A. Firm Information
Excel Wealth Management, LLC (“Excel Wealth” or the “Advisor”) is a registered investment advisor with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The Advisor is organized as a Limited Liability Company (“LLC”)
under the laws of the State of Connecticut. Excel Wealth was founded in June 2016 and became a registered
investment advisor in January 2019. Excel Wealth is owned and operated by Edward A. Baroncini (Managing
Member, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Compliance Officer) and Michael A. Lucco (Managing Member).
This Disclosure Brochure provides information regarding the qualifications, business practices, and the advisory
services provided by Excel Wealth.
B. Advisory Services Offered
Excel Wealth offers investment advisory services to individuals, high net worth individuals, trusts, estates,
businesses, and retirement plans (each referred to as a “Client”).
The Advisor serves as a fiduciary to Clients, as defined under the applicable laws and regulations. As a fiduciary,
the Advisor upholds a duty of loyalty, fairness and good faith towards each Client and seeks to mitigate potential
conflicts of interest. Excel Wealth’s fiduciary commitment is further described in the Advisor’s Code of Ethics. For
more information regarding the Code of Ethics, please see Item 11 – Code of Ethics, Participation or Interest in
Client Transactions and Personal Trading.
Investment Management Services
Excel Wealth provides customized investment advisory solutions for its Clients. This is achieved through
continuous personal Client contact and interaction while providing discretionary investment management and
related advisory services. Excel Wealth works closely with each Client to identify their investment goals and
objectives as well as risk tolerance and financial situation in order to create a portfolio strategy. Excel Wealth will
then construct a portfolio, consisting primarily of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), low-cost, diversified mutual
funds and/or individual equity securities to achieve the Client’s investment goals. The Advisor may also utilize
other types of investments, as necessary and appropriate to meet the needs of the Client. The Advisor may also
retain certain legacy investments based portfolio fit and/or tax implications.
The Advisor may also utilize unaffiliated money managers for all or a portion of a Client’s portfolio. The
unaffiliated money managers are generally those that make their institutional strategies available through the
Client’s Custodian’s platform.
Excel Wealth’s investment strategy is primarily long-term focused, but the Advisor may buy, sell or re-allocate
positions that have been held for less than one year to meet the objectives of the Client or due to market
conditions. Excel Wealth will construct, implement and monitor the portfolio to ensure it meets the goals,
objectives, circumstances, and risk tolerance agreed to by the Client. Each Client will have the opportunity to
place reasonable restrictions on the types of investments to be held in their respective portfolio, subject to
acceptance by the Advisor.
Excel Wealth evaluates and selects investments for inclusion in Client portfolios only after applying its internal
due diligence process. Excel Wealth may recommend, on occasion, redistributing investment allocations to
diversify the portfolio. Excel Wealth may recommend specific positions to increase sector or asset class
weightings. The Advisor may recommend employing cash positions as a possible hedge against market
movement. Excel Wealth may recommend selling positions for reasons that include, but are not limited to,
harvesting capital gains or losses, business or sector risk exposure to a specific security or class of securities,
overvaluation or overweighting of the position[s] in the portfolio, change in risk tolerance of the Client, generating
cash to meet Client needs, or any risk deemed unacceptable for the Client’s risk tolerance.
Retirement Accounts – When the Advisor provides investment advice to Clients regarding ERISA retirement
accounts or individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”), the Advisor is a fiduciary within the meaning of Title I of the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and/or the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”), as applicable,
which are laws governing retirement accounts. When deemed to be in the Client’s best interest, the Advisor will
provide investment advice to a Client regarding a distribution from an ERISA retirement account or to roll over
the assets to an IRA, or recommend a similar transaction including rollovers from one ERISA sponsored Plan to
another, one IRA to another IRA, or from one type of account to another account (e.g. commission-based
account to fee-based account). Such a recommendation creates a conflict of interest if the Advisor will earn a
new (or increase its current) advisory fee as a result of the transaction. No client is under any obligation to roll
over a retirement account to an account managed by the Advisor.
At no time will Excel Wealth accept or maintain custody of a Client’s funds or securities, except for the limited
authority as outline in Item 15 – Custody. All Client assets will be managed within their designated account[s] at
the Custodian, pursuant to the Client investment advisory agreement, please see Item 12 – Brokerage Practices.
Betterment Institutional Platform – Excel Wealth may recommend that certain Clients implement their investment
portfolios through Betterment Institutional, a division of Betterment LLC (herein “Betterment Institutional” or the
“Investment Platform”). Betterment Institutional is what is often termed a “robo-advisor”, an online wealth
management service that provides automated, algorithm-based portfolio management advice. Robo-advisors use
technology to deliver similar services as traditional advisors, but generally only offer portfolio management and
do not get involved in a Client’s personal situation, such as taxes and retirement or estate planning. Excel Wealth
chose to affiliate with Betterment Institutional due to the Investment Platform’s customized portfolio allocations,
automated rebalancing, and competitive fees. Excel Wealth utilizes Betterment Institutional as a complement to
its comprehensive financial planning services to provide cost effective investing coupled with personalized
financial planning.
To establish accounts with Betterment Institutional, the Client will also enter into one or more agreements with
Betterment that provides the authority for discretionary investment management by the Investment Platform.
Excel Wealth remains the Client’s primary advisor and relationship contact and will select or construct a portfolio
of ETFs and/or cash equivalents from the universe of investments included on the Investment Platform.
Excel Wealth will have the discretionary authority to instruct Betterment Institutional with respect to portfolio
construction, asset allocation and other investment decisions, subject to the limitations described herein.
Betterment Institutional will implement the portfolio and be responsible for the discretionary trading of the ETFs in
the Client’s portfolio, including the purchase and sale of investments and the automatic rebalancing back to
targets.
Betterment Institutional utilizes between ten to twelve different ETF’s, representing various asset classes for the
construction of investment portfolios. As discussed above, Excel Wealth will work with each Client to
select/construct a portfolio to meets the needs of the Client. The Client has limited ability to put restrictions on its
accounts. The account[s] cannot contain investments that are not included in the Betterment Institutional
universe of ETFs and cash equivalents.
Betterment Institutional, under its discretionary authority, will automatically adjust and rebalance the Client’s
accounts daily based on the drift tolerance established for the positions in the investment portfolio. The Advisor’s
investment philosophy is long-term, but the Advisor may make such tactical overrides to take advantage of
market pricing anomalies
or strong market sectors. The Advisor does not actively trade in the Client’s account[s]
and is also limited to a enter one allocation change per account per trading day through Betterment Institutional,
the Client should be aware of these potential disadvantages.
For its services, Betterment Institutional will charge an asset-based fee that is in addition to the Advisor’s fee.
Betterment Institutional fee includes the securities transaction fees for all trades. The Advisor will only receive its
investment advisory fees as detailed in Item 5.A. below and does not share in any fees earned by Betterment
Institutional.
The Client, prior to entering into an agreement with the Investment Platform, will be provided with the Investment
Platform’s Form ADV Part 2A (or a brochure that makes the appropriate disclosures).
Managed Account Programs
Excel Wealth may recommend to Clients that all or a portion of their portfolio be implemented by utilizing one or
more unaffiliated money managers participating in a managed accounts program at the Client’s selected
Custodian (the “Program Sponsor”). The Client will then enter into a program and investment advisory agreement
with the Program Sponsor and the participating money manager[s]. The Advisor will assist and advise the Client
in establishing investment objectives for the account, the selection of the money manager[s], and defining any
restrictions on the account. Excel Wealth will continue to provide oversight of the Client account and ongoing
monitoring of the activities of the unaffiliated money managers.
These money managers will develop an investment strategy to meet those objectives by identifying appropriate
investments and monitoring such investments. In consideration for such services, the Program Sponsor will
charge a program fee that includes the investment advisory fee of the money managers, the administration of the
program and trading, clearance and settlement costs. The Program Sponsor will add Excel Wealth’s investment
advisory fee, as described below in Item 5 below, and will deduct the overall fee from the Client’s account[s],
generally, at the start of each calendar quarter. The asset-based program fee is tiered and varies depending on
the size of the account, the asset class of the underlying securities and the sub-advisor selected. The overall fee
(including the Advisor’s investment advisory fee) will not exceed 1.75% annually.
Excel Wealth does not receive any compensation from these unaffiliated money managers or the Program
Sponsor, other than Excel Wealth’s investment advisory fee, as described in Item 5 below.
The Client, prior to entering into an agreement with a Program Sponsor, will be provided with the Program
Sponsor’s Form ADV Part 2A (or a brochure that makes the appropriate disclosures). In addition, Excel Wealth
and its Client will agree in writing that that selected Program Sponsor will manage the Client’s account[s] on a
discretionary basis.
Financial Planning Services
Excel Wealth will typically provide a variety of financial planning and consulting services to Clients, pursuant to a
written financial planning agreement. Services are offered in several areas of a Client’s financial situation,
depending on their goals and objectives.
Generally, such financial planning services involve preparing a formal financial plan or rendering a specific
financial consultation based on the Client’s financial goals and objectives. This planning or consulting may
encompass one or more areas of need, including but not limited to, investment planning, retirement planning,
personal savings, education savings, insurance needs, and other areas of a Client’s financial situation.
A financial plan developed for or financial consultation rendered to the Client will 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 start or revise their investment programs, commence or alter
retirement savings, establish education savings and/or charitable giving programs.
Excel Wealth may also refer Clients to an accountant, attorney or other specialists, as appropriate for their
unique situation. For certain financial planning engagements, the Advisor will provide a written summary of
Client’s financial situation, observations, and recommendations. For consulting or ad-hoc engagements, the
Advisor may not provide a written summary. Plans or consultations are typically completed within six months of
contract date, assuming all information and documents requested are provided promptly.
Financial planning and consulting recommendations poses a conflict between the interests of the Advisor and the
interests of the Client. For example, the Advisor has an incentive to recommend that Clients engage the Advisor
for investment management services or to increase the level of investment assets with the Advisor would pose a
conflict, as it would increase the amount of advisory fees paid to the Advisor. Clients are not obligated to
implement any recommendations made by the Advisor or maintain an ongoing relationship with the Advisor. If
the Client elects to act on any of the recommendations made by the Advisor, the Client is under no obligation to
implement the transaction through the Advisor.
Retirement Plan Advisory Services
Excel Wealth provides advisory services on behalf of company retirement plans (each a “Plan”) and the company
(the “Plan Sponsor”). The Advisor’s retirement plan advisory services are designed to assist the Plan Sponsor in
meeting its fiduciary obligations to the Plan and Plan Participants. Each engagement is customized to the needs
of the Plan and Plan Sponsor. Services generally include:
• Vendor Analysis
• Plan Participant Enrollment and Education Tracking
• Investment Policy Statement (“IPS”) Design and Monitoring
• Investment Management Services (ERISA 3(38))
• Investment Consulting Services (ERISA 3(21))
• Performance Reporting
• Ongoing Investment Recommendation and Assistance
• ERISA 404© Assistance
• Benchmarking Services
Retirement plan advisory services are either offered as a 3(21) or 3(38) context depending on whether or not the
Advisor is also providing discretionary investment management over the Plan assets. For 3(38) services, the
Advisor shall have the discretion to select the investments for the Plan and/or make investment decisions on
behalf of Plan Participants. For 3(21) services, the Advisor will recommend the investments for the Plan, where
the Plan Sponsor will ultimately decide whether or not to accept or reject the Advisor’s recommendation.
C. Client Account Management
Prior to engaging Excel Wealth to provide investment advisory services, each Client is required to enter into one
or more agreements with the Advisor that define the terms, conditions, authority and responsibilities of the
Advisor and the Client. These services may include:
• Establishing an Investment Strategy – Excel Wealth, in connection with the Client, will develop a strategy
that seeks to achieve the Client’s goals and objectives.
• Asset Allocation – Excel Wealth, will develop a strategic asset allocation that is targeted to meet the
investment objectives, time horizon, financial situation and tolerance for risk for each Client.
• Portfolio Construction – Excel Wealth, will develop a portfolio for the Client that is intended to meet the
stated goals and objectives of the Client.
• Investment Management and Supervision – Excel Wealth, will provide investment management and
ongoing oversight of the Client’s investment portfolio.
D. Wrap Fee Programs
Excel Wealth does not manage or place Client assets into a wrap fee program. Investment management services
are provided directly by Excel Wealth.
E. Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2023 Excel Wealth manages $232,703,491 in Client assets, all of which are managed on a
discretionary basis. Clients may request more current information at any time by contacting the Advisor.