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 Lisa Gesin at 972-386-8077 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 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.

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

The following describes how Sunbelt Securities, Inc. (“Sunbelt”) handles your personal information, and what steps we take to protect your privacy. We do not use your personal information for marketing purposes.

Accessing Information

We restrict access to non-public personal customer information to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. Access to this type of information is authorized for Sunbelt’s business purposes only. It is based on our need to know such information to assist your broker in providing products or services to you, or to conduct Sunbelt’s business. Sunbelt contractually requires its personnel who have access to customer information to protect it and keep it confidential.

Collecting Information to Conduct Business

Sunbelt collects information about you to help your broker serve your financial needs, provide customer service, offer new products or services to you, and fulfill legal and regulatory requirements. The type of information your broker provides Sunbelt varies according to the products or services you request through your broker, and may include:

  • Information included on your application and related forms (such as name, address, Social Security Number, assets and income);*
  • Information about your relationship with your broker (such as products or services purchased, account balance and payment history);
  • Information from visitors to Sunbelt’s websites (such as that provided through online forms, site visitorship data, and online information collections devices known as “cookies”).

Sharing Information

We do not disclose any non-public personal information about our customers or former customers to anyone except as allowed by law. However, in the course of conducting business, we may disclose some or all of the previously described information about you to non-affiliated third parties, as allowed by law, for the purpose of:

  • Providing customer service or account maintenance
  • In response to a subpoena, to prevent fraud, or to comply with an inquiry by a government agency or regulator
  • To perform services for us or on our behalf to develop or maintain software or other business services, and/or
  • Any request to share information that we receive in writing and signed by the customer

If you prefer that we do not disclose the non-public personal information about you to our affiliates, you may opt out of those disclosures. That is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (other than disclosures permitted and/or required by law). To opt out from having this information shared with non- affiliated third parties, you may call 713-965-9510 or click on the privacy policy below.

Security Standards

Sunbelt continues to assess new technology to evaluate its ability to provide additional protection of your personal information. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your non-public personal information.

Former Customers

If you end your relationship with Sunbelt, we will continue to adhere to the policies and practices described in this notice. We will also continue to respect any opt out election that you may have made.

*If any of your information changes, please notify your broker so that your records can be updated.