Our Firm’s History
Heaton Adams Financial Services, LC was formed in 2001 by Robert M. Heaton to
provide clients of Heaton Adams & Co., a Professional Corporation of Certified Public
Accountants, with a choice for competent, independent and knowledgeable investment
advice.
July 1, 2014, Heaton Adams Financial Services, LC became The Heaton Hoppes Group,
LLC and began doing business as Cedar Valley Wealth Advisors. The Registered
Investment Advisor firm located in Waterloo was also moved to 411 Viking Road, Suite
A, Cedar Falls, IA 50613.
Our Firm’s Principal Owners
Karla R. Hoppes is the Managing Member of Cedar Valley Wealth Advisors and serves
as the Chief Compliance Officer. Karla R. Hoppes has been a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL
PLANNER ™ since 2017 and has worked in the financial services industry since 1993.
We encourage our clients to read Karla R. Hoppes’ Investment Advisor Representative
Biography found at the end of this document.
Robert M. Heaton, while still a Member, retired as the Managing Member of Cedar
Valley Wealth Advisors on January 1, 2023. Robert M. Heaton is the Managing Member
of Cedar Valley Tax & Accounting, LLC.
As Robert M. Heaton is an owner in both firms and receives remuneration from both
firms, we have disclosed details about this conflict of interest and how we address it in
Item 10: Other Financial Industry Activities and Affiliations.
Advisory Programs (Types of Services) Offered
As a Registered Investment Advisor, Cedar Valley Wealth Advisors and our investment
professionals act as fiduciaries to our clients and prospective clients, when providing
investment advice. Cedar Valley Wealth Advisors and our investment professionals are
also fiduciaries under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, with respect
to fiduciary investment advice provided to retirement investors.
We offer the following advisory services to clients:
Portfolio Management Services
We provide Investment Supervisory Services, defined as giving continuous advice to a
client or making investments for a client based on the individual needs of the client. Our
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process for providing this service begins with having personal discussions with a client
and their professional advisors. A client’s goals and objectives are established through
these discussions. From the client’s goals and objectives, we develop the client’s
financial plan and investment policy schedule. We then create and manage the client’s
portfolio per their personal financial plan and investment policy schedule.
We create client portfolios consisting mainly of mutual funds and individual fixed
income vehicles such as bonds and CDs. We primarily recommend mutual funds offered
by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). DFA sponsored mutual funds follow a passive
asset class investment philosophy with low holdings turnover. We allocate the client's
assets among various investments taking into consideration the overall investment and
financial plan for the client.
To learn more about how we create portfolios and why we use mostly DFA funds, please
see Item 8: Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies, and Risk of Loss.
Clients will have the opportunity to place reasonable restrictions on the types of
investments which will be made on their behalf. Clients will retain ownership of all
investments.
We provide Portfolio Management Services to individuals, pension and profit sharing
plans, trusts, and businesses. We manage advisory accounts on a discretionary basis.
See the table in Item 5: Fees and Compensation for the advisor fee that is applied to client
accounts using Portfolio Management Services.
Employee Benefit Plan Services
We provide Employee Benefit Plan Services to participant-directed employee retirement
benefit plans. We analyze the plan's
current investment platform and assist the plan in
creating an investment policy schedule defining the types of investments to be offered
and the restrictions that may be imposed. We recommend investment options to achieve
the plan's objectives, provide participant education meetings, and monitor the
performance of the plan's investment offerings.
See the table in Item 5: Fees and Compensation for the advisor fee for Employee Benefit
Plan Services.
Financial Planning
Financial planning is a core component of the services we provide to our Portfolio
Management clients. We do not offer this service as a stand-alone service.
Steps we may take with our Portfolio Management clients in the Financial Planning
process include the following as appropriate:
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1. Understanding the Client’s Personal and Financial Circumstances – We will use
forms and discussions to gather the appropriate data from our clients.
2. Identifying and Selecting Goals – Clients identify their goals, and we help to
identify reasonable assumptions and estimates associated with their goals.
3. Analyze the Client’s Current Course of Action and Potential Alternative Courses
of Action - Using the data provided by our clients, we will identify existing or
potential problems.
4. Develop Financial Planning Recommendation(s) – We will develop a course of
action, and possibly alternative courses, to help our client meet their financial
goals.
5. Present the Financial Planning Recommendation(s) – We will discuss our
recommendation(s) with our client.
6. Implement the Financial Planning Recommendations – We will make the
appropriate changes to our clients’ portfolios and coordinate necessary activities
with our clients and their other advisors.
7. Monitor the Progress and Update Financial Planning Recommendations – We will
monitor our clients’ investments that we manage, changes in tax laws, and the
general economic environment.
Retirement Account Portfolio Management – IRA Fiduciary Advisors Services
For our clients who are not in need of financial planning and are only needing Investment
Supervisory Services for their retirement type accounts (IRAs and Roth IRAs), we offer
our IRA Fiduciary Advisors level of service.
Our process for providing this service begins with having personal discussions with a
client. A client’s age and projected account inflows and outflows as well as the client’s
risk tolerance is discovered through these discussions. From this information, we develop
the client’s personal asset allocation. We then manage the client’s portfolio per their
personal asset allocation.
We create diversified client portfolios consisting of a limited number of mutual funds.
We will primarily recommend funds of funds offered by Dimensional Fund Advisors
(DFA) taking into consideration the personal asset allocation of the client. DFA
sponsored mutual funds follow a passive asset class investment philosophy with low
holdings turnover.
To learn more about how we create portfolios and why we use mostly DFA funds, please
see Item 8: Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies, and Risk of Loss.
Clients will retain ownership of all investments.
We provide Retirement Account Portfolio Management – IRA Fiduciary Advisors
services to individuals. We manage advisory accounts on a discretionary basis.
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See the table in Item 5: Fees and Compensation for the advisor fee that is applied to client
accounts using Retirement Account Portfolio Management – IRA Fiduciary Advisors
services.
Non-Participation in Wrap Fee Programs
Our firm does not participate in any wrap fee programs.
Amount of Assets under Management
As of December 2023, Cedar Valley Wealth Advisors had $150,105,472 in discretionary
assets under management.