Privacy Policy

Ascot Estate Planning Ltd · Registered in England and Wales, Company Number 09269434 · Information Commissioner registration ZA233535 · Last reviewed 18 August 2026.

1. Who we are

Ascot Estate Planning Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this notice. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 09269434, with our registered office at Scotch Corner, London Road, Sunningdale, Berkshire, SL5 0ER. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under reference ZA233535.

Our Data Protection Officer is Mark Insley, who can be reached at enquiries@ascotep.com.

2. What this notice covers

This notice explains how we handle personal data about visitors to this website, people who enquire about our services, clients, and the beneficiaries and family members named in a plan. It sets out what we collect, why we use it, the lawful basis for each use, who we share it with, how long we keep it and the rights available to you under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

3. The personal data we collect

• Identity and contact details: name, title, date of birth, postal address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Family and beneficiary details: the names, relationships and contact details of spouses, children, executors, trustees, attorneys and intended beneficiaries, where you provide them so that a plan can be prepared.
• Financial and asset information: details of property, savings, investments, pensions, business interests, liabilities and existing arrangements, where these are relevant to the advice you have asked for.
• Instruction and file records: notes of meetings and calls, correspondence, drafts and executed documents, and identity verification records required by law.
• Website and technical data: the pages you view, the approximate location derived from your IP address, and your browser and device type, collected only where you have allowed analytics cookies.

4. How we collect it

Most of the information we hold comes directly from you, through our enquiry and consultation request forms, by email, by telephone or in a meeting. We may also receive information from a person acting on your behalf, from a professional adviser you have asked to work with us, from Ascot Wealth Management where you are a client of both firms and have agreed to that, and from public sources such as the Land Registry or Companies House where a plan requires it.

5. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• Responding to an enquiry or consultation request. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, namely dealing with a request you have made to us.
• Preparing and administering wills, trusts, powers of attorney and related documents. Lawful basis: performance of a contract with you, or steps taken at your request before entering into one.
• Verifying identity and meeting anti-money laundering and regulatory obligations. Lawful basis: compliance with a legal obligation.
• Keeping a record of the advice we have given and the instructions we have received. Lawful basis: legal obligation and our legitimate interest in establishing and defending legal claims.
• Sending information about our services, events and guidance. Lawful basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by using the unsubscribe link or contacting us.
• Measuring how this website is used so that we can improve it. Lawful basis: your consent, given through the cookie banner.

6. Special category data

Estate planning sometimes requires information about health, for example where mental capacity, a health condition or a care arrangement is relevant to a lasting power of attorney or a vulnerable beneficiary. Where we process data of this kind we do so with your explicit consent, or because it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal rights. We collect no more than the matter requires.

7. Who we share it with

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising. We disclose it only where it is necessary, and only to:

• solicitors, will writers, trust corporations and other professional advisers instructed in connection with your plan;
• Ascot Wealth Management, where you are a client of both firms and the disclosure is necessary for advice you have asked for;
• service providers who process data on our behalf under a written contract, including our document storage, email, website hosting and client record providers, who may act only on our instructions;
• HM Revenue and Customs, the Office of the Public Guardian, the Probate Registry, regulators and law enforcement, where the law requires or permits it.

8. International transfers

Our records are held within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area wherever possible. Where a service provider processes data outside those areas, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or on the International Data Transfer Agreement, or the addendum to the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, so that your data continues to receive an equivalent level of protection. You may ask us for details of the safeguards that apply to any particular transfer.

9. How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not proceed: retained for 12 months from the last contact, then deleted.
• Client files, including wills, trusts and powers of attorney: retained for the life of the arrangement and for a minimum of 15 years after the file closes, reflecting the period over which a claim may arise and the interests of executors and beneficiaries.
• Identity verification and anti-money laundering records: retained for 5 years after the end of the business relationship, as required by law.
• Marketing consents and preferences: retained until you withdraw consent, and then a record of the withdrawal is kept so that we can honour it.
• Website analytics data: retained in aggregated form for no more than 14 months.

At the end of a retention period, records are securely deleted or destroyed.

10. How we keep it secure

We take a risk based approach to security, using physical, technical and organisational measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we hold. These include access controls and unique credentials, encryption of data in transit and of portable devices, secure storage of paper files, controlled and secure destruction of records, written contracts with every processor, and staff training on confidentiality and data protection. If a breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours and inform you where the law requires us to.

11. Cookies and website analytics

Strictly necessary cookies are set so that this website functions. Nothing optional is set until you allow it through the consent banner shown on your first visit, and you can change or withdraw that choice at any time using the Cookie preferences link in the footer of every page. Full detail is set out in our Cookie Policy.

12. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• be informed about how your personal data is used, which is the purpose of this notice;
• request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected;
• ask us to delete your data, where there is no overriding legal reason for us to keep it;
• ask us to restrict our use of your data while a concern is resolved;
• receive your data in a portable format, or have it sent to another provider, where that is technically feasible;
• object to processing that relies on our legitimate interests, and to object to direct marketing at any time;
• withdraw a consent you have given, without affecting the lawfulness of anything done before you withdrew it.

We do not make decisions about you by automated means and we do not carry out profiling.

13. How to make a request

Write to the Data Protection Officer at enquiries@ascotep.com, or by post to the address below, telling us which right you wish to exercise. There is no fee. We will respond within one month, and will tell you if we need a further two months because the request is complex, or if we need proof of identity before disclosing information.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first so that we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.

15. Changes to this notice

We review this notice regularly and will update it when our practices or the law change. The date of the current version is shown at the top of this page. Where a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you directly.

16. Contact us

Data Protection Officer, Ascot Estate Planning Ltd, Scotch Corner, London Road, Sunningdale, Berkshire, SL5 0ER. Email enquiries@ascotep.com or telephone 0800 772 3147.