About Us

Privacy Statement and Policy

If you have provided us with your privacy choice before, you do not need to notify us again. Your instructions continue to be honored until you tell us otherwise.

This Privacy Statement and Policy applies to individual clients of First Foundation Inc.’s (“First Foundation”, “we”, “us”) treatment of nonpublic personal information we collect from individuals who obtain financial products or services from us primarily for personal, family or household purposes and how we use and share that information both within and outside the family of First Foundation affiliates which are:

  • - First Foundation Bank
  • - First Foundation Advisors

Types and Uses of Information Collected

We may collect the following kinds of information about you:

  • - Information we receive from you on applications;
  • - Information about your transactions with us;
  • - Information we receive from a credit reporting agency.

We may use this personal and financial information to identify:

  • - Persons involved in transactions and to guard against unauthorized access to your funds;
  • - Additional products or services that may be of value to you; and
  • - Potential risks to avoid losses to the First Foundation family of companies.

Disclosure of Account Information

We will not disclose your nonpublic personal and financial information with any non affiliated companies except for:

  • - Entities that you authorize us to disclose your nonpublic information;
  • - Consumer-reporting agencies or other agencies that have legitimate and lawful purposes and are authorized by law to receive the information;
  • - Appropriate law enforcement agencies or the courts when the disclosure is required by or allowed by law. Examples are: subpoenas and the investigation of fraudulent activity.

We may disclose information about you or your account(s) to:

  • - Companies providing First Foundation services so that we can provide you our financial services. Examples are credit reporting organizations, data processing service providers, and account custodians;
  • - Companies providing marketing services or products of ours or our affiliates on our behalf; and
  • - First Foundation affiliate companies.

When you close your account, we continue to share information about you according to our policies and your information sharing choices.

Client Privacy in Third Party Business Relationships

First Foundation contracts with outside companies to provide certain specific services. To ensure the confidentiality of your personal information, we require these companies to adhere to the same Privacy Principles adopted by First Foundation. These companies are strictly prohibited from using the information for their own benefit, or allowing any other party to access the information.

Maintaining Information

We have established procedures and controls to ensure that information used is accurate, current and complete in accordance with commercial standards. Our procedures are designed to safeguard and correct inaccurate information in a timely manner whenever it is discovered.

Employee Access to Information

Access to your personal information is only available to those employees with a legitimate need to know. Employees are trained to handle all information in a confidential manner. All employees must adhere to our Company Code of Ethics Policy as a requirement for continued employment.

Privacy Preference

In order to serve you best, First Foundation discloses your nonpublic personal information among its affiliates. However, you may “opt out” of sharing your nonpublic personal information among First Foundation affiliates by completing and returning our Privacy Election Choice Form, recording your preference on our online Privacy Preference Form or by calling (888) 489-0188. If you are choosing to “opt out” you understand that this may limit First Foundation’s ability to give you the most efficient service. Please note that it may take 30 days for your privacy choice to take effect.

Additional information about our privacy practices is available by calling (888) 489-0188 or writing us at First Foundation, Attention: Privacy Department, 18101 Von Karman Drive, Suite 700, Irvine, CA 92612

Policy Updates and Adoption Date:

This Privacy Policy was adopted on: October 1, 2009.

Periodically we review matters relating to protecting the financial information of our clients. When these reviews results in changes to our Privacy Policy, this website is updated to display the new Policy and the date it was adopted. Up-to-date Privacy Policies are also included in our annual Privacy Policy mailing.