Privacy Policy

American Institutional Partners and its affiliates, (collectively “AIP”) understands the importance of protecting our customers’ information, and therefore, client privacy is taken seriously by AIP. AIP is committed to protecting a client’s privacy and earning the client’s trust, and respects the client’s right to keep personal information confidential and to avoid unwanted solicitations. AIP, therefore, believes it is important for clients to understand how we use the information that customers provide to us through the normal course of business. This privacy policy discloses the details of what information we collect about clients as well as how we use that information. We may revise this privacy policy from time-to-time by updating the information posted on this web site. Amendments to the privacy policy will be effective when posted. You should therefore periodically visit this page to review the current privacy policy, so that you are aware of any such revisions. You acknowledge that by accessing this website after an update to the Privacy Policy has been posted, you are agreeing to the terms of the Privacy Policy as modified.

Information Collection

AIP collects and stores information about people and assets to quote and service our financial products and programs. AIP may also collect information as required by the PATRIOT Act or similar regulation or law. This information allows us to better serve clients and to administer the customer relationship. Some of the information is called Nonpublic Personal Information, which generally means information that is provided by the client, obtained by AIP, or that results from client’s transactions with AIP. It does not include information available to the general public. The type of information AIP collects varies according to the products or services the client requests and may include:

Application Information
AIP may receive this type of information from the client on applications or other forms, by phone and online. Initiating the application process constitutes consent for AIP to use the information as described in this policy. Application information includes, but is not limited to:

• Client’s name, address, and telephone number, e-mail address, social security number, date of birth, and gender.
• The purpose of any transaction, and what assets will be pledged. This information, and related questions, helps AIP to screen and evaluate a client’s application, and provide the client with a formal proposal or initiate a personal consultation.
• Bank account information to allow us to electronically transfer funds to you as necessary.

Transaction Information
If you are a client who subscribes to any of our services, then AIP may collect and store additional information about you and your company. Such information is generated through client transactions with AIP, its affiliates, insurance carriers, third party administrators, marketing organizations, individual life insurance and annuity authorized representatives, lenders, or others. This information includes, but is not limited to:

• Client’s personal and investment assets, tax strategies, retirement plans, testamentary dispositions, and insurance policies.
• Information you provide to AIP to establish a business relationship, such as company, contact, or billing information provided through online or paper forms.
• Information created and maintained by AIP for its clients in order to maintain the business relationship and provide superior customer service. Examples include account status, choice of services, and customer audit logs.
• Information related to your company that you save within applications or forms maintained by AIP. This information is stored within AIP’s databases in order to provide you with the requested services.

Web Site Information
Whenever a client visits any web site on the Internet, including aipcapital.com, certain information from the client’s computer may be captured. The information AIP may receive from the client’s computer when the AIP website is contacted includes: * Non-personally identifying statistical Information about your visit to AIP web site(s), to include aipcapital.com. This information is compiled to allow AIP to improve its web site design and to determine the relative importance of its services. The information collected in this manner includes:

• Date and time content was accessed;
• The referring website visited before a AIP web site;
• The domain name and IP (Internet protocol) address from which you accessed our site;
• The operating system and web browser you used to access content;
• The specific pages you viewed during your visit; and
• City, state, and country of the visitor’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) if available for demographic purposes.
• Use of Cookies - From time-to-time, AIP may use ‘cookies’ within its web site pages. Cookies are small pieces of information about your visit stored on your computer’s hard disk. Cookies are commonly used to store information about your last visit, such as selections you may have made while navigating the web site, non-personal technical information listed above, or your browsing patterns. Most Internet browsers now support cookies. Many of them allow users to disable cookies. However, cookies are often required to provide features within many web sites. Examples of AIP’s use of cookies includes saving information that will allow AIP’s Contact Us form to pre-fill your name, phone number, and e-mail address based on a previously submitted request.
• Additionally, you may encounter cookies or other similar devices on our website that are placed by third parties. We do not control the use of cookies by third parties.
• Information you provide to AIP through its web site via online forms and applications, such as services request forms, application forms, or web site messages to AIP. For instance, one web site message form collects: a potential client’s first and last name, address, e-mail, and phone number. This information may be used to initiate a consultation.

Information Use Within AIP

AIP uses the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To improve our services - we analyze some of the information we collect in order to improve our services. Studying how our clients use our web site and our services provides valuable insight into how we can make them more useful and easier to use.
• Providing superior customer service and maintaining client relationships - the information we collect allows our customer service personnel to respond to your needs more quickly.
• To tell you about new or enhanced services we may offer - by understanding how you use our services, we can give you the opportunity to review other services that may be of value to you.
• To send marketing material related to updates to available AIP services as they become available. Note that you will have the ability to opt out of this as noted below.

Sharing Information with Others

First and foremost, AIP NEVER sells customer lists or Nonpublic Personal Information to third parties; however, such information may be disclosed to others as permitted by law. Generally, this includes disclosures to third parties that are necessary to effect, administer or enforce a client’s transaction with AIP, or in connection with servicing a client account. These parties may include, but are not limited to, lenders, insurance support organizations, authorized representatives and brokers, accountants, attorneys, financial planners, third party administrators, and courts and government agencies. In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, AIP will not disclose information obtained from consumer reporting agencies without the client’s consent.

AIP may also disclose information to people and companies that perform marketing services on behalf of AIP to financial institutions with which AIP may have joint marketing agreements. The purpose of this is to inform the client of other financial products or services jointly offered, endorsed, or sponsored by AIP, and that AIP believes the client may find useful. AIP is highly selective in choosing these companies, and we restrict the information we provide them to only what they need to offer and administer these services. We also require them to comply with strict standards of security and confidentiality, and they are not permitted to release. Use or transfer any customer information to any other party for their own purposes.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we may disclose and/or transfer customer information (i) in connection with any merger, sale, or liquidation of all or part of our business; (ii) if disclosure is required pursuant to a request for specific customer information to comply with a subpoena, court order, and/or other legal instrument, legal proceeding or relevant law, or (ii) if there is an immediate, imminent threat to the safety of any person, AIP, or our web site.

AIP may use third-party service providers to maintain our website or perform other work on our behalf. These persons may have access to the Nonpublic Personal Information you submit to AIP to allow them to perform their duties. They are not allowed to use the information for any other reason.

AIP may establish links to third-party websites. AIP has no control over those websites. Your access and use of those websites are determined by the terms of use and privacy policy of those websites. AIP does not warrant or represent any terms of use or privacy policy on third-party websites accessed from a link on AIP’s website.

Information Confidentiality and Security

AIP is committed to preventing others from unauthorized access to Nonpublic Personal Information, and we maintain procedures and technology designed for this purpose. We take several steps to protect Nonpublic Personal Information we have about you, including the following:

• We require outside companies and independent contractors to whom we provide Nonpublic Personal Information for marketing, servicing, or processing purposes to enter into a confidentiality agreement that restricts the use of the information to those purposes and prohibits independent use of the information.
• We make use of hardware and/or software firewalls to protect Nonpublic Personal Information from unauthorized access.

Information Integrity Measures

AIP also strives to protect the integrity of clients’ Nonpublic Personal Information, and other customer-related information, through use of the following:

• We maintain regular backups of customer data in case of data loss or corruption;
• We use uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to prevent data loss during power spikes and power outages; and
• We use virus detection and elimination software to prevent corruption of customer data by viruses. Despite these measures, however, we cannot guarantee that Nonpublic Personal Information will be completely free from unauthorized access.

Electronic transmission of information is not 100% secure. AIP will attempt to provide industry standard encryption technology to protect any personal information when you transmit data to our website. However, AIP cannot warrant that such steps will be completely effective.

Criminals may attempt to obtain your personal information by sending an e-mail looking like it came from AIP. These e-mails may state that that your personal information through a link to a spoof website (e.g. Phishing or hoax e-mail). To entice you to click on the link, the e-mail suggests an urgent or threatening condition about your account. If you receive such an e-mail, do not click on the link. Simply delete it or report it to info@aipcapital.com. Even if you do not provide the information, the link could subject your computer to a background installation of a key logging or virus software. If you need to access AIP’s website, always enter the full URL (www.aipcapital.com) into your browser. Do not access the website by clicking on a link in an e-mail or other website.

Clients Opt Out, Update Personal Information, and Privacy Questions

Clients may opt out of receiving notices of new or upgraded services from AIP and AIP partners by sending an opt out request to info@aipcapital.com. In your request, please include your name, company, loans (if any) you have through AIP, your contact information, and the nature of your opt out request. Clients may not opt out, however, of receiving information from AIP that is essential for maintaining or updating Clients’ accounts or system information. In addition, opt out does not include updates that may be presented within other AIP online services. Clients may review their personal information on communication provided to them in regards to their loans or loan requests. Presently, there is no online database that connects to our web site that allows for online review. To verify and/or change personal information please contact us through any means located on our contact us page.

© 2003 American Institutional Partners