Introduction
Our firm, Strata Wealth Advisors, LLC, is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We feel that it is important for you to understand how advisory and brokerage services and fees differ in order to determine which type of account is right for you. There are free and simple tools available to research firms and financial professionals at www.investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational materials about investment advisers, broker-dealers, and investing.
What investment services and advice can you provide me?
We are a registered investment advisory firm that offers investment advisory services to retail investors. Our advisory services include Investment Management, Comprehensive Advisory Services, and Financial Planning & Consulting. If you open an advisory account with our firm, we will meet with you to understand your current financial situation, existing resources, goals, and risk tolerance. Based on what we learn, we will recommend a portfolio of investments that is monitored at least annually and rebalanced, as necessary, to meet your changing needs, stated goals and objectives. We will offer you advice on a regular basis and contact you at least annually to discuss your portfolio.
Our firm does not restrict our advice to limited types of products or investments nor does our firm have or require a minimum account balance for engaging us for services. However, for clients that utilize our Comprehensive Advisory Services, our firm generally charges according to our Fee Schedule for assets under management or a minimum annual flat fee of $15,000(whichever is greater). Our firm reserves the right to waive or reduce the minimum fee at our discretion.
Financial Planning is included in our Comprehensive Advisory services for no additional fee; however, new clients may be charged an initial flat fee for first year. Financial Planning & Consulting is also offered as a separate service for a flat fee. We do not monitor your investments for the Financial Planning & Consulting service. Implementation of the recommendations will be at the discretion of the client.
You can select in our agreement whether we are allowed to buy and sell investments in your account without asking you in advance (“discretion”) or only buy and sell investments in your account after receiving your permission (“non-discretion”). If you select non-discretion, you make the ultimate decision regarding the purchase or sale of investments. Any limitations will be described in the signed advisory agreement. We will have discretion or non-discretion until the advisory agreement is terminated by you or our firm.
Additional information about our advisory services is located in Item 4 of our Firm Brochure, which is available online at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/285973.
Questions to Ask Us:
- Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Why or why not?
- How will you choose investments to recommend to me?
- What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education and other qualifications? What do those qualifications mean?
What fees will I pay?
You will be charged an ongoing quarterly fee based on the value of the investments in your account. Our maximum annual fee is 1.25% for Investment Management. Our firm generally charges according to our Fee Schedule for assets under management or an annual flat fee of $15,000 per year (whichever is greater) for our Comprehensive Advisory Services. Our firm reserves the right to waive or reduce the minimum fee at our discretion. Additionally, our firm may charge an initial Financial Planning and Consulting flat fee which is in addition to the fee schedule above. Generally, the more assets you have in your advisory account, the higher total fee you will pay. We therefore have an incentive to increase the assets in your advisory account. However, since we utilize a break-point fee schedule, your percentage fee rate decreases as you exceed certain asset thresholds with our firm. The amount you pay will depend, for example, on the services you receive and the amount of assets in your account. Our firm’s fees will be automatically deducted from your advisory account, which will reduce the value of your advisory account. In rare cases, our firm will agree to send you invoices rather than automatically deduct our firm’s fees from your advisory account.
Our maximum annual flat fee is $150,000 for our Financial Planning & Consulting services. Full payment of fees is required upon execution of the agreement.
The custodian that holds your assets charges you a transaction fee when we buy or sell an investment for you. The custodian’s transaction fees are in addition to our firm’s fees for our Investment Management and Comprehensive Advisory Services. Some investments, such as mutual funds, index funds, exchange traded funds, and variable annuities, charge additional fees.
In certain cases, we may select sub-advisers who will assist us with managing your account. If selected, they will charge you a fee, which will be described to you in their Form ADV and/or agreement.
You will pay fees and costs whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and costs will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying.
Additional information about our advisory services is located in Item 5 of our Firm Brochure, which is available online at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/285973.
Questions to Ask Us:
- Help me understand how these fees and costs may affect my investments. If I give you $10,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs and how much will be invested for me?
What are your legal obligations to me when acting as my investment adviser? How else does your firm make money and what conflicts of interest do you have?
When we act as your investment adviser, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interests ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the investment advice we provide you. Here are some examples to help you understand what this means:
Some of our firm’s financial professionals are registered representatives of an unaffiliated broker-dealer, and they may offer you brokerage services through the unaffiliated broker-dealer or advisory services through our firm. Brokerage and advisory services are different, and the fees our firm and the broker-dealer charge for those services are different. Registered representatives of broker-dealers charge a transaction-based commission each time they buy or sell a security in a brokerage account. As a result, they have an incentive to trade as much as possible in order to increase their compensation.
Our firm’s financial professionals also include licensed insurance agents who sell insurance products for a commission. They have an incentive to recommend insurance products to you in order to increase their compensation.
Additional information about our advisory services is located in Item 10 of our Firm Brochure, which is available online at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/285973.
Questions to Ask Us:
- How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
How do your financial professionals make money?
Our financial professionals are compensated based on the revenue our firm earns from their advisory services, the amount of client assets they service, and the time and complexity required to meet client’ needs.
Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?
Yes, one of our financial professionals has legal and disciplinary history. Visit www.investor.gov/CRS for a free and simple search tool to research our firm and our financial professionals.
Questions to Ask Us:
- As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history?
- For what type of conduct?
Additional Information
You can find additional information about our firm’s investment advisory services on the SEC’s website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov by searching CRD #285973. You may also contact our firm at 214-420-7020 to request a copy of this relationship summary and other information.
Questions to Ask Us:
- Who is my primary contact person?
- Is he or she a representative of an investment adviser or a broker-dealer?
- Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?