Business Continuity Plans

 

Guy Almeling’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP)-9/9/2010

I have developed a BCP addressing the response to events that significantly disrupt my ability to provide services to clients. Disruptions may occur from natural disasters like a hurricane or tornado, attacks like September 11, a fire or damage to our office building, a larger regional disruption like an epidemic, or my unexpected incapacity or death. Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions is unpredictable, my office will be flexible in responding to actual events as they occur. With that in mind, I am providing you with this information.

  1. In the event of my temporary or permanent incapacity or death. I have entered into an agreement with Woodbury representatives David Russo and Anthony Klingseisen of Royal Palm Financial to provide service to my clients and supervision to my office manager Correna Pedley. They have agreed to be immediately available so that there is no disruption in service. Their toll free number is 888-785-7526, and website is www.royalpalmfinancial.com. If there is as described in #2 below, then they will also be available to provide services. 
     
  2. If we find the business devastated, destroyed, or significantly disrupted, Woodbury will be called at (800) 800-2638 within one business day. We will provide them information of the office status available at the time including the address and contact information of a temporary location to establish an office. Woodbury will publish this information on their website at www.woodburyfinancialservices.com and may be called directly using the number above. The same information will be posted at www.guyalmeling.com. Woodbury will contact all internal operational and support departments to be prepared to provide assistance as needed, as well as outside vendors for pending business and regulatory agencies.
  3. Within one business day, I will change my office voicemail greeting to direct all account-related questions or requests to place trades to Woodbury home office at the number above.
  4. Within one business day, I will have all calls to the office phone automatically routed to my personal cell phone or to Woodbury’s home office.
  5. Within the first two days, I will establish an alternate computer access point to ensure that I am able to send and receive email correspondence. When access is made, I will email all clients concerning the disruption and procedures to respond to their service needs. If email is not available, then we will phone each client.
  6. Within the first week, I will contact the Post Office to have all office mail routed to an alternate location to ensure that all client correspondence is reviewed promptly.
  7. Within the first week, I will be contacting all clients similarly affected by the disaster/disruption to find out if they need service, access to their funds, or if they have new contact information. Woodbury stands ready to assist in this effort.
  8. As a general guideline, we will have a fully functional office within two weeks at the same or alternate location. Woodbury will assist in providing or obtaining duplicate books and records a securities representative is required to have. Over the last several years, we have transitioned to a “paperless” office operating on an in office computer accessible remotely over a secure Internet connection and having computer back up in multiple locations. We are currently evaluating and expect to be soon using a web-based data system reducing the risk of record destruction when a computer is damage or destroyed. As a current back up, my Apple IPhone contains the contact information for all clients, service providers, and vendors.




Royal Palm Financials’ Business Continuity Plan (BCP)-9/29/2010

We have developed a BCP addressing the response to events that significantly disrupt our ability to provide services to clients. Disruptions may occur from natural disasters like a hurricane or tornado, attacks like September 11, a fire or damage to our office building, a larger regional disruption like an epidemic, or one of ours unexpected incapacity or death. Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions is unpredictable, our office will be flexible in responding to actual events as they occur. With that in mind, we are providing you with this information.

  1. In the event of our temporary or permanent incapacity or death. We have entered into an agreement with Woodbury representative Guy Almeling to provide service to our clients and supervision to our office manager Correna Pedley. They have agreed to be immediately available so that there is no disruption in service. Their toll free number is 888-400-3400, and our website is www.royalpalmfinancial.com. If there is as described in #2 below, then they will also be available to provide services.
  2. If we find the business devastated, destroyed, or significantly disrupted, Woodbury will be called at (800) 800-2638 within one business day. We will provide them information of the office status available at the time including the address and contact information of a temporary location to establish an office. Woodbury will publish this information on their website at www.woodburyfinancialservices.com and may be called directly using the number above. The same information will be posted at www.royalpalmfinancial.com. Woodbury will contact all internal operational and support departments to be prepared to provide assistance as needed, as well as outside vendors for pending business and regulatory agencies.
  3. Within one business day, we will change our office voicemail greeting to direct all account-related questions or requests to place trades to Woodbury home office at the number above.
  4. Within one business day, we will have all calls to the office phone automatically routed to our personal cell phones or to Woodbury’s home office.
  5. Within the first two days, we will establish an alternate computer access point to ensure that we are able to send and receive email correspondence. When access is made, we will email all clients concerning the disruption and procedures to respond to their service needs. If email is not available, then we will phone each client.
  6. Within the first week, we will contact the Post Office to have all office mail routed to an alternate location to ensure that all client correspondence is reviewed promptly.
  7. Within the first week, we will be contacting all clients similarly affected by the disaster/disruption to find out if they need service, access to their funds, or if they have new contact information. Woodbury stands ready to assist in this effort.
  8. As a general guideline, we will have a fully functional office within two weeks at the same or alternate location. Woodbury will assist in providing or obtaining duplicate books and records a securities representative is required to have. Over the last several years, we have transitioned to a “paperless” office operating on an in office computer accessible remotely over a secure Internet connection and having computer back up in multiple locations. We are currently evaluating and expect to be soon using a web-based data system reducing the risk of record destruction when a computer is damage or destroyed.



 

Woodbury Financial Business Continuity Plan

Woodbury Financial has developed a Business Continuity Plan addressing how we will respond to events that significantly disrupt our business. Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions is unpredictable, we will have to be flexible in responding to actual events as they occur. With that in mind, we are providing you with this information from our business continuity plan.

Our Business Continuity Plan

We plan to quickly recover and resume business operations after a significant business disruption and respond by safeguarding our employees and property, making a financial and operational assessment, protecting the firm's books and records, and allowing our customers to transact business. In short, our business continuity plan is designed to permit our firm to resume operations as quickly as possible, given the scope and severity of the significant business disruption. Our business continuity plan addresses: data back up and recovery; critical technology systems/applications; financial and operational assessments; alternative communications with customers, employees, and regulators; alternate physical location of employees; critical supplier, contractor, bank and counter-party impact; regulatory reporting; and assuring our customers prompt access to their funds and securities if we are unable to continue our business.

Our firm has developed back up and recovery plans for all of its critical technology systems/applications and data. Data is backed up and stored at alternate locations. Our clearing firm and third party technology partners have data system/application back-up and recovery procedures. We test these procedures annually for critical business functions.

Varying Disruptions

Significant business disruptions can vary in their scope, such as only our firm, a single building housing our firm, the business district where our firm is located, the city where the firm is located, or the whole region. Within each of these areas, the severity of the disruption can also vary from minimal to severe.

In a disruption to only our firm or a building housing our firm, we will transfer our operations to a local site when needed and expect to recover and resume business within twelve hours. In a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region, we will transfer our operations to a site outside of the affected area, and our objective are to recover and resume business within twenty four hours.

We have been advised by our clearing firm that its objective is to restore its own operations and be able to complete existing transactions and accept new transactions and payments with in four hours. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer operations to our clearing firm if necessary, and notify you through our website www.woodburyfinancialservices.com and our customer emergency number, (800) 800-2638, on how to contact us. If the significant business disruption is so severe that it prevents us from remaining in business, we will assure our customers prompt access to their funds and securities.

Although we have developed a detailed business continuity plan, we cannot guarantee that we will be successful in achieving recovery in the times noted above. Please note that certain components of our business continuity plan are dependent on the performance of third parties, and we are limited in our ability to control whether third parties properly adhere to our plans and otherwise respond appropriately in the event of a business disruption. In the event a business disruption results in the unavailability our key employees to perform their duties, the recovery times describe above may be significantly increased.

Contacting Us

If you have questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at (800) 800-2638, select Option 1 for the Woodbury Financial Service Center. If after a significant business disruption you cannot contact Woodbury at (800) 800-2638 or through www.woodburyfinancialservices.com, you should contact your representative, the product manufacturer or our clearing firm for instructions on how it may execute trades, accept deposits, remit funds or otherwise provide ongoing transaction processing for your account. Refer to your account statement for how to contact the appropriate product manufacturer. For brokerage accounts our clearing firm, Pershing, can be reached at (888) 367-2563.