Spartan Planning & Wealth Management, LLC ("Spartan Planning") dba Spartan Planning Group is a
registered investment advisor based in Greensboro, NC. Spartan Planning was formed in Jan 2013 as
a Limited Liability Company under the laws of the State of North Carolina that conducts business in
North Carolina and other states. The majority stake in Spartan Planning is owned by David Childs,
CFP®. Other minority owners include Ira Ross, Jon Robinson and Brandon Langley.
Spartan Planning is a financial planning and wealth management firm, offering integrated financial
planning and asset management services. Spartan Planning has developed a client service model that
includes discovery, implementation, as well as monitoring progress of clients engaged with Spartan
Planning.
The investment advice provided by Spartan Planning focuses on the individual needs of each client,
household or business. Through questionnaires, gathering of documents from the client and
conversations and depending on the stated objectives of the relationship, Spartan Planning will review
some or all of the following: the client's personal situation and circumstances and individual objectives,
risk tolerance, time horizon, liquidity needs, constraints, growth and income needs and expectations as
well as estate tax and income tax considerations.
Clients may request reasonable restrictions on investing in certain securities, types of securities, or
industry sectors
We strongly believe in all six of the core steps to quality financial planning laid out by the Certified
Financial Planning Board of Standards. Those are:
Financial Planning Process:
1. Establish and defining the client-planner relationship
2. Gather client information and data, including goals
3. Analyzing and evaluating your financial status
4. Developing and presenting financial planning recommendations and possible
alternatives
5. Implementing the financial planning recommendations
6. Monitoring the status and progress of the implemented financial planning
recommendations
Perhaps the most important parts to this "planning" process are these final two steps that many people
overlook. A "plan" presentation is only a snapshot in time and is similar to a "flight plan" before a plane
takes off. The pilot knows where they are and he knows where he needs to land but he doesn't yet
know what the 1,000 mid-course corrections will be over the 3,000 mile flight.
Similarly, our clients look to us to help guide them through this entire "flight path" of their life.
Our Principles:
1. Clients will always have their interests put first. Our recommendations will be simple to
understand and straight forward
a. We are Fee-Only and do not sell any products.
2. We are disciplined and restrained in our approach to investing.
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Portfolio Management Services
We offer discretionary portfolio management services. Our investment advice is tailored to meet our
clients' needs and investment objectives as noted above. As part of our process we utilize internal
models to assist in developing client portfolio asset allocations base upon a client's personal situation
and circumstances and individual objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon, and liquidity needs.
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.
We may also offer non-discretionary portfolio management services. 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. You have an unrestricted right to decline to implement any advice provided by our firm
on a non-discretionary basis.
As part of our portfolio management services, we may use one or more sub-advisers to manage a
portion of your account on a discretionary basis. The sub-adviser(s) may use one or more of their
model portfolios to manage your account. We will regularly monitor the performance of your accounts
managed by
sub-adviser(s), and may hire and fire any sub-adviser without your prior approval. We
may pay a portion of our advisory fee to the sub-adviser(s) we use; however, you will not pay our firm a
higher advisory fee as a result of any sub-advisory relationships.
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.
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
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.
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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 ETF Mutual fund and equity securities. Refer to the Methods of Analysis,
Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss below for additional disclosures on this topic.
Additionally, we may advise you on various types of investments based on your stated goals and
objectives. We may also provide advice on any type of investment held in your portfolio at the inception
of our advisory relationship.
Since our investment strategies and advice are based on each client's specific financial situation, the
investment advice we provide to you may be different or conflicting with the advice we give to other
clients regarding the same security or investment.
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.
If we do not already manage your retirement plan through our engagement, we will benefit
financially from the rollover of your assets to an account we manage. These assets increase our
assets under management and, in turn, our advisory fee. As a fiduciary, we only recommend a
rollover when we believe it is in your best interest.
As of December 31, 2023, Spartan Planning & Wealth Management, LLC continuously manages
$132,486,729 on a discretionary basis, $147,174,495 on a non-discretionary basis.
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