How secure is my data in the hands of a financial planner?

Question

I consult with a Certified Financial Planner who charges an annual fee. The person seems reliable and seems to have integrity, but also has a few people working under her whom I know nothing about.

I share my financial goals and info on how much money I have and how much has been invested in which fund. In my opinion this is very personal info and even on telling her how to encrypt it, she calmly assures me there is no need to.

I do the investments myself. She only suggests which funds I can invest in.

Questions:
1. In such a situation, is it really safe to give financial info to a person who does not encrypt it?
2. In what ways could it be misused?
3. If she is not going to encrypt it, should I ask her to delete all my old data and then create a new profile for my communication with her; the new profile not being my name, but a fake name?

Answer 1

In such a situation, is it really safe to give financial info to a person who does not encrypt it?

Encryption only helps to an extent. i.e. during transmission of data or during brute force makes it more difficult to get the real data. However you concern is more of staff using this data, which encryption will not help much as they would be able to decrypt and see the data.

In what ways could it be misused?

This depends on the type of data. The financial data can be used to hack into your accounts if other bits of info are known. i.e. most of the times on Telephone requests; say putting card on hold, requesting balance on account, etc; only your address, mother maiden name, last few transaction details are asked. Some critical requests need more ID proofs; so generally not of concern.

The other misuse would be selling this to marketing companies, so that you can be bombarded with sales pitch for anything and everything.

The PAN and other ID documents are becoming more prone to mis-use. i.e. give a copy of PAN to open fraudulent accounts etc. A good practise would be to mark every copy of ID proof you give with the purpose as to why its given and a date. This would make the ID proof stale to an extent.

If she is not going to encrypt it, should I ask her to delete all my old data and then create a new profile for my communication with her; the new profile not being my name, but a fake name?

The regulations would not allow her to create fake accounts and may lead to issues and as such any recognised financial advisor would not allow this to be done. Quite a few countries have regulations for financial advisor's that need to be adhered to.