Emergency Contacts

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Customers may contact Atomi Financial Group by phone at (888) 533-9364. Customers invested directly at mutual fund, annuity, insurance, real estate companies, and/or third party retirement plan custodians should refer to their investment specific account statement for contact information. To insure uninterrupted service, our firm uses cloud-based systems for both email and phone service for remote access and recovery.

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Firm Policy

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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 the firm’s books and records, and allowing our customers to transact business.  If we determine we are unable to continue our business, we will assure customers prompt access to their funds and securities. 

 

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 several 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.

 

Approval and Execution Authority

 

Darren Whissen, President, and Chief Compliance Officer of Atomi Financial Group, Inc. (“Atomi” or the “Firm”) is responsible for approving the plan, for conducting the required annual review, and has the authority to execute this BCP.

 

Plan Location and Access

 

Atomi 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 our company website www.atomifinancial.com for all the employees and registered representatives to access.

 

Business Description

 

Atomi is a state-registered Registered Investment Adviser. Its primary business focus is the management of fee-based investment portfolios. The Firm also offers ancillary financial services, such as financial planning. Atomi does not perform any type of clearing function for itself or others. All transactions are sent to a custodian, investment product sponsor, or general partner, which processes our applications, confirms them, records, and settles them. Investment custodians and product sponsors also maintain our customers’ accounts, can grant customers access to them, and delivers funds and securities.  Our firm services retail and institutional customers. We do engage in private placements securities transactions. 

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Office Locations

 

Office Location #100

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Our sole registered office, “Location #100” (Home Office), is located at 20 Executive Park, Suite 120, Irvine, CA 92614.  The main telephone number is (888) 533-9364.

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Alternative Physical Location(s) of Employees

 

In the event of an SBD that prevented us from accessing Location #100, we will temporarily move our staff from the affected office to a near executive office suite in South Orange County. We expect it would take no more than one business day to establish a temporary relocation.

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Customers’ Access to Funds and Securities

 

Our firm does not maintain custody of customers’ funds or securities, which can only be maintained at a custodian or investment company sponsor. In the event of an internal or external SBD, if telephone service is available, our registered persons will process customer order instructions on-line via computer system or by telephone. Investment Advisor Representatives have been provided with a toll-free telephone number to call, (888) 533-9364, that is offsite and available to Darren Whissen.

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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 our assets to customers.  We will assist SIPC and the trustee by providing our books and records identifying customer accounts subject to SIPC regulation.

 

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

 

Our firm maintains its primary hard copy books and records and its electronic records at 20 Executive Park, Suite 120, Irvine, CA 92614.

 

In addition to custodian or investment company sponsor specific paperwork, Atomi maintains the following document types and forms that are not generally transmitted to custodians or investment company sponsors: Atomi new account forms, copies of trusts, firm disclosure forms, fee agreements, and any documents received from clients.

 

As a policy, all client account forms and other critical documents are scanned and uploaded to a secure cloud server. Sandra Romero-Wright is responsible for the maintenance of these books and records as well as any online backups.

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In the event of an internal or external SBD that causes the loss of our paper records, we will physically recover them from our cloud server. 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.

 

Financial and Operational Assessments

 

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 our web site – www.atomifinancial.com, telephone voice mail or message, secure e-mail, etc.

 

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 remain in capital compliance.  We will contact our clearing firm, critical banks, and investors 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 a capital deficiency, we will file appropriate notices with our regulators and immediately take appropriate steps, including consulting with Darren Whissen, our Chief Compliance Officer.

 

Mission Critical Systems

 

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.  More specifically, these systems include: compliance and non-compliance functions, and data base for employees and its customers. We use cloud based systems for email and document storage.

 

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 and execution.  Custodians and investment company sponsors provide, 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. 

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Each Custodian and investment company sponsor will maintain a business continuity plan and the capacity to execute that plan.  They each represent that they will advise us of any material changes to their plan that might affect our ability to maintain our business, and will/must provide us with an executive summary of their plan.  In the event one of Atomi’s contracted custodians or investment company sponsors executes its business continuity plan, they represent that they will notify us of such execution and provide us equal access to services as its other customers.  If we reasonably determine that they have not or cannot put their plan in place quickly enough to meet our needs, or otherwise are unable to provide access to such services, they must represent that they will assist us in seeking services from an alternative source. 

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Each contracted custodian or investment company sponsor represents that it completes a thorough backup of their records to a remote site, operates a backup operating facility in a geographically separate area with the capability to conduct the same volume of business as its primary site, and has confirmed the effectiveness of its backup arrangements to recover from a wide scale disruption.

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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, 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. Atomi has the following SBD recovery time and resumption objective: recovery time of within 6 hours, and resumption time of within one day.

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Our Firm’s Mission Critical Systems

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Receiving Orders

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Our Investment Adviser Representatives may receive orders from customers via telephone or in person visits by the customer.  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 e-mail or phone if available. 

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Trading

 

Currently, our firm enters orders by recording them electronically, printing them for recordkeeping purposes, and transmitting them to the custodian or investment company sponsor of record. 

 

In the event of an internal SBD, we will enter and send records to the custodian, investment company sponsor, clearing agent by the fastest alternative means available, which include by fax if available.  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.  If and when a clearing agent is identified, a point of contact will be available and reflect in this document to assist us in case of SBD. 

 

Order Execution

 

We currently execute purchase and sell order transactions electronically (if for managed assets), or by U.S. Mail or fax (for direct participation programs).  In the event of an internal SBD, we would have the Investment Adviser Representatives contact the custodian or investment company sponsor directly. In the event of an external SBD, we would contact the custodian or investment company sponsor utilizing our fax, phone or cell phone to place and execute transactions, if the internet is not operable.

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Alternate Communications between the Firm and Customers, Employees, and Regulators

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Customers

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We now communicate with our customers using the telephone, e-mail, fax, U.S. mail, and in-person visits at our firm, satellite or executive suite offices, or at the other party(s)’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.

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Employees

 

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: Darren Whissen

 

Call Recipients:

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1. Sandra Romero-Wright

2. Burton Brown

3. Ron Budd

 

Regulators

 

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.

 

Critical Business Constituents, Banks, and Counter-Parties

 

Business Constituents

 

We will operate from a nearby executive suite in the city of Irvine, CA, and determined the extent to which we can continue our business relationship considering 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.

 

Banks

 

We have contacted our banks and lenders to determine if they can continue to provide the financing that we will need considering the internal or external SBD.  The bank maintaining our operating account is: Chase Bank located at 30912 Pacific Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA, 29651, with a phone number of (949) 607-0002. If our banks and other lenders are unable to provide the financing, we will seek alternative financing immediately from various lending institutions.

 

Counter-Parties

 

We have contacted our critical counter-parties, such as other broker-dealers or institutional customers, to determine if we will be able to carry out our transactions with them considering 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.

 

Regulatory Reporting

 

Our firm is subject to regulation by: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and State of California Department of Corporations.  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.  If we cannot contact our regulators, we will continue to file required reports using the communication means available to us. 

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Disclosure of Business Continuity Plan

 

Along with our Privacy Policy, we disclose in writing a summary of our BCP to customers at account opening.  We also mail these documents to customers upon request.  Our summary addresses the possibility of a future SBD and how we plan to respond to events of varying scope.   In addressing the events of varying scope, our summary (1) provides specific scenarios of varying severity (e.g., a firm-only business disruption, a disruption to a single building, and a disruption to a business district, a citywide business disruption, and a regional disruption); (2) states whether we plan to continue business during that scenario and, if so, our planned recovery time; and (3) provides general information on our intended response.  Our summary discloses the existence of back-up facilities and arrangements.

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Summary Disclosure Statement 

 

In case of a Significant Business Disruption (SBD) scenarios of varying severity (e.g., a firm-only business disruption, a disruption to a single building, a disruption to a business district, a city-wide business disruption, and a regional disruption) we want to assure you that Atomi Financial Group, Inc. (“Atomi”) has a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place and will execute the plan as the situation warrants. Atomi plans to continue business during any of the above scenarios and, if so, our planned recovery time depending on situation can range from anywhere from 24 hours up to 72 hours.  Please be aware that Atomi will make all reasonable efforts to resume operations as soon as possible.  Atomi reserves the rights to make modifications to the plan without notification.  As a client, you may request a summary by requesting a written copy by mail.

 

Updates and Annual Review

 

Our firm will update this plan and the internal procedures 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, by December 31st, to modify it for any changes in our operations, structure, business, or location or those of our clearing firm. Two copies of the BCP and BCP Internal Procedures will be kept offsite.

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Last Updated: July 12, 2017

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