Privacy Policy

1.         What is personal information?

Personal information is information which identifies you  as an individual or from which your identity can be reasonably ascertained. Your home address and telephone number are examples of personal information.

PFS provides specialist consulting advice and administration services to its clients.  In the course of its business operations PFS collects and handles personal information from its clients and from its own employees.  The major areas of its business are:

2.         What personal information does PFS collect and why?

*   provision of superannuation consulting and administration services to superannuation fund trustees, employers and other entities; and

*   provision of other consulting services across a range of actuarial and other disciplines to financial institutions, other organisations and individuals.


In respect of superannuation consulting and administration business, PFS uses the personal information necessary to administer its clients’ superannuation funds and carry out actuarial valuations and other analyses of the membership information of those funds.  This information may include an individual’s name, address, date of birth, salary, tax file number, health information, occupation details, superannuation fund entitlements, nominated beneficiaries and any other necessary information.  In cases where we have been appointed by clients to provide services which involve the use of personal information provided by the client, PFS assumes we are authorised by those clients to use that information.

In respect of other consulting services, PFS may use personal information in the provision of those services.  This information may include information described in the previous paragraph, plus the personal financial details of particular individuals.

If this information is not available to PFS, we may not be able to provide the required services and correct advice to our clients, including the members of their superannuation funds.  Where, in particular, health information is not made available to PFS, this may limit or preclude the provision of death and disablement benefits to members through their superannuation funds.

In summary, in addition to providing a service to you, we may use or disclose personal information that we collect about you:

*   for the purposes for which it was collected;

*   where you have consented to the use or disclosure;

*   to maintain our relationship with you;

*   for purposes related to PFS’ research, planning, service development, security and risk management;

*   where a third party acquires or wishes to acquire, or makes inquiries in relation to acquiring, an interest in PFS; and

*   to the extent that we are required or authorised by law to do so.

We may also use your personal information to keep you informed of our services, events, developments in the law and other matters.  If you do not wish to be contacted for these purposes, please inform us by using the contact details set out below. We aim to provide you with information and invitations that we consider may be of interest or relevance to you.

Furthermore, for employees and potential employees of PFS, we require the provision of certain personal information.  Refusal to provide this information may affect employment prospects with PFS.

In common with many websites we may also collect aggregated information which tells us about visitors to our website (but not the identity of those visitors).  For example, we may collect information about the date, time and duration of visits and which pages of our website are most commonly accessed.  This information is utilised as an aid in administering and improving the website.

Some parts of our website may use “cookies” so that we can better serve you with more tailored information when you return to our website. For example, this is likely to happen if you log in or complete a form.  Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred to your computer’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes.  The information stored will make your usage of our website easier and faster because it allows you to use the website without having to re-enter information on each visit.  We may also use cookies when you request personalized information on our website.  These cookies are used to identify visitors when they return to the website.  They also maintain the visitor’s identity while at our website so you need only log in once.

We do not use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in the cookie, nor do we use information transferred through cookies for any promotional or marketing purposes. Some parts of our website use cookies to track usage patterns in order to improve the usefulness and effectiveness of our website. This information is not shared or sold to any third parties whatsoever.

3.         How is personal information collected?

Personal information is provided to PFS by various means including:

*   directly from members of superannuation funds by means of membership application forms;

*   from clients in respect of the members of their superannuation funds;

*   by third parties such as other service providers who are authorised by our clients to release the information;

*   directly through the PFS website; and

*   by medical practitioners, or other professional advisers, where the information is required to underwrite death or disablement benefits or claims.

PFS does not sell, rent or trade personal information about clients or members of clients’ superannuation funds to or with third parties.  However, in undertaking our obligations to our clients, PFS may be required to provide information to other organisations and any third parties used in an administrative capacity. In these cases, an individual’s personal information may be used by or transferred to one or more of the following:

4.         Will personal information be transferred to anyone else?

*   the fund trustee and/or the sponsoring employer, in the case of a superannuation fund;

*   insurers, insurance brokers and/or other professional advisers, in respect of death and disability benefits;

*   a client’s auditors or other professional adviser;

*   PFS’ auditors;

*   government bodies regulating the affairs of clients, such as the ATO, ASIC, the SCT or APRA;

*   mailing houses or other business support organisations; and

*   another superannuation fund or eligible rollover fund if an individual becomes a member of that fund.

Please note that PFS is also bound by confidentiality requirements in its service agreements with clients.  These requirements protect the security of clients and, in the case of superannuation funds, member information, in accordance with industry practice.

Under the Privacy Act, you, as a client of PFS, have the right to seek access to the information that PFS holds about you.  You also have the right to ask us to correct information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.  If you wish to request access to any personal information which we hold about you as a result of our information collection practices outlined in this Privacy Policy, please contact the PFS Privacy Officer at the address provided at the end of this document.  In order to maximise the retrieval process, please provide as much detail as you can about the particular information that you seek.  An access fee may be charged to cover our costs of providing the information to you.

5.         How to access and correct personal information

Where PFS is the administrator of a superannuation fund, members of the fund will receive an annual statement from the fund trustee setting out some of their personal information and their benefits.  If that personal information is incorrect, or if the member wants access to their full personal information, the member should contact the fund secretary who will pass the request on to PFS.

PFS is obliged to correct any personal information which is incomplete or incorrect.

In certain circumstances, PFS may be entitled to deny an individual access to personal information.  These could relate to confidential trustee decisions, commercially sensitive information, legal requirements or where release of the information could breach the privacy requirements of others.

6.         Links and personal information

PFS’ website may, from time to time, contain links to the websites of other organisations which may be of interest to you. Linked websites are responsible for their own privacy practices and you should check those websites for their respective privacy statements.

We use a number of mechanisms to protect the security and integrity of your personal information. Unfortunately, no electronic transmission can be guaranteed as being completely secure.  So, while we strive to protect personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and therefore you do so at your own risk. Once any personal information comes into our possession, we will, however, take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

PFS reserves the right to change its Privacy Policy at any time. The current policy is available upon request from PFS’ Privacy Officer at the address below. You should also contact the Privacy Officer if you have any concerns about PFS’ compliance with its Policy.  If you are a member of a superannuation fund administered by PFS, please contact the Fund Secretary.

8.         Additional privacy information

For further information about privacy issues you can visit the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website at www.privacy.com.au.

9. Contact Details

The Privacy Officer
Professional Financial Solutions
GPO Box 2128
Sydney NSW 2001

Telephone: 02 9225 6100
email: info @ pfsnet.com.au

Policy last updated: 31 May 2004 (contact details updated 2009)