Your Privacy is our Concern
At Pinnacle Insurance Group, Inc., (Pinnacle), we recognize that a key element of the agent/insured relationship is the trust which you place with us to respect the privacy and confidentiality of your personal financial and health information. We are committed to providing you with the highest quality insurance products backed by superior service. While personal information about you is fundamental to our ability to do this, your privacy is also very important to us. Pinnacle is therefore committed to keeping that information secure and confidential.
When you apply to Pinnacle for insurance, you disclose a certain amount of information about yourself to us. The collection, use, and disclosure of such information are regulated by law. In addition, Pinnacle, its employees, affiliates, and insurance carriers recognize the confidentiality expectations of our prospects and policyholders. Therefore, it is the policy of Pinnacle:
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To collect only information necessary or relevant to our business;
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To make a reasonable effort to ensure that the information we act upon is accurate, relevant, timely and complete;
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To use only legitimate means to collect information;
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To make personal information available externally only to respond to legitimate business needs, to regulatory or other governmental authorities, or as otherwise permitted by law; and
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To limit employee access to personally identifiable information to those who have a business reason for knowing such information.
Our Company Policy
We do not disclose any non-public personal information about our current or former individual policyholders or claimants to any affiliate or any non-affiliated third party other than those permitted by law and only for the purpose of transacting the business of your insurance coverage or your claim.
This notice will tell you about the kinds of information that Pinnacle or its carriers may collect, what is done with such information after it is collected, and how you can find out about the information we have about you in our records.
What kind of personal information do we collect about you and from whom?
Pinnacle obtains most of our information directly from you. The application you complete, as well as any additional information you provide, generally gives us most of the information we need to know. We may also collect personal information about you from any of your other transactions with us, our affiliates, or others. We may contact you by phone or mail to obtain additional information.
Depending on the nature of your insurance transaction, we may need additional information about you or other individuals proposed for coverage. For auto insurance, we may need information from motor vehicle records. For property coverages, we may send someone to inspect your property and verify information about its value and condition. A photo of any property to be insured might be taken. We may review insurance claims information and other loss information reports, and we may also obtain medical or financial information to assist us in the adjustment of claims.
We may obtain the additional information we need from third parties, such as other agencies, government agencies, information clearinghouses, courts and other public records. We may obtain consumer credit information from a consumer reporting agency. A report from a consumer reporting agency may contain information as to creditworthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, hobbies, occupation, personal characteristics, or mode of living.
An investigative consumer report, containing the same type of information, may also be obtained from an agency that gathers information through personal interviews with your neighbors, friends, associates, acquaintances, or others who may have knowledge concerning those items of information. If we order an investigative consumer credit report, we will notify you as required by state laws and federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Under the FCRA, you have the right to ask to be personally interviewed if we order an investigative consumer report. Upon written request, we will give you or tell you how to get a copy of the report. The agency that prepares a consumer report for us may retain that report and disclose it to other persons as permitted by law.
What do we do with the personal information collected about you?
Personal information that has been collected about you may be retained both in our records and in your agent’s files. We review it in evaluating your request for insurance coverage and in determining your rates. We will also refer to and use such information in our policy records for purposes related to issuing and servicing insurance policies and settling claims. We do retain information about our former customers in our files for Insurance Department market conduct purposes and for use in handling claims submitted to us after policy termination, and we may use such information about you which is in our files for insurance marketing purposes or to help you with your overall insurance program.
We do not participate in selling your mailing address, telephone number, email address, or other personally identifying information to third-party vendors for marketing purposes.
If coverage is declined or the charge for coverage is increased because of information contained in a consumer report we obtained, we will tell you as required by state law and the FCRA. We also will give you the name and address of the consumer reporting agency making the report.
How do we protect the confidentiality of personal information in our records?
Pinnacle maintains appropriate security procedures, and uses a variety of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information in our possession and to prevent unauthorized access to your information in whatever medium it is stored. We also limit employee access to personally identifiable information to those with a business reason for knowing such information. Pinnacle also believes in educating its employees so that they will understand the importance of the confidentiality of personal information, and in taking appropriate measures to enforce employee privacy responsibilities.
To whom do we disclose personal information about you?
We do not disclose any personal information about our customers or former customers, except as permitted by law. That means we may, if necessary, make disclosures to, or share information about you with the following types of third parties without your consent:
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Our affiliated companies;
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Your independent agent or broker;
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Parties who perform a business, professional, or insurance function for our company, including our reinsurance companies;
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Businesses that help us with data processing or marketing;
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Independent claims adjusters, appraisers, investigators, medical professionals, and attorneys who need information to investigate, defend, or settle a claim involving you;
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Businesses that conduct scientific research, including actuarial or underwriting studies;
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Other insurance companies, agents, or consumer reporting agencies as is reasonably necessary in connection with any application, policy, or claim involving you;
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Insurance support organizations which are established to collect information for the purpose of detecting and preventing insurance crimes or fraudulent claims;
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Medical care institutions or medical professions to verify coverage or conduct an audit of services;
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Insurance regulatory agencies in connection with the regulation of our business;
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Law enforcement or other governmental authorities to protect our legal interests or in case of suspected fraud or illegal activities;
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Authorized persons as ordered by a subpoena, warrant or other court order or as required by law;
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Certificateholders or policyholders for the purpose of providing information regarding the status of an insurance transaction; or
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Lienholders, mortgagees, lessors or other persons shown on our records as having a legal beneficial interest in your policy.
Again, we do not participate in selling your mailing address, telephone number, email address, or other personally identifying information to third-party vendors for marketing purposes.
How can you find out about personal information we have about you?
You have the right to know what kind of information we keep in our files about you, to have reasonable access to it, and to receive a copy. Contact us by any of the means provided at the end of this notice if you have questions about what personal information we may have on file. Tell us what information you would like to receive. Provide your complete name, address, date of birth, type(s) of policy held or applied for, and all policy or claim numbers issued to you by us. Certain types of information generally collected when evaluating claims or possible lawsuits need not be disclosed to you.
Within thirty (30) business days of receipt of your request, we will inform you in writing of the nature and substance of locatable, retrievable, and available recorded personal information about you in our files. You may review this information in person or receive a copy at a reasonable charge. We will also identify any person or organizations listed in our records to whom we have disclosed this information within the past two (2) years. In addition, you will be given the name and address of any consumer credit reporting agency that prepared a report about you so that you can contact them for a copy of that report if you wish.
After you have reviewed the personal information about you in our files, you can contact us if you believe it should be corrected, amended, or deleted. Tell us in writing what you think is wrong and why. We will consider your request, and within thirty (30) business days, we will contact you to let you know whether we could make the requested changes or not. If we do not make changes, we will explain why, and you will have the right to insert in our file a concise statement containing what you believe to be the correct, relevant, or fair information and explain why you believe the information on file to be improper. We will notify persons designated by you and to whom we have previously disclosed the information of the changes or of your statement. Subsequent disclosures we make also will include your statement.
How to Contact Us
Please mail your request, signed by you, to the following address. We cannot accept fax, phone, or email requests of this nature. Remember to include your name, address, date of birth, and policy and/or claim number(s).
Privacy Coordinator
Pinnacle Insurance Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 21749
Waco, TX 76702-1749
Pinnacle Insurance Group, Inc., is the parent company of other insurance agencies and insurance service companies. This notice is applicable to and made on behalf of the following affiliated insurance companies with whom you may be a customer:
Pinnacle Insurance Group, Inc.
Bosque Valley Insurance Agency
All of our affiliated insurance companies will be bound by the statements made herein. For ease of reference and paperwork reduction, this notice reflects the collective trade name of our affiliated companies.
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