How We Handle Your Information

1. Introduction

Finance Vision Zone (“we”, “us”, “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information you share with us. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights available to you.

By visiting financevisionzone.com, using our enquiry forms, subscribing to our newsletter or engaging us for any lending, planning, tax or insurance service, you confirm that you have read and understood this policy. If you do not agree with any part of it, please do not use our website or services.

This policy applies to information collected through our website, by email, by telephone, in person at our Columbus office, and through any secure document portal we provide to clients.

2. Information We Collect

We collect only the information needed to answer your enquiry, deliver the service you asked for, or meet legal and regulatory obligations. This includes:

2.1 Information You Give Us

• Identity data: full name, date of birth, government identification numbers where required for a loan, tax filing or insurance application.
• Contact data: email address, phone number, postal address and preferred contact method.
• Financial data: income, employment details, existing debts, assets, bank and account information, credit history, tax returns and existing insurance policies.
• Enquiry data: the content of forms you submit, emails you send, call notes and consultation records.
• Marketing preferences: whether you wish to receive our newsletter and which topics interest you.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Technical data: IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, pages visited, referring site and time spent on pages.
• Cookies and similar technologies: small files stored on your device that remember preferences, keep the site working correctly and help us understand aggregate usage. See section 6 below.

2.3 Information From Third Parties

Where you authorise it, we may receive information from lenders, credit bureaux, insurance carriers, custodians, your employer’s benefits administrator or your previous advisor, in order to complete an application or build your financial plan.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information for the following specific purposes:

• To respond to enquiries submitted through our contact, quote and consultation forms.
• To assess eligibility and prepare applications for personal, credit and mortgage loans.
• To build, implement and review wealth and investment plans, including performance reporting.
• To prepare and file tax returns, estimate payments and correspond with tax authorities on your behalf.
• To compare, place, service and audit life, health, auto, home and disability insurance policies.
• To verify your identity as required by anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer regulations.
• To send the newsletter and other communications you have explicitly opted into.
• To operate, secure and improve our website, and to understand aggregated usage patterns.
• To comply with legal, regulatory, tax and reporting obligations, and to establish or defend legal claims.

We do not use your information for automated decision-making that produces legal effects about you without human review, and we do not build advertising profiles from your financial data.

4. Legal Basis And Consent

Depending on your jurisdiction, we process personal information on one or more of the following bases:

• Consent: you ticked a box on a form, subscribed to the newsletter or agreed to be contacted.
• Contract: processing is necessary to provide the service you engaged us for.
• Legal obligation: we must retain records for tax, lending or insurance regulation.
• Legitimate interests: securing our systems, preventing fraud and improving our services, balanced against your rights.

You may withdraw consent at any time — for example by unsubscribing from the newsletter or emailing us — without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. How We Share Your Information

We never sell, rent or trade your personal information. We share it only in these limited circumstances:

• Service providers you choose: the lender, insurance carrier, custodian or filing agent needed to deliver the product you applied for.
• Trusted processors: cloud hosting, secure document storage, email delivery and analytics vendors, bound by written confidentiality and data-protection agreements.
• Professional advisers: attorneys, accountants and auditors engaged in relation to your matter or our compliance obligations.
• Legal requirements: where disclosure is required by law, subpoena, court order or a legitimate request from a regulator or tax authority.
• Business transfers: in the event of a merger or acquisition, with notice and continued protection under a policy at least as strict as this one.

Third parties receive only the minimum information necessary for their specific role, and we remain responsible for how they handle it.

6. Cookies And Tracking

Our website uses a small number of cookies and similar technologies:

• Essential cookies: keep the site functioning, remember form state and maintain security sessions. These cannot be switched off.
• Preference cookies: remember choices such as your preferred contact method or display settings.
• Analytics cookies: aggregate, anonymised statistics about which pages are useful, so we can improve content.

Our loan calculator and newsletter preferences are stored locally in your browser so results persist during your visit; this data is not transmitted to third parties. You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time, though some features may stop working as intended.

7. Data Security

We treat your financial information with the same care we would want applied to our own. Our safeguards include:

• Encryption in transit (TLS) for every page and form on this website.
• Encrypted storage of documents, with access restricted to the advisor handling your file.
• Role-based permissions, unique credentials and multi-factor authentication for staff systems.
• Regular backups, patching and vulnerability review of our infrastructure.
• Staff confidentiality agreements and annual privacy training.

No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. If you become aware of a security issue affecting our services, please notify us immediately at contact@financevisionzone.com. In the event of a breach that creates a risk to your rights, we will notify affected individuals and relevant authorities within the timeframes required by law.

8. Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, then for any period required by law:

• Enquiries that do not become clients: 12 months from the last contact, then deleted or anonymised.
• Lending and insurance files: typically 7 years after the account or policy closes, as required by financial regulation.
• Tax records: generally 7 years from the filing date, longer where an audit or dispute is open.
• Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe; we retain only the address and opt-out date afterwards to honour your preference.

When information is no longer required it is securely deleted or rendered irreversibly anonymous.

9. Your Rights And Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you and receive a copy.
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Delete your information where no legal obligation requires us to keep it.
• Restrict or object to certain processing, including direct marketing.
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, without penalty.
• Complain to a supervisory authority, in the United States typically your state attorney general or the relevant federal regulator.

Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia may exercise additional rights under their state privacy laws, including the right to know, opt out of sale or sharing, and non-discrimination. To exercise any right, email contact@financevisionzone.com with the subject line “Privacy Request”. We will verify your identity and respond within 30 days.

10. Children's Privacy

Our services are intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a minor has submitted information through our website, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

11. Third-Party Links

Our website may link to lender portals, carrier websites, government tax sites or educational resources we do not control. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for their content or data practices. We encourage you to read the policy of any site before submitting personal information.

12. Changes To This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, technology or the law. When we do, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of this page and, for material changes, notify newsletter subscribers or clients directly. Your continued use of the website after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your data can be sent to:

Finance Vision Zone
371 Alden Ave, Columbus, OH 43201, USA
Phone: +1 614-294-3502
Email: contact@financevisionzone.com

Privacy requests are handled by our compliance lead and acknowledged within two business days.