Disaster Recovery & Succession Plans Where is Yours?
by Peter Staddon
As the bard once said “Is that a dagger that I see
before me, handle towards my hand”. Those amongst
us will know the rest of the quotation which of course
comes from the “Scottish Play”. But what does that
have in common with Insurance and moreover FCA
compliance.?
But there are other factors to think about, such as
what was the proprietor doing? What business was
he handling? Who is going to be the person handling
complaints and noted on the FCA register? There are
many issues here and they should all be addressed,
preferably before an event.
In the play the dagger was the instrument of death
and Macbeth was seen walking aimlessly around in a
nightmare following the events. That is exactly how
an insurance broker will be in the event of an incident
which could bring a business to its knees because there
is no robust disaster recovery or business continuity
plan in operation.
One issue could be that within the office of the
proprietor was a filing cabinet to which only he had the
keys. When he left the office at night he would lock the
cabinet and take the keys with him. That would indicate
that there was confidential and possibly sensitive
information being filed away. Moreover, it could also
determine that there was personal correspondence as
well as commercial correspondence. Who should open
the cabinet and when? Does it form part of the estate
and as such is under the control of the executors or is it
business equipment - after all it is on the office premises?
There may be a period of mourning which could prevent
access as the family have the keys, but is it right and
respectful to wait or should the legal representatives
of both the family and the business meet to open and
extract their appropriate documentation?
Let me bring this up to date then. Recently we heard
of the sad news of the death of Sir David Frost, a giant
amongst men but always having time to converse for
the smaller person, and I don’t mean in stature.
Sir