Privacy Policy
YouFirst Financial is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of personal information in our possession and control. This Privacy Policy explains the measures we take to fulfill these commitments and describes the manner in which we collect, use, disclose and treat personal information. We do not sell your personal information.
This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes to our personal information practices. We strongly encourage you to refer to this Privacy Policy updated on our website for the latest information about our personal information practices or stay informed about such updates through our newsletters.
While we do our best to ask our clients for no more personal information than necessary, we are required to collect specific personal information from our clients in order to provide our services and fulfil our legal/regulatory obligations. In general, we collect information for the following primary purposes:
- To fulfil our fiduciary obligations as a Portfolio Manager;
- To verify your identity in accordance with applicable Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and Securities legislation;
- To be able to open and service your account;
- To be able to facilitate electronic fund transfers to and from your account or from other brokerage institutions;
- To detect and prevent fraud and other unauthorized or illegal activities;
- To meet legal and regulatory requirements;
- To fulfil tax reporting obligations
Personal and Financial Information Collection
We collect information about your financial and personal circumstances when you open an account with us to ensure our investment recommendations are appropriate for you.
Biographical information
May include your name, address, phone numbers, email address, birthdate, Social Insurance Number (SIN), or other national or provincial identifiers provided by you when you sign up for an account.
Financial information
May include bank account information, transactional history, account types and balances or limits, names of financial institutions, and related financial information that we collect from you or your financial institution.
Beneficiary information
If you sign up for a registered retirement account, we may ask you to provide certain beneficiary information such as your spouse’s name and occupation, children’s or dependents’ names, and ages that we collect from you on your application forms.
Photo ID
We collect copies of government-issued identification to confirm your identity.
Questionnaire responses and other regulatory questions
This may include asset holdings and values, and investment knowledge and objectives that you provide in risk information forms we ask you to complete.
Other Collection and Use of Personal Information
Custodians: When you open an account with YouFirst Financial, you will also be required to open a brokerage account with our Custodian, Fidelity Clearing Corporation (FCC). We must also notify them of any updates or changes to your account information. When you open an account, you will receive more information about these custodians in your account opening package.
Securities Regulations: We and/or our custodian may share your name, contact information and holdings with issuers of securities that you hold in your account and other persons/companies as required in accordance with securities law. Such issuers may require your personal information in order to deliver financial reports, tax documents and other relevant materials to you or to comply with applicable regulatory obligations.
We may disclose or report personal information in limited circumstances where we believe in good faith that disclosure is required or permitted under law. For example, we may be required to disclose personal information to cooperate with regulators or law enforcement authorities.
Website: You can visit our Website without indicating who you are or submitting any personal information. However, we may collect and/or maintain the IP (Internet protocol) addresses of visitors to our Website and other related information such as page requests, browser type, operating system and average time spent on the Website. We use this information to understand user behaviour anonymously without personally identifying individual users.
When you Contact us through the Website, we will maintain your Contact Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information.
Controls and Security
We record clients’ personal information electronically on computer servers to which only authorized persons have access, and only by means of secure passwords, keys, and one-time-use tokens. We authorize employees and service providers to have access to clients’ personal information only on a “need to know” basis in order to fulfill their job requirements.
Backups of our server data are stored offsite and are password protected. Paper copies of clients’ personal information are kept in locked filing cabinets.
Confidentiality
We train our employees to keep clients’ personal information strictly private and confidential and oblige all staff to protect clients’ personal information.
Password Security
Your online access to certain of your personal information is protected with a password you select. We strongly recommend that you do not disclose your password to anyone. We will never ask you for your password in any unsolicited communication (such as letters, phone calls or email messages).
Restriction on Disclosure of Personal Information
We will not disclose or share your personal information without your consent except as otherwise set out in this Privacy Policy.
You have the right to access and update your personal information under our custody subject to certain exceptions prescribed by law. You may update certain profile information you have provided to us by contacting us. We may, at our discretion, request certain personal information for the purposes of verifying your identity prior to disclosing or discussing your personal details.
YouFirst Financial has adopted the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct of the CFA Institute. “Preservation of Confidentiality” is described in section E of “III) Duties to Clients” in the Standards of Professional Conduct. A summary of the Code of Ethics and Standards can be viewed at:
https://www.cfainstitute.org/standards/professionals/code-ethics-standards
We shred paper documents containing clients’ personal information before discarding such documents. We delete electronically-stored personal information that is no longer required for contractual or regulatory purposes.
Third Party Website Links
Our Website may contain links to other websites that we do not own or operate. Also, links to our Website may be featured on third party websites on which we advertise. Except as provided herein, we will not provide any of your personal information to these third parties without your consent. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. The linked websites have separate and independent privacy policies, notices and terms of use, which we recommend you read carefully. We do not have any control over such websites, and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which the organizations that operate such linked websites may collect, use or disclose, secure and otherwise treat your personal information.
Who can I contact if I have questions about Privacy?
Should you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please contact our Privacy Officer at info@youfirstfinancial.com. All submissions/inquiries should be directed to the attention of the Privacy Officer.