This information was delivered in a webinar from the brokers' professional group, Financial Advice NZ.

This body runs a series of professional development sessions and the latest one was about maintaining a Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

An up to date and constantly maintained BCP is required by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) as a condition of a full FAP licence.

A BCP has to cover a range of risks such as cyber attacks, financial crises and other events.

But the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle focussed attention at this webinar on how to survive a weather disaster.

The webinar convener Leigh Hodgetts cited the case of a Hawkes Bay adviser whose office was swept with floodwaters.

“All the planning and testing she had done did not prepare her for the loss of power and her workplace in the office not being available,” Hodgetts said.

So Hodgetts said this woman had given Financial Advice NZ the benefit of her experience, and her advice was aimed especially at small operators.

They should make sure that staff can be contacted, that options for other premises have been explored and that mechanisms to restore systems have been set up in advance, Hodgetts said.

They should also know that technology will be able to be accessed from other premises and that up to date contacts are available for contractors and all people who might potentially be involved in outsourcing work.

Michael Dowling from Stratus Financial Services gave some other advice.

“We ask all staff to have a go bag under their desk,” he said.

“They will soon find it when they crawl under there if there is an earthquake. We put it in our diaries that they change the water, and it means that if they are trapped inside a building, having that water is critical if they are going to survive.

“Then there are the practical tools, we have the axe and the jemmy bar in the office. One story I heard years ago was having a car jack on wheels – they can raise three tonnes or even six tonnes in some cases and that can be the difference in getting someone out if something heavy has fallen on them.

“It's having that escape plan ready and having everyone knowing where they are going that is important.”

Another speaker at the panel was TonI Dodds, a senior manager at the Lifetime Group. For her, pre-planning was all important, so her staff had made preparations in advance on how to contact clients in a crisis.

“As part of our cyber/IT incident response, we have templated communications, prepared, all ready to go out to our clients. This means we can take our time writing some really lovely words, we can get a basic message right, ahead of time, and we can fill in the blanks later.

“This means that when we are under stress (from a disaster), we don't have to worry, 'Oh goodness, what do I say to my client?'

“We have an initial communication ready to go and then ongoing communications in place as well.”

Dodds added plans like these and other plans for dealing with an emergency should be constantly evaluated. There were other decisions to be made as well, including when to report to the regulator or to the Privacy Commission.

Dowling cited another problem, when a company's system failed and as a result, misreported descriptions of basic products were being sent out to clients. He recommended contacting the company's IT provider to find out which clients had been contacted or had tried to log in and sending out corrections specifically to them.

“Instead of hitting all clients and getting them excited about something they might never know had happened, we can target the people we need to talk to and reassure them.”

And he cited another case which was even more dramatic.

“We were part of a wider network when Christchurch was hit by the second earthquake in 2011 and we learnt a lot about the support that was needed there for our colleagues.

“They had their business that was full of files in a building that was red stickered – they could not get into it.

“The whole building had to be torn down and the records were lost.”

Dowling said that and many other cases proved how vital backup files are to any company.