Business Continuity Planning
GT Securities, Inc. has developed a Business Continuity Plan on how we will respond to events that significantly disrupt our business. Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions is unpredictable, we will have to be flexible in responding to actual events as they occur. With that in mind, we are providing you with this information on our business continuity plan.
Contacting Us – If after a significant business disruption you cannot contact us as you usually do at (800) 947-6978 you should call our alternative number (310) 694-0441.
Our Business Continuity Plan – We plan to quickly recover and resume business operations after a significant business disruption and respond by safeguarding our employees and property, making a financial and operational assessment, protecting the firm’s books and records, and allowing our customers to transact business. In short, our business continuity plan is designed to permit our firm to resume operations as quickly as possible, given the scope and severity of the significant business disruption.
Our business continuity plan addresses: data back up and recovery; all mission critical systems; financial and operational assessments; alternative communications with customers, employees, and regulators; alternate physical location of employees; critical supplier, contractor, bank and counter-party impact; regulatory reporting; and assuring our customers prompt access to their funds and securities if we are unable to continue our business.
Varying Disruptions – Significant business disruptions can vary in their scope, such as only our firm, a single building housing our firm, the business district where our firm is located, the city where we are located, or the whole region. Within each of these areas, the severity of the disruption can also vary from minimal to severe. In a disruption to only our firm or a building housing our firm, we will transfer our operations to a local site when needed and expect to recover and resume business within 3 days. In a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region, we will transfer our operations to a site outside of the affected area, and recover and resume business within 14 days. In either situation, we plan to continue in business and notify you how to contact us.
For more information – If you have questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at [email protected] or (800) 947-6978.
Form CRS Customer Relationship Summary
Introduction
GT Securities, Inc. (“GTS”) is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a broker-dealer and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Brokerage and investment advisory services and fees differ, and it is important for you to understand these differences. Free and simple tools are available to research firms and financial professionals at Investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisers, and investing.
What investment services and advice can you provide me?
On occasion, we offer brokerage services to retail investors, including recommending and facilitating the purchase or sale of a registered or unregistered security as placement agent, investment banker, or in a similar capacity. At all times, your GTS representative will be acting in the capacity of a Registered Representative of a broker-dealer. We do not offer account monitoring to our retail clients. Our brokerage services are non-discretionary: you make the ultimate decision regarding the purchase or sale of registered or unregistered securities.
The brokerage services we provide to retail customers are limited to recommendations of private and/or unregistered securities. We do not offer any proprietary products to retail clients. We impose no minimum investment size, amount or volume of transactions for brokerage services. However, some private (unregistered) securities require a minimum investment. These investments may also require certain specific criteria such as a minimum net worth, a certain investment objective or level of investment experience.
We do not take custody or hold client assets or funds.
GTS encourages you to ask your financial professional the following questions:
Given my financial situation, should I choose a brokerage service? Why or why not?
How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education and other qualifications?
What do those qualifications mean?
What fees will I pay?
For brokerage services, we charge a transaction-based commission or placement fee that varies according to the security and the amount invested. In some instances, the commission or fee we earn is a separate fee and increases the cost of your purchase. In other instances, the commission or fee is paid to us directly from the issuer or sponsor of the security. In these instances, the commission or fee does not increase the amount of your investment. The specific commission or fee you will pay will be disclosed to you in a separate document at the time the recommendation is made. This document might be an offering memorandum, private placement memorandum, or another type of disclosure document.
More transactions and/or higher investment amounts generally result in more fees; therefore, we have an incentive to encourage more transactions and investments of a higher value.
You will pay fees and costs whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and costs will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying.
Please contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding how the commissions and fees we charge impact your investment.
Conversation Starters:
Help me understand how these fees and costs might affect my investments. If I give you $100,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs, and how much will be invested for me?
What are your legal obligations to me when providing recommendations?
How else does your firm make money and what conflicts of interest do you have?
When we provide you with a recommendation, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the recommendations we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means.
- Transaction Fees: We typically make money when we are paid a commission by the seller of the investment you purchase. In some cases, our commission is a percentage of the total amount of the investment we sell, and in other cases, our commission is a percentage of the fees earned by third- parties who manage the funds in which you invest. Depending on the investment, we may also earn warrants or other equity options. Because we only get paid when you complete a transaction, we may have an incentive to encourage you to make larger investments and invest more frequently.
- Private Securities Transactions: We also permit our representatives and certain of their family members to conduct certain transactions and investment activities on their own behalf, and these activities are subject to additional various federal securities laws, rules, and regulations. Your financial professional may, therefore, have an incentive to preferentially introduce or recommend investments to you in which he or she is also either invested or has another financial interest.
Conversation Starters:
How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
How do GTS Registered Persons make money?
Our financial professionals receive compensation for every transaction they make. In some cases, we or the financial professional will also receive other compensation such as warrants, a percentage of performance fees or other incentives. These special incentives present a conflict of interest because they provide an opportunity to recommend more frequent transactions or to recommend an investment that will yield higher compensation. We address this conflict by making full disclosure to you, through our non-discretionary services, and by requiring a supervisor of our firm to oversee your transactions.
Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?
Yes. Visit Investor.gov/CRS for a free and simple search tool to research us and our financial professionals.
Conversation Starters:
As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? For what type of conduct?
Additional information
For additional information about our services, please visit our website at www.gtsecurities.net. If you would like additional, up-to-date information or a copy of this disclosure, please email [email protected]. Some of our financial professionals market their services or securities through websites that they maintain. You may be receiving this disclosure because you accessed or requested information from one of these websites. We encourage you to thoroughly review the information and disclosures, particularly related to the identity of the relevant financial professionals, contained on any of our financial professional’s sites that you have visited.
