Privacy Policy

1. Who This Policy Covers

Mintwell is used in three ways:

• Advisors (financial professionals) and their teams use Mintwell to build plans with their clients.
• Clients of an advisor use Mintwell to see and update the plan their advisor keeps for them.
• People planning on their own use the free check, the Mintwell app in ChatGPT, or a free self-managed account.

Advisors' clients and leads. When an advisor adds a client, or someone completes an advisor's work-optional check, the advisor decides how that information is used and Mintwell handles it on the advisor's behalf. Advisors are responsible for having their clients' permission to share information with Mintwell and for their own privacy obligations to their clients. If you're an advisor's client, you can contact your advisor or us; we'll pass requests about your advisor's records to them.

Everyone else. For advisors' own accounts, self-managed accounts, the free check and the Mintwell app in ChatGPT, Mintwell decides how information is used, as this policy describes.

2. Information We Collect

a. Information you give us

• Account details: name and email, with a password (stored only in hashed form by our sign-in provider), Google sign-in on the web, or Sign in with Apple in the iPhone app. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, Apple gives us a relay address ending in privaterelay.appleid.com instead of your own, and that relay address becomes your account's email — we never see the address behind it. Apple also passes on your name only the first time you sign in, so we save it then; if you decline to share it, your account simply has no name on it. Advisors may also add a phone number, job title, company, bio, photo or logo, the states they serve, and booking links.
• Planning information: ages or birth years, household (single or couple), pay, workplace retirement saving and match, Social Security estimates, monthly saving, savings and investment balances, debts (balance, payment and interest rate), home value, other income, one-time amounts, expenses, spending by category, budgets and goals. A couple's plan includes the partner's details.
• Documents and photos you choose to have read: paystubs, account and loan statements, Social Security statements and business cards. They are read, not stored (Section 4).
• Messages: notes and questions clients send their advisor, messages from advisors, invitation notes, support requests and demo requests.
• Payment details: advisors who subscribe pay through Stripe, which collects their card details. We keep Stripe's customer and subscription references, not card numbers.

b. Information advisors give us about clients and prospects

Advisors may enter their clients' names, emails, phone numbers, locations and planning information, invite clients by email with a personal note, or fill in an invitation from a business card photo. When someone completes an advisor's work-optional check, we collect their first name, email, an optional phone number, their answers, and their consent to be contacted by that advisor. The answers include whether they are still working and, for someone who is not, roughly what they spend in a month — which the check needs because for everyone else it works spending out from pay rather than asking.

An advisor may also record a last name, company, job title, year of birth, where they met someone and whether that person agreed to be emailed, and may group people into a household. We keep a dated record of each step in an advisor's own process — added, check sent, check taken, meeting booked, won or set aside — including whether the advisor, an assistant or an automation did it, so the advisor can see their own pipeline. This record is kept for the advisor and is not shared with other advisors. The one thing that leaves an advisor's own records is counted, never named: see Section 5.

c. Information collected automatically

• Our hosting provider keeps standard request logs, such as IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time.
• In our database we keep IP addresses only as one-way scrambled codes (hashes), used to limit abuse.
• Whether a client invitation or plan-link email was opened, and how many times a plan link has been viewed, so the advisor knows their message arrived.
• Counts of AI requests per account, used for fair-use limits.

We don't use analytics trackers, advertising cookies, session recording or heatmaps.

d. What we don't ask for

We don't ask for Social Security numbers, full account numbers, or passwords to financial accounts. When Mintwell reads a document, it masks Social Security numbers, dates of birth and long account numbers in what it returns, and keeps at most the last four digits of an account number as a label (for example, "401(k) ••4821").

3. How We Use Information

We use information only to:

• Provide the Services: create and secure accounts, build and show plans, run the work-optional check, and let advisors, their teams and their clients work together.
• Send email: sign-in and account emails, invitations, plan links, results, alerts to advisors, and follow-ups an advisor has turned on (Section 7).
• Bill: manage advisors' subscriptions.
• Support you: answer questions and requests.
• Keep the Services safe: prevent abuse, apply limits, investigate problems and fix errors.
• Improve Mintwell: using our own records of errors and usage counts.
• Build the benchmark: counting answers, never storing them, so that we can tell people how they compare with others like them (Section 5).
• Meet legal obligations: comply with the law and enforce our Terms.

We don't sell personal information, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models.

4. AI Features

Mintwell's AI features are:

• Reading documents and business cards. The file you choose is sent to an AI model to find the numbers or contact details in it. Mintwell doesn't store the file. Photos are resized, and their location and camera details removed, before they're sent. You review what was found before anything is added to a plan or an invitation.
• Asking about a plan. An advisor's question and the plan's figures are sent so the AI can explain the plan. People are labeled "first person" and "second person," not by name. The conversation isn't stored.

These requests go through Vercel's AI Gateway to AI models (currently Anthropic's Claude models), and only to providers that have agreed to zero data retention: they may not keep what's sent after answering, and may not use it to train models.

Older plan reports. Mintwell's older PDF plan reports have been retired, and no new ones are made. Reports made before then are kept in private storage in the advisor's account until they're deleted.

AI results can be wrong. They're shown for you or your advisor to review, and they're estimates for education, not advice.

5. The Benchmark

Mintwell can tell you how your answers compare with other people's — “you save more than 8 in 10 owners your age”. This section is how that works, because it is the one place where something learned from one person's answers is used for somebody else.

We count, we don't keep. When a check or a plan is finished, a few of its figures are turned into ranges — a savings rate into “between 18% and 19%”, an age into “60” — and we add one to a running total for each range. What is stored is the total. There is no record of your answers, and nothing that connects one of your figures to another of your figures: your savings rate and your retirement age are counted in separate tallies that cannot be matched back together.

Never amounts, never you. Only rates, ages and multiples are counted. No dollar amount is ever included, and no name, email address, employer or account is. We keep one coded reference per person so that retaking the check replaces your earlier answers instead of counting you twice, and so that an opt-out can take your contribution back out of the totals. That reference is a one-way code; it cannot be turned back into your email address, including by us.

Nothing is said about small groups. We show no comparison for a group of fewer than 25 people, and none at all unless at least five different advisory firms have contributed to it, with no single firm making up more than a quarter. The second rule matters as much as the first: without it, one firm's own clients could become the yardstick its next client is measured against. When a group is too small, we say so rather than show a number.

Our commitment. We maintain and use this benchmark data only in a form that cannot be connected to any individual, we will not attempt to re-identify anyone from it, and we require the same of anyone we ever share it with.

Choosing not to take part. Advisory firms agree to contribute when they sign up, and can turn it off for their whole firm at any time in their settings. If you took an advisor's check, there is a link at the end of your results — “how your answers are counted” — that takes yours back out. You can also ask your advisor, or contact us. Opting out stops any further counting and removes what you have already contributed from the totals.

If you used Mintwell in ChatGPT. Your answers are counted the same way, and there is one honest difference. We hold nothing that identifies you — only a coded reference derived from the account you used — and the plan you saved is deleted after fourteen days. Until then, contact us and we can take your contribution back out. After that there is nothing left that could find it again, which is the same fact said the other way round: by then nothing connects you to the totals at all.

6. How We Share Information

a. With the people you work with

• Your advisor and their team: a client's information is visible to their advisor, the assistants the advisor adds, and managing directors of the advisor's firm, who can view but not edit.
• An advisor you choose: if you ask for an advisor through the Mintwell directory, we share your first name, email, plan and any message you write with that advisor only.
• Plan links: an advisor can send a client a private link to view their plan. Anyone with the link can open it, so keep it private. The advisor can turn it off at any time.

b. With service providers

These companies help us run the Services and handle information only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: database, sign-in and file storage.
• Vercel: hosting, request logs, and the AI Gateway for our AI features.
• AI model providers: reached through Vercel's AI Gateway, with zero data retention (Section 4).
• Postmark: email delivery.
• Stripe: subscription payments.
• Google: Google sign-in on the web, if you choose it, and the fonts our pages load. Google receives your IP address when your browser loads the fonts. The iPhone app doesn’t load fonts from Google — they ship inside the app.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple in the iPhone app, if you choose it. Apple confirms the account is yours and gives us an email address — a relay address, if you use Hide My Email — and your name the first time you sign in.

c. Other cases

• When we believe in good faith that the law, a court order or a valid government request requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or others.
• In a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We'll give notice on our website, and directly where the law requires.
• For other purposes, with your consent.

We don't sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or let others use it for their own marketing.

7. The Free Check and Mintwell in ChatGPT

What the check uses. The work-optional check, at mintwell.ai or through the Mintwell app in ChatGPT, uses the numbers you give it: your age (and your partner's, if you include them), pay, monthly saving, total saved and, if you choose, debts, the age you'd like work to be optional, how you like to invest, Social Security estimates, your monthly spending by category (such as dining out or groceries) and a first name. It doesn't ask for account numbers, Social Security numbers or passwords.

In ChatGPT. When you use the app, ChatGPT sends Mintwell only those numbers. We use them to run the check and send the results back to ChatGPT, and we don't keep them unless you ask to save your plan. ChatGPT also sends an anonymous ID, which we keep only as a one-way scrambled code (a hash) so we can limit how many plans can be saved per hour. We don't receive your ChatGPT conversation, and we can't read accounts you've connected to ChatGPT. If you agree, ChatGPT can send monthly spending totals by category that it knows from those accounts; Mintwell receives only those totals, never individual transactions or store names. Your use of ChatGPT, including the results shown there, is covered by OpenAI's privacy policy.

Saving your plan. If you ask to save your plan (in ChatGPT or after the free check), we keep those numbers and your results for up to 14 days so you can create a free Mintwell account and keep the plan. After 14 days they're deleted. Once you keep the plan, it's stored in your account until the account is deleted.

Asking an advisor for help. If you choose an advisor from the Mintwell directory, we share your first name, email, plan and any message you write with that advisor only.

8. Emails

• Account emails: sign-up confirmation, password reset and email changes. These are needed to use an account.
• From an advisor, sent by Mintwell: invitations and plan links, shown as from "[Advisor] via Mintwell." These two emails include a small tracking image that tells the advisor whether the email was opened. Invitations carry their own unsubscribe link, separate from the link that opens the check.
• Results and follow-ups: someone who completes an advisor's check gets their results by email. If the advisor turns them on, Mintwell also sends up to five short follow-up emails on the advisor's behalf over about four weeks (three by default). Each includes an unsubscribe link. Follow-ups stop when you unsubscribe, when the advisor stops them, or when the advisor updates your status.
• Alerts to advisors: new leads, directory requests and client updates. Advisors can turn some of these off in Settings.

We don't send marketing newsletters. Emails go out through our email provider, Postmark.

9. Cookies, Browser and App Storage

• Staying signed in: your sign-in session is kept in your browser's local storage.
• In the iPhone app: your sign-in session is the only thing kept on the phone. It is encrypted with a key held in the iPhone's Keychain, and signing out deletes both the session and the key. Nothing else is stored on the device — your clients' details and figures are fetched when you open a screen and are not written to the phone.
• Preferences: text size, report settings, your state for the advisor directory and similar choices are kept in local storage.
• Short-lived details: invitation and saved-plan links you've opened, and business card details for up to 10 minutes while you finish an invitation.
• Saved what-ifs: advisors' Freedom Lab can save plans in that browser's local storage.
• One cookie remembers whether the side menu is open, for 7 days.

We don't use advertising, analytics or cross-site tracking cookies, and the iPhone app contains no analytics, advertising or tracking software at all. Clearing your browser's storage signs you out and resets these preferences. Because we don't sell or share personal information or use targeted advertising, there's nothing for a Global Privacy Control signal to turn off.

10. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information, including:

• Encryption in transit (HTTPS) and encryption at rest by our database provider.
• Access rules in the database, so each person can reach only what their role allows.
• Passwords stored only in hashed form.
• Rate limits and bot filters on public forms and AI features.
• IP addresses kept in our database only as scrambled codes.
• Files read by AI not stored, and older PDF reports kept in private storage until they're deleted.
• Mintwell staff access personal information only when needed to run, support or secure the Services.

Two-step sign-in isn't available yet, so please use a strong, unique password, Google sign-in, or Sign in with Apple. No method of sending or storing information is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

If there's a breach. If a security breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you and, where required, the authorities, without undue delay and as the law requires. We'll tell advisors promptly about any breach affecting their clients' information.

11. Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes in this policy:

12. Your Rights and Choices

To make a request, use our Support page or email support@mintwell.ai, from the email on your account if you have one. We'll respond within the time the law requires, and we won't treat you differently for using your rights.

a. Everyone

• Access: ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: fix information that's wrong. Much of it can be edited in the app.
• Deletion: ask us to delete your account and personal information, subject to legal requirements.
• Portability: advisors can download leads and plan figures as CSV files, and anyone can ask us for a copy of their information.
• Email choices: every email we send on an advisor's behalf carries an unsubscribe link and a postal address. Unsubscribing stops that advisor's emails; the page also offers to stop every Mintwell email, from any advisor. We keep a record of the address that asked and the date, so we can honor it. Account emails can't be turned off while you have an account.

If you're an advisor's client, we may pass requests about records your advisor keeps to your advisor, as Section 1 explains.

b. U.S. state privacy rights

Residents of states with privacy laws (such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas and Virginia) may also have these rights:

• To opt out of the sale of personal information or targeted advertising. We do neither, so there's nothing to opt out of.
• To opt out of profiling that leads to legal or similarly significant decisions. Mintwell doesn't make such decisions; its plans are estimates for education.
• To appeal if we deny a request: email support@mintwell.ai with the subject "Privacy Rights Appeal," and we'll respond within the time your state's law requires.
• To use an authorized agent. We'll confirm the agent's authority before acting on the request.

c. Verifying requests

To protect your information, we confirm who you are before acting on a request, for example by confirming the email on your account or other details we hold. You don't need an account to make a request.

13. California Privacy Rights

This section adds to the rest of this policy for California residents, under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act. In the last 12 months we have collected the categories below. We don't sell or share (as California law defines it) any of them.

Sensitive personal information. We don't collect sensitive personal information as California law defines it, except what may appear in a document you choose to have read. Those files aren't stored, and Social Security numbers, dates of birth and long account numbers are masked in what's returned.

Your California rights. You can ask to know what we collect and how we use it, correct it, delete it, and opt out of its sale or sharing (which we don't do), and you won't be treated differently for using these rights. Contact us as described in Section 11, or by mail at the address in Section 16. Retention periods are in Section 10.

14. Where Information Is Stored

The Services are intended for people in the United States, and we store information in the United States. Some service providers may process it in other countries under their own safeguards. If you use the Services from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, whose data-protection laws may differ from yours.

15. Children's Privacy

The Services are for adults. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.

16. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as our Services or the law change. We'll post the new version here and update the date at the top. For material changes, we'll also tell account holders by email or in the app before the changes take effect.

17. Contact Us

For questions or requests about this policy or your information:

Jurisdiction: Florida, United States.