Business Continuity Plan
Planned Investment Co., Inc. has developed a Business Continuity Plan that explains how we intend to respond to events that significantly disrupt our business. Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions are 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 on our business continuity plan.
How To Contact Us in the Event of a Significant Business Disruption If our phone system “goes down”, we have the capability of activating a disaster recovery feature through our telephone provider that gives us the ability of re-routing calls to any alternate telephone number we designate. Therefore, we expect to be able to answer your calls once the re-routing function has occurred. As long as internet service is available, you may also go to our website at www.plannedinvest.com; we intend to post messages both to our voice mail system and our website to keep you informed.
If however after a significant business disruption you cannot contact us and you need to request a transaction or some other service, contact the company listed at the top of your account statement.
For “direct to fund” account holders, you may call the mutual fund or life insurance company directly using the phone number listed on your account statement(s).
Our Business Continuity Plan: We plan to quickly recover and resume business operations after a business disruption 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; All mission critical systems; 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.
Access to Your Funds: Our clearing firm and other mutual fund and insurance company’s we have selling agreements with, back up your important account records in a geographically separate area. While every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption, 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 within the their resumptive time period of four hours, unless this time frame is impossible due to unforeseen circumstances. Your orders and requests for funds and securities could be delayed and impacted by market events outside of our business partners’ control, such as when the markets were closed following the September 11, 2001 tragedy. Our business partners business continuity plans are designed so that necessary personnel are available to assist with transactions.
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 we are 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, we will transfer our operations to a local site when needed. In a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region, we will transfer our operations to a site outside of the affected area. In either situation, we plan to continue business and notify you through our website www.plannedinvest.com and through informational recordings on our voice mail system. If the significant business disruption is so severe that it prevents us from continuing business, we will assure our customer’s prompt access to their funds and securities.
For More Information: If you have any questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at 317-575-8804 or toll free 800-735-0368.