Carolinas Investment Consulting LLC, along with its affiliate Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC (together “CIC”), has developed a Business Continuity Plan to address how we will respond to events that significantly disrupt our business. 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
After a significant business disruption, you may contact us by telephone as you usually do at 704-643-2455 or 800-255-2904, or on our web site at www.carolinasinvest.com. In the event of telephone line disruption, we have arranged for our telephones to be forwarded to an alternate number. Likewise, our website may be accessed from an alternate site to post updates and notifications.
As a client of CIC, we recognize you may need access to your account to sell a position or request a check before we can re-establish telephone or other communication services with you. During this time, you may reach out directly to the clearing firms who have custody of your accounts, either Charles Schwab & Co (“Schwab”) or Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services (“Fidelity”). Simply identify yourself as a client of Carolinas Wealth Consulting. If you do not have your account number on hand, they can locate your record using your social security or tax identification number.
Clients with Schwab accounts may place trades, obtain balance and positions information, as well as request disbursements by calling the Schwab Alliance team at 800-515-2157.
Clients with Fidelity accounts may place trades, obtain balance and positions information, as well as request disbursements by calling the Fidelity team at 800-343-3548.
Clients with CIC accounts at mutual fund companies, may contact them for assistance with sell or liquidation orders and to provide check disbursements, as required. If you cannot contact our firm by any means, please call the phone number on your client statement for assistance and identify yourself as a client of Carolinas Investment Consulting.
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.
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.
Each custody firm regularly backs up its important information in a geographically separate area. While every emergency poses unique problems based on external factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption, each firm has a thorough Business Continuation Plan in place, which is reviewed, updated and tested on a regular basis. The programs provide for continuation of client service within minutes in most cases.
Varying Disruptions
Significant business disruptions can vary in their scope, such as only our firm, a single building or unit 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 a few hours. 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 a day. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer operations to our custody firms if necessary, and notify you how to contact us through our web site or our customer emergency number. 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, please feel free to contact us at 704-643-2455 or 800-255-2904.