Description of Services and Fees
Catalyst Financial NW Corporation is a registered investment adviser based in Gresham, Oregon. We
are organized as a corporation under the laws of the State of Oregon and we have been providing
investment advisory services since 1984. In July 2013, Aaron Muhs and David Rasmussen, our current
principal owners, purchased the firm from Roger Miracle.
The following paragraphs describe our services and fees. As used in this brochure, the words "we",
"our" and "us" refer to Catalyst Financial NW Corporation and the words "you", "your" and "client" refer
to you as either a client or prospective client of our firm. Also, you may see the term Associated Person
throughout this brochure. As used in this brochure, our Associated Persons are our firm's officers,
employees, and all individuals providing investment advice on behalf of our firm.
Discretionary and Non-Discretionary Services
We offer discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management services to our clients and
prospective clients. Our investment advice is personalized to each individual client and tailored to meet
our clients' needs and investment objectives. If you retain our firm for portfolio management services,
we will meet with you to determine your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and other relevant
information (the "suitability information") at the beginning of our advisory relationship. We will use the
suitability information we gather from our initial meeting to develop a strategy that enables our firm to
give you continuous and focused investment advice and to make investments on your behalf. As part
of our portfolio management services, we may customize an investment portfolio for you in accordance
with your risk tolerance and investing objectives. Once we construct an investment portfolio for you, we
will monitor your portfolio's performance on an ongoing basis. For discretionary accounts, we will
rebalance the portfolio as required by changes in market conditions and in your financial
circumstances; for non-discretionary accounts, we will rebalance as provided below.
If you participate in our discretionary portfolio management services, we require you to grant our firm
discretionary authority to manage your account. Discretionary authorization will allow us to determine
the specific securities, and the amount of securities, to be purchased or sold for your account without
your approval prior to each transaction. Discretionary authority is typically granted by the investment
advisory agreement you sign with our firm and the appropriate trading authorization forms. You may
limit our discretionary authority (for example, limiting the types of securities that can be purchased or
sold for your account) by providing our firm with your restrictions and guidelines in writing. If you enter
into non-discretionary arrangements with our firm, we must obtain your approval prior to executing any
transactions on behalf of your account.
Financial Planning Services
For clients who retain us to provide portfolio management services, we provide financial planning and
consulting services that are incidental to, and in support of, our portfolio management services. We do
not charge a separate fee for providing these financial planning and consulting services because they
are considered to be part of our overall portfolio management service.
Pension Consulting Services
We offer pension consulting services to employee benefit plans and their fiduciaries based upon the
needs of the plan and the services requested by the plan sponsor or named fiduciary.
In general, these
services may include an existing plan review and analysis, plan-level advice regarding fund selection
and investment options, education services to plan participants, investment performance monitoring,
and/or ongoing consulting. These pension consulting services will generally be non-discretionary and
advisory in nature. The ultimate decision to act on behalf of the plan shall remain with the plan sponsor
or other named fiduciary.
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We may also assist with participant enrollment meetings and provide investment-related educational
seminars to plan participants on such topics as:
•Diversification;
•Asset allocation;
•Risk tolerance; and
•Time horizon
Our educational seminars may include other investment-related topics specific to the particular plan.
We may also provide additional types of pension consulting services to plans on an individually
negotiated basis. All services, whether discussed above or customized for the plan based upon
requirements from the plan fiduciaries (which may include additional plan-level or participant-level
services) shall be detailed in a written agreement and be consistent with the parameters set forth in the
plan documents.
Either party to the pension consulting agreement may terminate the agreement upon written notice to
the other party in accordance with the terms of the agreement for services. The pension consulting
fees will be prorated for the quarter in which the termination notice is given and any unearned fees will
be refunded to the client.
Types of Investments
We primarily offer advice on no-load mutual funds.
IRA Rollover Recommendations
Effective December 20, 2021 (or such later date as the US Department of Labor ("DOL") Field
Assistance Bulletin 2018-02 ceases to be in effect), for purposes of complying with the DOL's
Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 ("PTE 2020-02") where applicable, we are providing the
following acknowledgment to you.
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 interest 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.
We benefit financially from the rollover of your assets from a retirement account to an account that we
manage or provide investment advice, because the assets increase our assets under management
and, in turn, our advisory fees. As a fiduciary, we only recommend a rollover when we believe it is in
your best interest.
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Assets Under Management
As of January 30, 2024, we provide continuous management services for $138,719,000 in client assets
on a discretionary basis, and $17,774,000 in client assets on a non-discretionary basis.