Privacy Policy

Theocsbury Estate Planning Ltd ("Theocsbury", "we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our website at theocsbury.com or engage our estate planning services.

We are registered in England & Wales under company number 17344501, with our registered office at 12 Mitton Way, Tewkesbury GL20 8AN, United Kingdom. We act as the data controller for the personal information we hold about you.

Please read this policy carefully. By using our website or services you confirm that you have read and understood this policy. If you do not agree with its terms, please discontinue use of our website and services.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal information about you:

• Identity data – your full name, date of birth, and, where relevant, details of family members or beneficiaries.
• Contact data – postal address, email address, and telephone numbers.
• Financial data – information about your assets, property, savings, and liabilities where necessary to provide estate planning advice.
• Technical data – IP address, browser type and version, time zone, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
• Usage data – information about how you use our website, products, and services.
• Communications data – your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences, and any correspondence you send to us.
• Special category data – in limited circumstances, and only where strictly necessary for the provision of our services, we may process health information (for example, when preparing Lasting Powers of Attorney).

We collect this information directly from you (for example, when you complete a contact or appointment form, correspond with us by email or telephone, or engage our services), as well as automatically through your use of our website.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide and manage the estate planning services you have requested, including the preparation of Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, and related documents.
• To respond to enquiries and appointment requests submitted through our website.
• To communicate with you about your matter, including sending you documents through our secure client portal.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
• To improve our website and services, including analysing how visitors use our site.
• To send you information about our services or offers where you have consented to receive such communications, or where we have a legitimate interest in doing so.
• To detect and prevent fraud, and to protect the security of our systems.

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We will only process your personal information where we have a lawful basis to do so. The legal bases we rely on are:

• Contract – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
• Legal obligation – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
• Legitimate interests – processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. Our legitimate interests include operating and improving our business, preventing fraud, and marketing our services to existing clients.
• Consent – where you have given us clear consent to process your personal information for a specific purpose, including the processing of any special category data.

4. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers – we may share your information with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website and delivering our services (for example, IT support, document storage, or email delivery providers). These providers are contractually required to keep your information confidential and to process it only on our instructions.
• Professional advisers – solicitors, accountants, or other professional advisers where necessary in connection with the services we provide to you.
• Legal and regulatory authorities – where we are required to disclose your information by law, court order, or regulatory authority.
• Business transfers – in the event that we sell or transfer all or part of our business, your personal information may be transferred to the new owner as part of that transaction.

5. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

For estate planning documents and client records, we typically retain information for a minimum of six years following the conclusion of our engagement with you, in accordance with applicable professional and legal obligations. Documents such as Wills may be retained for longer periods where this is in your interest or required by law. Where you have contacted us but not proceeded to engage our services, we will retain your contact details for a period of up to two years, after which they will be securely deleted.

6. Cookies and Website Tracking

Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to distinguish you from other users and to improve your experience. Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites you visit.

• Strictly necessary cookies – essential for the operation of our website, including enabling you to log in to our secure client portal.
• Analytical/performance cookies – allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website. This helps us improve the way our website works. We will only set these cookies with your consent.

You can control and manage cookies through your browser settings. Please note that removing or blocking cookies may impact your user experience and parts of our website may no longer be fully accessible.

7. Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration. These measures include:

• Encrypted transmission of data using HTTPS/TLS.
• Password-protected and access-controlled client portal for the secure exchange of documents.
• Restricted access to personal information on a need-to-know basis.
• Regular review of our information security practices.

Whilst we take all reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data.

8. International Transfers

We are based in the United Kingdom and process your personal information within the UK. We do not routinely transfer your personal information outside the UK. Where any transfer outside the UK is necessary, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK GDPR requirements.

9. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you (a "subject access request").
• Right to rectification – you have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
• Right to erasure – you have the right to request that we delete your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing – you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability – you have the right to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to have it transferred to another organisation in certain circumstances.
• Right to object – you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information where we rely on legitimate interests as our legal basis, or where we process your information for direct marketing purposes.
• Rights in relation to automated decision-making – you have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. We do not carry out such processing.
• Right to withdraw consent – where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details set out in the Contact Us section below. We will respond to your request within one month. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

10. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. The date at the top of this page indicates when this policy was last revised. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, for example by posting a prominent notice on our website or, where we hold your contact details, by contacting you directly.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise any of your rights, or have a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact us: