BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN
Summary Disclosure Statement
Our firm’s policy is to respond to a Significant Business Disruption (SBD) by safeguarding employees’ lives and firm property, making a financial and operational assessment, quickly recovering and resuming operations, protecting all of the firm’s books and records, and allowing our customers to transact business.
Our plan anticipates two kinds of SBDs, internal and external. Internal SBDs affect only our firm’s ability to communicate and do business, such as a fire in our building. External SBDs prevent the operation of the securities markets or a number of firms, such as terrorist attack, a city flood or a wide-scale, regional disruption. Our response to an external SBD relies more heavily on other organizations and systems, especially on the capabilities of our clearing firms, National Financial Services and Pershing LLC. Our firm does not maintain custody of customers’ funds or securities, which are maintained at our clearing firms. In the event of an SBD, either external or internal, we will immediately identify what means will permit us to communicate with our customers, employees, critical business constituents, critical banks, critical counter-parties and regulators. Although the effects of an SBD will determine the means of alternative communication, the communication options we will employ will include our Web site, telephone voice mail, secure email and postal mail service.
In the event our clearing firms execute their plans, they represent that they will notify us of such execution and provide us equal access to services as their other customers. If we reasonably determine that our clearing firms have not or cannot put their plans in place quickly enough to meet our needs, or are otherwise unable to provide access to such services, our clearing firms represent that they will assist us in seeking services from an alternative source. Our clearing firms have the following SBD recovery time and resumption objectives: recovery time period of less than one day for each scenario mentioned above.
This plan is subject to modification, an updated summary will be promptly posted on our Web site and customers may alternatively obtain updated summaries by requesting a written copy by mail.
For more information – If you have questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at (858) 622-2140 or mail@girardsecurities.com.
Rule: FINRA Rule 4370(e).
Kaye and Richard Woltman have donated funds in honor of their daughter to establish the Woltman Educational Assistance Fund in Memory of Melisa Reasner McGuire. By honoring her memory and achievements, the Woltman family is making it possible for students in need of tuition assistance to take advantage of the Pacific Ridge School experience. Funds from the Woltman Educational Assistance Fund will support tuition, field trips and required international travel such as the ninth-grade trip to China.
The Woltmans selected Pacific Ridge School based on the school’s global mission. “Our society is caught in a transition,” Richard Woltman said. “What we do has repercussions around the world and I believe that Pacific Ridge School’s global emphasis allows students to develop the foresight and vision to address our changing world.”
On November 5, Girard Securities, Inc. was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as a finalist in the Family-Owned and Closely-Held Business Award category. Each year, the Journal recognizes the accomplishments of businesses in the county that are family owned or closely held.
Each year the San Diego Business Journal recognizes the most admired CEO’s that work in San Diego. Awards are presented to CEO’s of government agencies, non-profit organizations, private companies and public companies. At an event attended by over 500 people, the Business Journal honored Girard’s CEO, Richard Woltman as a finalist in the public company category. Mr. Woltman was recognized for his accomplishments in his profession and the community.
The Omni Hotel in beautiful San Diego, California was the location for Girard’s annual national conference (October 20-23, 2011) and attracted more than 150 investment advisors who enthusiastically gathered to further their education and catch a glimpse of the firm’s future plans. Along with unveiling a new brand, President Susan Woltman Tietjen presented a bold new website, communication materials, and a recruiting campaign designed to grow the broker/dealer. This aggressive new stance was captured by the conference theme, “No Limits: Climbing New Heights Together.”
A new branding campaign was introduced at the 2011 Girard National Education Conference and includes a bold new logo, color palette and type treatment. The logo, which features a multi-pronged flame in shades of blue, also highlights the word Girard in large, bold caps. The torch symbolizes the dynamic legacy of the firm’s founders as well as the enlightenment that its affiliated advisors bring to their clients. Reflecting a new and exciting chapter in Girard’s future, the brand will be applied to all employee, rep and client communications beginning in November 2011.