Northwest Insurance Specialists Privacy Policy This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully. |
| Northwest Insurance Specialists takes your privacy very seriously. We share a commitment to protect your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal and financial information.
As providers of products and services that involve compiling personal - and sometimes, sensitive - information, protecting the confidentiality of that information has been, and will continue to be, a top priority for Northwest Insurance Specialists. Whether you are a current client, former client, or potential client, we believe that you should know about the information we collect, the measures we take to safeguard it, and the situations in which we might share information with select business partners. This brochure explains how Northwest Insurance Specialists handle - and protect - the personal information we collect. The information we collect and the extent to which we use it will vary depending on the product or service involved. In fact, in certain cases, we may not collect or share some of the types of information noted below. For example, in a number of cases Northwest Insurance Specialists have an agreement with a third party that limits the sharing of information about its clients with another company. These agreements will continue to be honored. Our privacy promise derives from basic principles of trust, ethics, and integrity: 1. We collect only the client information necessary to consistently deliver responsive products and services. Northwest Insurance Specialists collect information that helps serve your financial needs; provide high standards of customer service; develop and offer new products or services for our clients and potential clients; and fulfill legal and regulatory requirements. The information collected generally varies depending on the products or services you request and may include: . Information provided in personal interviews or on applications and related forms, for example, name, address, Social Security number and annual income. . Responses from your employer, benefit plan sponsor, or association regarding any group products we may provide, for example, name, age, address and Social Security number. . Third-party reports, such as consumer credit history, motor-vehicle records, demographic, and/or medical information, if relevant to your product or service. • Information about your relationships with us, such as products or services purchased, and account balances (if applicable), which we may obtain in writing, during telephone or Internet transactions or from data gathering software used when you are accessing the Northwest Insurance Specialists website 2. We maintain safeguards to ensure information security. We have implemented security standards and processes — including physical, electronic and procedural safeguards — to ensure that access to client information is limited to employees, registered representatives and agents who may need it to do their jobs. They are required to respect the confidentiality of all client information. 3. We limit how, and with whom, we share client information. First and foremost, we do not sell lists of our clients, nor do we disclose client information to marketing companies with the exception of companies we may hire to provide specific services for us, as described below. Under no circumstances do we share medical information for marketing purposes. We will share client information only for the following reasons: When it is necessary to disclose information to third parties to effect, administer, or enforce a transaction that you request or authorize — for example, when we provide information we collect to a health insurance provider from which you wish to purchase coverage. When you have requested a life insurance product, Northwest Insurance Specialists may use a common application to avoid multiple medical tests; in this way, the information you provide and authorize us to obtain may subsequently be used by one or many companies as necessary to determine — and offer to you — the product most appropriate for your needs. We may be required by law or regulation to disclose information to third parties — for example, in response to a subpoena; to prevent fraud; and to comply with rules of, or inquiries from, industry regulators. Northwest Insurance Specialists will not share information about you with another company that may be used to make insurance underwriting or lending decisions about you, unless you so direct us, or unless we tell you beforehand and give you a chance to say no. Furthermore, as permitted by federal and state laws, we may share or exchange information with companies engaged to work with us, such as: • Third-party administrators and vendors hired to effect, administer or enforce a transaction that you request or authorize; to develop or maintain software; or to perform marketing research. • Financial services entities, such as banks, credit unions, credit union service organizations, thrifts, thrift service organizations, insurance companies, or securities broker-dealers, with which we have joint marketing agreements. The information we may share is described in Section 1. • Reputable consumer reporting agencies in connection with your application or renewal of insurance coverage. Other than what is described herein, we won’t share information about you with third parties to market products to you, unless we tell you about it first, and give you a chance to say no. We uphold these privacy principles at Northwest Insurance Specialists and with our business partners. Companies with which we share client information are required to maintain the confidentiality of that information. In those states where privacy or consumer information laws are more restrictive than our privacy policy, we will restrict our sharing of your information to comply with state law. We will reaffirm this policy annually in writing, as long as you maintain an ongoing relationship with Northwest Insurance Specialists. While this policy may change from time to time, you can always review our current policy upon request. In this notice of our privacy promise, the words “you” and “client are used to mean any individual who obtains or has obtained an insurance product or service from Northwest Insurance Specialists that is to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes. Northwest Insurance Specialists, Inc. P.O. Box 72001 Eugene, OR 97401 Phone: (541) 746-7379 |
