We look forward to many more years of success, which we define as helping our clients reach their financial goals.
Business Continuity
The Intercontinental Companies (Intercontinental Asset Management Group, Ltd. and Intercontinental Wealth Advisors, LLC) ("IC") are committed to providing the services and support systems necessary to conduct uninterrupted business under regular and irregular conditions. The Business Continuity Plan disclosure (the "BCP") provides a summary detail on the "IC" risk mitigation strategy in the event of interruption(s) to daily business operations.
The plan is designed to support all "IC" obligations to clients and customers in the event of a major disruption. The "BCP" is intended to comply with obligations pursuant to regulatory rules and requirements as promulgated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. ("FINRA").
"IC" maintains multiple facilities across diverse locations supporting general business operations (sales, trading, accounting, operations). The diversity of locations allows "IC" to maintain lines of business in the event that a single location is affected by disruptions. Our plan prevents the loss of connectivity to or from a single area of operations to interrupt business, regardless of the scope of the disruption (firm-only single building disruptions, and area- or city-wide disruptions). "IC" believes that our plan adequately identifies and mitigates our risk as it pertains to business continuity.
"IC" maintains updated contact lists for all employees as well as specific lists as they relate to disaster recovery responsibilities. We can contact our employees through a number of methods, including broadcast communication via the external websites as well as direct communication to specific employees. All of our senior managers will be contacted directly in the event of a significant business disruption. "IC" believes that business continuity planning is a year round responsibility demanding participation from all business units. Three business recovery sites are maintained within 50 miles of our daily operations center and an additional site has been added to the East coast. In the event of an emergency, key personnel may be relocated to our back-up sites. Staff is trained annually on all business resumption procedures through a test of "IC" capabilities and connections.
All connections are maintained and tested during the year to provide complete redundancy in the event that any application(s) is(are) interrupted during the course of business.
Workstations, phones, printers, and other business tools are kept at the off-site locations. All workstations are configured based on user role, and procedures exist to update the configuration as necessary to meet the changing needs of our organization and composition of our staff.
All mission-critical systems are backed up and can be accessed on demand. Mission-critical systems are defined by "IC" and have real-time recovery that is either immediate or up to 6-8 hours at the off-site locations. All connections and data storage facilities are fully operational at all times and monitored to ensure uninterrupted operations.
With regards to customer access to funds and securities, all customer transactions are conducted on a receive or delivery versus payment, therefore no customer funds or securities are held by the "IC". All securities are held in central depositories or custodian banks (such as Pershing LLC, Government Securities Clearing Corporation, DTC, MBS Clearing Corporation).
Our "BCP" is intended to allow "IC" to continue to meet all existing obligations in the event of a disaster. We have evaluated numerous emergency situations and designed multiple solutions to meet disparate circumstances. Regardless of all the effort put forth on this vital concern, we acknowledge that no disaster recovery plan is perfect. The unpredictable nature of disasters precludes absolute preparations for any plan. Certain situations may arise that affect outside entities upon which we rely on for some measure of service and collaboration. Though our plan is tested regularly and reviewed by senior management, it is possible for circumstances to arise outside of what has been defined within test plans. This "BCP" is subject to change without notice. In the event that the "BCP" is modified, the updated disclosure will be posted on the "IC" website (intercontl.com). A hard copy of the "IC" "BCP" disclosure can be requested by contacting the following telephone number (210) 271-7947. The information provided in this disclosure by "IC" is for informational purposes only.
