Privacy Policy

 

GE Funds

GE Institutional Funds

GE Lifestyle Funds

GE Investment Distributors

 

How We Use and Protect Personal Information

 

Protecting your privacy is very important to us. We value your trust and we want you to understand what information we collect, how we protect it, and how we use it. We treat personal information -- nonpublic information that identifies you -- with respect, and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

 

Personal information is essential to us in meeting our goal to provide you with our products and services.

 

Some of our business relationships with outside (non-GE) companies, such as financial institutions and sales intermediaries, may further restrict the sharing of personal information with others. If you have obtained a product or service through one of these relationships and we have agreed with that outside company not to share information about you, we will follow those privacy and data sharing restrictions.

 

Our Privacy Policy

 

This is our Privacy Policy:

  • We will describe in plain English what personal information we collect, how we protect it, and what we may do with it.

  • We will tell current customers our Privacy Policy annually and whenever it changes.

  • We will maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect personal information we obtain about our customers.

  • We will not sell personal information to outside companies.

  • We will not share personal information with outside companies, except as permitted by law.

  • We will require servicing companies to whom we disclose personal information to adhere to our Privacy Policy standards.

Please read on for details about our practices for handling and securing your personal information. This Privacy Policy includes examples of the types of information we may collect and the kinds of companies with whom we may share information. These examples are illustrative and should not be considered a complete inventory of our information collection or sharing practices.

 

Information We May Collect

 

We may obtain information to provide you products and services you have requested, to service your account and as we deem appropriate to determine your eligibility for products or services. Examples of the sources and types of information we may collect include:

  • Applications, registration forms, or other forms, containing your name, address, telephone number, tax identification number, e-mail address, income, assets, and accounts with others;

  • Your transactions or experiences with us, other GE companies, or outside companies, such as your transaction history;

  • Credit reporting agencies and other companies, such as your credit score;

  • Other companies that assist us in marketing our own products and services or products and services we offer jointly with other financial institutions, such as your name, address, telephone number, and transaction information; and

  • You and others, including information returned on surveys, such as your employment, income, finances, avocations and other personal characteristics.

 

Information We May Disclose And To Whom We May Disclose Information

 

We may disclose all the personal information we collect, as described above, in the following types of situations:

 

Disclosures To Service Providers

 

We may disclose all the personal information we collect to companies that provide services to you on our behalf, such as:

  • Providing administrative, customer assistance, or other services;

  • Preparing, printing and delivering statements and other documents;

  • Protecting against fraud; and

  • Maintaining or developing software for us.

 

Disclosures To Market Our Products or Services

 

We may disclose personal information to companies with which we have marketing arrangements, such as:

  • Companies that help us market our products and services; and

  • Other financial institutions (such as banks or securities firms) with which we have joint marketing arrangements (that is, arrangements to jointly endorse or offer financial products or services).

 

Disclosures To Affiliates

 

Our affiliates are other GE companies, which are involved in diverse businesses ranging from financial services (such as insurance) to consumer products (such as appliances and light bulbs). GE Asset Management may disclose personal information to other GE companies, for purposes such as:

  • Fulfilling your requests; and

  • Offering you other products or services that we think may be of interest to you.

 

Disclosures Permitted By Law

 

We may disclose all the personal information we collect as permitted or required by law. For example, we may disclose information to law enforcement agencies or regulatory authorities (such as the NASD or SEC).

 

No Disclosures For Other Purposes

 

We will not share any personal information we collect with outside companies, except as explained above. That is, we will not sell personal information to outside companies that may wish to market their products and services to you. While we may offer products or services to you on behalf of such outside companies, we will not give your personal information to them.

 

When We Will Notify You

 

If you are a current customer, we will provide an annual Privacy Policy notice to you. If you no longer have a customer relationship with us, we will continue to follow our Privacy Policy and practices, but you will not receive future notices from us.

 

Change In Privacy Policy

 

We reserve the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes, we will provide current customers with a revised notice that describes our new practices.

 

Our Security Procedures

 

We maintain procedures and technology designed to prevent unauthorized access to personal information. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural protections in accordance with applicable standards to protect personal information. We restrict access to personal information to employees and service providers for legitimate business purposes to assist in providing products or services to you. Employees who violate our Privacy Policy are subject to disciplinary action.

 

Online Privacy

 

In addition to the policies outlined above, the following online privacy principles apply when you visit us on the World Wide Web.

  • Online information and collection. You can visit us on the Web without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself, including your e-mail address. In this case, our web servers collect the name of the domain you used to access the Internet, such as aol.com or MSN.com, and the Web site you came from and visit next. This information is used by us and select outside companies in the course of delivering an advertisement to you and to measure the number of visits, average time spent, page views, and other statistics about visitors to our Web site in general. We also may use this data to monitor site performance and to make the site easier and more convenient to use. We also may aggregate statistics that we gather about our customers, sales, traffic patterns, and services, and provide these statistics to third parties; however, when we do, these statistics will not include any personal information that identifies individuals, unless you have agreed to receive personally-tailored information.

  • Cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data stored by your Internet browser on your computer´s hard drive. We, along with thousands of other Web sites, use cookies to enhance your Web viewing experience and to measure your Web site usage. With the help of cookies, we may present you with customized offerings or content that may be of interest to you. We may also use cookies to recognize you on subsequent visits or to remember your user name so you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit our site. You may be able to set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to prevent cookies from being sent. Please note, however, that by not accepting cookies, you may limit the functionality we can provide to you when you visit our site.

  • Links to other Web sites. We are not responsible for the information collection practices of other Web sites when you link to them from our Web site. For example, we cannot guarantee how those sites use cookies or whether they place on your computer cookies that may identify you personally. You should carefully review the privacy policies of each Web site you visit to understand how they collect, use, and disclose information.

  • Accessing our Web site through GEFN. If you visit us through GEFN.com, we encourage you also to read its privacy statement, which is different from ours.

  • Information from Children. We do not knowingly solicit information from children and we do not knowingly market our products or services to children.

  • E-mails from us and online surveys. Occasionally, we may send you e-mail communications with information that may be useful to you, including information about our products and services or about offerings from affiliates or outside companies. You will be given the option of not receiving any such e-mail messages if you choose. At times, we conduct online surveys to better understand the needs, profiles, and experience of our visitors. You will be given the option of not participating in such surveys.

  • Encryption. We use encryption and authentication tools to protect your personal information. E-mails you send us are not necessarily secure when they are transmitted to us. If your communication is very sensitive, you may want to call us or send it by regular mail.

  • Access. In some cases, you may want to update the information that you provided to us. This may require you to use a unique user name and password (or PIN). Also, where the capability exists you may request that we modify or delete information we have gathered during your visit.

  • Registered Users. To help you make financial decisions or identify products or services that may be of interest to you, we may provide you with calculators or other financial tools. When you provide personal information when using such tools, we will not collect any personal information about you. However, once you register with us or request an application, we may collect personal information.

 

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The practices and policies contained in this Privacy Policy replace all previous notices or statements with respect to the same subject.

 

This Privacy Policy will not apply to your relationships with outside (non-GE) companies, such as other mutual fund companies or financial service providers, which are not part of the GE Company. Their privacy policies will govern how they collect, use and disclose personal information that you allow them to access.

 

This Privacy Policy applies solely to the information collection practices of GE Investment Distributors and the GE Mutual Funds. By the GE Mutual Funds, we mean: the GE Institutional Funds, the GE Lifestyle Funds and the GE Funds. GE Investment Distributors, Inc., member NASD/SIPC, serves as the distributor for the GE Mutual Funds.

 

Personal information obtained by other GE companies (such as the GE Financial Network) will not be governed by this Privacy Policy; you should review the privacy policies of those specific GE companies to understand how they collect, use and disclose personal information.