#200: Your Business Emergency Plan
Joshua and Amelie share their thoughts on what should go into a business emergency plan. As a section in your business plan, the emergency plan is there to guide you whenever there is any kind of action that causes a disruption to your normal business operations, from natural disasters that displace you for weeks or months to power outages that last just a few hours.
Top takeaways:
- A written emergency plan shows that you care about serving your clients.
- The SEC requires a disaster recovery plan for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs).
- Sections to include in your emergency plan include:
- Office Space - including short term and long term plans
- Equipment - including your computer and phone
- Regulatory - including liability and access to client data
- Third party vendors - including key contacts at each
- Employees - emergency recovery plan for employees
- Critical contact list - contact information for clients in the case of an emergency
- A small battery back up system for your computer combined with the plan to use your phone as a hotspot are simple starting points.
- Having suitable alternative office spaces readily available will help when an actual emergency happens.
- A password management system can help give you access to your important websites, passwords and third party vendors.
- Include software security for any new or alternative equipment in the appropriate section.
- Make a paper copy of your business recovery plan for easy access.
- Notify clients of an emergency or change to your business only when theyā€™re impacted (e.g., upcoming meetings you may miss).
- Documentation of your plan is important, but you can start with big picture steps and refine it over time.
- You can contact an RIA compliance consultant for a template.
