Viewpoint Capital Management LLC (referred to in this brochure as “Firm”, “Advisor”, “We”, “Us”,
“Our”) is a registered investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Viewpoint was founded in 2011.
Ryan P. Sawyer is our managing member, sole owner and is also the Chief Compliance Officer.
Advisory Services
Viewpoint provides comprehensive investment advisory (portfolio management) services. These include
the following:
• Identification of each client’s objectives and risk tolerances
• Asset allocation / recommendations
• Security selection, purchase, sale or hold decisions and,
• Overall portfolio management with investment discretionary authority, or alternatively without
investment discretionary authority (i.e., non-discretionary which requires the client to be available
to approve or not approve desired transactions recommended by Viewpoint during market open
hours). If we cannot reach you, we cannot place transactions for your account without your
explicit approval of those recommended transactions.
We develop individual investment portfolios that integrate the long-term investment goals, risk tolerances
and financial objectives of our clients as described in written, verbal communications and your
investment policy statement.
When you establish an advisory relationship with us, we document who you are and what your current
investment goals and objectives are in the Client Profile. This Profile then guides our investment
decisions and recommendations. We then manage your account assets with your unique circumstances in
mind.
We tailor our advice to you and your assets by:
• Making investment decisions (for discretionary accounts) in accordance with each Client’s
profile. This means that we will determine which securities, the number of securities and timing
of transactions to make for your account based on our professional determination (as guided by
your profile)
• Developing recommendations (for non-discretionary accounts). This means you must
authorize each transaction prior to our placing the transaction at Schwab, your
independent, third-party qualified broker / custodian. In addition, you need to be
available to our portfolio manager during open stock market hours.
Portfolios contain investments from multiple asset classes based on objectives and the risk
tolerance of each client. In client portfolios we employ primarily individual stocks and bonds
and passively managed ETFs; mutual funds and cash. We can access other types of liquid
securities, if required, consistent with your goals and objectives.
Clients may place reasonable restrictions upon the type of securities or specific securities that are
purchased, sold, or held in your account. These restrictions requested by each client must be made in
writing to Viewpoint. They are not accepted until reviewed and accepted in writing by Viewpoint.
Any restrictions that limit the ability of Viewpoint to manage the assets that have an adverse impact
on portfolio diversification or return objectives are discussed and the impact of those restrictions.
The result is they may be accepted or rejected.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2022, we had the following assets under management. These numbers include
fee paying and non-fee-paying assets managed by Viewpoint, including the assets of employees and
families, both discretionary and non-discretionary:
Investment Discretionary Authority $140,918,160
Non- Discretionary Authority $ 36,666,058
Fiduciary Advice Exemption: PTE 2020-02. This is a new Department of Labor exemption for
investment advisers and other financial service providers to help them NOT run afoul of DOL and
the Internal Revenue Code which covers IRA (Individual Retirement Accounts) for “retirement
investors.’ It is big and complicated. PTE 2020-02 was adopted by the DOL (Department of Labor),
and it applies to ERISA plans and IRAs and other “retirement investor” accounts. What this means is that
it is a prohibited transaction for any investment adviser or broker dealer to recommend to a retirement
investor to roll over a 401k to an IRA. It is a problem because the person recommending the change
earns additional compensation (direct or indirect) on the retirement assets that were moved. Meaning:
compensation would not have been paid if the recommendation was not made.
1. If a client decides to roll over the 401k to an IRA independently of Viewpoint and we just
facilitate the transfer, then PTE 2020-02 does not apply.
2. The retirement fiduciary
definition was modified on December 15, 2020, and took effect
February 24, 2021.
3. Types of IRAs covered: traditional, Roth, rollover, inherited, SEP and Simple IRAs.
4. Types of ERISA accounts covered: Employee Pension Benefit Plans; Employee Welfare Benefit
Plans; Health Savings Accounts (HSA); Medical Savings Accounts (MSA), and Coverdell
Savings Accounts (Educational IRAs).
5. Mandatory Requirements to comply with this PTE 2020-02
a. Impartial conduct standard, i.e., fiduciary responsibility.
i. Give advice that is in the retirement investors best interest and not ours
ii. Charge reasonable fees (consistent with our current fee schedule
iii. Seek to obtain best execution, although all clients must direct brokerage to
Schwab.
iv. We prevent misleading statements.
b. Require written disclosure where we acknowledge our fiduciary status.
i. Provide a description of the services to provide to the retirement investor and
disclosure of material conflicts of interest; and,
ii. For rollovers, only:
1. Include a consideration of investment alternatives.
2. Address fees with the investors 401k and the IRA rolling over into
3. Consider whether the 401k employer pays plan fees.
4. Assess services and investment options available under the plan or IRA.
c.
Viewpoint has a PTE 2020-02 worksheet that must be completed and retained
internally within 10 days of making a recommendation to a retirement investor.
i. The requirement that retirement recommendations (401k to IRA or IRA to Roth
IRA) require the exemption to be documented via the worksheet.
d. We disclose here, that “Viewpoint does not generally recommend to any client that they
roll over a 401k to an IRA.”
i. This exemption is about the additional compensation we receive for making such
a recommendation (for managing assets we would otherwise not manage).
ii. Meaning: If Viewpoint does not make the recommendation to roll over a 401k to
an IRA, the prohibited transaction exemption
does not apply and the same for
moving from an IRA to a Roth IRA. Yes, it is confusing.
6. Investment advice has been defined through The Impartial Conduct Standard which has three
parts:
a. Provide investment advice that is in the best interest of the retirement investor, which is
advice that: provides advice that reflects the care, skill, prudence and diligence then
prevailing that a prudent person in the same capacity acts, based on the investment
objectives, risk tolerance, financial circumstances of the retirement investor and does not
put the financial or other interests of Viewpoint or Ryan Sawyer. Meaning, we meet our
fiduciary obligations to all our clients, including retirement investors.
b. We charge only reasonable compensation (as disclosed in the next section, below).
Security transactions for the retirement investor account (IRA, etc.) managed by
Viewpoint are directed brokerage (see Item 12, below).
c. We make no misleading statements to the retirement investor regarding the
recommendation and relevant matters.
Senior Safe Act Legislation and Compliance
As required by law, via the Senior Safe Act, which provides immunity to Viewpoint when we see or
suspect a senior client being exploited. To comply, we have in our policies and procedures information
related to this topic and what we will do and must do. For a reader’s information:
• Viewpoint defines a senior investor at 65 years of age.
• We act as a fiduciary to all clients.
• Diminished capacity is the most often complaint our research has told us. This is now called
major neurocognitive disorder.
• Financial Exploitation: Ryan looks for physical or emotional abuse, neglect and blocked access
to the senior client accounts and assets, generally through a power of attorney that was not
previously present, among many others.
We ask that you be aware of Senior Safe Act issues and our compliance.
In addition, we are now running reports of our clients owned by those 65 and over, and the assets held in
these accounts. If we discover potential exploitati
on1, we are obligated to report to the police, social
services and, if necessary, lock down the client’s account at Schwab.
1 The North American Securities Administrators (US and Canada), indicated in February of 2020 that in New York
state alone, exploitation of seniors ranged from $352 million to $1.5 billion!