Protecting your privacy

Creative Solutions Insurance Agency (hereinafter called CSIA) and Steve Szenasi, hereinafter called the Advisor has always been committed to protecting the privacy of all client personal information that we collect and maintain in the course of carrying on our business. We are pleased to provide you with our Privacy Protection Notice which describes how we collect, hold, use and, when needed, disclose your personal information when we do business with you and the financial firms we do business with on your behalf. This notice adheres to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) and similar provincial privacy legislation. Please read this notice and contact us through one of the means listed at the end of the document if you have any questions.

1. Client Record and Personal Information: The personal information collected about you for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice is held in a record called the “client record”. The personal information in your client record may include your name, address and telephone number, social insurance number, birth date, account holdings, and the name, address and social insurance number of your spouse and beneficiary. Depending on the insurance, investment or service you request, additional personal information may be held in your client record. For example, if you have established a pre-authorized payment plan, your financial institution account number is also held in your client record.

2. Providing Your Information to CSIA and the Advisor: When you or your Advisor  complete an application form or otherwise open an account with a financial institution, you are providing personal information through CSIA and the Advisor to the Financial Institution, including, where applicable, personal information concerning your spouse and beneficiary, in order to:

A. make an investment;
B. purchase an insurance product;
C. provide instructions about an investment or policy you have already made; or
C. receive information related to a purchase you have made.

CSIA and the Advisor collects this personal information, holds a copy of it in your client record, forwards it to the final destination (the Financial Institution to whom it was intended), uses it to provide on going service to you and to provide you from time to time further product or service information and, when needed, discloses it for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice.

3. Collecting, Holding, Using, and Disclosing Personal Information in Your Client Record: CSIA and the Advisor may collect, hold, and use the personal information in your client record as well as collect personal information from and disclose personal information to the third parties identified below for the following purposes:

A. identifying you and ensuring the accuracy of information contained in your client record;

B. establishing and administering your accounts, determining, maintaining, recording, and storing account holdings and transaction information in your client record;

C. executing authorized transactions with or through financial institutions where you hold accounts or insurance policies;

D. when asked or appropriate providing you with copies of  investment account statements, transaction confirmations, tax receipts, financial statements for the investments that you have made, policy status information provided by the financial institutions where you hold accounts or policies and other information which you may request as needed to service your account or policy contract;

E. requesting your views on CSIA and the Advisor or the line up of Financial Institutions  in order to improve our service to you;

F. informing you of products and services available in the market place;

G. furthering our own business interests including collecting a debt owed to CSIA or the Advisor;

H. meeting legal and regulatory requirements; and

I. verifying information previously given by you with any other organization when necessary for the purposes provided in this Privacy Protection Notice.

4. Third Parties:

A. CSIA and the Advisor may collect your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice from third parties such as, other financial institutions and mutual fund companies, and from third parties who represent that they have the right to disclose the information.

B. CSIA and the Advisor may transfer your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice to our service providers, such as account statement preparation and mailing companies, courier companies, imaging companies, and document storage companies. When CSIA and the Advisor transfers personal information to our service providers, we ensure by contractual means that the transferred personal information is used only for the purposes for which the service provider is retained.

C. CSIA and the Advisor may disclose your personal information to third parties where required by law.
D. CSIA and the Advisor may disclose your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice to third parties such as your financial advisor’s dealer, and other financial institutions and mutual fund companies. If you wish to withdraw consent to the continuation of this type of information sharing or discuss the implications of such withdrawal, please contact us through one of the means listed at the end of this notice. Your decision to withdraw consent may prevent CSIA or the Advisor from providing products and services to you because the disclosure to third parties is a necessary part of making the product or service available to you.

5. Using Your Social Insurance Number: Many of the financial institutions which you have accounts or insurance contracts are required by law to use your social insurance number when submitting tax reports to the Canada Revenue Agency and may provide it to third parties engaged to provide income tax reports. Some also uses your social insurance number as a unique identifier, to avoid duplication (so that, for example, you do not receive duplicate mailings or get charged the same fee twice) and to ensure that they are aware of all of your holdings (for example, for purposes of determining whether your total holdings exceed a required threshold). CSIA and the Advisor would also have your Social Insurance Number in your file to facilitate the needs of those financial institutions and to help access your accounts with them in providing service to you.

6. Employees and Agents Who Have Access to Your Client Record: CSIA employees and agents and the Advisor may have access to your client record provided they have a specific need to know in connection with the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice. Access is permitted only to the extent necessary for such purposes.

7. Location of Your Client Record: Your client record is kept in electronic or paper format at CSIA offices in Burlington. Paper records forming part of your client record may also be kept in offsite storage in the GTA area.. Your client record may be transferred to other locations for disaster recovery purposes.

8. Right to Access and Rectify Personal Information: Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) and similar provincial privacy legislation, you are entitled to access, through a written request, the personal information contained in your client record. You may verify this personal information and request that any inaccurate information be corrected. Please contact us through one of the means listed at the end of this notice. If your concerns have not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can contact the Privacy Compliance Officer.

9. Changes to Your Personal Information: Please inform CSIA or your Advisor promptly of any change in the personal information that you have provided by contacting us through one of the means listed at the end of this notice. CSIA and the Advisor  appreciates your business and promises to handle your questions or input regarding personal information in a prompt and courteous manner.

Our Privacy Compliance Officer is:

10. Resolving your questions and concerns

If you have any questions or concerns about the treatment of your personal information please take the following steps:

Step 1. Your question or concern may be easily resolved by contacting Client Services at CSIA or your Advisor or the Privacy Compliance Officer.

Step 2. If after contacting the Privacy Compliance Officer your question or concern has not been resolved, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada www.privcom.gc.ca