Business Continuity Planning – Disclosure
McDermott Investment Services, LLC has developed a Business Continuity Plan for responding to events that significantly disrupt our business, including pandemics and other wide-spread events that force us to close office locations. 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 on our business continuity plan.
Contacting Us – If after a significant business disruption you cannot contact us at our main office [either via telephone at: (610) 882-1460 or via email at dmcdermott@mcdermottadvisors.com], you should call our alternative number (239) 298-5263 (which is our Naples, Florida location), or go to our website at www.mcdermottadvisors.com. If you cannot access us through these means, please contact our clearing firm, Hilltop Securities, Client Partners Team at (214) 859-9165 for instructions on how they may facilitate trades, transfer securities, or distribute funds for your accounts.
As cell phones have become an integral part of business operations, office numbers will be forwarded to the cell phones of firm principals who will be able to give you an assessment of the situation and make every attempt to facilitate business.
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.
McDermott Investment Services, LLC (our broker dealer), McDermott Investment Advisors, LLC (our investment advisor), and our clearing firm, Hilltop Securities Inc., back up our important records in a geographically separate area. Every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption; however, we will make every attempt to restore our business operations as fast as possible. 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 twenty-four hours. Importantly, your orders and requests
for funds and securities could be delayed during this period.
Our business continuity plan addresses: data backup 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.
Our clearing firm Hilltop Securities Inc. (HTS) states the following;
“HTS uses various mission critical systems to provide these services to our customers. These systems are housed at one of our data centers, one of our offices, or at a third party service provider, exchange or utility. Our business continuity planning (“BCP”) first insures the safety and security of our employees.
The events of 9/11 emphasized the unique skill sets of personnel who work in our industry and the need to put their safety first so that after an interruption they are available to continue serving our
customers. In addition to protecting our personnel, our BCP and daily operations are focused on preserving our critical firm and. customer data through regular backups which are moved offsite
either via media and/or real time and near real time electronic copies of our data at remote locations. In 1996 we added a second data center in one of the suburbs of Dallas which houses our backup hardware/software, real time data copies and back office recovery space. We have constructed high bandwidth networks between our two data centers allowing us to utilize the resources of both centers during normal production, as well as facilitating the real time movement of data from the primary data
servers to the backup data servers. Finally, our industry is heavily interconnected with data connections ranging from dial-up modem communication, dedicated private lines, frame relay technology
and, in many cases, the Internet through encrypted sessions. Where mission critical systems are involved, we have installed, where possible, redundant connections to the exchanges, utilities
and counterparties involved.
In the event of a significant business disruption, Hilltop Securities Inc. will supply additional information at 866-SWS-5BCP (866-797-5227).”
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 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 twenty four hours or a reasonable timeframe conditions permitting. In a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region, we will transfer our operations to a site outside of the affected area, and recover and resume business within twenty four hours or a reasonable time frame conditions permitting. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer operations to our clearing firm if necessary, and notify you through our website www.mcdermottadvisors.com or our customer emergency number, (386) 437-0072 how to contact us. If the significant business disruption is so severe that it prevents us from
remaining in business, we will assure our customer! s prompt access to their funds and securities.
For more information – If you have questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at (610) 882-1460.
