Clients

Financial Goals for Our Clients

For each of our clients, we strive to help create financial stability and security with the end goal of financial independence. Not only will you find our financial advisors knowledgeable, but you will also discover that our staff truly cares about making your financial goals a reality.

As your financial advisor, we will do everything in our power to keep you focused on where you want to go, advise you on how to get there, and continually remind you of the importance of maintaining a disciplined approach to reach your goals.

Product Definitions

Fixed Annuity: A Fixed Annuity is one under which the insurer, rather than the contract owner, bears the risk of loss of principal. The insurer guarantees the contract owner that the principal will not be lost, regardless of the insurer’s investment performance; and that the interest at least equal to a stated minimum rate will be credited to the contract.
Variable Annuity: Unlike a fixed annuity, in which the insurer bears the investment risk, contract owners of variable annuities bear the risk of loss of principal to the extent that the variable annuity premiums are allocated (by the contract owner) to the insurer’s separate account. To the extent that the variable annuity premiums are allocated to the separate account, the accumulated value of the variable annuity depends upon the performance of the variable subaccounts to which the premiums are allocated. In a variable annuity, the contract owner may allocate his or her premiums to the separate account or the fixed account.
Corporate Bonds: A Corporate Bond is a bond issued by a corporation. It is a bond that a corporation issues to raise money in order to expand its business. The term is usually applied to longer-term debt instruments, generally with a maturity date falling at least a year after their issue date.
Education Savings Accounts: A Coverdell Education Savings Account (also known as an Education Savings Account, a Coverdell ESA, a Coverdell Account, or just an ESA and formerly known as an Education Individual Retirement Account), is a tax-advantaged investment account in the United States designed to encourage savings to cover future education expenses (elementary, secondary or college), such as tuition, books, uniform, etc.
Government Bonds: A government bond is a bond issued by a national government denominated in the country's own currency. Bonds issued by national governments in foreign currencies are normally referred to as sovereign bonds.
Keoghs: Keogh plans are full-fledged pension plans for self-employed people in the United States.
Long - Term Care Insurance: An insurance product sold in the United States and United Kingdom, helps provide for the cost of long-term care beyond a predetermined period. Long-term care insurance covers care generally not covered by health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. Individuals who require long-term care are generally not sick in the traditional sense, but instead, are unable to perform the basic activities of daily living (ADLs) such as dressing, bathing, eating, toileting, continence, transferring (getting in and out of a bed or chair), and walking.
Municipal Bonds: A municipal bond is a bond issued by a city or other local government, or their agencies. Potential issuers of municipal bonds include cities, counties, redevelopment agencies, school districts, publicly owned airports and seaports, and any other governmental entity (or group of governments) below the state level. Municipal bonds may be general obligations of the issuer or secured by specified revenues. Interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often exempt from the federal income tax and from the income tax of the state in which they are issued, although municipal bonds issued for certain purposes may not be tax exempt.
Stocks: In the investment world, a share of stock (also referred to as equity share) represents a share of ownership in a corporation (company). In the plural, stocks is often used as a synonym for shares especially in the United States, but it is less commonly used that way outside of North America.
401 (k) Employee Plans: A 401(k) plan allows a worker to save for retirement and have the savings invested while deferring current income taxes on the saved money and earnings until withdrawal. The employee elects to have a portion of his or her wages paid directly, or "deferred," into his or her 401(k) account. This deferment is also known as a "contribution".
403 (b) Retirement Planning: A 403(b) plan is a tax-advantaged retirement savings plan available for public education organizations, some non-profit employers (only US Tax Code 501(c)(3) organizations),Cooperative hospital service organizations and self-employed ministers in the United States. It has tax treatment similar to a 401(k) plan, especially after the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.
Managed Account Solutions: A fee-based investment management product for high net worth individuals. The appeal of Managed Accounts is the access to professional money managers, high degree of customization and greater tax efficiencies in a fee-based product.
Alternative Investments: An investment product other than traditional investments such as stocks, bonds or cash. This broad definition makes it impossible to list all alternative strategies, but the most important areas are real estate, private equity, venture capital, commodities, and hedged or absolute return strategies. Wine, art and antiques, indeed any business of value, might also be considered as an alternative investment. One common theme to alternative investments is that they are often hoped to have modest correlations with traditional investments and so to increase the diversification of investor's portfolios.
Key person insurance: Key person insurance is needed if the sudden loss of a key executive would have a large negative effect on the company's operations. The payout provided from the death of the executive essentially buys the company time to find a new person or to implement other strategies to continue the business.
Mutual Fund: Mutual funds give investors access to professionally managed, diversified portfolios of equities, bonds and other securities. Each shareholder participates proportionally in the gain or loss of the fund. Mutual fund units, or shares, are issued and can typically be purchased or redeemed as needed at the fund's current net asset value (NAV) per share, which is sometimes expressed as NAVPS.

Sunbelt Securities Inc.'s Business Continuity Planning

Sunbelt 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 713-965-9510, you should call our alternative number 713-253-4700 (Patrick Smetek) or 713-819-1439 (David Smetek) or go to our website at www.sunbeltsecurities.com. If you cannot access us through either of those means, you should contact Ray Miller at 713-614-7777 or contact your Registered Representative directly.

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 backup 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.

Our clearing firm, NFS, backs up our important records in a geographically separate area. While every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption, we have been advised by our clearing firm that its objective is to restore its own operations and be able to complete existing transactions and accept new transactions and payments within the same business day. Your orders and requests for funds and securities could be delayed during this period.

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 the same business day. 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 2-3 business days. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer operations to our clearing firm if necessary, and notify you through our web site www.sunbeltsecurities.com or customer emergency number, 713- 253-4700 how to contact us. If the significant business disruption is so severe that it prevents us from remaining in business, you may contact the NFS Customer Service Line at 800-801-9942 which will assure our customer’s prompt access to their funds and securities. (Please note that the representatives at this number will only be able to assist you with your account in the event that our firm goes out of business entirely. If this is not the case and we are simply experiencing a temporary business disruption, you should follow the alternate routes of contact previously mentioned.)

FOR MORE INFORMATION – If you have questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at 713-965-9510.

Privacy Policy

This notice describes the privacy policy of Sunbelt Securities, Inc., a broker-dealer and Registered Investment Adviser. We are required, by federal law, to provide you with this notice, which outlines our business practices to protect your privacy as well as how we collect and share personal information about you. This policy applies to both current and former clients.

We Respect Your Privacy Sunbelt Securities, Inc. (“SUNBELT”) is committed to protecting your privacy. SUNBELT relies on access to your personal financial information in order to provide you with relevant information regarding the products and services we offer as well as provide you with appropriate investment recommendations. We appreciate and understand that the personal financial information you have entrusted to us is sensitive and confidential and we have adopted policies and procedures which assist us in safeguarding the information you provide to us.

Personal information we collect about you SUNBELT collects confidential client information from you in a number of ways including information provided on our new account applications and other forms we receive from you, consumer reporting agencies, information obtained through our website, as well as information obtained from other sources.

For example:

We collect information such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, date of birth, net worth, income, financial objectives and investment experience through applications and other forms you submit to us
We may access information regarding your account balances, your use of account(s), and the types of products and services you prefer through your interactions and transactions with us
We may obtain information about your creditworthiness and credit history from credit reporting agencies
We may collect background information from and through third-party vendors to verify representations you have made and to comply with various regulatory requirements

How we share your personal information

SUNBELT is registered as a broker/dealer and as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). SUNBELT is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”). SUNBELT has no affiliated companies.

SUNBELT does not share confidential information about our clients with unaffiliated third parties unless such disclosure is necessary to manage and service your account. For example, we provide access to information about you to unaffiliated third parties in certain limited circumstances, including:

to help us process transactions for your account(s)
to help us manage and service your account(s)
when we contract with third parties to provide account related services such as printing, mailing, and data processing services
when we believe that disclosure is required or permitted under law. For example, we may be required to disclose your personal information to cooperate with regulatory or law enforcement authorities, to report tax-related information to federal and state governments, to resolve consumer disputes, to perform credit/authentication checks, or for risk control.

SUNBELT recognizes that your relationship with your Financial Professional is important. If your Financial Professional ends his affiliation with us, and (s)he joins another broker-dealer with which we have entered into an agreement limiting the use of information, we will permit your Financial Advisor to retain certain contact information limited to your name, address, telephone number, email address and account title.

How we protect your confidential personal information about you

We have internal policies and procedures which govern the handling of client information by employees. Third parties which provide account service and support on our behalf may also receive personal information about you, and we require them to adhere to appropriate security standards with respect to such information. Under no circumstances will SUNBELT sell confidential client information to anyone, for any reason, at any time.

If you have any questions or concerns, or if you identify any information that you believe is no longer accurate, you may contact your SUNBELT Registered Representative or write to SUNBELT, Attn: Compliance Department, 2700 Post Oak Blvd, Suite 1700, Houston, TX 77056.

SIPC Notice

Accounts that are carried by National Financial Services, LLC (“NFS”), member of NYSE/FINRA/SIPC, are covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”). SIPC coverage is not the same as FDIC insurance. In the event of a Sunbelt’s failure, SIPC protects its members’ securities customers up to $500,000 (including $100,000 for claims for cash). You may obtain an explanatory brochure by contacting SIPC at (202) 371-8300, visiting SIPC’s website at www.sipc.org or by asking your Registered Representative. Each customer account carried by NFS also receives excess SIPC protection. Neither SIPC coverage nor excess SIPC coverage applies to market losses.

Thank you for your business and allowing us to service your needs.