Virtual Village Services

First Responders

Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP) or Business Continuity Plans (BCP) are an integral part of every organization.  While the chances of a complete catastrophe might be small, the ability to execute a plan under any conditions, small or large, is key to a successful business and peace of mind.

From scenarios of the phones being down to a couple hours to a building fire where you do not have access to your equipment for a couple days, your ability to keep your clients informed of what is going on is key to your long term success and reputation.

When a business continuity plan is married with your succession plan, it is even a more powerful story which can be explained to clients to ensure they understand how much you care for them and their asset management plans.  What may seem a mute point for you may be the biggest concern for your clients.   Questions such as “what happens if you are not here?” or “what happens if an earthquake hits the area?” are key topics that should be addressed during a client’s due diligence of your firm.   Following Hurricane Katrina and the stock market volatility of 2007 and 2008, off the cuff answers are not going to suffice for your sophisticated clients.   In addition, the ability to protect their data in the face of a rising tide of identity theft will be integral to your data storage and Business Continuity Plans.

Below is a list of items that you need to consider when putting together your plan.  In addition, we have posted a template plan that you can use so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel.

Key questions and tasks

1. Conduct an appointment with your business insurance broker.  This may be your best resource to ensure you are covered and to come up with a plan.
2. Take Pictures, this is the easiest way to start thinking about what you would need in a complete loss as well as the best way to submit claims.
3. Ensure you backup your data.  While so much of our client data is able to be retrieved from web sites through the BD or your custodian, think about the simple things of printing your contact management list each month and keeping it at home.  If you had to sit down and call all of your clients to let them know you had a fire, what would be the easiest way to do it?
4. Call a couple friends.   Ask a couple fellow advisors if they would allow you to work out of their office on a temporary basis if you had an emergency and offer to reciprocate.  Pick one in town and one out of town; you never know if an emergency is going to be local or regional.

• Disaster Recovery Plan Template
• Equipment SN List
• N-Hour Sequence