A Description of Our Firm, Our Services, and Our Wrap Fees
MSP Wealth Management, LLC (“MSP”) is an Oregon limited liability company founded
in 2002. The principal owners of MSP are Terrence “Terry” Scroggin and Gerrin DeGroot.
The firm is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC. Our principal offices are
located in Klamath Falls, Oregon. We have an additional office located in Eagle Point,
Oregon.
The information contained in this wrap fee brochure describes the suite of ongoing
portfolio management and financial planning services provided to clients under the MSP
Wrap Fee Program. A description of how we tailor these combined services to the needs
of our clients is below. As used throughout this wrap fee brochure, the words “we,” “our,”
“firm,” “MSP,” and “us” refer to MSP Wealth Management, LLC and its investment
advisor representatives, and the words “you,” “your,” and “client” refer to you as either a
client or prospective client of our firm.
We act in a fiduciary capacity and will only recommend investments to you when we
believe them to be in your best interests. A description of the services included under the
MSP Wrap Fee Program is set forth below.
Scope of MSP Wrap Fee Program Services. When you participate in the MSP Wrap Fee
Program, you will deposit your assets to an account held in your name at an independent
qualified custodian (the “Custodian”) and grant us limited authority to buy and sell
securities within your account either on a discretionary or non-discretionary basis. In a
discretionary arrangement, we are authorized to implement our investment
recommendations within your account without obtaining your specific consent for each
transaction. In a non-discretionary arrangement, we must obtain your consent prior to
implementing any investments within your account. The full scope of our authority with
respect to management of your account will be set forth in a written advisory agreement
entered at the inception of our relationship.
Clients may impose reasonable restrictions on our management of their account(s),
including the ability to instruct us not to purchase certain specific securities, industry
sectors, and/or asset classes. All such requests must be provided to us in writing. While we
generally attempt to accommodate such restrictions, we reserve the right to reject such
investment limitations if we believe they would frustrate our management of your account,
or for any other reason, in our sole discretion. We will notify you promptly if we are unable
to honor any of your investment restrictions or limitations.
Under the MSP Wrap Fee Program, we will consult with you at the inception of our
relationship and periodically thereafter, as necessary, to gather information regarding your
financial goals, investment objectives, tolerance for risk, and the time horizon for your
investments. The information we typically request in this process will include your current
and expected income level, tax information, investment experience, current and expected
cash needs, current portfolio construction/asset allocation, and risk tolerance level, among
other items. Based on our analysis of these factors, we will prepare an investment policy
statement (or similar documentation used to establish your investment objectives and
suitability) outlining parameters for our management of your account(s). We will then
implement an initial investment strategy and portfolio intended to align with your unique
financial situation and goals. Client portfolios are typically constructed utilizing a
diversified combination of mutual funds, exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), individual
bonds, stocks, and other instruments, as may be appropriate for the individual client.
We may also recommend the engagement of certain independent third-party money
managers (“TPMMs”) to directly manage all or a portion of your account on a discretionary
basis. You will be provided with a copy of each recommended TPMM’s Form ADV Part
2A firm brochure (or the equivalent) prior to the allocation of your assets to any TPMM
(each such sub-account, a “TPMM Account”). Where a TPMM is engaged, we will
continue to act as your fiduciary and as a “co-advisor” to your TPMM Accounts. We will
determine the initial and ongoing suitability of the TPMM’s investment program,
communicate any changes in your investment profile to the TPMM, and recommend
changes in your TPMM allocations as we believe to be in your best interests. The TPMM
shall be responsible for all portfolio management and trading functions related to your
TPMM Accounts. You may be required to execute a separate advisory agreement and/or
trading authorization in favor of such TPMMs at the time of their engagement.
Following implementation of your initial investment portfolio, we will monitor the
performance of your investments (including any TPMM Accounts) on an ongoing basis,
recommend, and implement changes within your account as needed or appropriate, in
consideration of current economic conditions, our market opinions and assumptions, and
your individual financial circumstances and goals. It is your ongoing responsibility to
advise us in writing of any material changes to your financial circumstances.
At your request, our investment recommendations under this service may also cover certain
designated assets which are “held-away” from the accounts placed directly under our
management (e.g., employer sponsored retirement accounts, 529 college savings plan
accounts, and variable annuities). You will be responsible for monitoring these assets and
keeping us informed of their status. We will provide you with advice regarding how to
invest and allocate assets among the available investment options and you will make the
ultimate investment decisions and be responsible for investment implementation. In certain
instances, and only with your prior written consent, we will assist you with implementation
of our investment recommendations regarding your held-away assets.
In addition to the ongoing management of their designated investment accounts, clients
who engage us for these services receive annual financial planning services as described
in our firm brochure. If you did not receive a copy of our firm brochure, we will provide
one to you, free of charge, by contacting us at the telephone number on the cover page of
this wrap fee brochure.
Wrap Fees. MSP will charge you an annual “Wrap Fee” in connection with your
participation in the MSP Wrap Fee Program. The Wrap Fee you will pay to our firm will
be calculated as a fixed percentage of the market value of your account, typically ranging
from 0.50% to 2.00% per annum (i.e., an asset-based fee). This bundled fee covers the
combined costs of our investment advice and the custodial, trade execution, and other
management costs (including execution and transaction fees but excluding fees related to
custody of certain alternative investments) incurred in your account.
Our wrap fee is not based directly on the number of transactions in your account. Various
factors influence the relative cost of the MSP Wrap Fee Program to you, including the cost
of our investment advice, custody, and brokerage services if you purchased them
separately, the types of investments held in your account, and the frequency, type, and size
of trades in your account. The program could cost you more or less than purchasing our
investment advice and custody/brokerage services separately. Clients are advised that we
do not offer portfolio management services outside of the MSP Wrap Fee Program.
Our Wrap Fee may be negotiated on a per client basis, and some clients may pay fees at a
rate outside the range stated above or which are otherwise materially different than those
described in this brochure. The specific fee rate applicable to your account will be set forth
in a written advisory agreement and shall be determined prior to the commencement of our
services based on the complexity and amount of your assets; the existence and value of any
related accounts managed by MSP (including any accounts held individually or jointly by
you, your spouse, your minor children, or your business, including retirement accounts);
the use of any TPMMs; the time, research, and resources required to provide services to
you; and such other factors as we deem relevant.
Our Wrap Fees are calculated and payable quarterly, in advance, based on the market value
of your account (including any cash balances and the value of any TPMM Accounts) at the
end of the prior billing period as calculated by the Custodian of your account. The initial
Wrap Fee applicable to your account will be based on the opening value of your account
as of the date on which we begin to provide services and shall be pro-rated for any partial
periods based on the number of days during which services are provided.
Clients may make additions or withdrawals from their account at any time, however, the
Wrap Fees applicable to your account may be subject to pro-rata adjustments on account
of such transactions. Clients should note that some or all of the investments in their account
may be intended as long-term investments and withdrawals of cash and premature
liquidations of securities positions may impair the achievement of your investment
objectives.
Generally, all security pricing is done by the Custodian that will maintain your account(s)
titled in your name. We will rely on this pricing in determining the Wrap Fee attributable
to your account(s). The Custodian may use various pricing services such as Reuters and
Standard & Poor’s to price securities held in your account. For actively traded securities,
these services use the actual last reported sale price. For less actively traded securities such
as bonds, these services will use the appropriate valuation methodology to determine the
value of the security. In those rare instances where your Custodian is unable to obtain a
price (e.g., Delaware Statutory Trusts/Section 1031 exchanges, hedge funds, private
placements, illiquid securities, derivatives, thinly-traded securities, etc.) or where MSP
strongly believes the Custodian is not pricing a security fairly, or where a security has
halted trading, MSP may make a good-faith effort to determine a fair value for that security.
Alternatively, and only upon obtaining the client’s prior written approval, MSP may hold
certain illiquid securities at their initial cost or initial appraised value for purposes of
calculating its advisory fees. In certain instances, MSP may agree to reduce its advisory
fees on such assets to account for its inability to determine a fair value.
Wrap Fees will be directly deducted from your account held at the Custodian upon your
written approval of such arrangement and the periodic submission to the Custodian of a
written invoice reflecting the amount of advisory fees to be charged to your account. Your
authorization for direct fee deduction is set forth in a written advisory agreement and/or
the account opening documents of your Custodian. Wrap fees will typically be paid from
cash balances or through the liquidation of money market shares held in your account,
however, if money market shares or cash value are not available, other investments may
be liquidated to pay such fees when due. Please note that unexpected or premature
liquidation of investments to pay our Wrap Fees may impair the performance of your
account. We generally do not offer direct paper or electronic invoicing of our Wrap Fees.
The Custodian will independently send an account statement to you no less than quarterly,
identifying the amount of funds and each security in your account at the end of the period
and setting forth all transactions in your account during the period, including the amount
of any Wrap Fees paid from your account. The Custodian of your account is not responsible
to verify the accuracy of our fee calculations. Therefore, we encourage you to review and
compare the Custodian’s account statements and any reports we may provide promptly
upon receipt. If you believe there has been a miscalculation of any fees or if there is any
other issue with your account, you should contact us immediately at the phone number
listed on the cover page of this wrap fee brochure.
Services under the MSP Wrap Fee Program may be terminated at any time by either party,
within five (5) business days of entering an advisory agreement, without penalty and
without the client incurring any advisory fees to MSP. Thereafter, MSP Wrap Fee Program
Services may be terminated by either party on ten (10) days’ written notice to the non-
terminating party. In the event of termination, we shall be compensated by a pro-rated
Wrap Fee based on the number of days in the terminating period during which services
were provided. A refund of any excess pre-paid fees shall be returned to you promptly
following termination of our services. Termination of any separate TPMM engagements
and refunds shall be governed by the terms of conditions of the client’s agreement with the
terminated TPMM.
While we believe our Wrap Fees to be
reasonable in relation to the value of the services
we provide, lower fees for comparable services may be available from other sources. We
reserve the right to adjust the annual Wrap Fee to be charged to your account, however,
any change in fees applicable to your account will not go into effect unless we provide you
with thirty (30) days’ notice of any proposed change and the opportunity to terminate our
services.
Broker-Dealer Selection and Recommendation. Although clients may request that we
execute transactions for their MSP Wrap Fee Program account through any broker-dealer
of their choosing, we typically recommend that clients engage the custodial and trade
execution services of Charles Schwab & Company, Inc. (“Schwab”). Schwab is an SEC
registered broker-dealer and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
(“FINRA”) and the Securities Investors Protection Corporation (“SIPC”). We are not
affiliated with Schwab and Schwab does not monitor or control the activities of our firm
or its personnel. Schwab will act solely as a custodian and/or broker-dealer and not as your
investment advisor. They will hold your assets in your name in a brokerage account or
accounts and buy and sell securities and execute other transactions when instructed to do
so by you or MSP.
In recommending broker-dealers to clients, we have an obligation to seek the “best
execution” of transactions for your account. This duty requires that we seek to execute
securities transactions for clients such that the total costs or proceeds in each transaction
are the most favorable under the circumstances. The determinative factor in the analysis of
best execution is not the lowest possible commission cost, but whether the transaction
represents the best qualitative execution, taking into consideration the full range of the
recommended broker-dealer’s services. The factors we consider when evaluating a broker-
dealer for best execution include, without limitation, the broker-dealer’s:
execution capability;
commission rates;
financial responsibility;
responsiveness and customer service;
custodial capabilities;
research services/ancillary brokerage services provided; and
any other factors that we consider relevant.
Therefore, we will seek competitive commission rates, but we may not obtain the lowest
possible commission rates for specific account transactions. With this in consideration, our
firm will continue to recommend the Recommended Custodians until their services do not
result, in our opinion, in best execution of client transactions.
If the client selects a Custodian other than those we recommend (i.e., Schwab) for
execution of transactions (i.e., client directed brokerage), you are advised that we may be
unable to seek best execution of your transactions and the costs you will incur may be
higher than those charged by Schwab. For example, in a directed brokerage account, you
may pay higher brokerage commissions and/or receive less favorable prices on the
underlying securities purchased or sold for your account because we may not be able to
aggregate your order with the orders of other clients. In addition, where you direct
brokerage, we may place orders for your transactions after we place transactions for clients
using Schwab. We reserve the right to reject your request to use a particular Custodian if
such selection would frustrate our management of your account, or for any other reason.
A full description of our brokerage practices, including a description of certain benefits we
receive from Schwab in connection with our recommendation of their services to clients
and the conflict of interest this creates with clients can be found at Item 12 of our firm
brochure. Our firm examined this potential conflict of interest when we chose to enter into
our relationship with Schwab and we have determined that this relationship is in the best
interest of our clients and satisfies our client obligations, including our duty to seek best
execution. Clients should carefully consider this information when selecting a Custodian
for their account.
B Certain Conflicts of Interest Related to Wrap Fees
The benefits a client may experience under our wrap fee program depend, in part, upon the
size of the account, the costs associated with managing your account, and the frequency
and/or type of securities transactions executed in the account. For example, a wrap fee
program may not be suitable for all accounts, including but not limited to accounts holding
primarily, and for any substantial period of time, cash or cash equivalent investments, fixed
income securities, or no-transaction-fee mutual funds, or any other type of security that can
be traded without commissions or other transaction fees. In order to evaluate whether the
MSP Wrap Fee Program is appropriate for you, you should compare our Wrap Fee and any
other costs associated with participating in the program with the amounts that would be
charged to you for a similar suite of services by other investment advisors, broker-dealers,
and custodians if advisory fees, brokerage and execution costs, and custodial services were
to be charged to you separately.
When managing a client’s account on a Wrap Fee basis, we are compensated for our
investment advisory services with the balance of the Wrap Fee paid by you after certain
custodial, trade execution, and other management costs incurred in your account are paid.
This arrangement creates a conflict of interest, insofar as we have a financial incentive to
maximize our compensation by seeking to reduce or minimize the total costs incurred in
your account(s) subject to our Wrap Fee. For example, this arrangement creates an
incentive for MSP to trade your account less frequently and to select investments which
reduce our costs. To address the foregoing conflict of interest, we manage your account in
strict accordance with your investment policy statement and our ongoing fiduciary duty to
you.
Clients should further note that certain custodians, including those we recommend to
clients, may not charge trading commissions or transaction fees in connection with the
purchase of certain investments, which may include U.S. exchange listed equities, mutual
funds, and exchange traded funds. We are always available to discuss the trade execution
costs of the brokers we recommend so that our clients can better compare the total costs of
participating in the MSP Wrap Fee Program. Ultimately, participation in the MSP Wrap
Fee Program could cost you more or less than purchasing our investment advice and
custody/brokerage services separately. MSP does not offer portfolio management services
for an unbundled fee (i.e., where the costs of investment advice are paid separate from
brokerage and custodial fees).
C Additional Costs and Expenses
Our Wrap Fee covers the combined costs of our investment advice, together with the
custodial, trade execution, and other management costs (including execution and
transaction fees but excluding fees related to custody of alternative investments) incurred
in your account held at the Custodian. Our Wrap Fee does not cover the costs of wire
transfer fees, stock transfer fees, or taxes associated with activity in your account, which
shall be paid separately by the client. It also does not cover the costs of any client directed
(non-advised) transactions within your account or trades executed away from your chosen
Custodian. Clients are further advised that depending on the Custodian selected by the
client, our Wrap Fee may or may not cover of any spreads, mark-ups, and mark-downs on
securities transactions.
To the extent your account invests in any mutual funds and/or ETFs, you will also
separately bear the costs of all internal management fees and other expenses that may be
charged by such mutual funds and/or ETFs to their shareholders.
We do not share in any portion of the foregoing additional fees and expenses. To fully
understand the total costs you will incur by participating in the MSP Wrap Fee Program,
you should review the prospectus of each mutual fund, ETF, and/or TPMM advisory
program in which you participate and the contractual arrangement entered with your
Custodian and any other third party service providers you elect to retain.
D No Compensation Paid For Referrals
We do not pay any referral fees or additional compensation of any kind with respect to
referrals of clients to the MSP Wrap Fee program.
Rollover Recommendations
As part of our investment advisory services to you, we may recommend that you roll assets
from your employer’s retirement plan, such as a 401(k), 457, or ERISA 403(b) account
(collectively, a “Plan Account”), to an individual retirement account, such as a SIMPLE
IRA, SEP IRA, Traditional IRA, or Roth IRA (collectively, an “IRA Account”) that we
will manage on your behalf. We may also recommend rollovers from IRA Accounts to
Plan Accounts, from Plan Accounts to Plan Accounts, and from IRA Accounts to IRA
Accounts. When we provide any of the foregoing rollover recommendations we are acting
as fiduciaries 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.
If you elect to roll the assets to an IRA that is subject to our management, we will charge
you an asset-based fee as set forth in the advisory agreement you executed with our firm.
This creates a conflict of interest because it creates a financial incentive for our firm to
recommend the rollover to you (i.e., receipt of additional fee-based compensation). You
are under no obligation, contractually or otherwise, to complete the rollover. Moreover, if
you do complete the rollover, you are under no obligation to have the assets in an IRA
managed by our firm. Due to the foregoing conflict of interest, when we make rollover
recommendations, we operate under a special rule that requires us to act in your best
interests 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 interests;
charge no more than a reasonable fee for our services; and
give you basic information about conflicts of interest.
Many employers permit former employees to keep their retirement assets in their company
plan. Also, current employees can sometimes move assets out of their company plan before
they retire or change jobs. In determining whether to complete the rollover to an IRA, and
to the extent the following options are available, you should consider the costs and benefits
of a rollover.
Note that an employee will typically have four options in this situation:
1. leaving the funds in your employer’s (former employer’s) plan;
2. moving the funds to a new employer’s retirement plan;
3. cashing out and taking a taxable distribution from the plan; or
4. rolling the funds into an IRA rollover account.
Each of these options has positives and negatives. Because of that, along with the
importance of understanding the differences between these types of accounts, we will
provide you with a written explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of both account
types and the basis for our belief that the rollover transaction we recommend is in your best
interests.
As an alternative to providing you with a rollover recommendation, we may instead take
an entirely educational approach in accordance with the U.S. Department of Labor’s
Interpretive Bulletin 96-1. Under this approach, our role will be limited only to providing
you with general educational materials regarding the pros and cons of rollover transactions.
We will make no recommendation to you regarding the prospective rollover of your assets
and you are advised to speak with your trusted tax and legal advisors with respect to
rollover decisions. As part of this educational approach, we may provide you with materials
discussing some or all of the following topics: the general pros and cons of rollover
transactions; the benefits of retirement plan participation; the impact of pre-retirement
withdrawals on retirement income; the investment options available inside your Plan
Account; and high level discussion of general investment concepts (e.g., risk versus return,
the benefits of diversification and asset allocation, historical returns of certain asset classes,
etc.). We may also provide you with questionnaires and/or interactive investment materials
that may provide a means for you to independently determine your future retirement
income needs and to assess the impact of different asset allocations on your retirement
income. You will make the final rollover decision.