Privacy Policy

FWH Chartered Professional Accountants (FWH) is an accounting firm specializing in working with physicians. We provide advice to help you, as our valued client, achieve short and long-term financial objectives, and to ensure your livelihood and personal finances are protected. Your privacy is very important to us, and this Policy outlines how we collect, use and disclose your Personal Information. As Chartered Professional Accountants, we are also governed by the CPA Code of Professional Conduct with respect to confidential information.

Information we collect

Personal Information means information about an identifiable individual. To provide our services to you (as more particularly outlined, below), we collect Personal Information that may include your name, phone number, address, email address, social insurance number, salary information and income from other sources, details of investments, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and other financial information. When you visit our website, we may collect your name, email address and phone number so that you can request an appointment with one of our team members. Our clients may also provide us with personal information related to spouses and family members.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We collect and use your Personal Information in order to provide our accounting and tax services to you. These services include preparation of financial statements and income tax returns, advice on business structuring and tax planning and more general accounting services such as bookkeeping. We will obtain your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information at the time it is collected, or before it is collected.

We will not disclose your Personal Information to any third party unless you have provided FWH with express consent to do so, or unless we are legally required to disclose it. If we are legally required to disclose your Personal Information (as described below), we will make reasonable efforts to notify you of such requirement to disclose, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

Information Disclosure as Required by Law

In some cases, FWH may share your Personal Information with third parties without your consent if we have a good-faith belief that the access, use, preservation or disclosure of the Personal Information is reasonably necessary to:

  • meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable government demand (including the laws and rules that regulate our profession);
  • detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or
  • protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of FWH or the public as required or permitted by law.

Retention, Accuracy and Safeguarding of Personal Information

We will only retain your Personal Information for as long as required to provide our services to you, and to ensure we are complying with all of our professional obligations in the provision of our services. To ensure your Personal Information is accurate and up-to-date, you may provide us with a written request (see our contact information, below) to review and/or update/correct your information.

In order to protect your Personal Information, we use appropriate and industry-recognized physical, technological and administrative safeguards. However, despite the protections and procedures we have implemented to safeguard information, we are not able to guarantee that information sent electronically is completely secure.

Access to your personal information

Subject to certain limitations prescribed by law, you have a right to know whether we possess or control any personal information about you, to have access to that personal information, and to have a general account of its use. To exercise this right, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer indicated below.

Privacy Policy Changes

This Privacy Policy was updated on November 1, 2018. This Policy may change from time to time, so we encourage you to check periodically to be aware of any updates or changes.

Contact

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your Personal Information, about this Privacy Policy, or about our practices relating to information privacy, please contact our Chief Privacy Officer at privacy@fwhcpa.ca.