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Privacy Policy

Last Updated on February 21, 2025

BFS Benefits & Retirement Privacy Policy
At BFS Benefits & Retirement, we understand the importance of protecting your personal and financial data. We are committed to treating your information with the utmost care, confidentiality, and respect, while offering employee benefits, compensation, and total rewards customized to meet the needs of organizations, plan sponsors, employees, and families. The following principles guide our privacy practices:

Responsibility
Our team, along with our affiliates and trusted service providers, is responsible for protecting your personal information. We have set up and implemented policies and procedures that govern how we collect, use, and disclose your data. The leadership team oversees our privacy program to ensure compliance with applicable laws and to protect your information. This includes policy enforcement, dispute resolution, and regular reporting on privacy matters.

Intent of Collection
We are transparent about how we collect, use, and protect your personal information. When we collect your personal information, we inform you of our reasons for doing so. These purposes may include:

  • Verifying your identity and protecting against fraud or misrepresentation
  • Ensuring that the information we have about you is correct and up to date
  • Understanding your specific needs to offer customized benefits and retirement solutions
  • Determining your eligibility for services and products
  • Administering, setting up, and supporting the products and services you’ve chosen
  • Communicating with you about your benefits, retirement plans, or any related services
  • Responding to your questions or concerns
  • Analyzing data to improve services
  • Following legal and regulatory requirements

What is Reasonably Required
We limit the personal information we collect to only what is necessary for the purposes shown above. Depending on the services you require, we may collect the following:

  • Personal identification details (name, address, contact information, etc.)
  • Social Insurance Number (SIN), as required for compliance with Canada Revenue Agency reporting
  • Financial details (income, salary, assets, liabilities) to ensure our services align with your needs
  • Health, medical, and lifestyle information for insurance products or retirement planning
  • Information about family members, dependents, and beneficiaries
  • Employment history and related details for HR services or benefits enrollment
  • Preferences for marketing communications if you subscribe to them
  • Website visitor data, including cookies and analytics, to enhance your online client experience

We collect information directly from you and, when necessary, through trusted third parties such as your employer, healthcare providers, or insurance companies. Additionally, we may gather data through your interactions with our website. We ensure that only the necessary information is collected and avoid sharing sensitive financial details through these channels for your security.

Why It’s Required
We restrict the use and disclosure of personal information to only those purposes for which it was collected unless we receive your consent for additional uses. We may share your information with service providers who assist in delivering the products or services we offer, including:

  • Insurers, carriers, underwriters, and claims processors for benefit plans
  • Healthcare providers for services related to your benefits or insurance coverage
  • Pension funds, mutual funds, and financial institutions that manage retirement-related services.
  • Financial institutions to process payments
  • HR service providers, including recruitment platforms and background check agencies
  • Technology providers to facilitate secure service delivery
  • Regulators and authorities as required by law

We may also share your information with another organization if we sell part or all our business. Our service providers and affiliates are contractually obligated to protect your data and use it solely for the intended purpose.

We keep your personal information only for as long as it is necessary to fulfill its intended purpose or to meet legal obligations.

Accuracy
We strive to maintain your personal information in an accurate, complete, and up-to-date manner. You have the right to request corrections to your data if it needs updating or is incomplete. This policy is reviewed and updated regularly. You can always find the most up to date version on our website.

Elevated Protection
We have implemented robust technical, administrative, and physical measures to protect your personal information from loss, theft, unauthorized access, or disclosure. This includes advanced encryption, strict access controls, and comprehensive employee training on privacy and data security. We also require our service providers to adopt stringent security protocols to ensure your data remains protected.

Connecting with Us
You can request access to your personal information, and we will provide it in accordance with applicable law. This includes providing details on the data we hold, how it has been used, and any third parties with whom it has been shared. You may also request corrections or deletions of your information, subject to legal limitations.

If you have any privacy-related concerns or complaints, you can submit them in writing to our leadership team. We will investigate all complaints thoroughly and, if necessary, take proper corrective actions, which may include revising our policies and practices.

Contact Information:

BFS Benefits & Retirement
490 Dutton Drive, Suite B-3
Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6H7
Phone: 519-886-3257
Toll free: 1-855-886-3257
info@blairfinancialservices.com