This firm is required by regulation to provide each prospective client with a copy of our Business Continuity Plan Disclosure Summary statement. The Business Continuity Plan Disclosure Statement is intended to anticipate and plan for Significant Business Disruptions (SBDs) that might occur to this firm, either internal or external. Internal SBDs affect only our firm’s ability to communicate and do business, such as fire in our building. External SBDs prevent the operation of the securities markets or a number of firms, such as a 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 custodial and clearing firms. 

 

A copy of our Business Continuity Plan is available at our website, under the “Regulatory” tab. This firm intends to remain in business despite any form of Significant Business Disruption. We would expect that we could respond effectively to any Internal SBD (fire, flood, hurricane damage) within a matter of days following any such event. Since no client assets are held by this firm, we are protected to the extent of our external custodians and clearing firms, which are significant business with on and off site redundancy in their accounting and management systems. 

 

Similarly, our clients are protected by this redundancy in the event of an External SBD (terrorist attack, political disruption, economic disruption). 

 

Our Business Continuity Plan Disclosure Statement stipulates the details of this plan, including alternative physical locations for employees, temporary office space, and customer access to funds and securities within their accounts.

 

For the purpose of this Summary Statement, further information can be found at our website as follows: www.curbstonefinancial.com. Telephone and alternative contact information are as follows: office phone: (603)624-8462; toll free number: 1-800-370-2872; office fax (603)624-8474; Principal’s home telephone number: (603)627-7276.

 

 

Our firm’s two emergency contact persons are: Thomas M. Lewry, President, 603-624-8462, tlewry@curbstonefinancial.com and Melvin J. Severance, III, CFP 603-624-8462, mseverance@curbstonefinancial.com . These names will be updated in the event of a material change, and our Executive Representative will review them within 17 business days of the end of each quarter.

 

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. In the event that we determine we are unable to continue our business, we will assure customers prompt access to their funds and securities. 

 

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 a 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 firm.

 

Thomas M. Lewry, President, a registered principal, is responsible for approving the plan and for conducting the required annual review. Thomas M. Lewry, President,has the authority to execute this BCP.

 

Our firm will maintain copies of its BCP plan and the annual reviews, and the changes that have been made to it for inspection. An electronic copy of our plan is located on www.curbstonefinancial.com in the regulatory file.

 

Our firm conducts business in equity, fixed income, and derivative securities. Our firm is an introducing firm and does not perform any type of clearing function for itself or others. Furthermore, we do not hold customer funds or securities. We accept and enter orders. All transactions are sent to our clearing firm, which executes our orders, compares them, allocates them, clears and settles them. Our clearing firm also maintains our customers’ accounts, can grant customers access to them, and delivers funds and securities. Our firm services only individual customers and institutional customers. We do not engage in any private placements. 

 

All funds under investment management are held by third party custodians. Typically these include TD Banknorth, Wells Fargo or Charles Schwab as custodian. Clients have access to their accounts both through this firm and directly through the custodian. Client statements are prepared and distributed by the custodian, so these functions are not dependent on the day-to-day operation of this firm.

 

Our clearing firm is Raymond James, 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, FL 33716, 727-567-3990. Please see attached document for list of contacts and the extensions where they may be reached. Emergency contact information is available at the following numbers: 1-866-323-5463, 1-727-567-8900 and 888-572-0786 (operable only during emergencies). This information can also be found at the following password protected website: http://lawncrest.rjf.com/did/is/disaster/buscontindex.htm.

 

Our office is located at 741 Chestnut Street, Manchester, NH 03104. Its main telephone number is 603-624-8462. Our employees may travel to that office by means of foot, car, and bus. We engage in client meetings and all the functions of an investment advisory business at this location.

 

In the event of an SBD, we will move our staff from our office location to a temporary emergency office location. If no other office location is available to receive our staff, we will move them to residential office space at 70 Park Avenue, Manchester, NH. Its main telephone number is 603-627-7276.

 

Our firm does not maintain custody of customers’ funds or securities, which are maintained at our clearing firm, Raymond James and by custodian Charles Schwab for advisory clients. In the event of an internal or external SBD, if telephone service is available, our registered persons will take customer orders, requests or instructions and contact our custodians or clearing firm on their behalf, and if our Web access is available, our firm will post on our Web site that customers may access their funds and securities by contacting the appropriate custodian directly. The firm will make this information available to customers through its disclosure policy. 

 

If SIPC determines that we are unable to meet our obligations to our customers or if our liabilities exceed our assets in violation of Securities Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1, SIPC may seek to appoint a trustee to disburse assets to customers. We will assist SIPC and the trustee by providing our books and records identifying customer accounts subject to SIPC regulation.

 

Our firm maintains its primary hard copy books and records and its electronic records at 741 Chestnut Street, Manchester, NH 03104. Libby Pomfret, 603-624-8462 is responsible for the maintenance of these books and records. Our firm maintains all books and records pertaining to its investment management business at the central office location. New account information pertinent to all accounts is also maintained by the custodians maintaining client accounts. Therefore, a duplicate or original account document is always maintained by the third-party custodians, providing an automatic back-up to our internal systems.

 

Electronic files are backed up periodically as required. Systems external to the office provide redundancy. Submissions are made to regulatory agencies, as required. These regulatory agencies thus retain the submitted files as they are made, providing a historical off-site reference in the time of an emergency. Interim back up electronic files are maintained off-site in portable storage form (computer disks).

 

In the event of an internal or external SBD that causes the loss of our paper records, we will physically recover them from our back-up site. If our primary site is inoperable, we will continue operations from our back-up site or an alternate location. For the loss of electronic records, we will either physically recover the storage media or electronically recover data from our back-up site; or, if our primary site is inoperable, we will continue operations from our back-up site or an alternate location.

 

 

In the event of an SBD, 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 communications options we will employ will include our Web site, telephone voice mail, and secure e-mail. In addition, we will retrieve our key activity records as described in the section above, Data Back-Up and Recovery (Hard Copy and Electronic).

 

 

Our firm’s “mission critical systems” are those that ensure prompt and accurate processing of securities transactions, including order taking, entry, execution, comparison, allocation, clearance and settlement of securities transactions, the maintenance of customer accounts, access to customer accounts, and the delivery of funds and securities. 

 

We have primary responsibility for establishing and maintaining our business relationships with our customers and have sole responsibility for our mission critical functions of order taking and entry. Our clearing firm provides, through contract, the execution, comparison, allocation, clearance and settlement of securities transactions, the maintenance of customer accounts, access to customer accounts, and the delivery of funds and securities. 

 

Our clearing firm contract provides that our clearing firm will maintain a business continuity plan and the capacity to execute that plan. Our clearing firm represents that it will advise us of any material changes to its plan that might affect our ability to maintain our business and present us with an executive summary of its plan through their password protected website. In the event our clearing firm executes its plan, it represents that it will notify us of such execution and provide us equal access to services as its other customers. If we reasonably determine that our clearing firm has not or cannot put its plan in place quickly enough to meet our needs, or is otherwise unable to provide access to such services, our clearing firm represents that it will assist us in seeking services from an alternative source. 

 

Our clearing firm represents that it backs up our records at a remote or out of region site. Our clearing firm represents that it operates a back-up operating facility in a geographically separate area with the capability to conduct the same volume of business as its primary site. Our clearing firm has also confirmed the effectiveness of its back-up arrangements to recover from a wide scale disruption by testing.

 

Recovery-time objectives provide concrete goals to plan for and test against. They are not, however, hard and fast deadlines that must be met in every emergency situation, and various external factors surrounding a disruption, such as time of day, scope of disruption, and status of critical infrastructure—particularly telecommunications—can affect actual recovery times. Recovery refers to the restoration of clearing and settlement activities after a wide-scale disruption; resumption refers to the capacity to accept and process new transactions and payments after a wide-scale disruption.  

 

Currently, our firm receives orders from customers via telephone and fax. During an SBD, either internal or external, we will continue to take orders through any of these methods that are available and reliable, and in addition, as communications permit, we will inform our customers when communications become available to tell them what alternatives they have to send their orders to us. Customers will be informed of alternatives by electronic mail. If necessary, we will advise our customers to place orders directly with our clearing firm at Raymond James. 

Currently, our firm enters broker-dealer orders by recording them on paper and electronically and sending them to our clearing firm electronically or telephonically. We place customer orders through Raymond James. We have reviewed the Raymond James BCP Plan and we can expect order entry services as soon as possible depending on the severity of the event.

 

Our firm enters investment advisory client orders electronically through Charles Schwab. These orders can be entered from any location by providing appropriate security code information. Charles Schwab has developed sophisticated electronic back-up systems with locations in various parts of the country geographically.

 

In the event of an internal SBD, we will enter and send records to our clearing firm by the fastest alternative means available, which include fax, electronic mail and phone. In the event of an external SBD, we will maintain the order in electronic or paper format, and deliver the order to the clearing firm by the fastest means available when it resumes operations. In addition, during an internal SBD, we may need to refer our customers to deal directly with our clearing firm for order entry. 

Our firm relies, by contract, on our clearing firm to provide order execution, order comparison, order allocation, and the maintenance of customer accounts, delivery of funds and securities, and access to customer accounts. 

 

 

We now communicate with our customers using the telephone, e-mail, our Web site, fax, U.S. mail, and in person visits at our firm or at the other’s location. In the event of an SBD, we will assess which means of communication are still available to us, and use the means closest in speed and form (written or oral) to the means that we have used in the past to communicate with the other party. For example, if we have communicated with a party by e-mail but the Internet is unavailable, we will call them on the telephone and follow up where a record is needed with paper copy in the U.S. mail. 

 

In the event of an SBD and our clients’ primary means of contacting us are unavailable, clients can reach Thomas M. Lewry, President at his home (603)627-7276 or on his cell phone (603)264-5916. If clients cannot reach Thomas M. Lewry, President, they can contact Melvin J. Severance, III, CFP at his home (603)224-6708.

 

We now communicate with our employees using the telephone, e-mail, and in person. In the event of an SBD, we will assess which means of communication are still available to us, and use the means closest in speed and form (written or oral) to the means that we have used in the past to communicate with the other party. We will also employ a call tree so that senior management can reach all employees quickly during an SBD. The call tree includes all staff home and office phone numbers. We have identified persons, noted below, who live near each other and may reach each other in person:

 

The person to invoke use of the call tree is: Thomas Lewry

 

 

We are currently members of the following SROs: FINRA. We communicate with our regulators using the telephone, e-mail, fax, U.S. mail, and in person. In the event of an SBD, we will assess which means of communication are still available to us, and use the means closest in speed and form (written or oral) to the means that we have used in the past to communicate with the other party.

 

In the event of an SBD and our regulators primary means of contacting us are unavailable, regulators can reach Thomas M. Lewry, President at his home (603)627-7276 or on his cell phone (603)264-5916. If regulators cannot reach Thomas M. Lewry, President, they can contact Melvin J. Severance, III, CFP at his home (603)224-6708.

 

 

 

 

 

Our firm is subject to regulation by: SEC, FINRA, and the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont. We now file reports with our regulators using paper copies in the U.S. mail and electronically using fax, e-mail and the Internet. In the event of an SBD, we will check with the SEC, FINRA and other regulators to determine which means of filing are still available to us, and use the means closest in speed and form (written or oral) to our previous filing method. In the event that we cannot contact our regulators, we will continue to file required reports using the communication means available to us. Our FINRA contact person is George Malley 99 High Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02110, 617-532-3486. We have no specific contacts for the individual states we do business in.

 

We provide in writing a BCP summary disclosure statement to customers at account opening. We also post the disclosure statement on our Web site and mail it to customers upon request. Our disclosure statement is attached. 

 

 

Our firm will update this plan whenever we have a material change to our operations, structure, business or location or to those of our clearing firm. In addition, our firm will review this BCP annually, on March 31, to modify it for any changes in our operations, structure, business, or location or those of our clearing firm.

 

I have approved this Business Continuity Plan as reasonably designed to enable our firm to meet its obligations to customers in the event of an SBD.   

 

 

Signed: _______________________________

 

Title:                 _______________________________

 

Date:                _______________________________

 

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