Planning by Design

Privacy Policy

Last updated 18 September 2026

Who this covers

This policy covers Planning by Design and this website. Ben Shackelford is an insurance licensed professional and is not a registered investment adviser. Nothing on this site is individualised financial, tax or insurance advice.

What we collect

Only what you give us, and only through three routes.

  • The newsletter form. Your email address, and your first name if you provide it.
  • The chat assistant. Whatever you type into it, including anything personal you choose to share. It is a general information tool, so please do not enter account numbers or sensitive financial details.
  • Booking a Retirement Income Review. Your name, email, phone number and whatever you add in the booking form.

We do not buy contact information. We do use analytics and advertising tags on this site, described under Cookies and tracking below.

Why we collect it

To reply to you, to send the newsletter if you asked for it, and to arrange and prepare for a session if you book one. Ben is licensed in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and is completing licensing in Oklahoma and New Mexico, so we also use the location you give us to confirm whether he is able to work with you at all.

Where it goes

We use a small number of providers to run this site. Each one only receives what it needs.

  • GoHighLevel holds contact records, the booking calendar, and email and text conversations.
  • Anthropic processes chat messages so the assistant can answer. Conversations are not used to train their models.
  • Resend delivers newsletter email.
  • Vercel hosts the site.
  • Sanity stores the articles you read here. It holds no information about you.

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with anyone beyond the providers above and the insurance carriers involved if you go ahead with a recommendation.

How long we keep it

Contact records are kept for as long as you are a client or a prospective one, and after that for as long as insurance record keeping rules require. You can ask us to delete anything we are not required to hold.

How we protect your information

Everything you send us travels over an encrypted connection, and this site is served over HTTPS on every page. Your information is held by the established providers named above rather than on our own hardware, and each of them encrypts data in transit and at rest.

Access is limited to Ben and to anyone directly helping run the business, and only for the work that requires it. Accounts holding your information are protected with strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication where the provider offers it.

No system is perfectly secure, so we ask you not to send account numbers, Social Security numbers or other sensitive identifiers through the website, the chat assistant or email. When we need details like that, we will arrange a safer way to collect them.

Phone numbers and text messages

We only text you if you asked us to. Consent is collected through a tick box on our sign-up form, it is never pre-ticked, and it is never required to submit the form or to work with us. Giving us a phone number on its own is not consent to be texted.

There are two separate programs and you may accept one, both or neither. Service messages cover appointment reminders, confirmations and replies to questions you send us. Marketing messages cover educational notes and occasional updates about what we offer.

Message frequency may vary. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message and we will stop, immediately and permanently. Reply HELP for help.

We do not share your mobile number, or your consent to be texted, with any third party for their own marketing. The only parties that ever see it are the providers listed above who deliver the messages on our behalf.

Email

Every newsletter carries an unsubscribe link and it works on the first click. You can also reply and ask, which has the same effect.

Cookies and tracking

Some cookies are needed to make pages work. Beyond those, this site uses analytics and advertising tags that help us understand how the site is found and used, and measure whether an ad led to an enquiry. They do not receive anything you type into a form.

Asking to see or delete your information

Ask and we will tell you what we hold, correct it, or delete it. Email ben@designfinancial.info.

Changes

If this policy changes we will update the date at the top of the page.

This communication is strictly intended for individuals residing in the states of TX, LA, OK, AR, and NM. No offers may be made or accepted from any resident outside these specific states. Planning by Design does not offer legal or tax advice. These materials are provided for general information and educational purposes only. Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurer.