (HJ)
regarding individuals and businesses generally includes the following: names, addresses (including email
addresses), telephone and facsimile numbers, date of birth, occupation, details
about an individual’s family (including spouse and children’s names, birthdays
and genders) and financial details and concerns. Through our collection of this
information, information about gender, education, medical history, social
preferences and membership in professional, political and/or social
associations/interests may come to be known by us and this is discussed in
additional detail in the following paragraph. The information held by HJ may come from a number of sources including interviews
and phone calls with you, publicly available sources, letters and/or e-mails
to/from you, tax returns, organizers, tax return source documents, financial
history questionnaires and receipts, books of record and, for example, cancelled
checks, receipts and bank statements.
We collect
personal information about you, but only when that information is provided by
you or is obtained by us with your authorization or through direct interaction
with you. We use all information that we gather to prepare your income tax
returns and may also use it to provide various tax, consulting and financial
planning services to you at your request.
Some
information HJ holds may be “Sensitive
Information”
Because the
data necessary to prepare tax returns and to provide various tax, consulting and
financial planning services is obviously very personal and highly confidential,
sensitive information will obviously come to our attention and knowledge. “Sensitive Information” is information
or an opinion about an individual’s race or ethnic origin, gender, education,
medical history, social and political opinions, membership in political
associations, religious beliefs and affiliations, philosophical beliefs,
memberships in professional or trade associations or trade unions, sexual
preferences or practices and/or criminal records. HJ
will only receive sensitive information with the individual’s consent through
direct discussion or document examination.
HJ will not overtly collect personal
information unless the information is necessary for one or more of its functions
or activities. HJ will collect the personal
information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive
way. Whenever HJ collects personal information about
an individual, HJ will take reasonable steps to
ensure that the individual is aware of the identity of HJ, the fact that he or she is able to gain access to the
information and the purpose for which the information is collected. HJ cannot, however, be held responsible
for inadvertently learning sensitive information through discussions that are
initiated by you or documents presented to us by you but will, of course, treat
such information in the same manner as all other information that we know about
you.
The Purposes
for which HJ uses this
Information
The purposes
for which HJ uses personal information collected
includes the following: to open and
administer client accounts, to provide financial services to clients, to
administer and supervise employees and independent contractors of our firm, for
marketing and sales initiatives such as HJ
publications, brochures, newsletters and business and personal networking
events, to promote events in the community with which HJ is associated, for
billing and collection activities and related data processing and to consider
potential employee’s applications for employment by the Firm.
We do not
disclose personal information about our clients or former clients to anyone.
However, to the extent permitted by law and any applicable state Codes of
Professional Conduct, certain nonpublic information about you may be disclosed
in the following specific situations:
1. To comply with a
validly issued and enforceable subpoena, warrant or summons.
2. In the course
of a review of our firm's practices under the authorization of a state or
national licensing board, or as necessary to properly respond to an inquiry or
complaint from such a licensing board or organization.
3. As a part of
any actual or threatened legal proceedings or alternative dispute resolution
proceedings either initiated by or against us, provided we disclose only the
information necessary to file, pursue, or defend against the lawsuit or action
but to take reasonable precautions to ensure that the information disclosed does
not become a matter of public record.
5. In conjunction
with the normal due diligence process of any merger, provided that we take
appropriate precautions (for example, through a written confidentiality
agreement) so the prospective merger partner does not disclose information
obtained in the course of the process.
6. To report
information related to victims of abuse, neglect or domestic
violence
7. To assist law
enforcement or public health officials avert a serious threat to the health or
safety of you or any other person.
8. Information may
be disclosed to lawfully established executors or administrators to enable them
to carry out their lawful duties.
As a general
rule, HJ will not use or disclose personal
information about an individual other than for its primary purpose of
collection, unless the individual has consented to the use or disclosure. HJ will use the information it gathers for our own direct
marketing purposes only where it is impractical for HJ to seek the individual’s consent before that particular
use. HJ
will not charge an individual for giving consideration to a request not to
receive direct marketing communications if the individual makes a request not to
receive direct marketing communications.
HJ will take
reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information it collects, uses or discloses is accurate, complete and
up-to-date. HJ will take reasonable steps to protect the personal
information it holds from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access,
modification or disclosure. HJ will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently
de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed.
Openness,
Access and Correction
HJ employees
and professional independent contractors are permitted to access the information
they need to perform their jobs. We maintain strict internal policies against
unauthorized disclosure or use of client information. Information held by any
HJ related entity is available to other members of the HJ family of entities
for authorized purposes.
HJ has set out in
this document its policies on management of personal information and will make
this document available to anyone who asks for it. On request by a person or entity, HJ will take reasonable steps to let the requestor know,
generally, what sort of personal information we hold, for what purposes, and how
we collect, hold, use and disclose that information. As a general
rule, HJ will, on request by an individual or
business, provide them with access to their personal or business information, however HJ may choose
not to provide individuals or businesses with access to such information. This
would include cases where providing access would have an unreasonable impact on
the privacy of other individuals or businesses, the request for access is
frivolous or vexatious, the information relates to anticipated or existing legal
proceedings and would not be discoverable in those proceedings, providing access
would reveal the intentions of HJ in relation to
negotiations with the individual in such a way as to prejudice those
negotiations, providing access would be unlawful, providing access would be
likely to prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity or providing
access would be likely to prejudice activities which are carried out by HJ on behalf of an enforcement body. HJ will impose a charge to cover the cost of verifying and
complying with all requests for information, including compliance with a validly
issued and enforceable subpoena or summons and for
locating, retrieving, reviewing, couriering and copying any material
requested. The charge will be
levied on the client whose records we are asked to produce but we will
reasonably cooperate in assisting the client in recovering such costs from the
requesting party if that party is not the client but, ultimately the
responsibility for information production will always remain with our client and
such charges are always expected to be paid promptly.
HJ will not adopt
a government agency identifier (such as a tax file number or driver’s license
number) as its identifier of an individual. Wherever it is lawful and practical,
HJ will allow individuals the option of not
identifying themselves when entering into transactions or discussions with us.
HJ will only
transfer personal information about an individual to a third party who is in a
foreign country in specified circumstances. This would include where the
individual consents to the transfer or where HJ has taken
reasonable steps to ensure that the information that it has transferred will not
be held, used or disclosed by the recipient of the information inconsistently
with our privacy policy.
Confidentiality
and Security of Non-Public Information
Except as
otherwise described in this notice, we restrict access to nonpublic personal
information about you to employees and professional independent contractors of
our firm and other parties who must use that information to provide our services
to you. Their right to further disclose and use the information is limited by
the policies of our firm, applicable law, our Code of Professional Conduct, and
nondisclosure agreements where appropriate. We also maintain physical,
electronic, and procedural safeguards in compliance with applicable laws and
regulations to guard your personal information from unauthorized access,
alteration, or premature destruction.
How can an
Individual Complain about Possible Breaches of Privacy
by HJ?
A complaint by
an individual regarding an alleged breach of privacy by HJ should be forwarded in writing by certified mail to the
following address: Privacy
Complaints Officer, Jeffrey Heath, CPA,