Privacy Policy Statement and Disclosure

This policy is amended from time to time. The most current version of this policy was updated on June 15, 2020. For more information, you can make a request to the Privacy Office (by phone or email).

Your privacy is important to us

Co-operators Financial Investment Services Inc., (referred to in this policy as "we", "us" or "CFIS") have built client relationships based on a foundation of trust. We are committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality, accuracy, and security of the personal information collected, used, retained and disclosed in the course of doing business with you. Only authorized personnel have access to your information and our systems and processes are designed to prevent the loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of your personal information. When we request your personal information, we will explain the purpose and obtain your consent. We share your information only as required and in limited instances. We keep your personal information only as long as it is required.

What is considered “personal information”?

“Personal Information” means any information about an identifiable individual. Examples of what we may collect include:

• name, address, email and telephone number
• age, date of birth, family and marital status
• employment information
• banking information
• identification numbers (such as Social Insurance Number)
• assets and liabilities

The following are the purposes for which we may collect, use, or disclose your personal information:

Prior to collecting your personal information, we will explain the purpose of our request and obtain your consent.

If we require your personal information for any other reason, we will contact you, explain the new purpose and ask for your consent.

As part of our relationship with you, we may collect, use, retain and disclose your personal information:

• to verify your identity and confirm the information you provided
• to communicate with you by electronic means (e.g. email, telephone and fax) or regular mail
• to process redemptions
• to respond to other inquiries pertaining to your account
• to meet regulatory requirements
• to detect and prevent fraud
• to conduct data analytics and market research
• to respond to your inquiries/concerns
• to improve and personalize your experience
• with your additional consent, to share additional information that may be of interest to you on behalf of our group of companies our business partners

Who would we share information with?

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information with others where necessary and appropriately, but only if we need to for the purposes listed above, including:

• With other ^*Co-operators (Only authorized employees of The Co-operators companies will have access to personal, confidential information and such access will be limited to the information strictly necessary to carry out their duties.)
• Service providers such as Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA), AVISO Wealth Inc.
• your mutual fund representative
• third parties who perform services on our behalf to mail statements, provide secure data storage or transacting trades on behalf of clients.
• Self-regulatory authorities such as Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and Canadian Investor Protection Fund.
• parties involved in the sale, acquisition, disposition, merger, or amalgamation of companies or as part of other business arrangements such as joint ventures

^*The Co-operators is a group of Canadian companies focusing on insurance and a range of wealth management products and investment services. The Co-operators group of companies includes:

• Co-operators General Insurance Company
• Co-operators Life Insurance Company
• COSECO Insurance Company
• CUMIS General Insurance Company
• CUMIS Life Insurance Company
• Federated Agencies Limited
• HB Group Insurance Management Ltd.
• Co-operators Financial Investment Services Inc.

What are your rights?

You have the right to:

• verify and/or change your consent preferences specific to your personal information
• customize your preferences about how we contact you
• access your personal information and request updates or changes to it (if inaccurate)
• tell us that we cannot use or share your personal information for certain reasons
• control our use of cookies, web beacons and similar technology

If there is a change in your personal information or you become aware of an error in the personal information, we have on file for you, please contact your mutual fund representative. You must make a written request that provides us with sufficient detail to enable us, with reasonable effort, to identify you and the personal information and the correction being sought.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we will still do our best to provide you with our products or services; however, certain information must be provided in order to supply the requested products or services.

Use of cookies, web analytical tools, and similar technologies

We use cookies (small text files placed on your device) and similar technologies to provide our websites and online services and help collect data. Cookies allow us, among other things, to store your preferences and settings; enable you to sign-in; provide interest-based advertising; combat fraud; and analyze how our websites and online services are performing. We also use web beacons to help deliver cookies and gather usage and performance data. Our websites may include web beacons and cookies from third-party service providers.

Web analytics provide non-personally identifiable statistical information about how visitors interact with our website and applications. CFIS uses a variety of web analytics tools on websites and applications.

CFIS has enabled Google Analytics (which includes the following features: Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager Integration, and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting). We may use information collected through Google Analytics in conjunction with other data we have collected about you.

You have a variety of tools to control cookies, web beacons, web analytics tools and similar technologies, including browser controls to block and delete cookies and controls from some third-party analytics service providers to opt out of data collection through web beacons. Your browser and other choices may impact your experiences with our products. To opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads, please use the Ads Settings. To view the currently available opt-outs for the web, please visit Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Google’s Privacy Policy is available by clicking here.

To opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies you can visit www.aboutads.info/choices.

Questions, comments or requests?

Please contact your mutual fund representative directly, or you may contact our Privacy Office. Please include the company you deal with in your correspondence:

The Co-operators Privacy Office
130 Macdonell Street, Guelph, ON, N1H 6P8
Email: privacy@cooperators.ca
Tel: 1-888-887-7773