Data protectionApr 11 2018

LifeQuote to hold data for a year under new policy

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LifeQuote to hold data for a year under new policy

LifeQuote has said it will hold advisers' data for at least a year under the new data protection regulations.

The General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect next month, will introduce a new regime on obtaining, storing and deleting people's data across the European Union.

As part of this regime, LifeQuote has said it will hold data for 365 days if there is a quotation but no application.

If an application is made but no policy is completed, the data will be held for six years but may be held for long if requested by the regulator to allow for data analysis for compliance.

And if a policy is in force the data will be held for 50 years from the date it went on risk.

Neil McCarthy, sales and marketing director at LifeQuote, said: "We have already completed a process to ensure our current data storage policies comply with the GDPR.

"This involved destroying and anonymising some historic records as we have always had strict data storage provisions meaning we retained almost all information in order to support advisers or insurers in the future.

"Our already stringent security protocols will remain unchanged. For this reason we also anticipate that some advisers may prefer to outsource their protection administration in order to reduce their GDPR and other data compliance risks."

The timescales have been chosen to make sure advisers meet their GDPR, regulatory and legal obligations and LifeQuote will review the policy annually with the first review being June 2018.

LifeQuote has also produced a 41-page due diligence document for advisers, to evidence their procedures and suitability as an outsource partner.

damian.fantato@ft.com