POPIA Privacy Notice

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

We collect and process personal information to provide financial planning and advisory services, comply with legal and regulatory obligations (including FICA and FSCA requirements), and communicate with clients.

Personal information may include identity, contact, financial, tax, investment, insurance, and retirement-related information.

Where necessary to provide advice, intermediary services, and product implementation for insurance risk products (including life cover, disability cover, income protection, severe illness cover, medical aid, and gap cover), we may process special personal information. This may include health-related information, medical history, lifestyle and risk-related disclosures, and other information required for underwriting, claims assessment, or policy administration. Such information is collected only where necessary, with your consent or as otherwise permitted in law, and is subject to strict confidentiality and enhanced security safeguards.

Information is collected directly from you, from financial product providers, medical schemes, insurers, administrators, healthcare practitioners (where authorised), or from regulatory and verification platforms where required and permitted by law.

We may share your information with financial product providers, medical schemes, insurers, administrators, regulators, and trusted service providers who assist in delivering our services. All such parties are required to keep your information secure and use it only for lawful purposes. We do not sell your personal information.

We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

We retain personal information only for as long as required to provide services and to comply with legal, regulatory, and professional record-keeping obligations.

You have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information (where legally permissible), to object to certain processing activities, and to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.

For POPIA-related requests, please contact our Information Officer:

Loffie Malherbe

Email: loffie@etika.co.za

Tel: 087 095 0095

POPIA PRIVACY POLICY

Financial Services Provider – George & Plettenberg Bay

1. Introduction

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your personal information when you interact with our financial advisory services and/or use our website.

By using our services or website, you acknowledge that your personal information may be processed as described in this Policy.

2. Who we are

We are a licensed Financial Services Provider operating in George and Plettenberg Bay, providing financial planning and advisory services, including:

• Investment advisory services
• Retirement planning
• Estate planning
• Personal risk insurance
• Short-term insurance
• Medical aid and gap cover advisory

3. Information we collect

We may collect the following categories of personal information:

• Identity information (name, surname, ID/passport number, date of birth, gender, age)
• Contact information (telephone numbers, email address, physical and postal address)
• Financial information (income, assets, liabilities, banking details)
• Tax information (including SARS-related documents)
• Investment and insurance information
• FICA verification documents
• Vehicle registration number (where required for insurance-related services)
• Special personal information, including health and medical information where required for insurance underwriting, risk assessment, claims processing, or medical aid/gap cover administration. This may include medical history, health status, lifestyle risk factors, and related disclosures required by product providers

4. How we collect information

We collect personal information:

• Directly from you (application forms, meetings, emails, website registration forms)
• From financial product providers (with your consent or authority)
• From insurers, medical schemes, administrators, or healthcare-related third parties (where authorised)
• From regulatory or verification platforms where required by law

5. Purpose of processing

We process your personal information to:

• Provide financial planning and advisory services
• Assess the suitability of financial products and services
• Facilitate underwriting, policy administration, and claims handling for risk insurance products (including life, disability, income protection, and severe illness cover)
• Provide medical aid and gap cover advisory services, including claims-related assistance where applicable
• Administer investments, retirement products, and insurance policies
• Comply with legal and regulatory obligations (including FICA and FSCA requirements)
• Communicate with you regarding your portfolio and services
• Facilitate service-related administration and reporting and compliance obligations

6. Legal basis for processing

We process your personal information only where:

• It is necessary to perform our contractual obligations to you
• We are required to do so by law
• You have provided consent (where required, particularly for special personal information such as health data)
• It is in our legitimate business interests and does not override your rights

7. Sharing your information

We may share your personal information with:

• Financial product providers (e.g. investment platforms, insurers, administrators)
• Medical schemes, gap cover providers, and healthcare-related administrators (where applicable)
• Compliance and regulatory authorities (including the FSCA and SARS)
• Service providers who assist in delivering services (e.g. IT systems, CRM platforms, cloud storage providers)
• Technical service providers (e.g. email, data hosting, system maintenance providers)

Where relevant, this may include the sharing of special personal information (including health-related information) strictly for underwriting, claims processing, and policy administration purposes.

All third parties are required to process your information lawfully, securely, and only for the purposes for which it was shared.

We do not sell your personal information.

8. Marketing and third-party services

Where permitted by law and with your consent (where required), we may:

• Offer you relevant financial products or services based on your stated preferences
• Share aggregated, non-identifiable data (such as age range or gender) for analytical or reporting purposes

You may opt out of marketing communications at any time.

9. Cookies and website tracking

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to:

• Improve website functionality and user experience
• Analyse website usage and performance
• Support security and fraud prevention

You may disable cookies in your browser settings; however, some website functions may be affected.

10. How we protect your information

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information, including:

• Password-protected systems and controlled access
• Secure storage of physical and digital records
• Encryption and secure data transmission where appropriate
• Regular system backups and monitoring

11. Retention of information

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to:

• Provide services to you
• Comply with legal and regulatory obligations (including FICA and FSCA recordkeeping requirements)
• Resolve disputes or enforce agreements

Thereafter, information is securely destroyed or anonymised.

12. Sharing with third-party websites

Our website may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such third-party websites.

13. Your rights under POPIA

You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate or outdated information
• Request deletion of personal information (where legally permissible)
• Object to certain processing activities
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator

14. Contact details

For any POPIA-related requests, contact:

Information Officer: Loffie Malherbe
Email: loffie@etika.co.za
Phone: 087 095 0095

15. Updates to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available on our website.