Item 5 Fees and Compensation
Financial Planning and Consulting Services Fees
GYL’s planning and consulting fees are negotiable, but generally range from $2,500 to $25,000 on a
fixed fee basis, and from $200 to $800 on an hourly basis, depending upon the level and scope of the
service(s) required and the professional(s) rendering the service(s). Prior to engaging GYL to provide
planning or consulting services on a stand-alone basis, clients are generally required to enter into a
planning and consulting agreement with GYL setting forth the terms and conditions of the engagement
(including termination), describing the scope of the services to be provided, and the portion of the fee
that is due from the client prior to GYL commencing services.
Institutional Consulting Services
GYL offers consulting services, on a non-discretionary or discretionary fee basis, to defined
contribution, defined benefit, endowments, foundations, insurance pools, Other Post Employment
Benefit (“OPEB”) trusts, and other non-qualified plans. Generally, GYL Financial Synergies’ advisory
fees are payable quarterly in arrears based on the average daily value of the accounts under management
during the preceding calendar quarter. GYL Financial Synergies’ fee for advisory services may be based
on a percentage of assets under advisement, an agreed upon fixed fee, or determined on an hourly rate
basis.
Investment Management Services
GYL’s annual investment advisory fee shall be based upon various objective and subjective factors.
These factors include, but are not limited to, the amount of the assets placed under GYL’s advisement,
the level and scope of the overall investment advisory services to be rendered and the complexity of the
engagement.
GYL charges an investment advisory fee based upon either a fixed percentage (%) of the market value of
the assets placed under management or a tiered fee schedule. GYL’s fees, which may be up to 2.0%
of a client’s assets under management, vary depending upon various objective and subjective factors,
including but not limited to: the representative assigned to the account, the amount of assets to be
invested, the complexity of the engagement, the anticipated number of meetings and servicing needs,
related accounts, future earning capacity, anticipated future additional assets, and outcome of
negotiations with the client. As a result, similar clients could pay different fees, which will
correspondingly impact a client’s net account performance. Moreover, the services to be provided by
GYL to any particular client could be available from other advisers at higher or lower fees. All clients
and prospective clients should consider these factors accordingly.
For certain clients, we charge an advisory fee for services provided to the held-away accounts mentioned
above in Item 4, just as we do with clients accounts held at our primary custodian(s). The specific fee
schedule charged by us is provided in the client’s investment advisory agreement with us.
GYL’s Standard Fee Schedule is as follows:
Market Value of Assets Blended Rate*
$0 to $500,000 1.20%
$500,001 to $2,000,000 1.00%
$2,000,001 to $5,000,000 0.70%
$5,000,001 to $10,000,000 0.55%
$10,000,001 to $25,000,000 0.45%
$25,000,001 to $50,000,000 0.35%
$50,000,001 to $100,000,000 0.25%
$100,000,001+ 0.20%
*Rate applies to all managed assets, not just managed assets in the tier.
GYL’s investment advisory fees, whether charged as a fixed percentage of market value or pursuant to
a fee schedule, are negotiable.
Some GYL clients are subject to fee schedules that are different than our standard fee schedule. Legacy
clients who joined GYL from other firms, including Wechter Feldman Wealth Management, Financial
Partners Capital Management and Hotaling Investment Management, generally are subject to the legacy
fee schedules charged by those firms. The non-standard fee schedules, which are reflected in the
agreements with those clients, have different rates and/or tiers that result in fee rates that are in some
cases lower, and in other cases are higher, than GYL’s standard fee schedule shown above.
Cash Positions: At any specific point in time, depending upon perceived or anticipated market
conditions or events (there being no guarantee that such anticipated market conditions/events will
occur), GYL may maintain cash positions for defensive or other purposes. All cash positions (money
markets, etc.), accrued but unpaid interest, and margin balances shall be included as part of assets under
management for purposes of calculating GYL’s advisory fee.
Additional fees and expenses. In addition to GYL’s advisory fee, clients who receive investment
management services from GYL will be responsible for the fees and expenses of investing their assets,
including fees and expenses charged by mutual funds, private investment funds, ETF’s, Independent
Managers and their Platform Manager (Envestnet), taxes, commissions, spreads and other transaction-
based fees and any other fees, expenses and charges imposed by broker-dealers, custodians and
exchanges.
Clients serviced by our New York office pay fees that vary based on the type of asset class the client is
invested in. This is a potential conflict of interest, in that it gives us an incentive to recommend that
clients invest in assets that pay us higher fees over assets that pay us lower fees. We also have a conflict
of interest when we recommend that our clients invest in venture capital investments that have the
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