Geneos Wealth Management's web-based approach to operations helped mitigate some of the business disruptions caused by Hurricane Harvey. Its offices didn't come through unscathed, though.
"We definitely have advisors affected by the storm. We've been in constant communication with them. All the advisors, all their staff is safe and not in harm's way at this point," Geneos President Ryan Diachok told ThinkAdvisor on Thursday.
Geneos, winner of the 2017 Broker-Dealers of the Year in Division II, is based in Centennial, Colorado, but has two offices in the Houston area, and others in Rockport and McAllen, Texas.
The Rockport office was hit especially hard, though Diachok noted the team is already up and running again from an alternate location.
"Their office is destroyed because they were right where the peak winds hit," Diachok said. "In talking with all of them, they're all up and operational from a business perspective."
Diachok said the web-based technology solutions and business continuity planning Geneos provides enabled advisors in the Texas offices to get back on their feet quickly.
"You never want to have to enact your BCP," he said, "but these offices are putting those plans into place so they're able to service clients 100% and be operational even going through all of those."
He added, "It's very different from some of the other natural disasters years prior, when everything wasn't as web-based or cloud-based."
Now, advisors are focused on serving clients. As of Thursday, Diachok said they hadn't heard from any clients who had been harmed other than property damage. "They're working hard through all that and we're providing anything we can to them."
Geneos is putting together a plan to help with the relief effort, including donations to the Red Cross and a matching program for advisors' donations.