The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act) has real significance for the financial and wealth management industry. Financial advisers process a great deal of personal information – the financial history and affairs of their clients, personal information regarding their beneficiaries (often children), and information regarding their medical health. They also use third parties, such as administrators and other service providers, to process personal information for them.

Securing the integrity and confidentiality of clients’ information has always been ‘best industry practice’. POPI has made this a legal obligation. Financial advisers need to safeguard their clients’ privacy and protect them from identity theft and from their savings and investments being stolen. It is your responsibility to ensure that you (and your administrators and service providers) process personal information lawfully. You also need to ensure that your direct marketing campaigns are compliant with POPI’s stricter requirements.

Failure to comply with POPI has serious financial implications (you will get fined). It could also get you imprisoned and irretrievably damage your reputation and the trust clients have placed in you.

We have designed a pragmatic workshop specifically for financial advisers. By attending this workshop, you will walk away better informed of your POPI obligations and able to identify major risks in your organisation. You will be provided with tools to implement quick wins and plot the actions you need to take to make you POPI compliant.

  • Understand how POPI practically applies to your industry,
  • Know how to identify who performs what role and your responsibilities under POPI,
  • Be aware of the consequences and risks of not complying,
  • Get practical guidance to make your privacy and cookie policies and direct marketing campaigns POPI compliant,
  • Plan the road ahead using our POPI Mapper, and
  • Walk away with a list of Action Items to enable you to translate the session into practical action.

We have not yet set dates for our next public workshops.

If you’d like to attend a public workshop on this topic but we have not yet set dates (or the location or dates don’t suit you), send us an email asking us to set a date in your city. One delegate costs R4,750 ex VAT. Two or more delegates qualify for a 10% discount. We will serve lunch and refreshments. We limit delegate numbers, so bookings are done on a first come, first served basis. We aim to give practical insights that you can use to be effective. We do not give law lectures! We will refund you if you do not think you received value.

We also offer tailored private events that can be held at your premises on a day that suits you.

  • What personal information are you processing? Why must you protect it?
  • What role do you perform? Are you a responsible party or an operator?
  • Do you know what your obligations are to process information lawfully?
  • Do you know what consents are required to market directly to clients?
  • What is the relationship between you as a responsible party and your operators? Are there safeguards in place to ensure they are processing information lawfully?
  • What are the consequences and risks if you or your operators process unlawfully?

Attendees will be provided with:

  • a link to an electronic copy of our presentation,
  • POPI-compliant templates to use as a guide for (1) your privacy policies, and (2) direct marketing consent requests,
  • our POPI Mapper – a tool to map activities,
  • a list of POPI Action Items so that you can translate the session into practical action,
  • an audio recording of the event (private sessions only).

  • Financial advisers and planners,
  • Wealth managers,
  • Insurance brokers,
  • Financial service providers,
  • Compliance officers within your organisations.

  • We have significant practical experience dealing with these specific areas.
  • Our sessions are interactive – you are able to ask questions, have your specific issues dealt with, and influence what gets discussed.
  • Our sessions are tailored to the attendees – we ask you questions in advance so that we know what your issues are and your existing level of knowledge.
  • You are able to network with other people at the event.
  • We do not give sales pitches, which is unfortunately so often what speakers do at conferences.
  • We provide insight and simplify the issues, which can only be done after practically applying POPI to real business issues.
  • We empower you and do not try to entrench ourselves in your organisation.
  • The topic gets covered more comprehensively when one person leads the discussion for a day, rather than many different people covering the same ground. It is not different people covering the same issues superficially in different ways.
  • We cover the same ground in one day, rather than two

A practical attorney from Michalsons. We will ensure the attorney is the best person to present the course depending on the type of course, the date, the specific issues and the attendees.

We provide this course in different formats. Public and private sessions can last for anything from 45 minutes, half a day or a full day. We also provide eCourses that can be done via the Internet at your convenience. We welcome enquires for more information and details.

Our public events are at various venues around the world. We choose venues that are central and easy to get to, that have adequate parking, good food, and that ensure you are comfortable. We are also happy to give the POPI and Finacial Advisors workshop or executive briefing at your venue.