Milestone Financial Planning, LLC (“Milestone” or the “Advisor” and also referred to as “We”) provides
financial planning and investment management services to individuals, high net worth individuals, trusts,
non-profit organizations, and small businesses (each a “Client”). We are a “fee-only” firm and abide by
fiduciary standards that always place the interests of our Clients ahead of our own. We do not accept
commissions or referral fees from any third party and we do not sell any financial products.
We serve as a fiduciary to Clients, as defined under applicable laws and regulations. As a fiduciary, we
uphold a duty of loyalty, fairness and good faith towards each Client and seek to mitigate potential conflicts
of interest. Our fiduciary commitment is further described in our Code of Ethics. For more information
regarding our Code of Ethics, please see Item 11 – Code of Ethics, Participation or Interest in Client
Transactions and Personal Trading
We provide a broad range of financial planning services including management of Client investments. With
the Client’s consent, we coordinate our services with their other advisors, such as estate planning
attorneys, tax accountants, and insurance agents.
Milestone’s primary office is located at 3 Executive Park Drive, Suite 200, Bedford, NH, 03110. Milestone
has four other office locations:
342 Wadleigh Falls Road, Newmarket, NH 03857.
319 Littleton Road, Suite 307 Westford, MA 01886.
6 Crusade Road, Westford, MA 01886
20 Depot Street, Suite 310-12, Peterborough, NH 03458
The phone number for all locations is (603) 589-8010.
Firm Description
Milestone is a limited liability company (“LLC”) organized under laws of the State of New Hampshire, and
is owned by Jennifer Climo, Jonathan Harrington and Kathryn Lund-Wilde.
Additional information beyond what is provided in this Disclosure Brochure may be found at our website,
https://milestonefinancialplanning.com/.
Financial Management Services
We provide Clients with financial management services, which generally include a broad range of
comprehensive financial planning as well as discretionary management of investment portfolios. For
certain Clients, such as a non-profit organization, we may provide just investment management services.
Investment Management Services
We offer investment management services as part of overall financial management. We will typically
develop a Client-specific investment strategy based on their goals and objectives, and will then construct
and manage the Client’s portfolio on a discretionary basis. The investment policy will describe an
investment strategy, which we believe will have appropriate combinations of return, risk, and correlation.
We then provide specific investment recommendations, ongoing portfolio management (including
performance evaluation, security selection, asset allocation, rebalancing and tax analysis) and periodic
reporting.
With regard to our investment philosophy, we believe that disciplined asset allocation is the primary
determinant of investment performance and that the three most important things that investors should
focus on are asset allocation, expenses, and taxes. Consequently, we typically recommend broadly
diversified investment portfolios that are tailored to each Client’s unique circumstances, goals, and risk
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tolerance. We avoid market timing and speculation, which we do not believe are effective investment
strategies.
We generally recommend low-cost (often institutional class) mutual funds, exchange-traded funds
(“ETFs”), with low expense ratios and low internal transaction costs, laddered Certificate of Deposits (“CDs”)
and independent investment managers (“Independent Managers”). We generally do not recommend
investments in option writing, exchange-traded notes, hedge funds, non-traded real estate investment
trusts or illiquid investments. In certain circumstances, we may retain certain historical positions due to tax
ramifications and/or Client needs.
We generally do not recommend investments in individual stocks, unless we determine that a separately
managed account may be beneficial to the client for tax purposes or because the client wants to filter out
certain stocks due to ESG concerns.
We generally recommend portfolios including mutual funds, ETFs and separately managed accounts
offered by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (collectively “DFA funds”). (See “Use of Independent Managers”,
below). DFA funds follow a passive asset class investment philosophy with low holdings turnover. The
DFA fund fees are generally lower than fees and expenses charged by other fund providers. We are under
no obligation to recommend DFA funds to our Clients and we do so only when we believe they are in a
Client’s best interest.
To the extent possible, we try to eliminate conflict of interests. Therefore, we do not sell any product, nor
accept any commission and do not accept nor pay any referral fees.
All Client accounts must be maintained at a “qualified custodian”. We do not accept custody of the Client’s
funds or securities, except for the limited authority as outlined in Item 15. (Please see Items 12 and 15).
Periodic statements are provided
to the Client showing the status and performance of their portfolio. We
offer each Client a personalized annual review and they may request a review at any time.
Retirement Accounts – When deemed to be in the Client’s best interest, the Advisor will provide investment
advice to a Client regarding a distribution from an ERISA sponsored plan or to roll over the assets to an
Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRAs”), or recommend a similar transaction including rollovers from one
ERISA sponsored Plan to another, one IRA to another IRA, or from one type of account to another account
(e.g. commission-based account to fee-based account). In such instances, the Advisor will serve as an
investment fiduciary as that term is defined under The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
(“ERISA”) and/or the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”), as applicable, which are laws governing retirement
accounts. Such a recommendation creates a conflict of interest if the Advisor earns a new (or increases
its current) advisory fee due to the transaction. No client is under any obligation to roll over a retirement
account to an account managed by the Advisor.
Use of Independent Managers
Milestone may recommend to Clients that all or a portion of their investment portfolio be implemented by
utilizing one or more unaffiliated money managers or investment platforms (collectively “Independent
Managers”), which are available through the recommended Custodians. In certain instances, the Client
may be required to authorize and enter into a separate agreement with an Independent Manager that
defines the terms in which the Independent Manager will provide its services. Milestone serves as the
Client’s primary advisor and relationship manager. However, the Independent Manager will assume
discretionary authority for the day-to-day investment management of those assets placed in their control.
Milestone will assist and advise the Client in establishing investment objectives for their account[s], the
selecting of the Independent Manager, and defining any restrictions on the account[s]. Milestone will
continue to provide oversight of the Client’s account[s] and ongoing monitoring of the activities of these
Independent Managers. The Independent Manager will implement the selected investment strategies
based on their investment mandates. The Client may be able to impose reasonable investment restrictions
on these accounts, subject to the acceptance of these third parties. The Client will be provided with a copy
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of the Independent Manager’s Form ADV Part 2A (or a brochure that makes the appropriate disclosures)
by the respective Independent Manager prior to entering into an agreement, or by Milestone prior to placing
assets with the Independent Manager.
Financial Planning Services
We provide on-going personalized confidential financial planning services to Clients. Advice is provided
by consultation with the Client, and may include the following: determination of financial objectives,
identification of financial issues, net worth and cash flow analysis, tax planning, insurance review,
education funding analysis, retirement planning, and estate planning. Investment management services
may include analysis of the Client’s current situation (including objectives, risk tolerance, income and tax
situation, and current portfolio holdings), specific investment recommendations, on-going portfolio
management (including performance evaluation, security selection, asset allocation, rebalancing, and tax
analysis), and periodic reporting.
An initial financial plan is developed for the Client over the first year of our relationship as the first step in
financial management. The financial plan is designed to achieve the Client’s stated financial goals and
objectives. In general, the financial plan will address areas such as cash management, insurance (asset
protection), tax planning, education planning, estate planning, retirement planning, and investments.
At times, we may recommend specific outside professionals (such as an estate planning attorney,
accountant and/or insurance agent). Clients are not obligated to use these professionals; they may work
with anyone of their own choosing. No compensation is given to us by the professionals for these referrals.
Fully Paid Securities Lending Program
Fidelity allows Clients to enroll in their Fully Paid Securities Lending Program (“FPSL”) which enables
Clients to lend certain securities to Fidelity in exchange for the opportunity to earn incremental income in
their portfolios. Securities lending is when a Client temporarily loans securities to a financial institution. The
Client will enter into a Master Securities Lending Agreement (MSLA) with Fidelity that will cover the terms
of the loan. Fidelity utilizes the securities to satisfy both internal and external borrowing needs. Fidelity will
earn revenue from lending these securities and a portion of that revenue will be shared with the Client.
The Advisor does not earn any additional revenue for Clients who choose to enroll in FPSL.
Assets under management
As of December 31, 2023, we managed $423,891,486 of discretionary assets on behalf of our Clients.