Our Firm’s History
EVOadvisers is a registered investment adviser based in Richmond, Virginia. We are organized as a sub-Chapter
S corporation under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. EVOadvisers is the result of a 2016 merger
between O’Brien Financial Planning, founded in 2006 and Clair Financial Management, founded in 2009. Both
predecessor firms were Registered Investment Advisers and provided financial planning and investment advisory
services on a fee-only basis. John B. Clair, CFP® and David J. O’Brien, MBA, CFP® are the owners of Evolution
Advisers, Inc., doing business as EVOadvisers. In 2017, the firm changed from state to SEC registration.
Amount of Assets Under Management
As of October 5, 2023, EVOadvisers provided discretionary advice on $186,915,857 of assets under management
and 1,762,418 of assets on a non-discretionary basis. Assets of Qualified Plans to which EVOadvisers serves as
Investment Manager: $61,355,384. This amount includes the financial assets of clients who engage EVOadvisers
for ongoing and continuous advice on their investment portfolios. This amount does not include the financial
assets of clients for which investment advisory services are not contracted.
Participation in Wrap Fee Programs
EVOadvisers no longer offers a wrap fee programs to its clients. A wrap fee program is defined as any advisory
program under which a specified fee or fees not based directly upon transactions in a client’s account is charged
for investment supervisory services (which may include portfolio management or advice concerning the selection
of other investment advisers) and the execution of client transactions.
Advisory Programs (Types of Services) Offered
EVOadvisers offers two programs to new individual clients of the firm:
- The EVOadvisers Financial Planning and Investment Advisory Services Program
- The EVOadvisers Qualified Retirement Plan Program
Each of these programs is described in further detail in Item 5 (“Fees and Compensation”) of this Brochure.
EVOadvisers provides financial planning services as part of the Advisory Programs stated above, excluding the
Qualified Retirement Plan Program. EVOadvisers will evaluate publicly traded investments, but primarily
recommends exchange traded funds (ETFs), no-load mutual funds or mutual funds that may be purchased at net
asset value and without sales charges. EVOadvisers also considers, in providing advice to clients, investments
held in 401(k), 403(b) or other qualified retirement plan accounts, and may evaluate the offerings of such
retirement plans when constructing an overall investment portfolio for the client.
Retirement Rollovers-No Obligation/Conflict of Interest: A client leaving an employer typically has four options (and
may engage in a combination of these options): 1) leave the money in his former employer’s plan, if permitted, 2)
roll over the assets to his/her new employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers are permitted, 3) rollover to an
Individual Retirement Account (IRA), or 4) cash out the account value (which could, depending upon the client’s age,
result in adverse tax consequences).
EVOadvisers may recommend an investor roll over plan assets to an IRA managed by EVOadvisers. Since the flat
annual fee for the Ongoing Financial Planning and Investment Advisory Program generally includes all investment
accounts, EVOadvisers would not earn additional fees from such a recommendation.
There are various factors that EVOadvisers may consider before recommending a rollover, including but not
limited to: i) the investment options available in the plan versus the investment options available in an IRA, ii)
fees and expenses in the plan versus the fees and expenses in an IRA, iii) the services and responsiveness of
the plan’s investment professionals versus those of EVOadvisers,
iv) required minimum distributions and age
considerations, and vi) employer stock tax consequences, if any. No client is under any obligation to roll over
plan assets to an IRA managed by EVOadvisers.
Retirement Accounts and ERISA: When we provide investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan
account or individual retirement account, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act and/or the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, which are laws governing
retirement accounts. The way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests, so we operate under a
special rule that requires us to act in your best interest and not put our interests ahead of yours.
Under this special rule’s provisions, we must:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations (give prudent advice);
• Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations (give loyal advice);
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments;
• Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in your best interest;
• Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
• Give you basic information about conflicts of interest.
When we provide investment advice to you regarding your retirement plan account or individual retirement
account, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and/or
the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, which are laws governing retirement accounts. The way we make
money creates some conflicts with your interests, so we operate under a special rule that requires us to act in your
best interest and not put our interests ahead of yours.
Under this special rule’s provisions, we must:
• Meet a professional standard of care when making investment recommendations
(give prudent advice);
• Never put our financial interests ahead of yours when making recommendations
(give loyal advice);
• Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees, and investments;
• Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give advice that is in
your best interest;
• Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
• Give you basic information about conflicts of interest.
Our Services are Tailored to Meet Client Needs and Any Imposed Investment Restrictions
In general, advisory services are tailored to meet the needs of individual clients. For most clients, each
investment portfolio is individually designed to meet the client’s investment objectives and generally attempts to
follow one of several standard model allocations that EVOadvisers utilizes in client portfolios. Additionally,
financial goals planning, estate planning, tax planning, and risk management planning services are generally
delivered upon client engagement for such services, with planning issues prioritized and then addressed, either
all at one time or over the course of several conferences. As appropriate to each program (except the Financial
Plan Development Program), clients are offered a conference with their advisor at least annually (and it is
recommended more often) to review any changes to the client’s financial situation, the investment portfolio upon
which advice is provided by EVOadvisers, and planning issues.
After consultation with their advisor, Clients may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types of
securities. This most often occurs when clients request certain social investing needs be addressed, such as
through the use of mutual funds which avoid investments in certain companies.
Other restrictions may be imposed by clients with respect to total annual taxable impact from a portfolio.