Business Continuity

George McKelvey Co. is committed to the ongoing protection of its business information, client data and operations. We have established procedures and policies designed to enable us to continue or to resume critical business functions following significant business disruptions of various types, scopes and duration. Recent historical events have made all of us more conscious of the need to plan for any contingency, no matter how unlikely it may seem.

Contacting us – Even if there has been a significant business disruption and we are not operating at our normal business location, you should still contact us as you usually do at (732) 449-5323 or via email. You may also call (800) 449-5322 or email to [email protected]. As a last resort, if you cannot access us through any of those means, you should contact our custodian, Fidelity Investments, at (800) 343-3548 for instructions on how it may provide prompt access to funds and securities and/or enter orders and process other trade-related, cash and security transfer transactions for your accounts.

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 backup 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.

Our custodian, Fidelity Investments, backs up our important records in a geographically separate area. While every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption, we have been advised by our clearing firm that its business continuity plans are designed to ensure sustained service. Your orders and requests for funds and securities could be delayed during this period.

Significant business disruptions can vary in their scope, such as only our firm, a single building 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; in a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region, we will transfer our operations to a site outside of the affected area. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer operations to our clearing firm if necessary, and notify you through our website www.georgemckelvey.com or our customer emergency number, (800) 449-5322 how to contact us. 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.

Please note that although we have taken significant steps to develop and implement sound business recovery plans, we cannot guarantee that systems will always be available or recoverable after a disaster or significant business disruption. It should also be noted that in the event of a large-scale disaster, our ability to conduct transactional activity is dependent on our clearing firm and on stock exchanges being open for business. However, we believe that our planning for such events is robust and consistent with many of the best practices established within the industry.

We review and update our business continuity plans periodically. Please contact us at any time if you have any questions or wish to receive the most recent version of our business continuity statement.