Privacy policy & Complaints

Data Privacy Notice

We take your privacy very seriously and we ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal data, your rights in relation to your personal data and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

Italicised words in this privacy notice have the meaning set out in the Glossary of Terms at the end of this document.

Complaints

If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us by any of the following methods:
In writing to Complaints, Wren Sterling, 13-19 Derby Road, Nottingham NG1 5AA.
Telephone:  03701 432100.
Email: complaints@wrensterling.com

If we cannot agree settlement of your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman Service is available to sort out individual complaints that clients and financial services businesses aren’t able to resolve themselves. To contact the Financial Ombudsman Service please visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Who we are

Wren Sterling Financial Planning Limited collect, uses, and is responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are required to comply with data protection regulations, and we are responsible as a data controller of that personal data for the purposes of those laws.

When we mention “Wren Sterling”, “we”, “us” or “our” we are referring to Wren Sterling Financial Planning Limited.

The personal data we collect and use

While providing our service to you, we may collect the following personal data when you provide it to us.

• Contact information
• Identity information
• Financial information
• Employment status
• Lifestyle information
• Health information
• Details of any vulnerability
• Details of your dependents and/or beneficiaries under a policy (If you are providing information about another person, we expect you to ensure that they know you are doing so and are content with their information being provided to us. You might find it helpful to show them this privacy notice and if they have any concerns please contact us in one of the ways described below.
• Product details

Information collected from other sources

We also obtain personal data from other sources while providing our intermediary services. Where we obtain this information from another party it is their responsibility to make sure they explain that they will be sharing personal data with us and, where necessary, ask permission before sharing information with us.

The personal data we obtain from other sources may include the following:

• From lenders and/or product providers.
  • product details
• From identification and verification checking agencies.
  • identity information
  • sanction check information

How we use your personal data

The below table sets out:

• how we use your personal data
• the lawful bases upon which we collect and use your personal data
• who we routinely share your personal data with

Special Category data

Certain types of personal data are considered more sensitive and so are subject to additional levels of protection under data protection legislation. These are known as ‘special categories of data’ and include data concerning your health, racial or ethnic origin, genetic data, and sexual orientation. Data relating to criminal convictions or offences is also subject to additional levels of protection.

We may process:

• health information and lifestyle information when providing intermediary services in relation to a protection insurance product.

Some providers may ask for this information during your application for their products or services. We will never ask for this information for our own purposes.

In addition to the lawful basis for processing this information set out in the above table, we will be processing it either (i) for the purpose of advising on, arranging or administering an insurance contract or (ii) for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

During our activities relating to the prevention, detection, and investigation of financial crime, we may process criminal conviction or offence information. Where we do so, in addition to the lawful basis for processing this information set out in the above table, we will be processing it for the purpose of compliance with regulatory requirements relating to unlawful acts and dishonesty. We shall not be obliged to give you any further notice of this.

Marketing

We may use personal data we hold about you to help us identify, tailor, and provide you with details of products and services from us that may be of interest to you. We will only do so where we have obtained your consent and then will do so in accordance with any marketing preferences you have provided to us.

In addition, where you provided your consent, we may provide you with details of products and services of third parties where they may be of interest to you.

You can opt out of receiving marketing at any time. If you wish to amend your marketing preferences, please contact us:

By phone: 0370 1432 100

By email: marketing@wrensterling.com

By post: The Marketing Team, Wren Sterling 13-19 Derby Road, Nottingham NG1 5AA.

In addition, you can opt out of receiving marketing at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of every email.

Whether information must be provided by you, and if so why

We will tell you if providing some personal data is optional, including if we ask for your consent to process it. In all other cases you must provide your personal data for us to provide you with intermediary services.

How long your personal data will be kept

When we provide you with intermediary services, we will keep your personal data indefinitely.

Transfer of your information out of the EEA

We may transfer your personal data to the following which are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA) as follows:

• Australia to assess your risk profile as part of our advice process.

Such countries do not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. Whilst the European Commission has not given a formal decision that Australia provides an adequate level of data protection similar to those which apply in the United Kingdom and EEA, any transfer of your personal data will be subject to a contractual transfer contract that are designed to help safeguard your privacy rights and give you remedies in the unlikely event of a misuse of your personal data. To obtain a copy of such safeguards please refer to Morningstar’s Privacy Policy, available at https://www.morningstar.com/company/privacy-policy/emea.

You have a right to ask us for more information about the safeguards we have put in place as mentioned above. To learn more, please see ‘Your rights’ below.

Your rights

You have legal rights under data protection regulation in relation to your personal data. These are set out under the below headings.

• To access personal data
• To correct / erase personal data
• To restrict how we use personal data
• To object to how we use personal data
• To ask us to transfer personal data to another organisation
• To object to automated decisions
• To understand how we protect information transferred outside Europe

To find out more about how we use personal data:

We may ask you for proof of identity when making a request to exercise any of these rights. We do this to ensure we only disclose information or change your details where we know we are dealing with the right individual.

We will not ask for a fee, unless we think your request is unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Where a fee is necessary, we will inform you before proceeding with your request.

We aim to respond to all valid requests within one month. It may however take us longer if the request is particularly complicated or you have made several requests. We will always let you know if we think a response will take longer than one month. To speed up our response, we may ask you to provide more detail about what you want to receive or are concerned about.

We may not always be able to fully address your request, for example if it would impact the duty of confidentiality we owe to others, or if we are otherwise legally entitled to deal with the request in a different way.

To access personal data

You can ask us to confirm whether or not we have and are using your personal data. You can also ask to get a copy of your personal data from us and for information on how we process it.

To rectify / erase personal data

You can ask that we rectify any information about you which is incorrect. We will be happy to rectify such information but would need to verify the accuracy of the information first.

You can ask that we erase your personal data if you think we no longer need to use it for the purpose we collected it from you.

You can also ask that we erase your personal data if you have either withdrawn your consent to us using your information (if we originally asked for your consent to use your information) or exercised your right to object to further legitimate use of your information, or where we have used it unlawfully or where we are subject to a legal obligation to erase your personal data.

We may not always be able to comply with your request, for example where we need to keep using your personal data in order to comply with our legal obligation or where we need to use your personal data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To restrict our use of personal data

You can ask that we restrict our use of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example:

• where you think the information is inaccurate and we need to verify it.
• where our use of your personal data is not lawful, but you do not want us to erase it.
• where the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected but we need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
• where you have objected to our use of your personal data, but we still need to verify if we have overriding grounds to use it.

We can continue to use your personal data following a request for restriction where we have your consent to use it; or we need to use it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or we need to use it to protect the rights of another individual or a company.

To object to use of personal data

You can object to any use of your personal data which we have justified on the basis of our legitimate interest if you believe your fundamental rights and freedoms to data protection outweigh our legitimate interest in using the information. If you raise an objection, we may continue to use the personal data if we can demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate interests to use the information.

To request a transfer of personal data

You can ask us to provide your personal data to you in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or you can ask to have it transferred directly to another data controller (e.g., another company).

You may only exercise this right where we use your personal data to perform a contract with you, or where we asked for your consent to use your personal data. This right does not apply to any personal data which we hold or process outside automated means.

To contest decisions based on automatic decision making

If we made a decision about you based solely by automated means (i.e., with no human intervention), and the decision made by us produces a legal effect concerning you, or significantly affects you, you may have the right to contest that decision, express your point of view and ask for a human review. These rights do not apply where we are authorised by law to make such decisions and have adopted suitable safeguards in our decision-making processes to protect your rights and freedoms.

To obtain a copy of our safety measures for transfers outside of Europe

You can ask for a copy of, or reference to, the safeguards we have put in place when your personal data is transferred outside of the European Economic Area. We are not required to share details of these safeguards where sharing such details would affect our commercial position or create a security risk.

You can contact us for more information

If you are not satisfied with the level of information provided in this privacy notice, you can ask us about what personal data we have about you, what we use your information for, who we disclose your information to, whether we transfer it abroad, how we protect it, how long we keep it for, what rights you have, how you can make a complaint, where we got your data from and whether we have carried out any automated decision making using your personal data.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please send an email to

• dataprotection@wrensterling.com or write to Wren Sterling, 13-19 Derby Road, Nottingham, NG1 5AA,
• let us have enough information to identify you, e.g., name, address, date of birth
• let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill), and
• let us know the information to which your request relates.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Our supervisory authority

If you are not happy with the way we are handling your information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office. It has enforcement powers and can investigate compliance with data protection regulation (www.ico.org.uk).

We ask that you please attempt to resolve any issues with us before contacting the ICO.

How to contact us

Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information, we hold about you.

If you wish to contact our Data Protection Officer, please send an email to dataprotection@wrensterling.com  or write to Wren Sterling, 13-19 Derby Road, Nottingham, NG1 5AA.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 01/03/2023.