Tiemann Investment Advisors will not disclose or release any confidential or personal information that you provide to us for any reason, other than in fulfillment of the investment services that you authorize us to do for you. TIA does collect and maintain records that contain confidential information of our clients and we maintain those in secure conditions and handle them, to the best of our ability, to protect the confidentiality of that information. Here is a run-down the types of information that TIA collects from its clients, how we keep it and what we use it for:

1. Contact Information (Temporary), so we can contact you.

When you first contact TIA to explore how TIA can help you with your portfolio needs, we will not collect any of your information but just discuss the TIA approach to investing (and our constraints, minimums, and fee). If you are interested in continuing the discussion (and meet TIA’s minimum), TIA will set up a meeting and collect your basic contact information at that time, to enable our communication with you.

2. Existing Investment Account Information Shared (Review only), so we can assess your financial situation with you.

Either at your first meeting or for a subsequent meeting, you may choose to provide Dr. Tiemann with information about your existing financial accounts, so that he can review your situation. Generally, clients opt to have Dr. TIemann’s assessment of prior account performance and provide copies of their existing account statements. These documents and any information contained on them remain your possession and are kept confidential except as to their review by Dr. Tiemann and his verbal discussion with you. No personal investment information is collected by TIA at this time, no copies of your documents are made or kept and if you choose not to hire TIA going forward, your original documents will be returned to you or copies you sent destroyed at your request. Any work process notes or documents created in the financial analysis review process will be destroyed. There will be no client file made or permanent records created at all. (TIA will only temporarily maintain a record of your contact information in a “Client Prospects” file until you have indicated what your continuing interest is.)

3. Formal TIA Account Proposal with Personal Investment Details and Analysis (TIA Client file created), providing our investment analysis and proposal to you.

If our meetings with you have indicated a good fit between your needs and TIA, and you express an interest in moving forward to consider an investment relationship, then TIA will provide you with a detailed proposal for TIA services. This proposal will contain specific investment detail. In order to do its analysis and provide this proposal, TIA may collect additional personal and financial information from you, your spouse and/or children and from your existing separate, joint and custody accounts, as you direct. TIA will create its proposal, which will contain summaries and analyses of this information. This TIA proposal will be provided to you and your spouse in person at a meeting with Dr. Tiemann and it will be reviewed with you in detail. A copy is maintained for TIA records, however, all personal and account information collected and contained in the proposal and all analysis provided by TIA is used exclusively for the purpose of providing detailed and comprehensive information to you regarding your assets, investments and TIA’s recommendations on them. An electronic file will be created for this proposal. At this time, should you not pursue an investment relationship, only this document file will be retained for TIA record archive purposes.

4. Client-specific account data (TIA New Client Accounts created), for clients authorizing services.

When a client retains TIA to provide investment management services, TIA works with the client to complete the necessary investment management agreements. These documents provide the authorization for TIA to buy and sell securities on behalf of the client, however, they never provide TIA the right to transfer or take custody of any client assets.  TIA explains and assists clients with completion of the TIA services contract along with the required forms providing authorization to the custodian for TIA to exercise management of client accounts.  The client and TIA both retain a set of these contract documents, which contain client-specific confidential account information. Among these documents will be forms sent to the client’s custodian banks, informing them of the investment management relationship. Dr. Tiemann handles all new account documentation personally, to ensure their complete security and confidentiality. His usage of this information is for the establishment of the new accounts and for ongoing authorization interaction with the custodian bank (typically Schwab or Fidelity) for confirmation of authorization to trade on behalf of the client accounts and for all follow-up processes. Upon completion of this process, these documents are securely retained in the Client Account File.

5. Client Account File (Ongoing use), client “hard-copy” information organized and protected.

After being retained by a client, TIA and the client will be in communication about the accounts, taxes, transfers, reports and other matters.  Upon receipt of letters, account forms or other documents, these exchanges may be handled and processed by Dr. Tiemann and his administrative assistant, and hard copies added to the client’s document file. These files are kept locked and access is limited to only Dr. Tiemann and his administrative assistant. These files may contain documents containing confidential personal and financial information but none of this data is collected other than in the originals in this hard-copy file, and it is not used for any purpose, other than as a record of information received by TIA from clients, or sent to clients by TIA, for the purposes of TIA’s provision of investment services.

6. Client Electronic Records (TIA’s Electronic Investment Files), client reporting.

TIA provides reports to clients through electronic transfers of encrypted .pdf documents, containing summary and detailed information about account performance. TIA creates its reports separately for each client and maintains records of such reports on its secure office computers and in secure back-up systems. These reports are protected by encryption, secure network administration and password protection and are not used for any purpose other than for providing investment reviews directly with clients. TIA sends these reports on a quarterly basis to its clients through the Internet to the email addresses provided by the client. While there is confidential information contained in these reports, there is no confidential information that could provide unauthorized access to any client account, should such a transmission get into the wrong hands.  TIA will never send you an email asking you to divulge any account or confidential information by email.  If you receive such a request which may be designed to look like a message from TIA, known as a “phishing” email, please do not respond to the email but forward it to our attention and/or call TIA immediately to report the incident.

7. Client Service Records (TIA’s Administrative Files), client preferences and service.

TIA strives to provide the best service possible and may create a Client Service Record that enables TIA support staff to remember whether you prefer tea or coffee and how you take it. These records are maintained strictly to enable us to serve you better.

NOTE ABOUT PHISHING
Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern to Tiemann Investment Advisors. Safeguarding your information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority. There, be assured that TIA will not, at any time, use an unsolicited email or a phone call from someone you do not know to request your social security number credit card information, bank login information or any other confidential information. For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website and please click here to read TIA’s Recommendations for Online Security.