Privacy Policy

Industrial Alliance Pacific Insurance and Financial Services, Inc. Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your personal, non-public information. We need to collect this personal information concerning you, the people whom you choose to insure and your beneficiaries to serve your insurance or any other financial product needs. Each of you has a right to have your personal non-public information maintained in an accurate and strictly confidential manner and retained by us only to the extent necessary and for only as long as necessary. We respect that right. This policy tells you how we do that and what you can do to help us ensure proper use of your information. We know that our company's success depends on maintaining your trust.

"Personal, non-public information" is defined as information that identifies an individual personally and is not otherwise available to the public. This includes information such as personal financial information including credit history, income and other financial benefits and personal health information including medical records or information relating to an illness, injury or disability. Personal information is contained in many forms, such as correspondence, memoranda, electronic communications, video or audio recordings, photographs or any other documentary material. Personal information does not include the name, title or business address, telephone number or email address of an employee at work.

Purpose of Collection of Information

The purpose for which personal information is collected is to allow us to provide the insurance product or services you require. Sometimes, we ask for information required to satisfy legal requirements, to verify your identity and to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorism. We generally do this through our application or claim forms. When you choose to place your business with us, we only ask for necessary information. We generally explain why we need the information where the reason is not self-evident. If anything remains unclear to you, please contact us.

Consent to Use and Disclosure

As a general rule, we will seek your consent to our obtaining, using or disclosing your personal, non-public information prior to, or at the same time we collect, use or disclose any such personal non-public information. Usually, we ask for express consent in written form (e.g. in our application or claim form). Should we ask for non-public medical information, such as your medical history, we will always seek your written consent. Where information is less sensitive, we may seek only your verbal consent. We record any decision not to grant such consent. Consent can be given by an authorized representative (such as a legal guardian or a person having power of attorney), although the authority of such a representative may be restricted by law or company policy.

Most of your personal information is provided directly by you or where appropriate, by the individual to be insured. We may also obtain information from affiliated third parties that may include the Medical Information Bureau, paramedical examiners, agents, employers, other insurers, healthcare providers and consumer reporting agencies.

Generally, you can choose at any time during our relationship to withdraw your consent, subject to reasonable notice, as well as applicable legal and contractual requirements. We will explain to you the implications of such withdrawal, which may include termination of a policy or the inability to process a claim. For example, your right to withdraw consent is necessarily limited where we have extended a loan against the value of a policy issued by us.

If, after obtaining your initial consent, we wish to change the purpose for which information is to be used, we will first obtain further consent. If you choose not to consent, we will not use the information for the new purpose and will record the decision in our files.

Use and Disclosure without Consent

We will not share personal non-public information outside of this company for any purpose other than for the underwriting or administration and service of your policy unless the disclosure has been authorized by you. However, in limited circumstances, we have the right (or obligation) to collect, use or disclose personal non-public information without the knowledge and consent of the individual. This occurs when legal, medical, or security reasons may make it impossible or impractical to seek consent. When information is being collected for the investigation of a potential breach of contract, the prevention or detection of fraud or for law enforcement purposes, seeking consent might defeat the purpose of the information collection. Similarly, seeking consent may be impossible or inappropriate when the individual is a minor, seriously ill or otherwise incapacitated.

Unless prohibited by law, you have a right to know on request to whom we have disclosed your information. Only in rare instances are we prevented by law from making such disclosure. We maintain accurate records on whom we disclose your personal information.

Safeguards

Personal, non-public information is protected by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. As we deal with highly sensitive information concerning the health and finances of our clients, this is of paramount importance to us. Our safeguards protect personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. The methods of protection include:

1. 1. Organizational measures (e.g. impressing upon each employee the position of trust that we hold, security clearances and limiting access on a "need-to-know'' basis);
2. 2. Physical measures (e.g. building access cards for employees, visitor registration and identification cards, off-site backups and archiving);
3. 3. Technological measures (e.g. the use of routinely changing passwords, firewalls and segmented operator access).

Retention of Personal, Non-public Information

Generally, your personal information is retained by us only as long as it is needed for the purpose it was obtained. It is then destroyed in compliance with our Records Retention Policy. Note that we are required to keep the information long enough to comply with insurance law, taxation law and the statute of limitations respecting the periods within which claims can be made. We are also required to keep personal information for the duration of any investigation respecting a concern about privacy that you have expressed to us.

Right to Access

You have a right to full access to information regarding the existence, use and disclosure by us of your personal non-public information contained in our records, provided there is no legal or ethical reason for us not to provide such access. We may charge a minimal or reasonable administration fee to supply the information requested by you.

Exceptions to access rights are limited and specific; unless prevented by law, reasons for denying access are given to you upon request. Exceptions can include information that is prohibitively costly to provide, information that contains references to other individuals, information that cannot be disclosed for legal, security or commercial proprietary reasons, information that has been obtained in the course of an investigation of a potential breach of contract or fraud, and information that is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege. Additionally, we may choose to disclose certain medical information only through the designated family doctor.

Accuracy of Information

We make every effort to ensure that personal information about you is maintained by us in as accurate, complete and current a manner as is necessary for the identified purpose for which such information is used. We do not routinely update personal information, unless such a process is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the information was collected. Please help us in our commitment by letting us know of any changes to information provided by you and of any inadvertent errors which you may come upon. If you disagree with us about a change in information, we document your position in our records.

Questions about Our Privacy Policy

If you have questions or concerns relating to our privacy policy or your personal information, our customer representatives are trained to assist you in this regard. Such representative may refer you to the manager of the relevant department.