Item 5 Fees and Compensation
A. FEE SCHEDULE
Wealth Management Services (Financial Design)
SignatureFD’s annual investment advisory fee for wealth management services is based
upon a percentage of the market value of the assets placed under SignatureFD’s
management as follows:
Client’s Assets Under Management Fee (as a percentage of assets)
First $5,000,000 1.00%
Above $5,000,000 0.50%
A client must generally place a minimum of $2 million of assets under SignatureFD’s
management for a wealth management engagement. Additionally, SignatureFD imposes a
minimum annual fee of $15,000 for its wealth management Services ($3,750 each quarter).
For certain clients, SignatureFD has agreed to waive or reduce the minimum fee for a
certain period of time. Those agreements are memorialized in the Financial Design
Agreement. After the expiration of that agreed upon period, your advisor may have the
option to continue to waive the minimum fee. However, if they agree to continue to waive
the minimum fee, they will receive a reduced payout on those accounts. This creates a
conflict of interest between you, your advisor, and SignatureFD, because it creates an
incentive for your advisor to discontinue such waivers.
Clients are also subject to an administrative fee equal to 10 basis points, on an annualized
basis, for all unmanaged alternative investments that are advised and reported on. Assets
subject to the administrative fee are alternative investments included on a SignatureFD
statement and coded “unmanaged”.
SignatureFD’s fee does not change if the client does not take advantage of SignatureFD’s
financial planning services.
SignatureFD, in its discretion, may charge a lesser asset under management fee, charge a
flat fee, waive its fee entirely, waive the minimum fee, or charge a fee on a different
interval, based upon certain criteria (i.e. anticipated future earning capacity, anticipated
future additional assets, dollar amount of assets to be managed, related accounts, account
composition, complexity of the engagement, anticipated services to be rendered,
grandfathered fee schedules, employees and family members, courtesy accounts,
competition, negotiations with client, etc.). As a result of the above, similarly situated
clients could pay different fees. In addition, similar advisory services may be available
from other investment advisers for similar or lower fees. This creates a potential conflict
of interest. We mitigate the conflicts of interest described in Item 5 through a collection of
disclosure, internal policies, and supervisory oversight.
Consulting Services (Stand-Alone)
SignatureFD’s consulting fees are negotiable and vary from client to client. They may be
provided on a fixed fee basis or hourly rate basis. These fees depend upon the level and
scope of the services required and the professionals rendering the services.
Retirement Plan Management Services
SignatureFD’s fees that it charges for retirement plan clients are negotiated with each client
and vary from client to client. The fee agreed on between the client and SignatureFD is
memorialized in a written agreement between the parties.
B. Clients may elect to have SignatureFD’s advisory fees deducted from their custodial
account. Both SignatureFD's Financial Design Agreement and the custodial/clearing
agreement may authorize the custodian to debit the account for the amount of
SignatureFD's investment advisory fee and to directly remit that management fee to
SignatureFD in compliance with regulatory procedures. In the limited event that
SignatureFD bills the client directly, payment is due upon receipt of SignatureFD’s invoice.
SignatureFD will deduct fees and/or bill clients quarterly in advance, based upon the
market value of the assets on the last business day of the previous quarter.
C. Custodial Fees. As discussed at Item 12 below, when requested to recommend a broker-
dealer/custodian for client accounts, SignatureFD generally recommends that Schwab or
Fidelity serve as the broker-dealer/custodian for client investment management assets.
Broker-dealers such as Schwab and Fidelity charge brokerage commissions, transaction,
and/or other types of fees for effecting certain types of securities transactions (i.e.,
including transaction fees for certain mutual funds, and mark-ups and mark-downs charged
for fixed income transactions, etc.). The types of securities for which transaction fees,
commissions, and/or other types of fees (as well as the amount of those fees) differ
depending upon the broker-dealer/custodian. When beneficial to the client, individual
fixed‐income and/or equity transactions may be effected through broker‐dealers with
whom SignatureFD and/or the client have entered into arrangements for prime brokerage
clearing services, including effecting certain client transactions through other SEC
registered and FINRA member broker‐dealers (in which event, the client generally will
incur both the transaction fee charged by the executing broker‐dealer and a “trade-away”
fee charged by Schwab and/or Fidelity). These fees/charges are in addition to
SignatureFD’s fee as outlined above. SignatureFD does not receive any portion of these
fees/charges.
Schwab does not currently charge transaction fees for U.S. Exchange-Listed Securities
placed via Electronic Channels. All other transaction charges are subject to the Schwab
Pricing Guide.
Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services (“Fidelity”) charges clients $2.95 for online
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