Privacy Policy of Meridian Spire Wealth
Meridian Spire Wealth is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and share your information in connection with your use of our services, including comprehensive pension planning, retirement income strategies, defined benefit scheme transfers, private pension setup and management, ethical investment options for pensions, estate planning integration with pensions, and pension consolidation. We operate in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services to you.
- Personal Identification Information: This includes your name, date of birth, national insurance number, passport or other identification details, contact information (such as postal address, email address, and telephone number), and financial details (such as bank account information, income, assets, liabilities, and pension scheme details). We collect this information when you enquire about our services, engage us for pension planning, or use our online platform.
- Sensitive Personal Information: In the context of pension and estate planning, we may process special categories of data such as health information (e.g., for life assurance or annuity purposes) or details about family circumstances. We only collect this information when it is strictly necessary for providing our services and with your explicit consent.
- Technical Data: When you access our online platform, we may automatically collect information about your device and usage, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referral source, pages viewed, and navigation paths. This data is collected through cookies and similar technologies.
- Communication Data: Records of your communications with us, including emails, phone calls, and interactions through our online forms.
2. How We Use Your Information
Your information is used to provide you with the best possible financial services and to meet our legal obligations.
- To Provide Services: To deliver our comprehensive pension planning and wealth management services, including assessing your financial situation, developing tailored strategies, executing pension transfers and setups, and managing your pension investments.
- Client Management: To manage our relationship with you, including communicating updates, service changes, and addressing your inquiries.
- Legal and Regulatory Compliance: To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as anti-money laundering (AML) checks, financial reporting, and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
- Service Improvement: To analyse how our services are used and improve our offerings, including the functionality and user experience of our online platform.
- Marketing: With your consent, to send you information about other services we offer that may be relevant to your financial planning needs.
3. Lawful Basis for Processing
We only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so, including:
- Performance of a Contract: Processing is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract (e.g., providing pension advice).
- Legal Obligation: Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation to which Meridian Spire Wealth is subject (e.g., FCA regulations, AML laws).
- Legitimate Interests: Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests (e.g., for internal administrative purposes, fraud prevention, service improvement).
- Consent: Where you have given explicit consent for us to process your personal data for specific purposes (e.g., for marketing communications or processing of sensitive personal data). You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
4. Sharing Your Information
We may share your personal data with third parties under specific circumstances:
- Service Providers: We work with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our business and providing our services (e.g., IT support, cloud hosting, professional advisers, fund administrators, pension providers). These providers are contractually bound to protect your data and only use it for the purposes specified by us.
- Financial Institutions: We may share your information with banks, investment platforms, and pension scheme providers as necessary to action your instructions and manage your financial products.
- Legal and Regulatory Authorities: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., courts or government agencies).
- Professional Advisers: Auditors, lawyers, accountants, and other professional advisers who provide services to us.
We ensure that any third parties who receive your data are committed to similar levels of data protection as outlined in this policy.
5. International Data Transfers
As a United Kingdom based company, we primarily store and process your personal data within the UK. However, some of our service providers may operate globally, meaning your data could be transferred to and stored in countries outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA) that may not have equivalent data protection laws. Where this is the case, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission or ensuring the recipient is certified under a recognised framework, to protect your personal data.
6. Data Security
Meridian Spire Wealth implements robust technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include encryption, access controls, secure storage solutions, and regular security assessments. While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
7. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Typically, we will retain client data for a period of seven years after the termination of our client relationship, or for longer if required by regulatory bodies or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available upon request.
8. Your Rights
Under GDPR and other data protection laws, you have several rights regarding your personal data:
- Right of Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
- Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You may request the deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another controller.
- Right to Object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest or for direct marketing purposes.
- Rights in Relation to Automated Decision-Making and Profiling: You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you, unless certain conditions are met.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights).
9. Complaints
If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, please contact us in the first instance. We hope to resolve any issues directly with you. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. Their website is www.ico.org.uk.
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the new policy on our online platform and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of the policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Meridian Spire Wealth
2470 Blackfriars Road, Floor 8,
London, Greater London, SE1 9YU
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 20 7946 0874