Houston Financial & Accounting Firm DR Specialists

Disaster Recovery for Houston Financial Advisors & Accounting Firms

SEC Regulation S-P and FINRA Rule 4370 require registered investment advisors and broker-dealers to maintain a tested business continuity plan ā€” and Houston's hurricane and flood risk makes BCP not just a regulatory checkbox but a business survival imperative. xS IT delivers comprehensive disaster recovery, tested BCP programs, and rapid-recovery infrastructure for Houston's financial and accounting community.

📞 Call (832) 304-9748 Request Free Assessment
4
Hr Recovery Time Objective
15
Min Recovery Point Objective
26
Yrs Veteran IT Experience
100
% SEC/FINRA BCP Compliance
4
Hr Recovery Time Objective
15
Min Recovery Point Objective
26
Yrs Veteran IT Experience
100
% SEC/FINRA BCP Compliance
Solutions

Built for Houston's Financial Advisory and Accounting Firms

26 years of veteran-led IT expertise, applied specifically to the challenges, compliance requirements, and operational realities of financial advisory and accounting firms in the Greater Houston area.

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Immutable Cloud Backup

Ransomware-proof, SEC-compliant cloud backup with 7-year retention for financial records ā€” meeting FINRA Rule 17a-4 WORM storage requirements for broker-dealers and SEC Rule 17a-4 for registered advisors.

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4-Hour Recovery SLA

Our documented and tested recovery procedures restore your portfolio management systems, CRM, email, and financial reporting tools within 4 hours of a declared disaster ā€” minimizing client impact and regulatory exposure.

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SEC & FINRA BCP Documentation

Professionally authored Business Continuity Plans meeting SEC Regulation S-P, FINRA Rule 4370, and Texas State Securities Board requirements ā€” including annual testing documentation and employee training records.

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Hurricane Season Readiness

Houston-specific disaster scenarios (Harvey-level flooding, extended power outages, office inaccessibility) are built into your BCP and tested annually before hurricane season ā€” not after the storm makes landfall.

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Client Data Protection

AES-256 encryption of client PII and financial data at rest and in transit, with geographic data redundancy across two AWS availability zones ensuring your client records survive any single-site disaster.

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Cybersecurity & Ransomware Recovery

A tested ransomware recovery playbook that takes your firm from encrypted to operational without paying a ransom ā€” with clean, air-gapped backup restoration validated quarterly by your xS IT team.

How It Works

Our Proven 4-Phase Approach

From discovery through ongoing management, our process is designed to deliver measurable results at every phase ā€” with zero disruption to your operations.

1

Business Impact Analysis

We quantify the financial, regulatory, and reputational impact of various disaster scenarios ā€” system failure, ransomware, office loss, key-person loss ā€” to prioritize your recovery investments.

2

BCP & DR Plan Development

Comprehensive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans authored to SEC/FINRA standards, with documented recovery procedures, emergency contact trees, and client communication templates.

3

Infrastructure Implementation

Redundant cloud backup, geo-distributed file replication, cloud-hosted failover systems, and VPN connectivity for remote operations ā€” all tested against your documented RTO and RPO targets.

4

Annual Testing & Maintenance

Documented annual BCP test (required by FINRA Rule 4370), tabletop exercises, quarterly backup restoration tests, and plan updates reflecting any changes to your firm's systems, personnel, or operations.

"After Harvey flooded our building, we were back to serving clients from a remote location within 6 hours because of the BCP xS IT built for us. Our competitors were dark for weeks. The SEC examiner specifically praised our BCP documentation at our next audit."
ā€” Houston RIA Compliance Officer | xSā„¢ IT Consulting ā€” Veteran Family Founded and Operated
ROI Calculator

Financial Firm Downtime Impact Calculator

Calculate what an unplanned outage costs your financial firm in regulatory risk, lost revenue, and client trust.

Why xS IT

xS IT vs. In-House IT vs. Break-Fix

See why Houston's leading financial advisory and accounting firms choose xS IT over the alternatives ā€” on every dimension that actually matters.

Capability xS™ IT Consulting In-House IT Break-Fix
Recovery Time Objective āœ“ 4 hours xS 8ā€“48 hours Days or weeks
Recovery Point Objective āœ“ 15 minutes xS 24 hours Last full backup
SEC/FINRA BCP Docs āœ“ Auditor-ready xS ā–³ Template only āœ— None
WORM/Immutable Storage āœ“ FINRA 17a-4 xS ā–³ Standard backup āœ— Not compliant
Annual BCP Testing āœ“ Documented test xS ā–³ Informal test āœ— Not tested
Hurricane Scenarios āœ“ Houston-specific xS ā–³ Generic plan āœ— No plan
Ransomware Recovery āœ“ Tested playbook xS ā–³ Best effort Billed hourly
FAQ

Common Questions from Houston Financial Advisory and Accounting Firms

FINRA Rule 4370 requires broker-dealers to have a written BCP addressing 10 specific elements and to provide a summary to clients. SEC Regulation S-P requires investment advisors to maintain policies for protecting customer records. Both require annual review and testing. We build and maintain compliant plans for both.
FINRA Rule 17a-4 requires broker-dealers to store electronic records in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable (WORM) format for defined retention periods. We deploy SEC/FINRA-compliant cloud storage that meets the technical and auditor-verification requirements of Rule 17a-4(f).
Yes. We specifically incorporate Harvey-level flood scenarios, extended power outages (10+ days), and prolonged office inaccessibility into every Houston financial firm BCP. Unlike generic national DR vendors, we understand that your office being underwater is a real planning scenario.
We deploy 3-2-1-1 backup architecture: 3 copies of data, on 2 different media types, with 1 off-site, and 1 air-gapped immutable copy that ransomware cannot encrypt. Recovery from ransomware using this architecture typically takes 2ā€“4 hours ā€” not weeks of negotiation.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours means your portfolio management system, email, CRM, financial reporting tools, and client portal are all restored and accessible from remote locations within 4 hours of declaring a disaster. We test this quarterly to ensure the SLA is achievable.
Yes. We back up and have recovery procedures for all major wealth management platforms including Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, Redtail CRM, Orion Advisor Tech, Tamarac, Riskalyze (Nitrogen), eMoney, MoneyGuide, and most other CRM and planning tools.
We provide your compliance team with complete BCP documentation, testing records, employee training logs, and evidence artifacts formatted for regulatory examiners. We are available to participate in exam preparation calls and, if needed, examiner interviews.
Yes. AICPA guidance requires CPA firms to maintain business continuity plans, and Texas State Board of Public Accountancy continuing competency requirements include understanding of data security. We provide BCP documentation and DR infrastructure appropriate for Texas accounting and CPA practices.
Yes. Remote operations capability is built into every BCP we design ā€” including cloud-hosted desktops, secure remote VPN access, mobile device management, and voice/communication failover so your team can serve clients from any location.
Most Houston RIAs and accounting firms of 5ā€“30 staff invest $1,500ā€“$4,500 per month for comprehensive BDR, BCP documentation, and annual testing ā€” less than the regulatory fine for a single BCP deficiency finding.

Is Your Firm Ready for the Next Harvey?

Get a free BCP gap assessment and DR readiness review. We'll show you exactly where your recovery plan falls short ā€” before the SEC examiner or a hurricane does.

📞 Call (832) 304-xSIT 📄 Schedule a Free Assessment