At Sather Financial Group, an advisory practice located in Victoria, Tex., about 60 miles north of where the storm made landfall, electronics in the office was either relocated or covered with plastic. Automated digital processes meant that clients’ access to their money was not interrupted.
The fact that so much technology is web-based also helped practices to cope with the storm.
At Houston-based Financial Synergies, financial advisor Bryan Zschiesche has been able to keep operations going throughout the storm due to technology and careful planning.
“We continue to operate at nearly 100 percent capacity since all our trading and account management systems are web-based,” says Zschiesche. “As part of our disaster recover plan, our staff members are staying in regular communication via group text messages, and we’ve experienced no interruption in receiving emails and voicemails from our clients.”
Zschiesche says social media has enabled his firm to hear from clients and experience the storm’s impacts upon them via photos and videos.
Dave Sather, Sather Financial Group’s president, said that he and his half-dozen office mates met Friday morning to make plans and board up the office.
“We were lucky. I came back to the office Sunday and we had lost one tree, but the office survived,” he says. “We sent an email to clients on Friday giving them our cell phone numbers and email addresses and asking what they might need. Most clients just wished us well.”
Sather expected to be back in the offices by Tuesday.
Hall says that Hill Investment Group’s Houston-area clients are reporting a mixture of experiences. Many remain in their homes with electricity and no flooding. Others have had to leave the area. Hall has had his firm reach out to affected clients to see if the firm can be of assistance.
At Horizon Advisors, several Houston-area clients have had their homes flooded, and Owen Murray, the firm’s director of investments, moved into a hotel after his home was included within a mandatory evacuation area. But Maddox says that there have not been any additional client calls.