The Higginbotham privacy policy was last updated July 2024.
We firmly believe in data security and protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all visitors and customers to our website. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, store and disclose your information.
Please read the policy and contact us if you have any questions.
Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), in addition to other federal, state and local regulation, generally prohibits any financial institution, directly or through its affiliates, from sharing non-public information about you with a non-affiliated third party unless the institution provides you with a notice of its privacy policy and practices, such as the type of information that it collects about you and the categories of personal information or entities to whom it may be disclosed. In compliance with these regulations, we are providing you with this document, which notifies you of the privacy policies and practices of our company.
This privacy policy applies to all information Higginbotham may collect about you, including but not limited to use of www.higginbotham.net and/or higginbotham.com, any other website of Higginbotham where a link to this notice is provided and our affiliate or branch offices.
This policy applies to the information collected from, but not limited to:
At Higginbotham, we strive to offer you outstanding service. We use data gathered from our Website, in person and electronic communications to continue offering outstanding service.
Starting in 2021, we intend to use visitor and client data for the following purposes:
If you provide us with personal information about other people, you represent that you have the authority to provide this information on their behalf. In these instances, you further represent that the individuals to whom this information relates have been informed of and understand the reason(s) for obtaining the information, the manner in which this information will be used and disclosed, and have consented to such use and disclosure.
We collect non-public personal information about you from the following sources:
A cookie is a message given to a web browser by a web server. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from that server. Cookie files define you as a user, not as an identifiable person.
We use cookies and other methods to help recognize our clients and visitors in hopes of serving a better online experience. We also use them to analyze our site traffic and personalize ads and content to fit your interests.
To learn more about our cookies and other identification methods, including how to disable them, you can view our Cookie Policy. Starting October 1, 2021, we may use this information to create ads we think are relevant to your interests, based on the kinds of content you access in our Services. You can object.
By tapping “accept” or by continuing to use this website, you consent to Higginbotham’s and third parties’ use of these methods. As a reminder, you can change your tracking preferences by visiting our Cookie Policy.
We may disclose the following kinds of information about you in order for us to do business:
We may disclose your Personal Information to a third party for a business purpose. Our third-party affiliates, service providers, and successors to whom we disclose your Personal Information are required by law and/or contractual requirements to keep your Personal Information confidential and secure. These third parties may not use or disclose it except: 1) as reasonably necessary to perform the contract; 2) to provide services to you on our behalf, or on behalf of your employer or association, group of benefit program sponsor; 3) to comply with applicable law or regulation; or 4) as permitted by applicable law.
We may disclose non-public personal information about you to the following types of third parties:
This Website contains links to other websites. The operators of those websites may collect information about you through cookies or other technologies. If you click a link to another website, you will leave the Higginbotham Website, and this privacy policy will not apply to your use of and activity on that external website.
If you provide personal information through any other website, your transaction will occur on that website (not the Higginbotham Website), and the personal information you provide will be collected and controlled by the privacy policy of that website operator. Links on the Higginbotham Website to other websites are provided only as a convenience, and the inclusion of such links does not imply vetting or endorsement of the linked website.
We encourage you to read the legal notice posted on those websites, including their privacy policies. We have no responsibility or liability for your access or use of, and the data collection and use practices of, other websites.
Please be aware that Higginbotham is not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, even though Higginbotham’s name or logo may appear on those sites.
Higginbotham’s Website is not directed to or intended for children. Through its Website, Higginbotham does not knowingly collect or post information from children under the age of 13 in compliance with laws protecting the privacy of children. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website to learn more about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
We may disclose all of the information we collect, as described above under the caption “Information we collect,” to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf, or to other insurance entities or financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements.
Please review the “Privacy Notice for California Residents” in the below section for more information.
At all times, we use our best and diligent efforts to restrict access to non-public personal information about you to those employees or third parties who need to know that information in order to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable federal and state laws and regulations to guard your non-public personal information.
We reserve the right to amend or replace this policy without notice. By visiting our website or using our services, you agree to accept all terms and conditions outlined in this privacy policy.
Effective Date: January 1, 2020
Last Reviewed on: September 21, 2021
This Privacy Notice for California Residents supplements the information contained in Higginbotham’s Privacy Policy located at https://www.higginbotham.net/privacy-policy and/or higginbotham.com/privacy-policy and applies solely to all visitors, users and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Notice.
This Notice does not apply to employment-related Personal Information collected from California-based employees, job applicants, contractors, or similar individuals (see California Employee Privacy Notice).
Where noted in this Notice, the CCPA temporarily exempts Personal Information reflecting a written or verbal business-to-business communication (“B2B Personal Information”) from some of its requirements.
If you are an employee of a commercial client of Higginbotham, we may collect Personal Information in performance of our contract with your employer. In that instance, we are acting as a “Service Provider” to your employer. As such, we are obligated to collect and process that Personal Information in order to achieve the purpose of that contract such as providing Employee Benefits and your employer which remains responsible for the handling of your Personal Information. You should therefore review your employer’s Privacy Notice to learn how your Personal Information is handled.
When we act as a Service Provider to a Client, if you or your authorized agent, as discussed further below, want to exercise any of your rights afforded under the CCPA, you need to contact your employer to make your request. We do not have any obligation to respond to your requests under these circumstances. If you are unclear whether or not we are acting as a Service Provider to a Client, you may contact us through one of the provided methods below.
Higginbotham is an insurance brokerage, placing insurance policies, providing risk management, employee benefits and related services to our clients. In conducting our business, we collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device (“Personal Information”). Personal Information does not include:
In particular, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information (PI) from our consumers within the last twelve (12) months:
We obtain the categories of Personal Information listed above from the following categories of sources:
We may disclose your Personal Information to a third party for a business purpose. Our third-party affiliates, service providers, and successors to whom we disclose your Personal Information are required by law and/or contractual requirements to keep your Personal Information confidential and secure. These third parties may not use or disclose it except: 1) as reasonably necessary to perform the contract; 2) to provide services to you on our behalf, or on behalf of your employer or association, group of benefit program sponsor; 3) to comply with applicable law or regulation; or 4) as permitted by applicable law.
We may disclose non-public personal information about you to the following types of third parties:
Phone numbers collected by Higginbotham for SMS consent are not shared with third parties or their affiliates for marketing purposes.
Higginbotham does not sell Personal Information to third parties. In the preceding twelve (12) months, Higginbotham has not sold any Personal Information. Commencing this year, Higginbotham may engage a third-party vendor to provide analytics from the aggregated data collected from our clients and from Cookies. The disclosure of this information to third party vendors may be considered a “sale” under the CCPA.
The aggregated and anonymized data may be used to:
The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their Personal Information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.
You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability and Deletion Rights), we will disclose to you:
We do not provide these access and data portability rights for B2B Personal Information.
You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability and Deletion Rights), we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your Personal Information from our records, unless an exception applies.
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:
We do not provide these deletion rights for B2B Personal Information.
To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:
Only you, or someone legally 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. To designate an authorized agent, we must receive a verifiable written authorization from you designating your agent.
You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. 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.
We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option.
Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding receipt of the verifiable consumer request. 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.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:
However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your Personal Information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt in consent, which you may revoke at any time. We do not presently offer any financial incentives with respect to the CCPA.
You have the right to opt-out of the sale of any of your Personal Information to third parties by Higginbotham. To exercise this right, go to the home page of our website and click on the “SMS Opt-In/Out” link at the bottom of the page.
Transparency in Coverage regulations require health insurers and group health plans to create machine readable files that contain the negotiated rates for in-network providers and allowed amounts derived from historical claims for out-of-network providers and make those files publicly available. Please refer to this link (https://transparency-in-coverage.collectivehealth.com/index.html) for this information.
We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on the website and update the notice’s effective date. Your continued use of our website and services following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.