Brian D. Lowder, Inc., an independent financial planning firm, is committed to safeguarding the confidential information of its clients. We have a long-standing policy of protecting confidential information about our clients and their transactions. We hold all personal information provided to our firm in the strictest confidence. These records include all personal information that we collect from you in connection with any services provided by Brian D. Lowder, Inc. We have never disclosed information to nonaffiliated third parties, except as permitted by law, and do not anticipate doing so in the future. If we were to anticipate such a change in firm policy, we would be prohibited under the law from doing so without advising you first. As you know, we use financial information that you provide to us to help you meet your personal financial goals while guarding against any real or perceived infringements of your rights of privacy. Our policy with respect to personal information is listed below.
- We limit employee access to information only to those who have a business or professional reason for knowing, and only to nonaffiliated parties as permitted by law. (For example, federal regulations permit us to share a limited amount of information about you with a brokerage firm in order to execute securities transactions on your behalf, or so that our firm can discuss your financial situation with your accountant or lawyer.)
- Each of our employees has responsibility for maintaining the confidentiality of client information. We require all of our employees to agree in writing to protect the confidentiality of client information and to use it only for our business purposes.
- We maintain a secure office and computer environment to ensure that your information is not placed at unreasonable risk.
- The categories of nonpublic information that we collect from a client depend upon the scope of the client engagement. It may include information about your personal finances, information about your health to the extent that it is needed for the planning process, and information about transactions between you and third parties.
- For unaffiliated third parties that require access to your personal information, including financial service companies, consultants, and auditors, we also require strict confidentiality in our agreements with them and expect them to keep this information private. Our primary unaffiliated third party is Charles Schwab & Co. Aside from the personal information already contained on your Schwab account application(s), we do not disclose any additional information about you to Charles Schwab & Co. Federal and state regulators also may review firm records as permitted under law.
- We do not provide any information about you to mailing list vendors or solicitors for any purpose.
- Personally identifiable information about you will be maintained during the time you are a client, and for the required time thereafter that such records are required to be maintained by federal and state securities laws, and consistent with the CFP Boards Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. After this required period of record retention, all such information will be destroyed.