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VALIC Financial Advisors, Inc. – Business Continuity Statement

Overview

The scope of VALIC Financial Advisors, Inc. (VFA) business continuity planning entails certain key business operations and data center locations.  Business continuity planning is the process which defines the procedures employed to ensure the timely and orderly resumption of a company’s business, through its ability to execute plans with minimal interruption to time-sensitive business operations.

How well VFA is prepared to survive a business disruption with minimal interruption to its daily routine will depend on the elements identified and the provisions made for review, maintenance, quality assurance and accuracy of its business continuity plans. Specific plans have been developed and teams have been identified for each time-sensitive business operation.  Each plan prioritizes the critical business functions and states a strategy for recovery within a specified timeframe.

The Business Continuity Planning department is responsible for the guidelines, methodologies, and framework to support the strategies for recovery. The Business Continuity Planning infrastructure is responsible for developing and maintaining the plans.

VFA Business Continuity Plan Objectives

The objectives of the VFA Business Recovery Continuity Plan are to:

  • Avoid or minimize deaths and injuries.
  • Control and terminate incidents as quickly as possible.
  • Prevent a minor incident from becoming a major disaster.
  • Minimize commercial and reputation damage.
  • Protect account assets and financial position.
  • Minimize the risk of legal liabilities.
  • Resume and recover any disrupted business function or operation rapidly and effectively.
  • Ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
  • Maintain confidence and good relations with public safety and regulatory agencies, customers, service providers, and other official parties.
  • Satisfy the interests and concerns of VFA programs and business partners.

VFA Business Continuity Guidelines

The VFA Business Continuity Plans were developed in accordance with the AIG Corporate Business Continuity Management Business Policy. The key elements of the policy include, Risk Assessment, Business Impact Analysis, Business Continuity Plan, and Plan Testing. These key elements are discussed below:

  • Risk Assessment – There are numerous risks to any business.  From natural to man-made, these risks can be or may become threats to our business.  Threats with the greatest probability of occurrence for VFA include pandemics, storms or hurricanes, high water or flooding, fire, bomb threats, terrorist attacks, breach of security and general service interruption.  Facilities/Property Management performed a risk assessment for VFA facility. 
  • Business Impact Analysis – Each VFA business unit is required to identify the time criticality of each business service (RTO), as well as the resources that the service needs to successfully recover and meet established service level agreements.  Additionally, each unit must review annually the time criticality of all business services.
  • Business Contingency Plan – VFA business units document and update annually a contingency plan to support critical business services.  Contingency plans include event management procedures (IMT), employee communication strategies, alternate site requirements, and procedures for notifying clients, recovery management, and alternate site preparation checklists.
  • Plan Testing – Once the recovery plan documentation is complete, it is tested regularly to ensure that recovery capability remains viable.  At least one full-scale recovery simulation, annual tabletop/walkthrough exercise of the plan is conducted annually to gauge each participant’s understanding of individual roles and responsibilities.

VFA Recovery Strategies   

Threats that materialize can cause varying degrees of outages that can be classified as short-term, intermediate-term, or long-term. Day-to-day emergencies are addressed through emergency response/escalation procedures that are used when needed.  Each VFA Business Unit has developed PRIMARY and ALTERNATE strategies to address the follows:

  • Loss of Facility (work remote, work redirect)
  • Loss of Staff (work redirect, cross training)
  • Loss of Technology (manual processes, alternate vendors)
  • Loss of key Vendor (alternate vendors, transfer work)

VFA Disaster Recovery

Critical applications run in 2 different data centers (Texas and New Jersey). Critical data is replicated between the two data centers on a daily basis.  In the event of a disaster technical recovery teams restore databases and or applications to the most current recovery point as dictated by business requirements. 

In the event the home offices are unusable.  Business users will work remote or be relocated to an alternate workgroup recovery site or appropriate location. 

In the event VFA ceases operations, customers who have retail accounts with National Financial Services (NFS) may call the customer service line at 866-544-4968.  Customers who have accounts held directly with third party mutual fund or annuity companies should call those companies directly if they need to place a trade, request a distribution, or have questions about their account.  Clients who have annuity accounts with The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC) should contact the Client Care line at 800-448-2542.

VALIC Financial Advisors, Inc., member of FINRA, SIPC and an SEC-registered investment advisor.