Symetra Life Insurance Company (Symetra) is committed to reducing the risks engendered by a potential disaster through the continuing support of our Business Continuity program. As part of the Business Continuity program, the Symetra Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans were developed, and are maintained, with senior management oversight and approval for the methodology, processes and procedures necessary to protect our employees, continue business during a major event, and to provide access to information and services for our customers and producers.
The plans have been developed using the guidelines for best practices from respected sources such as the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII), OSHA, FEMA and other recognized organizations for business continuity and disaster recovery. Senior management formally reviews and approves the Symetra plans on an annual basis.
The Symetra Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans are derived by the results of a risk based analysis, strategies and mitigations and contains the following key components:
- Predetermined processes for escalation and activation for any and all parts of the plan by the event response team which consists of management with defined levels of responsibility to act on behalf of Symetra;
- Internal and external communication processes and procedures for customers, producers, and employees regardless of their physical location within the United States;
- Life safety processes and procedures for all of our employees and to protect any customers and/or producers located at our facility during a disaster;
- Critical and/or time sensitive business functions are identified in the plan along with the resources that those functions require to be successfully recovered or relocated to alternate sites;
- Processes and procedures that ensure the disaster recovery plan contains effective responses for protecting the security of customer information as well as detecting, preventing and reporting fraud;
- Processes and procedures developed specifically for response to a Pandemic Flu based event;
- Alternative locations for staff and operations usage along with full system backup and recovery to maintain customer services;
- Testing of the business continuity and disaster recovery plans conducted on a scheduled basis using multiple environments (i.e. scenario based, alternate locations).
Proprietary to Symetra Life Insurance Company 8/26/2008
