Complaints

When someone is dealing with Snowgum Financial Services or one of its representatives and has a complaint, in the first instance they should contact the business director, Matthew Vickers at the office of Snowgum Financial Services.

c/- matt@snowgumfs.com

Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd

Level 8, 99 Elizabeth St

Sydney NSW 2000

If in the first instance the complaint cannot be resolved, we will provide you written instructions on the complaint process, with an outline of the next point of contact being the complaints manager at the licensee. Any client has the right to an independent complaints service if the complaint is not dealt with by the company or licensee to your satisfaction.

Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd and Snowgum Financial Services are members of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority Limited (AFCA). If your complaint cannot be resolved to your satisfaction by us you have the right to refer the matter to the AFCA. AFCA can be contacted at:

Mailing address - Australian Financial Complaints Authority Limited, GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC 3001

Ph - 1800 931 678

Email - info@afca.org.au

Website - www.afca.org.au

Core Disclosure

Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd (ACN 603 703 859) is a Corporate Authorised Representative (Corporate ASIC AR number 001001581 ) of Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd (Australian Financial Services Licensee (AFSL) No 229302 & Credit Licensee (ACL) No 229302 ǀ ABN 68 074 294 081). Our financial planning advice and services are provided through Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty ltd.

General Advice Warning

Any advice contained on this website is of a general nature only and does not take into account your circumstances or needs. You must decide if this information is suitable to your personal situation or seek advice. Prior to investing in any particular product, you should read the Product Disclosure Statement.

Terms and Conditions of Use for Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd clients

These are the terms and conditions for use of this site and access to the information contained on this site. Neither Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd, Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd nor its Authorised Representatives warrant or represent that the information in this site is free from errors or omission or is suitable for your intended use.

Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd, Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd nor its Authorised Representatives

  • Do not give any warranty or make any representation as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness or security of the information contained in this site and as to changes in circumstances after the date of publication that may impact on the accuracy of the information;
  • May change and update the information from time to time;
  • Make no representation in relation to, and are not responsible in any way, for any other site you access through this site; and Own the copyright in the information in this site;
  • Any trademarks appearing in this site are the trademarks of a member of the group or a third party. Users must not use or reproduce any of the trademarks that appear in this site.

Users of this site must not:

  • Do anything to alter or modify the information in this site;
  • Use the material in this site for any purpose other than as a source of information for personal use unless authorised to the contrary;
  • Distribute, copy or otherwise reproduce in any way any of the material available from this site unless it is expressly authorised;
  • Post any material which is defamatory, in breach of copyright, in breach of the current legislation or otherwise in any way unlawful or inappropriate.

Users can print a hard copy of material on this site for their personal use only other than material where this is prohibited by a notice to that effect in this site.

Links to other sites are provided for your convenience only. Any such links do not constitute or imply endorsement or recommendations of any other company, product or service or any affiliation between Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd and other organisations (unless expressly stated). Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd does not control and is not responsible for the content of any other site accessed via this site.

Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

The information contained on this site is provided by Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd in good faith. The information is derived from sources believed to be accurate and current as at the date indicated in the respective sections of this site. Neither Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd, Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd nor any of its Directors, employees and authorised representatives give any representation or warranty as to the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the information, nor do they accept any responsibility arising in any way (including by negligence) for errors in, or omissions from, the information. In the case of goods or services supplied or offered by Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd as a corporate authorised representative of Peter Vickers Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd or any of its Directors or employees, liability for breach of any implied warranty or condition which cannot be excluded is limited at Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd option to either: (a) the supply of the goods (or equivalent goods) or services again; or (b) the payment of the cost of having the goods (or equivalent goods) or services supplied again.

Snowgum Privacy Policy

Snowgum Financial Services respects the privacy of all people we deal with and we uphold high standards of privacy practice and security. This policy explains how we handle personal information and how we interact with you online.

Whenever we handle personal information, we take steps to ensure that appropriate standards of privacy practice and security are applied.

Snowgum Financial Services Privacy Policy sets out why we need to collect personal information, how we collect it, what we do with it, how it's stored and who we might share it with. The Policy also describes how you can access or correct information we hold about you, how you can ask further questions or make a complaint, and information about our websites and online activities.

The information we collect

For most financial services we provide it is necessary for us to collect 'personal information' such as your name, identity details, photos, contact details and financial information. We may also need to collect other personal details (such as gender, marital status and financial information) and other information from which you can be identified.

Health Information

We collect your health information where we offer you services that incorporate an insurance component or in processing claims in conjunction with you, including hardship claims when liaising with superannuation funds. We do not use or share that information for any purpose other than the underwriting or administration of your policy, claim or account, or as otherwise notified to you at the time we collect your information.

Sensitive Information

Generally, we do not collect sensitive information about you unless required by law or where you consent for us to do so (and in any event only where it is relevant to your financial services). We will not collect sensitive information about you where this is expressly prohibited by the relevant law in which jurisdictions both parties are operating. Sensitive information includes information relating to:

  • race
  • political or religious beliefs
  • sexual orientation and sexual life
  • criminal convictions
  • membership of professional or trade associations or unions
  • biometric and health information (unless required for insurance needs)
  • information about your affiliation with certain organisations, such as professional associations (unless required for insurance occupation validation)

Why we collect personal information

We collect personal information about you which is reasonably necessary to:

  • provide you with quality products and services. This may include consumer facing services conducted by Snowgum Financial Services or its related entities (Licensee services etc.) or services and advice provided in conjunction with external financial product providers like insurance businesses or business entities involved in supporting the investment services undertaken by Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd and its related entities
  • consider applications and approaches you make to us
  • conduct marketing and social functions
  • maintain your contact details
  • fulfil our legal obligations, such as those relating to taxation and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing or as otherwise authorised by you Without such information, we may not be able to meet your financial service expectations or provide you with a scaled level of service as appropriate to your needs. In such circumstances, we will process information (and sanitise information when necessary) to provide you with the most appropriate level of service that we can.

How we collect your information

We collect personal information about you directly from you — this can be in person, in documents you give us, from telephone calls, emails, competitions you enter, your access to our website or from transactions you make. We take reasonable steps to be transparent about how and why we collect personal data.

We may also collect your personal information from joint account holder(s) or third parties including public sources, your adviser(s), employer (or its affiliates), agents, introducers, referrers, brokers, our related companies and service providers (including credit reporting bodies and information service providers).

How we store your information

We keep personal information in physical and electronic records, at our premises and the premises of our service providers, which may include processing or storage in the cloud, which may mean in practice that this information is stored outside Australia. Where this occurs, we have elected to partner with industry leaders that are reasonably expected to protect the security and integrity of personal information.

We also keep records of our interactions with you (including by telephone, email and online) and of your transaction history.

How we use your information

We use personal information about you for the purpose for which it was provided to us, including to:

  • process applications
  • administer and manage our products and services (including monitoring, auditing, and evaluating those products and services)
  • model and test data (in a controlled environment)
  • develop scores, risk assessments and related analytical tools
  • communicate with you and deal with or investigate any complaints or enquiries We may also:
  • anonymise your data for our own purposes including market research, new product development and fraud mitigation

While we may sometimes - where it is lawful and with your permission if necessary - share personal information with companies we do business with (e.g. in product development, advice implementation, joint venture arrangements or distribution arrangements), we do not sell personal information for marketing purposes to other organisations or allow such companies to do this.

When your information is disclosed

Subject in all cases to local law, we may share personal information within Snowgum Financial Services and our licensee, and may disclose personal information outside Snowgum Financial Services:

  • as required by law or regulations, such as those relating to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing or as required by a regulator
  • to our service providers, who provide services in connection with our products and services (including archival, auditing, accounting, customer contact, legal, business consulting, banking, payment, delivery, data processing, data analysis, information broking, mailing, marketing, research, investigation, insurance, identity verification, brokerage, maintenance, trustee, securitisation, website and technology services)
  • to our affiliates, but only in the course of delivering services you have specifically requested
  • to your nominated professional adviser (if external to our business) with your permission
  • as contained in the terms and conditions of any specific product or service.
  • as part of open banking initiatives that may result in third parties accessing direct data feeds of investment and cash account transaction data
  • via third party data managers, particularly IRESS, Macquarie Bank, Netwealth and a range of insurers

We may also disclose your personal information (on a confidential basis) in connection with the undertaking of our principal investment activities including, but not limited to, acquisitions, mergers, and the management of any parts of our business or assets (including divestments), and the provision of any debt to another party.

In some circumstances the parties to whom we disclose personal information may operate outside of Australia or, in the case of data collected within the European Union, outside the European Union. Where this occurs, we take steps to protect personal information against misuse or loss and to comply with local law in respect of the transfer of your data from one jurisdiction to another. Those parties, in turn, may make such information available to the governments of such other countries in accordance with local law requirements.

Keeping information accurate and up to date

We take reasonable steps to ensure that all information we hold is as accurate as possible. You are able to contact us at any time and ask for its correction if you feel the information we have about you is inaccurate or incomplete.

Keeping information secure

We use security procedures and technology to protect the information we hold. Access to and use of personal information within Snowgum Financial Services seeks to prevent misuse or unlawful disclosure of the information — this includes internal policies, auditing, training and monitoring of staff.

If other organisations provide support services, we require them to take appropriate technical and organisational measures to secure the privacy of the information provided to them.

How you can access or correct your information

You can contact us to request access to or correction of your personal information. In normal circumstances we will give you full access or make the requested corrections to your information. However, there may be some legal or administrative reasons to deny these requests. If your request is denied, we will provide you with the reason why (if we can). Where we decide not to make a requested correction to your personal information and you disagree, you may ask us to make a note of your requested correction with the information.

Dealing with Snowgum Financial Services online

When you visit Snowgum Financial Services website(s) you will generally browse anonymously unless you have logged into a client portal or accessed the website from a personalised communication from Snowgum Financial Services.

For all visitors to our website, we use cookies and other web browser technologies to collect information such as the server your computer is logged on to, your browser type (for example, Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox), and your IP address. (An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer automatically and required for using the Internet). We may also derive the location associated with an IP address.

Once you have logged into a Snowgum Financial Services portal (or supporting service portal provider), accessed our website from an e-mail or other personalised communication sent to you, or provided us with personal information by completing a form online, we may be able to identify you and we may combine that with other information in order to provide you with a better online experience. If you would prefer not to be identified you can delete the cookies and reconfigure the cookie preferences on your internet browser.

Contact us

If you have any questions or complaints regarding privacy or information handling, please write to contact@snowgumfs.com or contact us by phone. We will respond to let you know who will be handling your matter and when you can expect a further response. If your concerns are not resolved to your satisfaction, you may be able to escalate your complaint to an external dispute resolution scheme or to a regulatory authority We can also provide details of the appropriate scheme/regulator for you, as these may vary by jurisdiction or product.

Privacy Policy updated 10 July 2019.

Further information

Please view Snowgum Financial Services Pty Ltd's Financial Services and Credit Guide (FSCG), linked at the top of this page, for additional information.