COHESION COMPANIES
PRIVACY POLICY – WEBSITE AND SERVICES
- Effective Date: November 29, 2023
- Last Updated/Reviewed on: November 29, 2023
This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how COHESION COMPANIES (“COHESION” or “WE”) will collect, use and share personal information and other information collected from, about or relating to its clients and prospective clients in connection with the services COHESION provides, including information that is collected online and offline (e.g., information provided to a COHESION advisor electronically, over the phone or in person) or from other parties.
For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” is information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you or your household, which is typically provided on a voluntary basis by you or another party. Personal Information may include “personally identifiable information” under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and its implementing regulations, personal data that is subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), personal information under the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) and other like terms under applicable data protection laws. Personal Information does not include aggregated or combined information, which includes data that is related to you but studied as a group and is anonymized so that it does not identify you specifically.
INFORMATION COLLECTED BY COHESION
In order to provide you with services under our contracts with you or another party (e.g., your employer, spouse, or a family office), COHESION collects certain information from you or another party. Unless a separate consent is required under applicable law, by providing Personal Information to COHESION, you agree to COHESION’s collection, use and sharing of the data as described in this Privacy Policy. Under applicable data protection laws that recognize the concept of a controller of Personal Information, COHESION is the controller responsible for the processing of Personal Information that we collect as described in this Section.
How We Collect Information
You may provide certain Personal Information to COHESION directly, such as when you provide information to COHESION over the phone, electronically, or in person.
We may collect information about you from other sources such as your employer, lawyers, banks, financial institutions and advisors, tax authorities, background check providers, family offices, family members, and other parties.
We may collect information about you from collaborating firms that have contractual relationships with COHESION (“Collaborating Firms”) if you have done business with them.
We may collect publicly available information about you in public and private databases, such as through Lexis-Nexis or other search engines.
What Personal Information is Collected
Personal Information may include the following information regarding you and your family members and/or employees, service providers and others, as applicable:
Identifying information, such as name, address, birthdate, contact information, and identification numbers.
Financial information, such as your banking and securities accounts and transactions, income and expenses, assets and liabilities.
Tax return information and employment information.
Special categories or sensitive Personal Information in connection with our performance of tax advisory, wealth advisory and/or other services, such as your racial or ethnic origin, your religion, or your sex life or sexual orientation. In addition, the following Personal Information that we may collect is also considered sensitive under the CPRA: your social security, driver’s license, state identification card, and passport number; and account login and financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account.
Criminal convictions and offenses information that includes personal data.
- USE AND SHARING OF COLLECTED INFORMATION; PURPOSES FOR COLLECTION
Use of Collected Information
COHESION may use your Personal Information, including the categories of Personal Information described above (collectively, the “Collected Information”), in a variety of ways as permitted by applicable law, which include those set out below. For example, where your Collected Information is subject to the GDPR, such Collected Information may only be used by COHESION for a lawful purpose as set out in the GDPR. We continue to use your Personal Information as described in this in this Privacy Policy when you or another party are no longer a client of COHESION to:
Provide you or another party with whom you are connected with professional services; Fulfill your requests and provide you with other services or service offerings; For other uses identified in agreements with you or another party; Contact you and send you materials and information; Confirm your identity; Manage our business; Improve our products and services.
Basis for the Collection and Use of Collected Information
We collect and use the Collected Information for the following reasons:
It is in our legitimate interest to provide you or the other party with which we have contracted with professional services, fulfill your specific requests, confirm your identity, and protect and manage our business; It is necessary for the performance of our obligations under the applicable corresponding agreement; We may be subject to legal or professional obligations which require us to confirm the details that you provide to us before entering into a relationship with you.
Where your Collected Information is subject to the GDPR and includes special categories of Personal Information, such as your racial or ethnic origin or your religion, such Personal Information can only be processed under strict conditions. Where COHESION is processing special categories of Personal Information (other than Personal Information relating to criminal convictions and offences), unless another specified lawful purpose set out in applicable data protection laws applies, your explicit consent must be obtained before any such Personal Information is processed. Personal Information relating to criminal convictions and offences will only be processed if such processing is authorized under applicable data protection laws. It is possible that a data privacy impact assessment may need to be carried out before special categories of Personal Information can be processed.
Where your Collected Information is subject to the CPRA and includes sensitive Personal Information, we will only use it for certain limited purposes under the CPRA, such as to provide you services; prevent, detect, and investigate security incidents; resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions; ensure the physical safety of natural persons; and verify or maintain the quality of our services (“Limited Purposes”). Because we use your sensitive Personal Information for Limited Purposes, we do not provide a Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information right under the CPRA.
Disclosure of Collected Information
In addition to Collected Information disclosed to other parties at your direction, COHESION may disclose your Collected Information for the following reasons with other parties who have agreed in writing to provide an adequate level of privacy protection:
With Our Vendors, Service Providers or Contractors: COHESION may disclose certain Collected Information with other parties acting on our behalf, such as consultants, professional advisers, data analytics providers, and other service providers, contractors and vendors; With Collaborating Firms: COHESION may disclose your Collected Information with the Collaborating Firms for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; With Other Parties: We may also disclose your Collected Information with other parties, including Collaborating Firms, vendors, in other circumstances, including but not limited to the following:
If you consent or direct us to share your information with another party provided that the consent or direction has not been revoked; If permitted by applicable law or you authorize us to disclose information with another party as part of our provision of professional services to you; If permitted by applicable law or you authorize us to disclose information to another party as part of fulfilling your request for other services; To disclose or transfer your information when conducting a business deal (for example, a merger or acquisition, financing, sale of assets, transition of service to another provider, insolvency, receivership, or a bankruptcy transaction or proceeding); For safety purposes, including to respond to an emergency; To protect the rights, property, safety and security of you and others; To comply with laws and regulations (including to fulfill our regulatory and professional obligations), court orders and subpoenas or similar requests for information by authorities, or as otherwise required by law; To assist us in fraud, security or technical-issues prevention or investigation or otherwise manage risks; If permitted by applicable law without your consent, to someone acting in a fiduciary or representative capacity; For required institutional risk control or for resolving client disputes and inquiries; If we determine a policy violation has occurred, including to enforce the engagement agreements and any other agreements you may have with us; To identify, contact or bring legal action regarding injury or interference with our rights and property, including to enforce our rights against unauthorized access or attempted unauthorized access to our information technology assets or against other inappropriate use of our services.
We will let you know where you must provide us with Personal Information so that we can use it and/or disclose it to other parties to comply with a legal obligation. If you do not provide us with the Personal Information in these circumstances, we will be unable to fulfill your request or provide the applicable service to you.
III. YOUR RIGHTS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Outlined below are various rights you may have in connection with your Personal Information, depending on where you reside. You may exercise these rights by contacting us using the information in the “Contact Us” section below. We may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details before we respond to your request.
Right to Review, Correct, Update and Delete Personal Information
You may review, correct and update certain of your Personal Information that we have about you. For example, where your Personal Information is inaccurate or incomplete, you may ask for your Personal Information to be rectified or completed. In addition, in certain circumstances, you may request deletion of certain of your Personal Information. Your right to delete information is subject to our record retention policy, including any retention requirements under applicable laws, and to exceptions to this right under applicable laws.
Right to Disclosure and Access
Depending on your applicable jurisdiction, including if you live in California or if your Personal Information is subject to the GDPR, you may have additional rights with respect to your Personal Information.
You may have the right to request that we disclose to you the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing Personal Information, the categories of parties to whom we disclose Personal Information, and the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.
In some jurisdictions, you may request that this information be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format so that you may share it with others.
If you have these rights, we will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights. This includes us not: (a) denying you goods or services; (b) charging you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties; (c) providing you a different level or quality of goods or services; (d) suggesting to you that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services; and (e) retaliating against you for exercising your privacy rights.
A general list of the categories of Personal Information that we have collected, the categories of sources from which the Personal Information was collected, the business or commercial purposes for collecting the Personal Information, and the categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information is described in this Privacy Policy. To obtain a list of this information that is specific to you, or to obtain the specific pieces of Personal Information that we have collected about you (which may be limited to certain information that we collected in a specific timeframe, depending on your jurisdiction), please contact us using the information in the “Contact Us” section below. We may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details before we provide such information to you.
Other Rights
Depending on your applicable jurisdiction, including if your Personal Information is subject to the GDPR, you may have the rights listed below:
The right to request the transfer of your Personal Information to another party; The right to object to us processing your Personal Information by asking for the processing of that Personal Information to be restricted or stopped; The right to ask us to restrict the processing of your Personal Information; The right to withdraw your consent to us processing your Personal Information where you have previously provided consent.
You may exercise these rights by contacting us using the information in the “Contact Us” section below.
Authorized Agents
Depending on your applicable jurisdiction, you may exercise your privacy rights through an authorized agent. If we receive your request from an authorized agent, we may ask for evidence that you have provided such agent with a power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf. If you are an authorized agent seeking to make a request, please contact us in the “Contact Us” section below.
Right to Make a Complaint
Depending on your applicable jurisdiction, you may make a complaint to your applicable data protection authority (or the equivalent regulator in your jurisdiction) about the manner in which COHESION is processing your Personal Information. For more information, or if you believe that COHESION has not complied with this Privacy Policy or the applicable law, please contact us using the information in the “Contact Us” section below. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of COHESION’s assessment of your complaint, you may be able to refer your complaint to the relevant regulator under applicable law.
No Sale or Sharing of Personal Information
COHESION does not sell or share your Personal Information with third parties. COHESION also does not knowingly sell, share, use for cross-context behavioral advertising or disclose the Personal Information of children under the age of 16.
OPTING-OUT
You may receive email communications from COHESION, including communications regarding our services, marketing or promotions, and/or other topics. To contact you, COHESION may use the information you provide to us, including email, address, fax or phone. You may, at any time, inform us that you do not want COHESION to contact you for marketing purposes by sending your request to us using the contact information in the “Contact Us” section below. You may also opt-out of promotional email communications by clicking on a link provided in the promotional email message. After opting-out, you will no longer receive marketing or promotional communications but will continue to receive other non-marketing-related messages, such as emails relating to our provision of professional services to you or your account.
You may also receive communications from our Collaborating Firms. You may, at any time, inform us that you do not want COHESION to share your Collected Information with our Collaborating Firms for marketing purposes by sending your request to us using the contact information in the “Contact Us” section below.
SAFEGUARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
COHESION is committed to maintaining the security of the Personal Information that you provide to us. To protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with applicable law. These measures include administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. If your Personal Information is subject to the GDPR, then we will protect such information in accordance with Article 32 of the GDPR. However, please note that there is always some risk in transmitting information over the Internet. For this reason, COHESION cannot guarantee the security and privacy of transmissions via the Internet, and we will not be liable for any lack of security relating to the use of electronic communications by you. You agree that you will not hold COHESION liable for any damages resulting from any loss of privacy or security occurring in connection with any communications over such networks.
RECORDS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
COHESION has in place a policy regarding the storage of your Personal Information and will only store the Personal Information as long as COHESION considers it necessary or beneficial for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or for legal, regulatory, audit or record-keeping purposes.
The following paragraph applies if your Personal Information is subject to the GDPR or the CPRA. We will keep a record of the Personal Information that we receive from you in order to answer your inquiry or request. We will keep a copy of your Personal Information held for the specific purpose for which it was provided (such as to provide professional services to you), until such purpose has come to an end and we no longer need to comply with a legal obligation that requires us to retain your Personal Information. We will delete our copy of your Personal Information in accordance with COHESION’s document retention policy, although we may retain a record of certain Personal Information to the extent that and for so long as we are required to do so by applicable law. For example, if you have contacted us to ask for the processing of your Personal Information to be erased, we will retain a record of your request in order to ensure that we comply with your wishes. More information on our retention policy can be obtained by contacting us using the contact information in the “Contact Us” section below.
VII. STORAGE AND TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO OTHER COUNTRIES
COHESION only maintains offices in the United States. However, if you are located in the EEA, the UK and/or Switzerland and provide data or information to COHESION, it may be transferred to, processed in, stored at or accessible from a destination outside the EEA, the UK and/or Switzerland, such as the United States. By providing your Personal Information, you agree to this transfer, processing and storing. We will take steps reasonably necessary to ensure your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Please do not provide your Personal Information to COHESION if the laws in your country restrict these types of transfers. Your provision of Personal Information to COHESION means that you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
VIII. EXCLUSIONS
As a professional services provider, COHESION does not seek to, nor do we knowingly collect, information directly from children under the age of 16. If a child has directly provided us with Personal Information, a parent or guardian of that child may contact us to have the information deleted from our records. To do so, contact COHESION through the information provided below in the “Contact Us” section.
CONTACT US
For questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, including to exercise your rights pursuant to the “Your Rights to Personal Information” section above, please contact us at:
By Phone: 214-528-4511
By Postal Mail: Cohesion Companies
Attn: Privacy Team
8144 Walnut Hill Lane Suite
1100 Dallas, Texas 75231
By E-mail: support@cohesionco.com
- UPDATES TO PRIVACY POLICY
From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy which can be found on COHESION.com. If we do, we do, we will note near the top of this notice the date that any changes are made and/or when they become effective. If the changes being made are material or if required by law, we may alert you to the changes in a more prominent way. Your inaction or continued use of our services or provision of Personal Information after any such notices, will tell us that you agree to these changes.