Legal Stuff

FSFP, as a fiduciary advisor, does not provide specific tax/legal advice and any recommendations should not be considered as such. You should always consult your tax/legal advisor regarding your own specific tax/legal situation. 

As a CFP professional, I am bound by the CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct, which includes a duty of confidentiality and privacy.  The duty of Confidentiality and Privacy requires that I must keep confidential and may not disclose any non-public personal information about any prospective, current, or former Client, subject to specific exceptions.  You can find out more on the CFP Boards webpage dedicated to this topic found here.

Protecting our clients’ privacy is of paramount importance to Free State Financial Planning. (“FSFP"). It is FSFP's policy that no private client financial information obtained by us (including texting data) is bought, sold or made available to third parties except that:

• Third parties may be used by FSFP to assist in the maintenance of client accounts (such as financial planning software);
• Client information may be released to client’s accountancy, legal and other third-party representatives at client’s direction;
• Client information may be released in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

We will not share nonpublic personal information about our clients with nonaffiliated third parties without prior client consent, except for specific purposes described below. This notice explains our collection, use and safeguarding of client information.

In connection with providing clients with financial planning services, we may obtain information about them from the following sources:

• Client agreements and other information that clients provide to us, whether in writing, in person, by telephone, by text, electronically or by any other means. This information may include a client’s name, address, phone number, email address, social security number, employment information, income, investment experience, and credit references;
• Personal tax returns provided by the client;
• This information may include the client’s account balances, positions, investment interests and history; and
• Public sources.

We only disclose non-public client information to nonaffiliated third parties without prior client consent when we believe it necessary for the conduct of our business or as required or permitted by law, such as:

• If you request or authorize the disclosure of the information;
• To provide client account services or account maintenance;
• To respond to a subpoena or court order, judicial process, law enforcement or regulatory authorities;
• To help us prevent fraud;
• With rating agencies, persons assessing compliance with industry standards, or to the attorneys, accountants and auditors of FSFP;
• To comply with federal, state or local laws, rules and other applicable legal requirements; and
• Pursuant to any other exceptions enumerated in the California Information Privacy Act.

We do not make any disclosure of client nonpublic personal information to other companies who may want to sell their products or services to you. For example, we do not sell client lists, and we will not sell client names to catalogue companies.

If, at any time in the future, it is necessary to disclose any client personal information in a way that is inconsistent with this policy, FSFP will give its clients advance notice of the proposed disclosure so that they will have the opportunity to either opt-in or opt-out of such disclosure, as required by applicable law.

Clients are advised that the FSFP believes that sharing client private information under the circumstances noted above is either mandated by law or necessary for the FSFP to conduct its business and to best service client accounts. Clients desiring to opt out of any third-party disclosures should contact the FSFP immediately. Opting out may necessitate that we terminate our financial planning agreement with you.

Our Privacy Policy continues to apply to all former clients.

This Privacy Policy applies to individuals who obtain or have obtained services from FSFP used primarily for personal, family or household purposes.

We take steps to safeguard client information. We restrict access to the personal and account information of our clients to our employees and agents for business purposes only. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to guard your personal information.

Additionally, we aim to keep client information as accurate and complete as we can. If you believe that any information about you is not accurate, please let us know.

We reserve the right to change this Statement of Privacy Policy. The examples contained within this Privacy Policy are illustrations, and they are not intended to be exclusive. If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at john@freestatefp.com.