Privacy Policy
The financial planning relationship is one of trust. We at Carter Advisory Services (CAS), Inc., respect the trust you have in us, and we respect the privacy of your most confidential and personal financial information.
We are committed to keeping the personal information collected from our potential, current and former clients confidential and secure. The proper handling of personal information is one of our highest priorities. We want to be sure that you know why we need to collect personal information from you. We also want to explain to you our commitment to protect the information you provide to us.
Client Information
We collect and keep only information that is necessary for us to provide services requested by you such as an initial financial plan, a financial plan review, or a specific needs analysis, according to the scope of engagement referenced in your client agreement. Personal identification information includes a combination of two or more of the following sets of data: name, address, Social Security Number, assets, income, and net worth. We may request copies of other financial documents and information deemed necessary to evaluate your financial needs and objectives. We may collect nonpublic personal information:
- From you when you complete a questionnaire, data gathering, or other forms.
- From you when you provide us with documents containing personal identification information, such as a tax return, based upon our request.
- As a result of transactions with us, our affiliates, or others. This could include transactions completed with us, information received from outside vendors to complete transactions or to effect financial goals.
Sharing Information
We only share your nonpublic personal information with non-affiliated companies or individuals as permitted by law, such as your representative within our firm, Durable Power of Attorney, Springing Power of Attorney (at the time effective), affiliated securities firm, mutual funds, insurance companies, and other product vendors, or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements. We also, with your approval, may share information with your other advisors, such as your accountant, attorney and/or insurance agent. In the normal course of our business, we may disclose information we collect about you to companies or individuals that contract with us to perform servicing functions such as:
- Record keeping
- Computer related services
- Financial plan preparation
- Support and research services
Due to the nature of the financial services industry, we may disclose information we collect about you for reasons such as a good faith disclosure to regulators who have regulatory authority over the company.
Companies we hire to provide support services are not allowed to use your personal information for their own purposes and are contractually obligated to maintain strict confidentiality. We limit their use of your personal information to the performance of the specific service we have requested.
We do not provide your personally identifiable information to mailing list vendors or solicitors for any purpose. We never sell your information to any outside parties.
When we provide personal information to a service provider, we require these providers to agree to safeguard your information, to use the information only for the intended purpose, and to abide by applicable law. We use the Carter WealthView portal in the preparation and document retention of your financial plan or financial planning review. Note that the data used in the preparation of your financial plan and documents within your Vault are stored in the cloud. A two-factor authentication process is required for your access to the Carter WealthView portal. If authentication isn’t provided after a succession of three attempts, the access to the portal is locked.
Opt Out Provisions
We have taken steps to ensure that all third-party vendors have confidentiality clauses to protect your information. Should we not have such written agreements in place, then you have the option to “opt-out” of the sharing of this information. If you desire to opt out for those instances that we do not have the confidentiality clause, you should immediately write to us to request this opt out. Please address any opt out instruction to the Chief Compliance Officer, Bill E. Carter, in care of this firm at the address listed herein.
The law allows you to “opt out” of only certain kinds of information sharing with third parties. Carter Advisory Services, Inc. does not share personal information about you with any third parties that triggers this opt-out right. This means YOU ARE ALREADY OPTED OUT.
Employee Access to Information
Only employees with a valid business reason have access to your personal information. These employees are educated on the importance of maintaining the confidentiality and security of this information. They are required to abide by our information handling practices.
Protection of Information
We maintain security standards to protect your information, whether written, spoken, or electronic. We update and test our systems to ensure the protection and integrity of information.
Maintaining Accurate Information
Our goal is to maintain accurate, up-to-date customer records in accordance with industry standards. We have procedures in place to keep information current and complete, including timely correction of inaccurate information. In some instances, note that aggregated accounts can become unlinked and may require separate action to resolve.
Should you send us your questions and comments via e-mail to any mailbox provided by CAS., we will share your correspondence with our investment advisor agents and those employees most capable of addressing your questions and concerns. We will retain your communication until we have done our very best to provide you with a complete and satisfactory response. Ultimately, we will either discard your communication or archive it according to CAS’ requirement under applicable securities laws.
Please note that, unless we expressly advise you otherwise, CAS’ e-mail facilities do not provide a means for completely secure and private communications between CAS, Inc. and you, the User. Although every attempt will be made to keep your information confidential, from a technical standpoint, there is still a risk. For that reason, please do not use e-mail to communicate information to us that you consider to be confidential. If you wish, you may send information to us via the Vault available through the Carter WealthView portal. Alternatively, you may communicate this confidential information via telephone or by facsimile. Additional security is available to you if you equip your Internet browser with 128-bit secure socket layer encryption, which provides more secure transmissions.
Disclosure of our Privacy Policy
We recognize and respect the privacy concerns of our potential, current and former clients. We are committed to safeguarding this information. As a member of the financial services industry, we are sending you this Notice of Privacy Policy for informational purposes and will update and distribute it as required by law. It is also available upon request.
The privacy policy will be offered electronically to those clients who have agreed to this delivery method. Upon receipt of an annual update, clients should review the privacy policy notice for any changes made.
If you have any questions regarding our privacy statement, please forward written inquiries to Carter Advisory Services, Inc. (CAS) ATTENTION: Bill E. Carter, CFP® 12222 Merit Drive, Suite 1800; Dallas, TX 75251 or call us at (214) 363-4200.