Who does this policy cover?
This website is operated by Valuation Group Pty Ltd (ABN 48 702 469 252), trading as SMSF Valuations. In this policy, we, us and our mean that company. SMSF Valuations is part of Valuation Group, and the company runs more than one valuation practice. Your information stays within the company and is not shared outside it except as this policy describes.
We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in Schedule 1 to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Personal information means information or an opinion about a person who is identified or reasonably identifiable.
The Act does not cover every small business. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (the OAIC) says a small business is one with an annual turnover of $3 million or less, and that a small business may choose to be covered. We apply the Australian Privacy Principles to all the personal information we handle, whether or not the Act requires it of us.
What information do we collect?
Quote, contact and referral forms
When you use the quote form, the contact form or the referral form on the page for accountants and auditors, we collect your name, email address and phone number, your company or firm, and what you tell us about the fund: what it holds, why you need the valuation, your role, how many entities there are, the annual turnover band of a trading business, your timing and any message you write. A referral also records the referring adviser's details and the client details the adviser chooses to give us, which the adviser should only send with the client's agreement.
While you complete the quote form, the contact details you type are kept in your browser's session storage, so refreshing the page does not lose them. They are removed when you submit, and session storage is cleared when you close the tab. After a successful enquiry, your browser keeps the enquiry reference and email address for that session so the confirmation screen can show them, and it keeps a short list of recent enquiry references in local storage so the same enquiry is not counted twice in our analytics.
The fund check
The fund check works out its result in your browser from the five answers you give: what the fund holds, when it was last valued independently, whether its value has stayed the same for three years or more, whether a related party is buying, selling or transferring it, and roughly what share of the fund it is. The result is general information, not advice. We do not store your answers unless you ask for the summary by email. If you do, we receive your answers, the fees the check showed, your email address and your name if you gave it, and we send you the summary. That is stored as a tool enquiry, and it does not open a valuation matter unless you ask us to quote.
How you found the site
When you first arrive, your browser keeps a small record of how you found us: the page you landed on, the referring website, any campaign tags in the link, any advertising click identifier (such as Google's gclid) and the time. The record is updated when you come back through an advertisement, a campaign link or another website. It stays in your browser's local storage on your device and is sent to us only with a form you submit, so we can tell which channels produce genuine enquiries. Clearing your browser's site data removes it.
Technical information
This website is hosted by Cloudflare, whose systems keep short-lived request records that can include your IP address, browser type and the pages requested. To limit spam, our enquiry service counts recent submissions against a one-way hash of your IP address, never the address itself. A hidden form field and a minimum fill time also help us tell people from automated programs.
Documents and engagement information
This website does not accept documents. If an engagement goes ahead, you share documents only through the private upload link on your matter in our client portal, never by email. The records for a fund and its entities often identify people: trustees, directors, unitholders and members, their holdings and balances, and loan and related-party arrangements. Send what the agreed scope needs, and tell us if a document holds information about individuals that we do not need, so we can agree a redacted or summarised version.
Calls and correspondence
When you call us on 0433 475 518 or email us, we keep a note of what was discussed and the correspondence on your enquiry or matter.
Do you use analytics, advertising tags or cookies?
When it is switched on, the site uses Google Analytics and the Google Ads tag to show us how the site is used and which enquiries came from our advertising. Google sets cookies on your device for this. Our tag settings turn off ad personalisation signals.
We send Google events such as a page view, a click on a phone number, the step reached and the option chosen in the quote form (for example what the fund holds or why the valuation is needed), the completion of the fund check with the answer to what the fund holds and the fees shown, and the submission of an enquiry with its reference number. We never send Google your name, email address, phone number, company name, any figure you type into a form or anything you write in a message.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, install Google's opt-out browser add-on for Google Analytics, and manage advertising settings at adssettings.google.com. The website sets no cookies of its own, with one exception: when we test two versions of a page, a first-party cookie records which version you saw, for up to 90 days, so it stays the same on your next visit.
How do we use your information?
- To respond to your enquiry, call you back and confirm the scope, fee, information required and expected timing of a valuation.
- To carry out an engagement if one goes ahead: the engagement letter, the invoice, the private upload link, the representation letter and the report.
- To deal with your accountant, lawyer, auditor or other adviser where you ask us to.
- To send a small number of follow-up emails about your enquiry, each of which tells you how to stop them.
- To understand, in aggregate, how the site is used and which advertising produces enquiries.
- To keep business, accounting and quality records and to meet obligations imposed on us by law.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not give it to anyone else for their own marketing.
What happens to my enquiry after I send it?
Your enquiry is saved first to a shared lead store operated for Valuation Group Pty Ltd on Cloudflare's network, then picked up by our practice management system, which opens a matter for a quote, contact or referral enquiry. The website's copy in the lead store is deleted automatically after 90 days. We email you an acknowledgement and send an internal notification to our team. Emails are sent through Cloudflare Email Service. If a backup provider, Resend, Inc., has been switched on, it is used only when Cloudflare cannot send.
When an enquiry arrives, our system adds an internal note suggesting the likely service, a fee band and a priority, worked out from what the fund holds, the purpose, your role, the number of entities, the turnover band and the timing you chose. The note helps us decide which enquiries to call first. A person reads every enquiry and decides how to respond, and no fee is confirmed to you until a person has agreed the scope with you.
The OAIC has said that from 10 December 2026, entities covered by the Privacy Act that use personal information in automated decisions with the potential to affect a person's rights or interests must describe them in their privacy policy. Our internal note does not make decisions of that kind. If that changes, we will update this policy first.
Is my information stored outside Australia?
Some of these providers store or process information outside Australia. Cloudflare, Google and Resend are United States companies, and Cloudflare runs infrastructure in many countries. Australian Privacy Principle 8 requires reasonable steps to make sure an overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles. We rely on the published terms, privacy policies and security commitments of these providers.
How do we protect it?
Forms are sent over an encrypted connection, and access to enquiry records and matter files is limited to the people who need it. Documents sit behind your matter's private, access-controlled link rather than in email inboxes, and no client document is ever published on this website. We can sign a confidentiality undertaking before sensitive documents are shared. No system is completely secure, and we cannot promise absolute security.
If a data breach involving your personal information is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the OAIC as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme sets out.
How long do we keep it?
- The lead store copy of an enquiry: deleted automatically after 90 days.
- The hashed IP count used against spam: about 10 minutes. The hashed email address used to limit acknowledgement emails to one an hour: about an hour.
- An enquiry that does not become an engagement: kept while it may still lead to one, then deleted or de-identified in a periodic review.
- An engagement file, including working papers, the representation letter and the report: kept for as long as the law and our record-keeping obligations require, because a valuation can be relied on, questioned or reviewed years after it is issued.
- The record in your browser of how you found the site: until you clear your browser's site data.
How can I see or correct my information?
Ask us by email at hello@smsfvaluations.au or by phone on 0433 475 518 (Mon to Fri, 9am to 5:30pm AEST). We may need to confirm your identity first, and we do not charge for a request. The OAIC's guidance is that an organisation should respond within a reasonable period, generally not more than 30 calendar days, and we aim to do so. If we cannot give you access or make a correction, we will tell you why in writing.
You can read this website and use the fund check without telling us who you are. We cannot quote for or prepare a valuation without contact details.
How do I make a privacy complaint?
Contact us first at hello@smsfvaluations.au or on 0433 475 518, and tell us what happened and what you would like us to do. We will look into it and reply in writing. The OAIC asks people to complain to the organisation first, and says that if the organisation does not respond within 30 days, or you are not happy with the response, you can lodge a complaint with the OAIC.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our systems, providers or obligations change, and the date on this page shows the current version. See also our terms of use and disclaimer.
SMSF Valuations is a trading name of Valuation Group Pty Ltd (ABN 48 702 469 252).