Last Updated: [May 1, 2025]
As the custodian of our clients’ data, Wespath is committed to protecting the Personal Information (defined below) of our participants and institutional clients. This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) applies to any Personal Information that is shared with Wespath while providing our products or services to you (“Services”) and through our website and mobile applications (collectively, “Site”), as well any Personal Information we collect from other sources, including when you apply for a job with Wespath. This Notice is a statement of our practices and your rights regarding your Personal Information.
Throughout the Site, "Wespath" refers to Wespath Benefits and Investments, as well as the organization formerly known as the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church, Incorporated in Illinois and its affiliate the UMC Benefit Board Inc.
By accessing or using Wespath’s Site and Services, or contacting us, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the practices as described in this Notice. To access this Notice in an alternative downloadable format, please click here.
Wespath collects several categories of Personal Information from and about users of our Site and Services. “Personal Information” means information that uniquely identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with or linked to you. The categories of Personal Information we collect may include:
If you are applying for employment with Wespath, we also use Personal Information to process your job application, and to verify the information you have provided in your application, conduct interviews, perform background and reference checks, communicate with you and answer your questions, confirm your eligibility for employment, and improve our recruiting processes. We may also save your Personal Information for future employment opportunities with us.
We may disclose your Personal Information in the following circumstances:
Wespath and our service providers may use cookies and similar technologies to collect usage and browser information about how you use our Site. The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include cookies and web beacons that permit us to verify system and server integrity and generate statistics around the popularity of certain content. We process the information collected through such technologies, which may include or be combined with Personal Information, to help operate certain features of our Site, to enhance your experience through personalization, and to help us better understand the features of our Site that you and other users are most interested in.
Site Delivery and Appearance – We may use third-party providers to enable certain participant interaction opportunities, content delivery (like audio or video), or other service capabilities. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following functionality:
Cookie Choices – To manage your preferences with respect to these technologies, you can:
We will not knowingly collect or solicit any Personal Information from children, as defined under applicable law, without verified written parental consent. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child, we will promptly take steps to delete that information. If you believe we might have any Personal Information from or about a child, please call Wespath at 1-800-851-2201 or reach out to us via our online contact form.
We retain your Personal Information for as long as needed to: (i) conduct business with you; (ii) fulfill the purposes outlined in this Notice; and (iii) comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce any agreements.
Criteria we will use to determine how long to retain your Personal Information includes the nature and length of our business relationship with you; our legal rights, obligations, and retention requirements; and if we have an ongoing business purpose for retaining your Personal Information, such as communicating with you about ongoing or prospective Services you requested.
Wespath has implemented commercially reasonable measures to protect your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, disclosure or destruction. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Despite these efforts to store Personal Information in a secure environment, we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Information during its transmission or its storage on our systems.
Our Site provides links to third-party websites that we do not operate, control or maintain. The third parties operating those websites have their own privacy practices and policies, and Wespath is not responsible for their actions. For example, our Site links to the EY Navigate website maintained by Ernst & Young. Its Privacy Policy may be found here. Our Site also links to YouTube to display informational videos about our Services. For more information about how YouTube collects and processes Personal Information, please see the privacy policy on the YouTube website. We urge you to read the privacy policies of all third-party websites and third-party advertisers to learn more about their privacy practices and policies.
In some cases, we offer links to social media platforms [e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube] that enable you to easily connect with Wespath or share information on social media. Any content you post via these social media pages is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policies for those platforms.
Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, individual customers who reside in California and who have an existing business relationship with Wespath may request information about our disclosure of certain categories of Personal Information to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes, if any.
To make such a request, send an e-mail with the subject heading “California Privacy Rights” to [email protected] or write to us by post at: Wespath, 1901 Chestnut Ave., Glenview, IL 60025. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for our response. Please be aware that not all information sharing is covered by these California privacy rights requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response. This request may be made no more than once per calendar year.
This section provides additional information regarding Wespath’s processing of Personal Information of people located in the European Union (“EU”), European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland and the United Kingdom (“UK”) in accordance with the EU Data Protection Regulation, UK Data Protection Regulation, and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act.
Legal Basis for Processing
We collect and process Personal Information about you where we have a legal basis for doing so. Our legal basis for processing Personal Information depends on the Personal Information involved and the context in which we process it. Where Wespath acts as a controller, we process your Personal Information: with your consent; where necessary to perform a contract; to comply with our legal obligations; and where doing so is in our legitimate interests (including the purposes described in this Notice) and such interests are not outweighed by your rights and freedoms.
Special Category Data
Wespath only collects Special Category Data where we have a lawful basis for doing so that is permitted under Article 9 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), specifically within the employment benefits context. We may collect data that reveals your racial or ethnic origin, trade union membership, sexual orientation, or health to fulfill our obligations, exercise our rights, and otherwise administer our employment benefits relationship with you. Please refrain from sending Wespath any Special Category Data outside this employment benefits context.
Where permitted by applicable law, we may transfer the Personal Information we collect about you to the United States and other jurisdictions that may not be deemed to provide the same level of data protection as your home country, as necessary for the purposes set out in this Notice.
For individuals in the European Union, European Economic Area, Switzerland and United Kingdom: Wespath will only transfer Personal Information to third parties located outside of this region when it has ensured appropriate safeguards for such Personal Information through use of the standard contractual clauses or other lawful and approved methods.
Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights with respect to your Personal Information under applicable data protection laws:
To exercise any of the privacy rights afforded to you under applicable data protection laws, please call Wespath toll free at 1-800-851-2201 or e-mail us at [email protected].
You may also initiate any opt outs by broadcasting an Opt-Out Preference Signal, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC). We will only honor Opt-Out Preference Signals, including GPC where required by law. If you choose to use an Opt-Out Preference Signal, you will need to turn it on for each supported browser or browser extension you use.
You will not be discriminated against in any way by virtue of your exercise of the rights listed in this Notice, which means Wespath will not deny Services to you, provide different prices or rates for Services to you, or provide a different level or quality of Services to you. Only you, or an authorized agent that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a request related to your Personal Information.
We must verify your identity before fulfilling your requests, and if we cannot verify your identity, we may request additional information from you. If you are an authorized agent making a request on behalf of another person, we will also need to verify your identity, which may require proof of your written authorization or evidence of a power of attorney. We endeavor to respond to requests within the time period required by applicable law. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your requests unless they are excessive or repetitive. If we determine that a 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 may deny certain requests, or only fulfill some in part, as permitted or required by law. If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your request and you are afforded a right to appeal such decision, you will be notified of our appeal process in our response to your request.
Please note that this Notice may change from time to time. We will post any changes to this Notice on this page. If we make material changes to this Notice, we may notify you of those changes by additional means, for example, by posting a notice on our Site or sending you notification of the revised Notice by e-mail, if you have provided your e-mail address to us.
If you have any questions about this Notice or concerns about the way Wespath uses Personal Information, please contact us by calling 1-800-851-2201 or using our online contact form.
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P.S. For plan sponsors and plan participants, we have a new look for you too. Check out the Wespath Benefits and Investments website.