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LifeStore Insurance Services, Inc. Privacy Statement has been developed as a way to let you know that we take the privacy of your information very seriously. The privacy policy spells out the types of information we collect, why we are collecting it, with whom it will be shared and the safeguards established to protect it. Our commitment is that we will not share your information except as needed with LifeStore Insurance Services, Inc. affiliates, and to administer your accounts through third party service providers or through a marketing agreement.
We Respect Your Privacy.
We recognize and respect your right to privacy. Furthermore, we have a strong commitment to actively protect your privacy rights. As a result of this commitment, we want you to know the following:
• We do not sell customer mailing lists or other customer information to outside marketing firms.
• We do not disclose customer medical information to outside parties, except as necessary to process insurance applications and claims, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.
• We continue to protect your privacy rights even if you close your account(s) or become an inactive client/customer.
What This Notice Covers.
This notice summarizes our consumer privacy policies and practices and certain rights you have under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Our consumer privacy policies and practices protect the confidentiality of information about customers who obtain financial products and services from us primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. These policies and practices apply equally to both current and former customers. The term “information” in this notice means information about you that is not publicly available. The policies and practices described herein do not apply to, or protect information about you that is publicly available, information about business entities, or information about individuals who obtain financial products or services for business, commercial or agricultural purposes.
This notice includes examples of the information we collect, how we use it, with whom we share it and what we do to protect it. The examples used are for illustration only – they do not represent a comprehensive description of our policies. This notice does not apply to your relationships with financial service providers outside LifeStore Insurance Services, Inc. (like other banks, mortgage brokers, independent insurance agencies, insurance companies or mutual funds). The privacy policies of other service providers govern how they collect, use and disclose personal information about you.
How We Collect and Use Customer Information.
We collect and use information about you to conduct our business and provide you with high quality financial products and services. Information we collect about you comes from a variety of sources, including:
• Information about your experiences and transactions with us, our affiliates or with others. This information may include your account balance, payment history or credit card use.
• Information you provide to us on applications, personal financial statements, through oral, written or electronic communications. This information may include your name, address, Social Security number, employer, assets, income and health information. The only information about you we collect through our websites is information you voluntarily provide.
• Information that we receive from consumer reporting agencies (credit bureaus). This information may include your credit history, credit score and other information about your creditworthiness.
• Information that we receive from third parties such as government agencies and healthcare providers. For example, concerning insurance transactions, this information may include your driving record, medical history or current health condition.
We use information about you to process your applications, administer your accounts and insurance products, process your transactions, serve your financial needs, determine your eligibility for products and services that we offer and provide you with information about products, services and other opportunities that may be of interest to you.
We are permitted, or may be required by law, to disclose information about you to maintain and service your account(s) with us to protect against fraud, loss or to respond to a subpoena or court order.
How We Protect Customer Information Internally.
The only people authorized to access customer information are those who have a legitimate business reason to do so in connection with their job responsibilities. Our employees are bound by our Code of Conduct to access customer information only for legitimate business purposes and to keep your information confidential. We emphasize this confidentiality obligation in our training procedures and maintain appropriate disciplinary measures to enforce our employees’ privacy responsibilities.
In addition, physical, electronic and procedural safeguards are maintained that comply with federal standards to prevent unauthorized access to information about you. Information you provide us through our websites is similarly protected.
How We Share Information.
Under certain circumstances we share customer information with the following resources.
Affiliates. Companies that are related to us by common ownership or control are known as “affiliates.” Our affiliates are all financial service providers, including a bank, an investment division and an insurance agency.
By sharing information about you with our affiliates, we are able to serve you more efficiently, make it easier for you to do business with us and to provide you a wider variety of financial products and services. If you have an account with us and want to open an account with one of our affiliates, you may not have to furnish application information twice.
Federal law allows us to share certain types of information about you with our affiliates, including identification information and information about your transactions and experiences with us. We use identifying information to determine your eligibility for our products and services. Identifying information includes, but is not limited to: Information we obtain from your applications, personal financial statements or other forms, such as your income, employment and marital status.
Companies that Work with Us.
In our daily business operations, we use outside companies to assist us in processing your transactions, maintaining and servicing your accounts and insurance products. For example, other companies perform specialized support services for us when they imprint checks, provide data processing support, process payments or assist us in our marketing efforts. In addition, we may enter into joint marketing agreements with other financial institutions to offer you a wider variety of financial products and services. We may disclose any of the information we collect to companies that perform services (including marketing services) for us and to other financial institutions with which we have joint marketing agreements. However, when we do so, the company’s right to use and redisclose the information we provide is limited by law or contract.
LifeStore Insurance Services, Inc. does not otherwise disclose information to non-affiliated parties about current or former customers except as required or permitted by law. Therefore, we have “Opted Out”, on your behalf, from having your personal information shared.
How We Treat Medical Information.
Regarding insurance transactions, we may gather medical-record and health information about you, privileged information relating to insurance claims, and information about your character, personal habits, mode of living or general reputation. We use information of this type in connection with insurance transactions to process, underwrite and administer insurance applications, products, accounts, claims and for other permissible business purposes. We do not share this insurance information or any classification based on this information
with our affiliates or others, except as required or permitted by law. In addition, we do not share health or medical-record information that we gather in connection with insurance transactions for marketing purposes.
In connection with insurance transactions, we may gather personal information from persons other than those proposed for coverage. You have certain rights to access and make corrections to personal information we gather about you in connection with insurance transactions. In certain circumstances required by or permitted by law, we may disclose personal insurance information without your
authorization. At your request, we will provide you with more detailed information regarding your right to access and correct insurance information we may have gathered about you.
We Strive to Maintain and Report Accurate Information.
We conscientiously make every reasonable effort to maintain and report accurate and current information about you. Whenever we are notified of changes to or errors in the information we maintain or report about you, we update and/or correct your information promptly. If you believe we have incorrectly reported any information about you or your account(s), please notify us promptly. Your notice to us should be in writing and include your complete name, current address, Social Security number, telephone number, account number, the affiliate company you believe incorrectly reported the information, the specific item of dispute and the reason you believe the information reported is inaccurate. Please send your notice to us by separate correspondence addressed to:
LifeStore Insurance Sevices, Inc.
Post Office Box 825
West Jefferson, NC 28694-0026
We will investigate and make any necessary corrections to your records as soon as possible.
Your Questions.
If you have any questions regarding our privacy policies and practices, please call us at (800) 723-4718 or write to us at:
Compliance Department
Post Office Box 26
West Jefferson, NC 28694-0026
Thank you for doing business with us.
Note: We are required by law to send you a summary of our consumer privacy policies and practices each year for as long as you remain our customer. Because we want to be sure all customers receive this notice, we may provide it in a variety of forms, with account statements or as a separate mailing. As a result, you may receive multiple notices from us.
Privacy Policy last updated January 2010.
