Accel Wealth Management LLC (“the Adviser”) was organized in November 2016. The
principal owner is Accel Holdings, Inc. of which there are no owners with 25% or more of
ownership. The managing partner of the Adviser is Stacie Brass. The Adviser is a fiduciary
and is required to act in a client’s best interest at all times.
Investment Management
The Adviser uses a time-tested, disciplined approach to investing. The Adviser is a “total
portfolio” manager using an active, diversified investment approach. The Adviser believes
that a portfolio should be diversified, and excess returns can be achieved by overweighting
undervalued asset classes and investment styles. Typically, the Adviser tailors the
portfolios to the individual needs of our clients by developing an investment policy
statement with each client. The written investment policy statement sets forth the client’s
investment guidelines and objectives which the Adviser uses to guide us in making
investment decisions for each client.
Financial Planning, Consulting Services, & Financial Education Services
The Adviser provides financial planning, consulting and plan update services to individuals
and businesses consistent with the clients’ financial and tax status, in addition to their risk
profile and return objectives.
The Adviser starts the financial planning process by gathering information through a
personal interview and taking a financial inventory. This generally involves gathering
enough data to perform an analysis of client liabilities, cash flow, net worth and tax
assessments. The Adviser’s next step typically involves assisting clients with formalizing
their goals and plotting their investment timeline as part of the financial planning process.
Written financial plans or financial consultations rendered to clients usually include general
recommendations for a course of activity or specific actions to be taken by the client. For
example, recommendations may be made that the client begin or revise investment
programs, create or revise wills or trusts, obtain or revise insurance coverage, commence
or alter retirement savings, or establish education or charitable giving programs. The
Adviser may also provide non-securities advice on topics that may include but are not
limited to, business, retirement, estate, budgetary, college, personal, and tax planning. It
should be noted that the Adviser refers clients to accountants, attorneys or other
specialists, as necessary for non-advisory related services.
The Adviser also provides education services about general investment principles. The
education services are typically provided as presentations to employees at the request of
an employer. Education presentations will not take into account the individual
circumstances of the attendees and individualized recommendations will not be provided
unless otherwise agreed upon.
Financial Planning & Consulting Conflicts of Interest
There is a conflict of interest because there is an incentive for the Adviser when offering
financial planning services to recommend products or services for which the Adviser or an
associated person will receive compensation. However, financial planning clients are under
no obligation to act upon any recommendations of the Adviser or to execute any
transactions through the Adviser or an associated person if they decide to follow the
recommendations.
Pension Consulting Services
The Adviser provides pension consulting services to employer plan sponsors on an ongoing
basis. Generally, such pension consulting services consist of assisting employer plan
sponsors in establishing, monitoring and reviewing their company's participant-directed
retirement plan. As the needs of the plan sponsor dictate, areas of advising could include:
investment options, plan structure and participant education.
All pension consulting services shall be in compliance with the applicable state law(s)
regulating pension consulting services. This applies to client accounts that are pension or
other employee benefit plans (“Plan”) governed by the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”). If the client accounts are part of a Plan, and
the Adviser accepts appointments to provide our services to such accounts, the Adviser
acknowledges that
we are a fiduciary within the meaning of Sections 3(21) and 3(38) of
ERISA (but only with respect to the provision of services described in section 1 of the
Pension Consulting Agreement).
Third Party Money Managers
The Adviser has established relationships with other investment advisers that offer a
variety of investment advisory programs and services that include separate account
portfolio management programs, asset allocation programs, and financial planning
services. These other investment advisers are registered investment advisers or
exempt from registration as investment advisers. The Adviser’s IARs may recommend
these other investment advisers to clients based on clients’ financial needs.
Clients should understand that referral fees paid by these other investment advisers
to the Adviser and the Adviser IARs may differ from one investment adviser to
another investment adviser. Such conflicts may affect the independent judgment of
the Adviser’s IARs in the selection of other investment advisers that they recommend
to clients. Establishing and terminating accounts with other investment adviser’s is
dependent on the other investment advisers’ termination policies and procedures. A
complete description of these other investment adviser programs, services,
termination provisions, and related fees and charges are described in these
investment advisers’ agreement and their Form ADV Part 2 Disclosure Brochures.
The Adviser’s referrals to other investment adviser services are tailored to the
individual needs of each client. The Adviser obtains financial information from
prospective clients to determine the suitability of the Adviser’s referrals to other
investment adviser services. Each client may impose restrictions on the types of
referrals provided by the Adviser. The Adviser’s IARs will be continuously available to
meet with clients who are referred to these other investment advisers and open
investment advisory accounts or establish financial planning services with these other
investment advisers.
Selection and Monitoring of Third-Party Money Managers and Sub-Advisers
We have the ability to hire or delegate authority to independent third-party investment
managers and sub-advisers to manage a portion or all of our clients’ portfolios through
advisory management services programs and we have the ability to fire independent
third-party managers and sub-advisers. We select and review outside portfolio managers
based on the following factors:
• past performance;
• cost;
• investment philosophy;
• market outlook;
• experience of portfolio managers and executive team;
• opinions of third party analysts;
• disciplinary, legal and regulatory histories of the firm and its associates;
• whether established compliance procedures are in place to address at a
minimum, insider trading, conflicts of interest, anti-money laundering.
When we review outside portfolio managers we do not independently calculate
portfolio manager performance. Instead, we rely upon the performance figures from
client’s account statements or reports provided to us by the outside portfolio
managers. We do, however, watch for several types of events in conjunction with
poor performance. These events trigger an in-depth review of an outside portfolio
manager and primarily include:
• Significant changes in asset allocation;
• Substantial drift in investment style; and/or
• Sustained under-performance.
We do not verify the accuracy of such performance information or its compliance
with presentation standards. As a result, performance information may not be
calculated on a uniform and consistent basis.
Ability of Clients to Impose Restrictions on Investing in Certain Securities or
Types of Securities:
Clients have the opportunity to place reasonable restrictions on the types of investments to
be held in their portfolio. However, restrictions on investments in certain securities or types
of securities may not be possible due to the level of difficulty this would entail in managing
the account.
Assets under Management
As of December 31, 2023, we had total discretionary assets under management of
$947,333,820.
The Adviser does not offer or participate in a wrap fee program.