Beacon Financial Advisory LLC (hereinafter “Beacon FA”) offers the following services to
advisory clients:
A. Description of Services
Beacon FA participates in and sponsors a wrap fee program called the Beacon Focus
Program, which allows Beacon FA to manage client accounts for a single fee that includes
both portfolio management services and custodian fees, brokerage fees, mutual fund
shareholder servicing fees, transaction fees, and other administrative fees. The fee
schedule is set forth below:
Total Assets Under Management Maximum Total Fee
$0 - $1,000,000 1.80%
$1,000,001 - $2,000,000 1.45%
$2,000,001 – And Up Negotiable
Beacon FA bills based on the balance on the first day of the billing period. These fees are
negotiable depending upon the needs of the client and complexity of the situation and the
final fee schedule is attached as Exhibit II of the client contract.
Advisory fees are withdrawn directly from the client’s accounts with client written
authorization. Fees are paid quarterly in advance.
In the event of the termination of a relationship after either party provides 30 days written
notice, for all asset-based fees paid in advance, the fee refunded will be equal to the
balance of the fees collected in advance minus the daily rate* times the number of days
elapsed in the billing period up to and including the day of termination. (*The daily rate
is calculated by dividing the annual asset-based fee rate by 365.)
Clients may terminate the contract without penalty, for full refund, within five business
days of signing the contract. Thereafter, clients may terminate the contract with thirty
days’ written notice.
Conflict of Interest.
When managing a client's account on a wrap fee basis, we receive as compensation for
our investment advisory services, the balance of the total wrap fee you pay after custodial,
trading and other management costs (including execution and transaction fees) have been
deducted. Accordingly, we have a conflict of interest because we have a financial incentive
to maximize our compensation by seeking to reduce or minimize the total costs incurred
in your account(s) subject to a wrap fee.
• Beacon FA pays Schwab transaction costs for each executed trade in wrap fee
accounts. As a result, Beacon FA has a financial incentive to limit orders for wrap
fee accounts because trades increase our transaction costs. Thus, an incentive exists
to trade less frequently in a wrap fee program.
• Additionally, Schwab generally does not charge commissions [or transaction fees]
for online trades of U.S. exchange-listed equities, U.S. exchange-listed ETFs, and
no-transaction-fee (“NTF”) mutual funds. This means that, in most cases, when we
buy these types of securities, we can do so without paying commissions to Schwab.
We are available to discuss Schwab’s execution related pricing with you so that
you can compare the total costs of entering into a wrap fee arrangement versus a
non-wrap fee arrangement. If you choose to enter into a wrap fee arrangement,
your total cost to invest could exceed the cost of paying for brokerage and advisory
services separately.
Schwab’s Brokerage Services
In addition to the advisory services, the wrap fee program includes certain brokerage
services of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”) a broker-dealer registered with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of FINRA and SIPC. Beacon FA is
independently owned and operated and not affiliated with Schwab. Schwab will act solely
as a broker-dealer and not as an investment advisor to you. It will have no discretion over
your account and will act solely on instructions it receives from Beacon FA or you. Schwab
has no responsibility for
our services and undertakes no duty to you to monitor our firm’s
management of your account or other services we provide to you. Schwab will hold your
assets in a brokerage account and buy and sell securities and execute other transactions
when Beacon FA or you instruct them to. Beacon FA does not open the account for you.
Fees We Pay Schwab
In addition to compensating Beacon FA for advisory services, the wrap fee you pay
Beacon FA allows us to pay for brokerage and execution services provided by Schwab.
B. Contribution Cost Factors
The program may cost the client more or less than purchasing such services separately.
There are several factors that bear upon the relative cost of the program, including the
trading activity in the client’s account, the adviser’s ability to aggregate trades, and the
cost of the services if provided separately (which in turn depends on the prices and
specific services offered by different providers).
Fees paid under the wrap fee program are not based directly upon the actual transaction
or execution costs for the transactions within an investor’s account. Depending on the
underlying investments in an investor’s wrap fee program account and how much trading
an investors expects to do within the wrap fee program account, the investor may pay
more for a wrap fee program account than if the investor chooses another Beacon FA
advisory program that is not part of a wrap fee program, or if the investor chooses to pay
separately for all of the transaction costs (e.g., pay the advisory fee plus all commissions).
Beacon FA offers both wrap fee portfolio management and non-wrap portfolio
management to its clients.
Relative Cost of Wrap Fee Program
A wrap fee is not based directly on the number of transactions in your account. Various
factors influence the relative cost of our wrap fee program to you, including the cost of
our investment advice, custody, and brokerage services if you purchased them separately,
the types of investments held in your account, and the frequency, type and size of trades
in your account. The program could cost you more or less than purchasing our investment
advice and custody/brokerage services separately.
C. Additional Fees
Clients who participate in the wrap fee program will not have to pay for transaction fees,
trading fees, custodian fees, brokerage fees, mutual fund shareholder servicing fees,
transaction fees, and other administrative fees.
Fees and Costs Not Included
Our wrap fee covers our advisory services and the brokerage and execution services
provided by Schwab. As a result, we have an incentive to execute transactions for your
account at Schwab. Our wrap fee does not cover all fees and costs. The fees not included
in the wrap fee include charges imposed directly by a mutual fund, index fund, or
exchange traded fund which shall be disclosed in the fund’s prospectus (i.e., fund
management fees and other fund expenses), mark-ups and mark-downs, spreads paid to
market makers, fees (such as a commission or markup) for trades executed away from
[Schwab/Custodian] at another broker-dealer, wire transfer fees and other fees and taxes
on brokerage accounts and securities transactions.
D. Compensation of Client Participation
Neither Beacon FA, nor any representatives of Beacon FA receive any additional
compensation beyond advisory fees for the participation of client’s in the wrap fee
program. However, compensation received may be more than what would have been
received if client paid separately for investment advice, brokerage, and other services.
Therefore, Beacon FA may have a financial incentive to recommend the wrap fee program
to clients.