ClearEstate Privacy Policy

1. To whom does this Privacy Policy apply?

In order to serve you, ClearEstate must collect certain personal information. We realize that we receive sensitive personal information and we protect it taking into account that high level of sensitivity. By agreeing to use our app.clearestate.com website, ClearEstate mobile application, ClearEstate platform, your ClearEstate account, and /or our Services ("Services"), which refer to the platform and its features and functionalities and the professional, assistance and support services provided by ClearEstate, as the case may be, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

ClearEstate Technologies Inc. (“ClearEstate”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a company that provides a Platform for the delivery of tech enabled estate planning and estate administration Services. ClearEstate is a registered company located at614 Saint-Jacques St., Suite 100, Montreal, QC H3C 1E2, Canada.

This Policy describes the practices followed by ClearEstate respecting the collection, processing and disclosure of personal information concerning ClearEstate’s clients and other users of the ClearEstate platform, such as authorized third-parties, like beneficiaries, accountants, attorneys.

Our Services are designed and intended to be used by individuals who are of legal age in the jurisdiction where they live. We do not collect, nor intend to collect information from any person who is under 16 years old. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information please contact us at Privacy@clearestate.com.

2. What personal information do we collect and why?

You can access ClearEstate’s website without providing personal information. If you choose to use our Services, sign up for an account, and/or contact us by email, video or phone, we will ask you to provide us with personal information, depending on the type of Service and access you request.

2a. To provide our Services

ClearEstate only collects and uses personal information that is necessary for us to provide our Services and for our users to manager their website portal and perform other activities, such as creating a and managing an estate plan or managing and settling an estate. Information collected connected to wills and other estate planning Services include your full name, email address, gender, date of birth, place of residence, password, marital status, children, pets, and assets and financial information, government ID and/or social insurance number. Information collected connected to the estate settlement Services include information about the deceased, such as their full name, gender, date of birth and death, place of death, marital status, government ID and/or social insurance number, assets and financial information, as well as information about the executor, including executor’s full name, ID and/or social security number and ties with the deceased, the executor’s government identifier as well as the name of the beneficiaries, their ties to the deceased, their IDs and/or social security number and the beneficiaries’ government identifier.

Our platform collects personal information directly from the executor or through ClearEstate Services if the executor seeks administrative support from ClearEstate to plan or manage a succession.

2b. To operate our website

Our website, as most other websites, uses cookies, which are saved on your computer when you visit it. ClearEstate uses this information to adapt its website to your preferences and to compile statistics about the consultation and use of its website in order to improve it. We only use cookies that are necessary to operate our website. We do not store these cookies.

2c. To send you communications

We use your personal information to send you communications, such as tailored and relevant marketing and transactional text and email messages. You can opt-out from these communications at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions that shown in the email or in the text message, or by contacting us at Privacy@clearestate.com.

2d. To opt out of cookies

You may erase the cookies from the hard disk of your computer, block the creation of cookies or receive a warning prior to a cookie being registered, by modifying your browser settings. If you do so, you may not be able to access all of our website’s features.

2e. To process payments

We use a third-party payments service provider to process payments on our behalf. Our provider collects your name, billing address and payment card information (card number, expiry date and security code) in order to process payments on our behalf.

3. Who do we share personal information with?

Unless we have your express consent or pursuant to a legal power, we will only disclose your personal information to organizations outside ClearEstate without your consent in the following limited circumstances:

- To a service provider or third party that is performing administrative services to support the platform and manage our customers (e.g: a data hosting service provider, customer relationship management solution).
- To organizations and individuals involved in the managing of the estate, including notaries, lawyers, banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and/or other entities responsible for the succession’s assets, if such information is necessary to provide you with our Services.
- To another organization for fraud prevention, detection or investigation if seeking consent from you would compromise the investigation.
- To a law enforcement agency whenever we have reasonable grounds to believe that you have knowingly supplied us with false or misleading information or are otherwise involved in unlawful activities.
- To a third party who may be interested in buying ClearEstate assets and personal customer information must be shared to assess the business transaction.
- Your personal information may also be shared with investors of ClearEstate.

4. How is personal information kept accurate?

As the personal information collected on our platform comes from the executors, executors will have to ensure it is accurate.

As a user of our platform, you are also responsible for updating your personal information, as required, or informing ClearEstate of any significant change respecting the personal information relating to the will, estate plan or succession over the course of the business relationship with ClearEstate.

If information is inaccurate or out of date, to obtain rectification, please submit a written request to our Privacy Officer at Privacy@clearestate.com. If the information in question must be corrected, erased or completed, ClearEstate will do so without delay. If required, we will send the modified information to the third parties having access to the information in question. ClearEstate undertakes to answer any request for rectification within 30 days from the date of receipt of the written request unless circumstances authorize ClearEstate to extend the time to do so. In such a case, ClearEstate will notify you, within 30 days from the date of the request, of the new time period and the reasons for the extension.

5. How can you access personal information about you?

You are entitled to have access to the personal information ClearEstate holds relating to you. Requests for access can be sent in writing to our Privacy Officer at Privacy@clearestate.com.

ClearEstate undertakes to answer any request for access within 30 days from the date of receipt unless circumstances authorize ClearEstate to extend the time to do so. In such a case, ClearEstate will notify you, within 30 days from the date of the request, of the new time period and the reasons for the extension.

Access to your personal information is generally granted free of charge. However, ClearEstate may, in accordance with applicable law, charge fees by informing you of the approximate amount of such fees prior to fulfilling the request, keeping the cost minimal and provided you do not withdraw your request.

In certain situations, according to applicable law, ClearEstate may be prohibited from providing you access to your personal information. This is the case, for example, if providing access would reveal protected information such as information about another person.

If access cannot be granted to you, we will notify you in writing the reasons for refusal.

6. How do we protect personal information?

ClearEstate has implemented various means to ensure that your personal information is protected against the risk of loss and theft, as well as the risk of unauthorized access, communication, reproduction, use, modification or destruction. These means include physical, administrative and electronic (technological) measures, such as anti-viruses, strict access controls to information necessary to perform ClearEstate’s services on a need-to-know basis, security checks when hiring employees, security agreements and logging transactions to ensure their legitimacy. Employees are subject to mandatory annual cybersecurity training in order to maintain their access to ClearEstate programs and devices.

ClearEstate retains the personal information concerning you only for the time necessary to provide you our Services, which includes minimal retention periods required by applicable law.

7. Where is the personal information stored?

ClearEstate may process and archive your personal information in Canada, in the United States, depending on whether the succession is based in Canada or in the United States. Accordingly, only the governments, courts, law enforcement organizations or regulatory bodies of each country have access to your information stored in that country.

ClearEstate may also rely on third party service providers (for example, data hosting or payment processing providers) to ensure the management of one or several aspects of our business activities, including the processing or management of personal information. These service providers only store your personal information in Canada, the United States or Europe.

When we retain the services of an external company, we use contractual or other appropriate means to ensure that your personal information is protected in accordance with the law applicable to ClearEstate and is collected, processed, retained and destroyed in such a manner as to comply with this Policy.

8. Automated personal information processing

If ClearEstate uses an automated decision system to make a prediction, recommendation or decision regarding your interests, it will provide you, at your request, with an explanation of the prediction, recommendation or decision and of how the personal information that was used to make the prediction, recommendation or decision was obtained.

9. Review of the Policy

The policies and procedures of ClearEstate intended to ensure the protection of personal information are updated on an ongoing basis. Please check back from time to time.

10. Your questions and concerns respecting compliance with the Policy

You may send your questions and concerns regarding the Policy to the Privacy Officer at Privacy@clearestate.com or call +1 888-572-0766 and select the privacy concern option. If you suspect a data breach incident, please report it to security@clearestate.com.

The Privacy Officer will investigate each written complaint. If a complaint is justified, the Privacy Officer will take the necessary measures to settle it, including modifying the policy or its procedures for ensuring the protection of personal information, if warranted. In each case, the complainant will be notified in writing of the results of the investigation.