PRIVACY POLICY

A Guide to How We Use and Protect Client Information

Your personal and financial data is private information.  Whether you are an existing customer or considering a relationship with us, protecting your privacy is our priority.  In compliance with new privacy regulations, Benefit Alternatives is required to provide you an annual notice informing you of your rights as a customer/consumer and our obligations as it relates to federal privacy laws recently enacted, under Regulation S-P, to protect information you provide to us.

INFORMATION BENEFIT ALTERNATIVES COLLECTS

This personal information, not available publicly, may come from the following sources of information which you may have provided us:

• Name, Address and Phone Numbers
• Email Address
• Credit Card and/or Checking account information

WHY BENEFIT ALTERNATIVES COLLECTS PRIVATE INFORMATION

In order to provide you with the best services and products available, we need to evaluate your information for any strengths or weaknesses.  Our decisions regarding products and decisions must be based on sound judgements made from all the information you may have provided us.  It also helps us service your accounts and administer our business.

For example, we use information about you to:

• Respond more accurately and efficiently to your requests
• Identify opportunities to give you more convenience and control by developing products and services that may meet your objectives and benefit you
• Secure your accounts and help protect you and Benefit Alternatives from fraud

BENEFIT ALTERNATIVES WILL SAFEGUARD PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE

You may rely on us to protect the personal and private information you have entrusted to us.  Every precaution, in accordance with federal laws and regulations, is used to limit access to personal information about you to those employees who assist us in providing products and services to meet your needs.  Benefit Alternatives maintains internal physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect personal information about you.  Some of the steps we take to safeguard information you provide us include the following:

• Information is provided only to those who have a legitimate reason to know.  Employees of our office are required to adhere to company policies and procedures protecting customers'/consumers' information.
• From time to time, we may disclose your information to affiliated offices in order to determine which products or services are best suited to your needs.  Employees of such affiliated offices are required to follow our company's policies and procedures in safeguarding your privacy.
• We may also provide information to nonaffiliated companies to assist us in providing beneficial products or services to you.  In such a situation, we will provide only the information necessary for that assigned purpose to the nonaffiliated company.  Similar to our employees and those of our affiliated offices, we will require any non-affiliated office to follow company policies and procedures as well.
• In accordance with any state or federal laws, we may be required to release information in certain circumstances (i.e. protection against fraud).
• Our company will maintain strict physical, electronic, and procedural measures to protect your information.
• By law, we are required to notify you of our privacy policy on an annual basis.  Although we reserve the right to change our privacy policy, we will tell you of the changes promptly.

Importantly, we want to assure you that we will not sell client information to anyone.  Your rights as our customer/consumer are a priority to us.

BENEFIT ALTERNATIVES LIMITS THE SHARING OF INFORMATION

To protect your privacy, we limit the information we share both within and outside Benefit Alternatives.  We conduct our business with great respect for the confidential nature of the information being provided.  We will not share information about you, unless authorized by you, except as outlined below.

SHARING INFORMATION WITHIN BENEFIT ALTERNATIVES

The sharing of information within Benefit Alternatives allows us to provide you with complete and superior service.  We may share with Benefit Alternatives the information described above in the section captioned "Information Benefit Alternatives Collects."  This includes information about your transactions or experiences with us, information you supply on your account applications, and information we receive third parties.

You have the right to instruct us not to share among affiliated service companies certain information (other than information about our transactions and experiences with you) from your account applications or information we receive from third parties.  If you do not want us to share this information about you, please call us at: 419-509-0900.  Your request not to share this information will apply to all of your accounts with us, including any new accounts you open after your original request.

BENEFIT ALTERNATIVES SHARES INFORMATION WITH COMPANIES WHO HELP IT PROVIDE YOU SERVICES

Benefit Alternatives may share the information described under the section "Information Benefit Alternatives Collects" with companies external to Benefit Alternatives to complete a transaction you have requested or to help us service your account.  We may also share information with other institutions with which we have a joint marketing agreement.  We are highly selective in choosing these companies.  All companies with whom we do business are contractually obligated to comply with strict standards regarding security and confidentiality, and the information can be used only for the sole purpose of providing the service we have requested the company to perform.

Examples of the type of outside companies with which we may share information include: