How we use your personal information under UK GDPR. Last updated: November 2026

This notice explains how Simple Solutions Financial Planning Ltd (“Simple Solutions”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects and uses your personal information when you visit our website, get in touch, use one of our online tools, become a client, pay an invoice, apply for a job or deal with us in any other way.

The short version

• We only use your information when the law allows us to.
• We use it to answer your enquiries, look after you as a client, meet our legal and FCA obligations, run the business and, where allowed, keep you updated about what we do.
• We use AI tools to help us work more efficiently. They support our team. They never replace the judgement of a qualified adviser. “How we use AI” below explains how.
• You have rights over your information, including the right to stop marketing at any time.

Who we are

Simple Solutions Financial Planning Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice. That means we decide how and why it is used.

We are registered in England and Wales under company number 06920858, with our registered office at The Base, Dallam Lane, Warrington, Cheshire WA2 7NG. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 511977) and registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under number ZA054520.

How to contact us

For any question about your information, to use your rights or to raise a concern, please contact:

• FAO: Data Controller
• Post: Simple Solutions Financial Planning Ltd, The Base, Dallam Lane, Warrington, Cheshire WA2 7NG
• Phone: 01925 266 628
• Email: info@simplesolutionsfp.com

What we collect

What we hold depends on how you deal with us. It can include:

• Identity and contact details, such as your name, date of birth, address, email and phone number.
• What you tell us in enquiries, emails, calls and meetings, and our replies.
• Answers you give in our online tools, such as the Retirement Confidence Scorecard.
• If you become a client: financial details (income, spending, assets, debts, pensions, investments, protection and tax), employment and business details, family details, and the documents we need to confirm your identity.
• Payment details if you pay an invoice by card (see “Paying an invoice”).
• Your CV and application details if you apply for a job with us.
• Technical details such as your IP address, device, browser and how you use our website (see “Your visit to our website”).

Where we get it from

We usually collect personal information directly from you. In some cases, we also collect personal information from third parties, such as:

• Professional advisers you authorise (e.g. solicitor, accountant).
• Product providers and platforms (e.g. pension providers, insurers, investment platforms).
• Identity verification and fraud prevention providers.
• Credit reference agencies (where used).
• Publicly available sources (e.g. Companies House, professional registers).

Whether you have to provide personal information

Where we are providing financial planning services, we may need certain personal information to enter into and perform a contract with you and to meet legal and regulatory obligations. If you do not provide the information we request, we may not be able to provide our services, respond fully to your enquiry, or meet our legal obligations.

Your visit to our website

When you use our website, we automatically collect some technical information, such as your IP address, device and browser type, and the pages you visit. We use it to keep the site working, keep it secure and make it better. Some of this uses cookies (see “Marketing and cookies”).

Paying an invoice

If you pay us by card, we use the details needed to take the payment, such as your name, billing address and card details. Payments are handled securely by our payment provider. We never store your full card details. The payment provider also has its own privacy terms for the information it handles.

Why we use your information and our lawful basis

The law says we must have a valid reason, called a lawful basis, for each way we use your information. Ours are:

• Answering your enquiries and sending information you ask for. Basis: legitimate interests, or taking steps you have asked for before a contract.
• Giving financial planning advice and looking after your plans. Basis: contract and legal obligation (including FCA record keeping and know your client rules).
• Meeting our legal and regulatory duties, including working with regulators and law enforcement where required. Basis: legal obligation and legitimate interests.
• Running and improving our business, including using AI tools for drafting, summarising and analysis. Basis: legitimate interests.
• Sending newsletters, event invites and updates about our services. Basis: consent where the law requires it, otherwise legitimate interests. You can opt out at any time.
• Understanding how people engage with our emails and website so we can make our content more useful. Basis: legitimate interests or consent, depending on the method.
• Handling job applications. Basis: legitimate interests, or taking steps you have asked for before a contract.

Special category data

Some information, such as your health, is classed as special category data. We do not ask for it through our website, though you may choose to include it in a message. If you become a client, we may need health information, for example to arrange protection or an annuity, or to support you if you are in vulnerable circumstances. We only use it where the law allows, such as with your explicit consent or where it is needed to meet our legal duties.

Who we share your information with

We may share your personal information with the following categories of recipients where necessary for the purposes described in this notice. Full names, addresses and contact details of named third parties are available on request:

• Compliance and training providers: True Potential and The IFA Corporation (TIFAC).
• IT and technology providers: including WN1-IT and our customer relationship management and project management tool (ClickUp) and document storage providers.
• Approved AI providers: see “How we use AI” below for the list of providers and what they process for us.
• Identity verification providers: SmartSearch.
• Product providers, platforms and pension trustees: where we arrange or administer products on your behalf.
• Professional advisers: our accountants, lawyers and auditors where appropriate.
• Regulators and law enforcement: including the FCA, ICO, HMRC and the courts where required or permitted by law.
• Third parties involved in business transactions: if we are acquired, merge or restructure, your information may form part of the assets transferred. We will notify you in advance of any such transfer where required.

When we use suppliers to process personal information on our behalf, we require them to protect it under a written agreement and to use it only for the services they provide to us.

How we keep it safe

We use sensible technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including secure systems, access controls and staff training. If a data breach affects you, we will tell you and the ICO where the law requires us to.

How we use AI

We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help us run our business and serve our clients more effectively. AI assists our team; it does not replace them. Every AI output that touches a client (directly or indirectly) is reviewed and validated by a qualified member of our team before it is used.

What we use AI for

• Drafting and editing internal communications, reports and policy documents.
• Research, summarisation and ideation on publicly available information.
• Preparing meeting notes, transcriptions and action logs.
• Drafting content such as articles, newsletters, video and podcast scripts.
• Supporting financial planning analysis (such as scenario modelling, cash flow inputs and initial client summaries), always reviewed by a qualified adviser before being used.
• Drafting annual suitability reports for adviser review (never as a final output without adviser sign-off).

Our AI providers

• Anthropic (Claude): Internal drafting, research and content creation.
• Saturn AI: Meeting notetaking, transcription and sometimes annual suitability-report drafting.
• ClickUp: Project management.
• Microsoft Copilot: Admin, email drafting and Excel work.

Our AI safeguards

• Recording meetings: where we use AI to record or transcribe a meeting, we will ask you first. You can ask us not to, or to stop, at any time – we will simply take notes the traditional way.
• Written policy and governance: we have an AI Policy & Governance Framework that all staff must follow, with annual review and oversight by our Compliance Officer.
• No public AI tools with your data: we do not enter client personal data into public or free-tier AI tools. We use business-grade plans.
• Data Processing Agreements: where AI providers process personal data on our behalf, we put written data processing agreements in place and configure those tools so that your data is not used to train their models.
• No solely automated decisions: we do not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing. AI does not produce regulated financial advice without full adviser review and sign-off.
• Explainability: we will always be able to explain in plain English the basis of any output that materially affects advice given to you. “The AI said so” is never an acceptable answer.
• Fair treatment: we monitor AI outputs for accuracy, bias and consumer harm in line with our Consumer Duty obligations, with particular care for vulnerable clients.

If you have any questions about how we use AI, please contact us at info@simplesolutionsfp.com.

International transfers

Some of our suppliers (including some of our AI providers) host or process personal information outside the UK, in countries including the United States and within the European Economic Area. Where we transfer your personal information outside the UK, we put appropriate safeguards in place, such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (or equivalent contractual safeguards approved under UK GDPR) so that your information receives an essentially equivalent level of protection.

How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this notice, including to meet legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements. Retention periods vary depending on what the information is and why we have it. For example:

• Website enquiries: we typically keep enquiry records for up to 2 years unless they become client records.
• Client and advice records: we keep these for as long as needed to provide services and for the periods required by law and financial services regulation. In most cases this is at least 6 years from the end of our relationship; for Defined Benefit Transfers and Scheme Money Purchase Transfers we retain records indefinitely.
• HMRC-related records: we keep these for at least 7 years.
• Recruitment: if you apply for a job, we keep application information for as long as needed to manage recruitment and for a reasonable period afterwards.
• Marketing suppression: if you ask us not to contact you, we may keep limited information (e.g. your email address) so we can record and respect your preferences.

Where we cannot specify an exact period, we use criteria such as the volume, nature and sensitivity of the information, the purposes for which we use it, and legal and regulatory requirements.

Your data protection rights

You have rights over your personal information. These rights are not absolute and may apply only in certain circumstances. You can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details above. We may need to request information to confirm your identity.

• Access: request a copy of your personal information.
• Rectification: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Erasure: ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances.
• Restriction: ask us to limit how we use your information in certain circumstances.
• Object: object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests; you can also object to direct marketing at any time.
• Data portability: request to receive certain information in a structured, commonly used format, or have it sent to another provider (where applicable).
• Withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
• Object to automated decisions: object to decisions taken by solely automated means and ask us to explain the basis of any output that materially affects you.

We normally respond within one calendar month. There is no charge for this service unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee or refuse to respond.

Marketing and cookies

Marketing

We may send you marketing by email, text, phone, post or in-app notifications where permitted by law. You can opt out of marketing at any time by using the unsubscribe option in the message or by contacting us. If you opt out, we may still send you non-marketing messages, for example, about a service you have requested or to meet our legal obligations.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies (e.g. pixels and Google Analytics) on our website. Some are strictly necessary to make the site work. Others help us analyse performance and improve the site or support marketing.

Your choices

You can control cookies through your browser settings and, where available, our cookie settings tool/banner. Where required, we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.

Changes to this privacy notice

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. We will post the updated version on our website and, where appropriate, notify you by email if we have your email address. This notice was last updated in November 2026.

Complaints

If you have concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact us first using the details above.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

• Telephone: 0303 123 1113
• Online: https://ico.org.uk/