Putting Investors First - Legacy Trust

Posted May 14, 2014

In Perspectives

More than five years later, the 2008 global financial crisis continues to have long-lasting consequences. One unsurprising side effect of the crisis is that it has led to increased public cynicism about our economic and political institutions, and about the financial services industry as a whole.

The CFA Institute, a group of global leaders that work to raise the standard of professional excellence in the investment industry, recently conducted a survey that confirmed a strong need to rebuild trust in finance. This wide-ranging study surveyed more than 2,100 individual and institutional investors in the U.S. and abroad, and found that although 73% of investors believe they have fair opportunity to profit by investing in capital markets, only 53% of investors trust investment firms to do what is right. In response to these findings, the Institute recently launched the Future of Finance initiative as a global effort to shape a trustworthy, forward-thinking financial industry that better serves society.

Part of that initiative included the development of a “Statement of Investor Rights” to advise buyers of financial services of the conduct they are entitled to expect from financial service providers. These rights reflect the fundamental ethical principles that are critical to achieving confidence and trust in any professional relationship. As Senior Investment Manager at Legacy Trust I am proud to say that since our inception over ten years ago, we have always held ourselves to the highest ethical standards when providing investment services to our clients, and we are proud to call ourselves fiduciaries that act in our clients’ best interests.

I encourage you to read and share the Statement of Investor Rights (a link is provided below). It is our hope that by sharing this information we can help to raise the bar in terms of transparency, fairness, and personal integrity that investors should expect from their advisors, as our clients have always been able to count on from Legacy Trust.

http://investorsfirstmichigan.org/

http://cfainstitute.org/learning/future/pages/index.aspx?WPID=Strategic_Home&PageName=Homepage

Legacy Trust and Your Right to Financial Privacy

At Legacy Trust we have established policies and practices that respect the financial privacy of all individuals who use our trust company. We believe it is critical to comply with the laws and regulations designed to secure your financial privacy. Your relationship with us as our client is very important to us, and we want you to understand our policies and practices about handling your information.

This Policy applies to you – This Policy applies to our relationships with individual clients who inquire about or obtain products or services from us for personal, family and household purposes.

Strict security measures – We take the security of information very seriously. We have established security standards and procedures to prevent access to client information. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to guard client information.

Limited employee access – We have established procedures to limit employee access to information to only those employees with a business reason for accessing such information. We educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and client privacy. We take appropriate disciplinary measures to enforce employee responsibilities regarding client information.

Why we collect information – We collect information about you to:

accurately identify you;
protect and administer your records, accounts and funds;
help us design or improve our products and services;
understand your financial needs;
save you time when you apply for new products and services; offer you quality products and services; and comply with certain laws and regulations;

We collect information – We collect and maintain your personal information so that we can provide investment management and other services to you. The types and categories of information that we collect and maintain about you include:

Information we receive from you to open an account or provide investment advice or other services to you (such as your home address, social security number, telephone, financial information and investment objectives).
Information that we generate to service your account or from our transactions with you (such as account statements and other financial information).
Information on your transactions with nonaffiliated third parties.

We have established procedures so that the financial information we collect is accurate, current and complete. We are committed to work with you to promptly correct any inaccurate information.

Our selective sharing of information – In order for us to provide investment management and other services to you, we do disclose your personal information in very limited instances, which include:

Disclosures to nonaffiliated companies as permitted by law, including those who help us service your account (such as providing account information to brokers and custodians).
Other limited disclosures as permitted by law, for example, required reports to government entities.

We do not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes. We do not sell your information.

Former clients – If you end your relationship with us, we will continue to adhere to the privacy policies and practices described in this notice.

USA PATRIOT Act

Important Information About Procedures For Opening A New Account

To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who opens an account.

What this means for you: When you open an account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver’s license or other identifying documents.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause; however, federal law prohibits us from waiving these requirements.

You are leaving the Legacy Trust website

Legacy Trust makes no representation concerning nor is it responsible for the quality, content, nature, or security of any hyperlinked site. This link is provided as a convenience and does not imply any investigation or endorsement of the site.

Warning!

Do not send sensitive information over email. If you need to communicate sensitive information, please call us at 616.454.2852

The views expressed on Linkedin do not necessarily reflect the views of Legacy Trust