Confidentiality & Privacy Policy
At Fortigent, we recognize the importance of maintaining the utmost security and confidentiality of our customer’s information. In addition to internal polices and procedures designed to safeguard customer information, we prohibit those we do business with from any reuse of that information for purposes other than those intended by Fortigent.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
For purposes of this notice, customer information means personally identifiable information about a consumer who has a relationship with Fortigent.
Accordingly, at Fortigent we have adopted the following:
Customer Information Security and Confidentiality
We take a number of steps to ensure that customer information is adequately safeguarded. These steps include the following: 1) implementing a number of physical and electronic security features to prevent unauthorized access; 2) limiting employee access to customer information; and 3) conducting periodic reviews of our computer systems, including security features. Additionally, our employees are required to acknowledge their responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of customer information.
How We Collect Customer Information
We collect customer information about you that: 1) we receive on applications to us for our products and services; 2) we receive from processing your accounts with us and the transactions in those accounts, as well as providing services to you; 3) we receive about you from our affiliated companies; and 4) we receive in response to requests made to third parties about you or to confirm information that you have provided to us.
Log Files
As is true of most Web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include IP addresses, browser type, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track how visitors interact with the site.
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. Cookies are commonly used on websites and do not harm your system. We do use cookies on our site. Fortigent may use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browsers help file. These cookies do not collect personally identifiable or confidential information.
How We Disclose Customer Information
We may disclose some or all of the customer information we collect about you under the following circumstances: 1) to verify or complete a transaction; 2) to verify the existence and condition of your account for a third party, such as another financial institution; 3) to a third party who performs functions on behalf of our Clients (i.e. a custodian or other broker-dealer); 4) to comply with laws, regulations, or a court or government order or request, such as in response to a subpoena or a request by an SEC/NASD examiner; 5) to inform you of our other products or services; 6) if you or any authorized person on the account gives us oral or written permission to do so; or (7) to verify the accuracy of information that you have provided to us.
Customer Information Shared Among Fortigent's Affiliates
Fortigent is affiliated with the following companies: Fortigent Securities Company, Fortigent Strategies Company, Fortigent Reporting Company, Lydian Trust Company, and Lydian Private Bank. Each of Lydian Trust Company and Lydian Private Bank each has its own privacy policy. Fortigent Securities Company, Fortigent Strategies Company, and Fortigent Reporting Company are all covered by Fortigent’s privacy policy. Fortigent’s affiliates allow us to provide our customers with an array of financial services that include investment advisory and banking services. We may share some or all of the personal financial information we collect among our family of companies, except as limited below. By sharing this information among our family of companies, we can serve you more efficiently and make it easier for you to do business with us. For example, if you have an account with us and want to open an account with one of our affiliated companies, we may share the information you have provided to us. In addition, Fortigent may jointly employ certain of its employees with its affiliated companies.
You may elect not to have information from your applications, consumer reports or other outside sources shared among our family of companies by sending us an e-mail at fortigentprivacy@fortigent.com, calling us toll free at (866) 603-0206 or writing us at Fortigent, Attn: Privacy Notice, 2600 Tower Oaks Blvd, Suite 500, Rockville, MD 20852. Please note that we will continue to share some account and transaction information among our family of companies as permitted by law.
Customer Information Shared with Companies that Work for Us
To assist us in providing you products and services that you have requested or already have with us, we may share all of the personal information we collect with companies that work for us. These companies may include check printing, bill payment, operations and data processing companies. These companies might, for example, assist us in processing your transactions or mailing account statements. In addition, we may share all of the personal information we collect with companies that work for us to provide marketing and other services or other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements. All of these companies who act on our behalf, are obligated to keep the information that we provide to them confidential, and use the information only to provide the services we have asked them to perform for you and us.
Customer Information about Former Customers
We apply the same privacy polices and practice to our former customers that we do to our existing customers. Collected customer information is retained in accordance with Federal law.
Customer Information—Accuracy
We recognize the importance of maintaining accurate customer information that is provided to you in various forms, including account statements and billing statements. If you ever notice that your information is inaccurate, please contact us. Upon your notification we will correct any inaccuracies.
Protecting Your Information
There are a number of steps you can take to protect your information, including 1) before you reveal any personally identifying information, find out how it will be used and whether it will be shared with others; 2) pay attention to your billing cycles and follow up with creditors if your bills don’t arrive on time; 3) guard your mail from theft; 4) deposit outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office; and, 5) put passwords on your credit card, bank and phone accounts. If you suspect that your personal information, including social security number or account information has been misappropriated to commit fraud or theft please contact: 1) your Fortigent personal representative; 2) the fraud departments of each of the three major credit bureaus; 3) the creditors for any accounts that have been tampered with or opened fraudulently; and 4) your local police or the police in the community where the identify theft took place. You should also contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-IDTheft or at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
