Privacy Policy

We at Sterling Financial are committed to protecting your privacy.

With your consent, we will collect personal information from you to assist us in providing an investment and advice service to you. We will disclose your information to Sterling Taxation Pty Ltd, insurance providers, staff engaged by Sterling Financial for administrative purposes product providers or fund managers, if you wish to engage in their services.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

We strive to maintain the relevance, accuracy and completeness and currency of the personal information we hold and to protect its privacy and security. We keep personal information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with any applicable legal reporting or document retention requirements.

We collect and store all the personal data that you supply to us concerning taxation needs on Sterling Taxations software, SuperMate. We also store your personal information on our encrypted computer server. This includes but is not limited to, copies of your identification, TFN/s, occupation, financial needs and objectives. This information is only for the purposes of providing appropriate financial and Taxation advice and being able to implement financial transactions that you consent to, on your behalf.

We maintain physical security over our paper and electronic data and premises, by using locks and security systems

We are required by law to hold personal information and records for a period of 7 years. Should you cease to be a client of ours we shall maintain those records securely for 7 years when we will have the information securely destroyed. We will hold and use your current personal information so that we can continue to provide our services to you. All electronic information is protected by using encrypted computer servers and hard copies that are held securely in our Ballarat office.

Will we disclose your personal information to anyone?

We will only disclose your personal information to external parties where:

  • the law requires us to do so
  • you consent for us to do so, or
  • the external party provides us an important service to assist us in the management of your money.
  • We may also collect information from you to meet our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act.

In every case the external party will be bound by our confidentiality and privacy policy.

You may ask us for access to your personal information and to correct it at any time.

Upon receipt of enough information to allow us to identify the information, we will tell you what personal information we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete your personal information if we agree it is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date or incomplete.

You can contact us directly:

  • if you would like access to the information we hold about you
  • if any of your information is incorrect – we will correct it immediately
  • if you are dissatisfied with how your personal information is handled, or
  • if you have any questions on how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information.

Please contact us if you suspect a potential breach or breach of your privacy rights. We will respond within 7 days. If you are not satisfied with the outcome you are entitled to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.