Wipfli believes your right to privacy is important. This privacy statement (“Privacy Statement”) is an explanation of the privacy practices of Wipfli Advisory LLC and Wipfli LLP (“Wipfli”, “we” or “us”). "Wipfli" is also the brand name under which Wipfli LLP and Wipfli Advisory LLC and its respective subsidiary entities provide professional services. Wipfli LLP and Wipfli Advisory LLC (and its respective subsidiary entities) practice in an alternative practice structure in accordance with the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and applicable law, regulations, and professional standards. Wipfli LLP is a licensed independent CPA firm that provides attest services to its clients, and Wipfli Advisory LLC provides tax and business consulting services to its clients. Wipfli Advisory LLC and its subsidiary entities are not licensed CPA firms.
This Privacy Statement explains the types of information we collect via our website(s) and through other interactions with you, and how we use, disclose, and protect this information and your rights regarding your personal information. By using our website(s) or otherwise continuing to access information or communications from Wipfli, you agree to our use of such information in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
Wipfli as a Service Provider
When personal information is provided in connection with our provision of professional services on behalf of our customers, our engagement letter or contract with our customer determines how we use such personal information. If there is a conflict between this Privacy Statement and our engagement letter with you, our engagement letter determines how we will use your information. For example, if you provide information to Wipfli in connection with our tax preparation services, we will only use such tax information to complete the requested services.
Information We Collect
We may receive information from and about you through information you provide directly, automatic tracking technologies and third parties. This information may include information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device (“personal information”).
In connection with our business operations, in the past twelve (12) months we have collected the following categories of personal information:
We do not usually seek to collect sensitive personal information except as necessary to render services requested by you or to evaluate applicants for employment; our sensitive personal information collection is detailed above. Personal Information does not include publicly available information or de-identified or aggregated consumer information.
How We Collect Personal Information
We may collect personal information about you because you provide it directly to us. We may receive personal information from Wipfli affiliates or from third parties, such as your employer, entities in which you have an ownership interest, a tax authority and/or other relevant authority/administrative bodies, or our third-party marketing partners. In some cases, we may observe or infer personal information from the information you provide to us and/or the way you interact with us. We may also receive information from data aggregator sources. In addition, we may receive personal information directly or indirectly from activity on our websites.
This personal information may be received by us through many different mediums, including in-person discussions, telephone conversations, and electronic or other written communications. Without access to all the personal information necessary to deliver a product or service, we may be unable to provide or deliver the product or services.
Where another party (such as a company or a partnership or any third parties acting on your or their behalf) provides your personal information to us, they must also comply with their obligations under relevant privacy laws and regulations. If you believe that the entity for whom you work or a third party has not provided you with details of the personal information that it holds about you and/or has not obtained your authority to provide us with that personal information for processing as described in this Privacy Statement, then please contact such entity directly.
Automatic Collection
We may use a variety of technologies that collect information automatically, including cookies, web beacons, flash cookies, and logging. Those technologies may collect, among other things, your IP address, location, device type, date and time of visit, operating system, and browser type, as well your activities on our website(s). If you are interacting with the website(s) on a mobile device, additional information may be collected, including your mobile device’s unique device ID and information about how you use our website(s). For example, we may use advertising cookies through social media networks, Google Analytics, X Analytics, Microsoft Analytics, Meta and other third party providers to help us understand how our customers interact with our website(s).
If you do not wish us to collect cookies, you may set your browser to refuse some cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you do so, please note that some parts of the website may then be inaccessible or may not function properly. Information on deleting or controlling cookies can be found at www.aboutcookies.org.
You may also control your advertising and performance cookie settings by visiting our Cookie Preference Center.
Personal Information Relating to Third Parties
If any personal information which you provide to us relates to any third party, for example a spouse or civil partner, individuals (including Children) who depend on you financially, or a joint account holder or a beneficiary or trustee of a trust, then by providing us with their personal information you will need to ensure that you have obtained any necessary permissions from those persons to the use of their personal information in the way set out in this Privacy Statement, or you are otherwise permitted to give us this personal information. You should share a copy of this Privacy Statement with those other individuals before disclosing any personal information about them to us.
How We Use Personal Information
We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:
We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.
How We Disclose Your Personal Information
We may disclose your personal information to a third party for the following purposes:
Third Parties and Service Providers to Whom We Disclose Personal Information
In connection with one or more of the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement, in the past twelve (12) months, we have disclosed your personal information with the following categories of third parties:
Wipfli may also disclose your personal information to other third parties with your consent. Additionally, we may disclose personal information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us is among the assets transferred.
Sale and Sharing
We do not “sell” your personal information for monetary consideration at any time. However, when you interact with us, we may use, or authorize third-party partners and service providers to use, cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to improve your experience with us, to provide targeted advertising, or to otherwise assist us in our marketing efforts. Our sharing of your personal information in this way may constitute “selling” or “sharing” under the California Consumer Privacy Act. The term "sale" is broadly defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act and includes sharing personal information for valuable consideration. We do not “sell” or “share” personal information outside of using tracking technology vendors for these reasons.
As such, in the preceding 12 months, we have sold or shared the following categories of personal information for the purpose of showing you ads about our services and products:
To exercise the right to opt-out of this selling or sharing, you (or your authorized representative) may submit a request to us through the “My Privacy Choices” link on our website. You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your opt-out rights.
In addition, some browsers offer you the ability to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information by turning on a Global Privacy Control. You can turn on a Global Privacy Control in your web browser or browser extension or by visiting https://globalprivacycontrol.org/. Please see the California Privacy Protection Agency’s website at https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa for more information on valid Global Privacy Controls. At this time, we endeavor to respond to browser-based opt-out signals sent through the Global Privacy Control.
Security
We have in place reasonable commercial standards of technology and operational security to protect your personal information from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction.
Retention Period
We retain personal information as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes identified in this Privacy Statement or (i) as otherwise necessary to comply with applicable laws or professional standards, or (ii) as long as the period in which litigation or investigations might arise in respect of our services. Where personal information is no longer needed, we either irreversibly anonymize the data (in which case we may further retain and use the anonymized data) or securely destroy the data.
Your Rights
You have various rights in relation to your personal information depending on the jurisdiction in which you are located. Depending on the applicable laws and under certain conditions, you may have a right to:
These rights are subject to certain exemptions, including without limitation to safeguard the public interest (e.g., the prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (e.g., the maintenance of legal privilege). We may deny requests as permitted by law.
Where our processing of a sensitive or special category of personal information is reliant on your consent and you withdraw that consent, we will cease processing the relevant information for the purposes of providing our services and the effect may be that we are no longer able to provide the services.
However, we may still retain a copy of the relevant information for as long as necessary to comply with applicable laws or professional standards, or as long as the period in which litigation or investigations might arise in respect of our services.
We also may deny your request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to:
Exercising Your Rights
To exercise any of your rights or raise any questions that you have about our use of your personal information, please contact us using the details below or submit a request here.
You or a person authorized to act on your behalf may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor Child.
You are limited as to how frequently you may make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability. The verifiable consumer request must:
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request.
Response Timing and Format
We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days in total), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
Children Under the Age of 16
While our website and services are not targeted at children, we may collect the personal information of children under the age of 16 (“Child” or “Children”) in the event we provide services to the Child’s parent or guardian (such as personal information necessary for the purpose of completing tax returns). We do not require any more personal information regarding the Child than is necessary for the directed services. Outside of the forgoing collection, we do not knowingly collect the personal information of Children. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a Child without parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a Child, please contact us at the method provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
We may modify or amend this Privacy Statement from time to time at our discretion. When we make changes to this Privacy Statement, we will amend the revision date at the top of this page and the modified or amended Privacy Statement shall apply to you and your personal information as of that revision date. We encourage you to review the Privacy Statement on our website periodically to be informed about how we are protecting your personal information.
Contact us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Statement or your personal information, please contact our data protection officer by email at privacy@wipfli.com or by phone at 1-800-265-9577.