This business continuity plan is written for the benefit of my customers, my prospects, my suspects, and lastly, my regulator, whose template will be at the very end.
Since we are a one man shop, the safety and health of the Profitabull is of paramount importance, both to the firm and it’s customers. Bullish Bob Bagley is 66 and on Medicare. That does not mean I am going to retire or am even thinking about it. My pace-setter and Broker/Dealer hero is Bill Burnside of William C. Burnside & Company, Inc. He is 85 and is a great torch bearer for me! But when Heaven issues that margin call, I will have to meet it. So read on, out of necessity!
The principal of this firm drives to and from work in a Dodge 4X4 Extended Cab Truck with a big 4 barrel 360 engine in it with a short bed. The tires are 265/70/16 to raise the truck up for visibility purposes. We also have installed Ranch Hand bumpers on both the front and rear of the truck. On the front, we have the Bullnose Front Bumper and in the rear, we have the Cowboy Bumper with 10,000 pound towing capacity with a bolt-in receiver tube. There is ½” plate steel in the back there to protect the principal and it has been enhanced by a drop down ugly extended 2” chrome trailer hitch. This truck is generally parked by a brick wall, which protects the principal when he gets out of the truck and walks 20’ feet to a 48” high 1”X6” redwood gate mounted on 4X4 posts set in concrete. The gate is of a double swinging nature with about 22” to each side.
The principal then walks another 30’ under a 20’ tall yaupon holly to 17 concrete aggregate steps 36” wide with steel handrails on both sides, which take him to the second floor of 2535 A Cedar Springs. While he walks under a 20’ tall yaupon holly for about 12’ and all 17 steps, he can be shit on by the birds. We have never discovered a way to protect him from them. The “A” stands for “Above” or “Angel.” The principal uses the same method of entry as we were audited for in our Y2K audit. Our landlord is Bob Spurgin, who can be reached around the corner of the building at 2521 Cedar Springs. His telephone # is 214-871-3322. We have a month to month rental handshake agreement, which so far, is 21 years old. Older than a lot of marriages.
We then proceed to our office. In it, we are currently running an office made computer by b3, his first homemade computer!!!:
- Thermalake Tusnami black computer case (it is the proverbial black box)
- 750 watt power supply—forgot the brand
- AMD 64 x2 4400 Toledo chip
- ASUS International mob a8n-sli premium
- ASUS International 256 SLI video card
- 4-1gig self-cooling memory chips
- Two 19” LG video screens
- Hitachi500 gig internal hard drive
- Seagate 1.5 terabyte hard drive external for backup
- Sony super-duper cd all everything dvd player
- Our operating system is Windows 7 Ultimate with Office 2010 and Business Contact Management 2010
- Microsoft 7000 wireless keyboard and mouse
- Panasonic 2 line DTECT 6.0 phone with two additional handhelds around the office
Copies of financial and customer material, my Business Contact Management files, are copied to a “flash” drive and transported to 429 Country View, Garland, TX 75043, 972.681.2392, via the above previously described vehicle. Now, our home phone system is on Time Warner Cable, via Vonage, so we are still subject to the cable company operating. The route taken is never known in advance. The home computer is another workstation by b³ from the left over parts he had from making his first computer, which conked out and has been replaced by an HP low end computer, but I do admire how HP services their product!
Our electricity is from TXU via Simple Power. They charge me $0.092 cents per kWh. We used to do business with TXU. One bill with TXU charged me the outrageous price of $115.28 cents per kWh. If you get nothing else from this reading, leave TXU for Simple Power, 817 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX 78759, 888.313.4747, www.simplepower.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Our off-site location is served by Garland Power Light. They are really a nice company and municipally owned.
We connect via Time Warner Cable to our clearing firm. WE DO NOT DISCLOSE OUR IP ADDRESSES, as we intend to put our business continuity plan on our website. Our Time Warner Cable may be reached at Box 650063 Dallas, TX 75265-0063, www.twcbc.com/tx, 866.519.1263. Good Luck!
Our isp servor is www.inmotionhosting.com, 888.321.4678.
Hari Chan is our computer technical advisor.
Our secondary location mentioned above is guarded by Apex Protection Service LLC. We also have locked doors, by Baldwin Lockset hardware. We utilize a room of the house for all of my business dealings, but this room is shared with my wife, as Texas is a community property state.
We use City of Dallas Water and Vonage for our telephone service, and Texas Utilities for our electricity, but are billed by Simple Power. We currently have no gas, but hope to soon. We have just installed a commercial Broan “Rangemaster” ventahood in our office and we hope to convert from electricity to gas for cooking purposes. We currently use an electric Jenn-Air stove. Our most recent cooking class was at Kalachandji’s, which is at the Hare Krishna Temple in East Dallas in a re-cycled Methodist Church. We are not vegetarian, but we do like their spices.
Our CPA is Philip V. George, 214.385.5150, 4421 Wanda Lane, Flower Mound, TX 75022, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Phil has to be good with figures, as he has 6 kids!!! Grin. Our former CPA was Paul Willingham of Krempien & Willingham. 469.222.3990. Mr. Willingham was the best CPA we have ever had. Unfortunately, with the blow-up of the Madoff scandal, we are now required to have a PCAOB qualified auditor. Mr. Willingham did not want to go thru the hassle for the peek-a-boo qualification. He recommended a real nice man, who is married to a wonderful wife, by the name of Philip V. George, 4421 Wanda Lane, Flower Mound, TX 75022, 214.385.5150, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you are looking for an affordable PCAOB auditor, he is very pleasant to work with. As a customer or prospect, he does a great job for you too! I have no idea how FINRA let Madoff get by, but Phil George will not let you get by.
We commmunciate with our clearing firm, Sterne Agee thru Sue Burdette or Eric Warner, 800.778.6257, or www.Ecustody.com, or emails to who we are seeking at Sterne Agee.
Bullish Bob Bagley has the authority to execute and review the BCP as he sees fit. Our BCP is on our website. We deal with retail customers and anyone else we can. Our firm is a correspondent. We do not maintain customer’s funds or securities.
As regards SIPC, we have already suffered through one clearing firm (MJKI) failure. SIPC just does the best job of anyone on the street for the benefit of the investor. We have seen the failure of May Financial locally and experienced the failure of MJKI up close and personal. We have to commend Sterne Agee on their willingness to listen to correspondent complaints and within reason react positively to some of them.
Our mission critical components are Texas Utilities, without which, nothing we have works. Time Warner Cable is most crititical, because our phone system, Vonage, operates on the internet cable. Sterne Agee, our clearing firm, is located at 813 Shades Creek Parkway #100B, Birmingham, AL, 35209-9658, phone-205.414.3300. The President is a very nice guy, Dennis Ferguson. I really admire him. My go to guy is Eric Warner, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , #800.778.6247. His very cable assistant is Sue Burdette, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , same #. PLEASE ONLY CONTACT THEM IN AN EMERGENCY. MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO CONTACT ME FIRST!!!!
Now if TXU is down, so is the ball game. If TXU is up and the cable is down, communications are back to USPS. If TXU and TWC are up and Sterne Agee is down, then all we have is SIPC. Steve Harbeck is the President of SIPC and does a fabulous job. A real unsung hero of our industry!
From here on we are going to write this for the benefit of our regulator for the template that they provide to make sure we cover all the bases.
FINRA got a real black eye over Bernie Madoff and Sanford in Houston, even so, you would be entranced to know how very hard FINRA works to protect the average investor. I played football from grade school thru 4 years at Baylor University and the game would not be much without referees. Broker/Dealers, including yours truly, complain vociferously about our regulations, but FINRA is a necessary referee on this huge financial playing field. As an investor count your blessings that you have them!
Since we are a one man firm, the Principal is Bullish Bob Bagley. His CRD # 10044 and the firm, Bullish Bob Bagley Securities, Inc., CRD # 24761. All of this can be seen thru, www.finra.org.
Our firm conducts business in equity and fixed income securities. Our firm is an introducing firm and does not perform any type of clearing function for itself. We do not hold customer funds or securities, or accept them, which means we do not take money or securities from you. You have to mail it all in directly to our clearing firm, Sterne Agee. Sterne Agee is our clearing firm and they are best one we have had. We are now on our fourth clearing firm and hopefully the last! We started out with a great little firm, Private Brokers Clearing here in Dallas, but the regulatory burden became so great for them that they sold out to MJKI in Minneapolis, MN. MJKI, prior to Madoff, was the largest bankruptcy in SIPC history. Southwest Securities made a bid for all the Broker/Dealers clearing thru MJKI and I accepted. SWS then hired some hotshot guy from up North, paid him over a million dollars a year to come to Dallas and he ran me off. I appealed to Don Hultgren, the CEO, because we had played racket ball together when he was slimmer and we both were with Eppler, Guerin, & Turner, Inc. Hultgren said he was going to back his man and now they have “both” been run off from SWS. If you want to know more about that, please do not hesitate to ask. The sad thing about that is that my oldest son is their Director of Broker/Client Services, Operations Manager and has been with them over ten years. Now I prefer to think that SWS’s loss is Sterne Agee’s gain. Grin…b³.
Sterne Agee is located at 813 Shades Creek Parkway #100B, Birmingham, AL, 35209-9658. Their phone # 205.414.3300 and the President is a great man by the name of Dennis Ferguson. I really admire him! Should you ever have the need to question Sterne Agee about ANYTHING, the man you should call is Eric Warner, same address, but at his # 800.778.6247. His email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . He is also backed up by a nice lady by the name of Sue Burdette. She answers the same phone line above, so don’t be surprised to get her. Her email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please respect that this is for emergency contact purposes only. Otherwise, you should call me first. All transactions are sent to Sterne Agee via of their Ecustody website. Sterne Agee only maintains your customer accounts, andonly Sterne Agee can grant access to them for delivery of funds. We used to deliver securities, but now with the Depository Trust charging an outrageous $600 per stock issue to get a certificate, it makes it outrageously expensive for you to gift a security to a grandchild, relative, or friend. We only deal with individuals, no institutions at this time, but we would be glad to take them.
Our BCP is lot like what you have in mind for your Doctor, Dentist, Veterinarian, Lawyer, Barber, or Hair Stylist. If you are like my wife, you are more concerned about who is going to color your hair than worried about your accounts with me. Now let’s suppose I do get that big margin call to Heaven, my oldest son, Robert Michael Bagley, III, “Tres” will inherit my firm. He has a key to the office. He knows where all my passwords are. He is now in his 11th year with SWS. You are in better shape with me and my firm than you are with practically any other firm, because not many professionals have their offspring licensed to take their place. Grin! Tres is a Principal with FINRA already. He has several other licenses as well, so your monies and accounts and information will adjust or convert quickly to whatever you desire.
In 2009, Dallas endured a record snowfall. Power was out all over Dallas. We had some friends we let into our home, because under the bridge was just so cold and besides, his wife wanted to wash her hair. What I am saying is these BCP’s are for real!
On the other hand, there is just so much my little one man shop can do. Our monies and accounts, like yours, are with Sterne Agee and we too have total confidence in them and their ability to assure you access to your properties. The employees of Sterne Agee are just delightful to do business with. To describe them, you only have to use one word--they are “kind.” This is a wonderfully managed firm. For you Broker/Dealers reading this, their Ecustody trading system is the very best. The one drawback that Sterne Agee has, in my opinion, is that they do not have Automated Clearing House transfer of funds. On the other hand, reading about some of the lawsuits involving Bank of America and funds wired out in error and the banks refusing to accept the loss, makes you glad they send it by US mail.
I started in this business on September 01, 1968. Every firm that I have been employed by, is no longer in business. Please re-read this BCP and think about the sentence before this. Also with the recent failure of Merrill Lynch, every firm that I ever even interviewed, is no longer in business. I actually interviewed Merrill when I was a senior in high school. It took them a long time to go down.
After Madoff, as you can imagine, FINRA has been undergoing some changes. The District Director for my FINRA district, Ms Jennie Jans has retired. She was very professional with me. The head of member regulation, Robert Errico, will retire in March 2010. My current FINRA District 6 contact is Robert Cantwell, FINRA, 12801 N Central Expressway # 1050, Dallas, TX 75243, 972.701.8554, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Despite the bad publicity recently endured by FINRA, please let me assure you that FINRA, especially Mr. Cantwell, are keeping a close eye on me, and indirectly thus your monies and accounts. When Mr. Cantwell calls me inquiring why my expenses increased by $10,000 in a quarter, and wants a printout of why, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is keeping a close eye on me. You could easily infer that you are safer with the smaller Broker/Dealers than you ever will be with the big guys.
In summation, one of my long time clients will be 75 shortly…she is still in business today, and she maintains that she only had two customers ever stiff her and that was not for much money and she still gets calls from one of the individuals, when that individual gets religion, claiming that she will pay her back. She is not anticipating it.
With over 42 years in the business, a son with over 10 years of business in this industry, a chastened FINRA and SEC, we are all working diligently to protect you and your assets. We humbly thank you for every wonderful opportunity!