I. Emergency Contact Persons 

  

Our firm’s emergency contact person is: 

• Kitti “Huma” Barker, C.I.O., 412-742-2011, huma@hyafinancial.com

 

These names will be updated in the event of a material change, and our C.I.O. will review them within 17 days of the end of each calendar quarter. 

  

 

II.         Firm Policy  

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

 

A. Significant Business Disruptions (SBDs) 

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. 

 

B. Approval and Execution Authority 

Our C.I.O. is responsible for approving the plan and for conducting the required annual review. Our C.I.O. has the authority to execute this BCP. 

 

C. Plan Location and Access  

Our firm will maintain copies of its BCP plan and the annual reviews, and the changes that have been made to it for inspection.  Two electronic copies of our plan are located on HYA Financial Cloud Drives: contained in envelopes labeled “The HYA Financial Continuity Plan”. The plan is also available on our website at www.hyafinancial.com. 

  

  

III.        Business Description 

The HYA Financial Corporation is a registered investment advisory firm that conducts business as an investment advisor to individuals, companies, and small retirement plans. We provide asset management services to our clients.

For asset management clients, our services involve developing and implementing investment plans and managing client assets on a discretionary basis. We do not act as a broker and our firm does not hold client funds or securities. All assets for our asset management clients are held at a custodian broker (currently IB Interactive and Betterment). Our firm deals only in publicly traded securities. We do not advise on any private placements or other non-publicly traded investments. 

1. Office Locations 

Our Firm meets clients at various virtual offices, we maintain a private office in Richmond, Virginia.    

 

1. Alternative Physical Location(s) of Employees 

 

In the event of an SBD, we will move our staff from affected offices to a virtual office near Richmond, Virginia area.

 

VI.   Customers’ Access to Funds and Securities 

 

Our firm does not maintain custody of customers’ funds or securities. All asset management client assets are held at IB Interactive or Betterment. All of these organizations maintain their own BCP and, in the event of an internal or external SBD, we will work with our clients to make them aware of the BCP and help them navigate the processes to access their funds and securities. 

 

In the event the SIPC should determine that any custodian is unable to meet their obligations to customers, SIPC may seek to appoint a trustee to disburse the custodian’s assets to customers.  We will assist SIPC and the trustee by providing our books and records identifying customer accounts subject to SIPC regulation. 

 

VII. Data Back-Up and Recovery (Hard Copy and Electronic) 

 

Our firm maintains its primary hard copy books and records and its electronic records at HYA Financial private office. Our C.I.O. is responsible for the maintenance of these books and records. 

 

We generally scan original client documents and save them on a redundant cloud-based storage platform (currently Google Drive). Unless original hard copy documents are required to be retained, we shred the originals and maintain the records in electronic format. 

 

Our firm maintains electronic records of client information in a variety of systems (such as the custodians platforms and google drive). Which maintain their own BCP and backs up its data on a regular basis to avoid loss of important client data. We maintain our company financial records on a financial software program. We perform monthly backups of this data on our laptops, external hard drive and cloud drives.   

 

In the event of an internal or external SBD that causes the loss of our paper records, we will physically recover client records from the custodian firms.  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, continue operations from our back-up site or an alternate location. 

 

VIII. Financial and Operational Assessments   

 

A. Operational Risk 

 

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 telephone, voice mail and email.  In addition, we will retrieve our key activity records as described in the section above, Data Back-Up and Recovery (Hard Copy and Electronic). 

 

B. Financial and Credit Risk 

 

In the event of an SBD, we will determine the value and liquidity of our investments and other assets to evaluate our ability to continue to fund our operations and service our clients.  We will contact our custodian firm, clients, and critical banks to apprise them of our financial status.  If we determine that we may be unable to meet our obligations to those counter-parties or otherwise continue to fund our operations, we will request additional financing from our bank or other credit sources to fulfill our obligations to our customers and clients. If we cannot remedy our financial situation, we will file appropriate notices with our regulators and immediately take appropriate steps, including instructing our clients to contact their custodians immediately and from that point forward.

 

IX.         Mission Critical Systems 

 

Our firm’s “mission critical systems” are those that ensure prompt and accurate access to client accounts and records and processing of securities transactions. These systems include the systems of our custodian firms to provide custody services and processing 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 clients and have sole responsibility for our mission critical functions.  Our custodian firms provide account access, transaction services, clearance and settlement of securities transactions, the maintenance of customer accounts, access to customer accounts, and the delivery of funds and securities.   

 

Our custodian firms represent that they will advise us of any material changes to their business continuity plan that might affect our ability to maintain our business. 

  

X.       Alternate Communications Between the Firm and Customers, Employees, and Regulators   

 

A. Customers 

  

We mostly communicate with our customers using the telephone and email.  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.    

 

            B.  Employees 

 

Since our firm has no employees other than Our C.I.O., there is no need for an employee communication strategy.

As of this date, there is no named successor to HYA Financial, in the event of death or incapacity of key personnel, HYA Financial will be winding down by Jason Allen, Executor to owner. The executor will contact current clients of HYA from a hard copy file in the client locked filing cabinet with monthly updated list of client names, emails and phone numbers within 5 days of death or incapacity of key personnel. Additionally, listed below are the contact information for respective state regulatory agencies or divisions to be notified within 24 hours of death or incapacity of key personnel and client custodians, under item XI and XII.   

 

            C.  Regulators  

  

We are currently registered as an investment advisory firm with the Pennsylvania and Virginia.  We communicate with our regulators using the internet, telephone, e-mail, and U.S. mail.  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.  

 

XI.                        Critical Business Constituents, Banks, and Counter-Parties   

 

A. Business constituents 

 

We have contacted our critical business constituents (businesses with which we have an ongoing commercial relationship in support of our operating activities, such as vendors providing us critical services), and determined the extent to which we can continue our business relationship with them in light of the internal or external SBD.  We will quickly establish alternative arrangements if a business constituent can no longer provide the needed goods or services when we need them because of a SBD to them or our firm. Our major suppliers are:  

• IB Interactive o One Pickwick Plaza, Greenwich, CT 06830 USA o 1 (866) 694-2757 

• Betterment LLC o           61 W. 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10010 o           1 (646) 600-8263

• Verizon Wireless

  • 1 (800) 922-0204

• Comcast Xfinity 

  • (800) 391-3000 

 

B. Banks 

  

We have contacted our banks and lenders to determine if they can continue to provide the financing that we will need in light of the internal or external SBD.  The bank maintaining our operating account is: PNC Financial Services, 1 (888) 762-2265.   

 

C. Counter-Parties 

  

We have contacted our critical counter-parties, such as other broker-dealers, to determine if we will be able to carry out our transactions with them in light of the internal or external SBD.  Where the transactions cannot be completed, we will work with our clearing firm or contact those counter-parties directly to make alternative arrangements to complete those transactions as soon as possible.  

 

XII. Regulatory Reporting 

 

Our firm is subject to regulation by SEC via FINRA and the State of Virginia and Pennsylvania. We now file reports with our regulators using their respective websites electronically, e-mail, and the U.S. Mail.  In the event of an SBD, we will check with the SEC and the State of Virginia 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. 

 Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities

Bureau of Securities Compliance and Examinations

Market Square Plaza
17 N. Second Street, Suite 1300
Harrisburg, PA 17101

717.783.4689

 

Virginia Division of Securities and Retail Franchising
P.O. Box 1197
Richmond, Virginia 23218

Phone:
(804) 371-9051
1-800-552-7945 (Toll-Free)

 

XIII. Disclosure of Business Continuity Plan  

We post our BCP on our website and we offer to provide it to our clients upon request.  

 

XIV. Updates and Annual Review 

 

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 to modify it for any changes in our operations, structure, business, or location or those of our clearing firm.  

 

XV. Senior Manager Approval   

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:             Kitti “Huma” Barker                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Title:                 C.I.O. 

Date:                5/15/2020