Privacy notice for trust and estate beneficiaries

Withers LLP, and its wholly owned trust corporation, Withers Trust Corporation Limited (‘we’), act for, or are trustees of, many trusts, and also act for, or are appointed as, the executors of many estates. As such we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about the settlor, testator, protector, other power holders, and beneficiaries (the ‘trust/estate persons’) of such trusts and estates (the ‘information’).

This Privacy Notice for trust and estate beneficiaries should be read in conjunction with the Privacy Policy and is intended to supplement this and any other applicable privacy notices, policies or statements that we may issue from time to time.

We will comply with Data Protection Law principles in respect of the information, which means that the information we collect and process will be:

• used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way

• collected only for specific, legitimate purposes that have been explained to the relevant trust/estate person, or that such person would reasonably expect, and not used in a way that is incompatible with those purposes
• adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the above purposes
• so far as possible, kept accurate and up-to-date
• kept in a form that identifies the relevant trust/estate person only for as long as necessary
• appropriately secured against unauthorised/unlawful access or use and accidental loss, destruction or damage.

In connection with the administration of a trust or estate, we may will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about the trust/estate persons:

• the information set out in the trust deeds;
• the information provided to us and required for registering with HMRC’s Trust Registration Service;
• information required to be processed by us to comply with applicable statute or regulatory obligations, Common Reporting Standards and US tax law reporting requirements;
• any personal information about any of the trust/estate persons which any of the trust/estate persons decides to provide or make available to us.

We may, if reasonably necessary in order to carry out our duties from time to time (for example, to obtain information about clients’ identities as required by legislation) collect information from public sources such as the electoral register.

We may use personal information about trust/estate persons to:

• communicate with them;
• enable us to exercise our trustee/executor powers and duties and to advise the trustees/executors; and
• comply with legal, taxation or regulatory requirements.

We may use personal information about trust/estate persons for the above purposes where one or more of the following applies: it is necessary to do so in our legitimate interests or those of other parties (such as a settlor, trustee or executor) in connection with the set-up or administration of a trust or estate provided these are not overridden by the privacy or other legal rights of the relevant trust/estate person; we need to do so, in order to comply with the law; if needed to protect the vital interests of a trust/estate person (or those of someone else); if needed for the performance of a contract to which a trust/estate person is a party or in order to take steps at that person’s request prior to entering into a contract, and/or, in some cases, for one or more particular purposes that a relevant person has freely and unambiguously consented to.

Where we have a legal basis for doing so we may also sometimes collect and use ‘special category’ or sensitive personal information about a trust/estate person (such as information relating to their health, ethnic origin or political, religious or philosophical beliefs) to enable us to advise our clients or exercise our trustee/executor powers and duties.

We will retain personal information of trust/estate persons for as long as necessary to provide our services and fulfil our legal obligations.

Please see the Privacy Policy for more details regarding our data retention policies.