Privacy Policy - FP Advance

Privacy Policy

This policy explains when and why we collect personal information, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, and how we keep it secure.

We may change this policy from time to time. You can always find the latest version on this page.

If you have any questions about privacy you can email us at [email protected].

Who we are

FP Advance exists to help financial planning professionals create and build better businesses. We are a company registered in England and Wales (no. 05374616). Our registered office address is 30 City Road, London, EC1Y 2AB.

How do we collect information?

We obtain limited information about you when you use our website, contact us, or if you sign up to our newsletter, subscribe to our services or attend one of our events.

What type of information is collected?

We may collect and process the following personal information about you:

  • contact details (such as your name, address, email address and telephone number);
  • password and other authentication information;
  • financial and credit card information; and
  • your marketing preferences.
  • you purchase/subscription history with us.

As you browse the website, your IP address is also briefly accessible to us as described below.

How we use information

We may use your information to:

  • carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us;
  • seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
  • notify you of changes to our services;
  • send you communications which you have requested (such as our newsletters)

We hold your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Legal basis for processing your information

We will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the purposes for which we have collected and use your personal information. In almost every case the legal basis will be one of the following:

  • Consent: For example, where you have provided your consent to receive our newsletter. You can withdraw your consent at any time, including by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our email newsletters.
  • Our legitimate business interests: Where it is necessary for us to understand our customers, promote our services and operate effectively as a business, provided in each case that this is done in a legitimate way which does not unduly affect your privacy and other rights.
  • Performance of a contract with you (or in order to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you): For example, where you have purchase or subscribed to our services and we need to use your contact details and payment information in order to process your order and/or send our products/materials to you.
  • Compliance with law: Where we are subject to a legal obligation and need to use your personal information in order to comply with that obligation.

Who has access to your information?

We do not sell or rent your information. We do not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes. For example, we don’t share your email address with other companies so that they can advertise to you.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We do pass limited information to our third party service providers, so that they can complete tasks for us and provide services to you on our behalf. For example, Mailchimp is a software provider that makes it easier for companies to send newsletters. Mailchimp handles the delivery of our newsletters; we must share subscriber names and email addresses with them, but only so the newsletters can be sent. Whenever we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service. We have contracts in place that require these third parties to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own marketing purposes. For example, Mailchimp cannot share your email address, and they can’t use it to promote their services to you.

Of course, if we were required by law to disclose or share your personal data—for example, a court order—we would be bound by this as any other business.

We may also disclose your personal information to other third parties in the event that we sell any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal information to the prospective buyer of such business or assets, or if we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by us about our customers and visitors to our websites may be one of the transferred assets;

Your choices

We do not send newsletters without obtaining prior consent. If you no longer wish to receive them, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in the newsletter.

Your rights

You have a right to access a copy of all the data we hold about you. In almost all cases this is likely to be only your name and email address if you subscribe to our newsletter. If you have entered into a contract with us we might also have any other information you have chosen to share directly. Ask us if you need a copy.

You can also request that we delete your data in certain circumstances. This extends to our third-party providers, so if you do choose to exercise this right, we also request the deletion of your data from their servers where applicable.

Note that where we are legally obliged to hold records for a certain period of time, these data cannot be erased immediately. For example, if you have a contract for services with us, HMRC may require us to hold records of that contract for some time. In such cases, we may retain copies of only that information, such that we can meet those legal obligations. This position does not affect your rights under data protection law. Please contact us for more information.

In addition to the above, you also have the right to request that any of your data is rectified or to restrict or object to our processing of your data, and in certain cases the right to have your data transferred to an alternative provider.

We will handle any request to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law and any relevant legal exemptions.

You may also have the right to complain to a data protection authority if you think we have processed your personal information in a manner which is unlawful or breaches your rights. If you have such concerns we request that you initially contact us (using the contact details on our website) so that we can investigate, and hopefully resolve, your concerns.

Use of cookies

We use cookies on our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive. They allow our website to recognise you when you visit. Our cookies collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to answer questions such as “How many of our visitors this month were new visitors, who’d never been to our site before?”. We can’t use them to answer questions such as “Which pages did Bob visit this month?”.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences.

IP addresses

An IP address can identify an individual computer or other device. As you browse our website, your IP address is briefly visible to our server. This is necessary in order to serve pages to you. For the purposes of security, our server records your IP address for a brief period. We do this only for as long as is necessary to identify suspicious browsing behaviour. Beyond this point, your IP address is no longer stored and we cannot access it.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

Transferring your information outside of Europe

As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the UK or the European Union (“EU”). This may happen if any of our own servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the UK or the EU, or if we use a third-party service provider whose servers are located outside the UK or the EU.

If we transfer your information outside of the UK or the EU in this way, we take steps to ensure that your privacy rights are protected. In these cases, we rely on approved data transfer mechanisms (such as the EU “Standard Contractual Clauses”) to ensure your information is subject to adequate safeguards in the recipient country. If you are located in the UK or the EEA, you may contact us for a copy of the safeguards which we have put in place to protect your personal information and privacy rights in these circumstances.

Review of this Policy

We review this policy from time to time. It was last updated on 5th October 2020.